Revelation: from the Greek apocalypse, which means the unveiling

Monday, September 8, 2014

The Tribulation,or the Seventieth Week of Daniel

We have reached the end of the age of grace, or the church age. Jesus came to save His people, the Jews. When the Jewish people turned their backs on Him and crucified Him the gift of salvation was given to the gentiles. Anyone that is not of Jewish descent is considered a gentile. This fulfilled the prophecy given to Daniel, 

“Seventy weeks[a] are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of[b] sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.
25 “Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street[c] shall be built again, and the wall,[d]
Even in troublesome times.
26 “And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate.”  Daniel 9:24-27

In verse 25 it states that Messiah would be cut off after 69 weeks, (a week is considered a year). The 69 weeks are finished when Jesus is rejected by His people and crucified. Since the Jews rejected their Messiah they were cut off and the gift of salvation was given to the gentiles as it was prophecied in Isaiah. 

“Also the sons of the foreigner
Who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him,
And to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—
Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
And holds fast My covenant—
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
Will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says,
“Yet I will gather to him
Others besides those who are gathered to him.”


This is an interlude in the period of time where Israel will be brought back into fellowship with God. After the age of grace and the rapture there may be a short period of time before the 70th week begins. This final week will begin when the Antichrist signs a seven year peace with Israel. You have to imagine that after the rapture the world will be in chaos. Millions of people just disappeared and all the children that were not old enough to make a decision to follow Jesus. There will be horrific damage and death from cars and other vehicles crashing when their drivers disappear, planes will fall out of the sky when their pilots disappear. Most people will be missing family members or friends, people will be terrified wondering where the others went and if others will be taken too. With so many people missing you have to imagine that the stock market will crash, government will be left short staffed as well as hospitals, the police and the military. Martial law will be instituted to protect as many people as possible while the country tries to recover.  This will be much worse in countries with many Christians, but every country will lose people. The world will be looking for someone to step in and bring things back to normal... A man steps onto the world stage, the people of the earth are mesmerized by what he says, this man seems to have answers that the world desperately needs. Before long this man is pushed into taking charge of a one world government. He speaks of peace and before long he has done what no one has ever been able to do before, he has brokered a peace in the Middle East. Israel has signed a seven years peace treaty. The world will look on in wonder at what this man has done, they will think that he is the leader that the world has always been waiting for. The truth is far more frightening, this man is the Antichrist. He will come onto the world scene talking about peace, he will seem to be the answer the world has looked for. He will actually have peace for three and a half years, but then he will break the treaty and start persecuting the Jewish people.  When the peace treaty is signed, that is the beginning of the final seven year period before Jesus second coming. During this period God will send judgments down on the earth like He did in the Old Testament, the purpose of these judgments are to remind Israel that their God is real and has not forgotten them. It is a call to Israel to come back to God. God will send judgments that get progressively worse, He will send two witnesses to preach the truth in Israel, these witnesses will cause many Israelites to turn back to their God and to preach the truth and bring others to truth. 

And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days,clothed in sackcloth.” They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.”[a] If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. Revelation 11:3-6

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
from the tribe of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe of Levi 12,000,
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,
from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.  Revelation 7:1-8

The first half of the tribulation will be bad, but the second half will be even worse. After the Antichrist breaks the treaty he will insist on being worshiped. He will institute a new program, everyone on earth will be required to have the number 666 on their right hand or forehead or they will not be allowed to buy or sell. Part of taking this mark is the worship of the Antichrist. As you take the mark you then need to walk over to the statue of the Antichrist and bow down and worship it. If you choose not to take the mark you will be immediately executed by guillotine. 
Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[e] That number is 666. Revelation 13:14-18
This will be a terrifying time to live if you are a believer. Many believers will be martyred during this time, but they will immediately be with God. 
As for Israel, the Antichrist will be trying to kill the Jews any way that he can. The only way for the Jews to survive would be for them to escape Israel and run to the mountains where God will protect them. Many think the mountains that are mentioned is the rock city of Petra. Some believers have gone to Petra and buried Bibles for the Jews to use once they are in Petra. 
 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a]spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.  Matthew 24:15-22

At the end of the seven years, when all seems lost, Jesus will return. All will see Him. Jesus will destroy the Antichrist's armies and at the end of the one sided battle He will take the Antichrist and the False Prophet and throw them into the lake of fire. 

 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is calledFaithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen,white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will [d]rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the [e]wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
17 Then I saw [f]an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying toall the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of [g]commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.”
19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.

Doom of the Beast and False Prophet

20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs [h]in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with [i]brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh. Revelation 19:11-21

No one wants to live through these times, and the good news is, as a Christian you will not have to. You will be with Jesus, in heaven at this time. What about those that don't believe? Well the good news is that there is still time. The age of grace is still here, you have a chance to escape the tribulation, all you need to do is accept the free gift that Jesus is giving you. You don't need to be perfect to accept this gift, it is a free gift of salvation. Think of it as a do over. All the bad things that you have done in your life are gone, the slate has been wiped clean. There is not one sin that God does not know about, or one that He can't forgive. All it takes is a quick prayer and you will be saved from these things. Yes, you may die before the rapture, but you will be with God at that moment and at the rapture you will receive your perfect body and live in heaven, which is too beautiful to even imagine. I want to see you there. Pray this simple prayer to join God's family.

Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name I confess that I have sinned and ask for forgiveness. I ask that Jesus come into my heart and become my  Lord and Savior. I believe Jesus died for my sins and was raised from the dead.
Thank You Father for saving me in Jesus' name. Amen.



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