Recipe for disaster:
Do you get frustrated, as do I, when you hear obvious perversions of Scripture? When a passage is mutilated beyond repair? When the words are so obvious, but folks read into them their own ideas?
I wouldn't want to let them in my kitchen, to prepare a recipe for me that they had not studied. I mean, the cook books are pretty straightforward. First get the oven ready. Then the cooking dish. Then gather the ingredients. Then mix them together. The flour. The eggs. The butter. Pour into dish. Put into oven. Wait 25 minutes. Pull dish out...
But some of these theologians, left to their strange ways, would be waiting 25 minutes at the beginning, then mixing the ingredients, then placing all in the oven, then pulling all out of the oven, then setting the oven to 425 degrees.
That's what they do to precious passages like Mark 13, that I was reading the other day. It's the companion passage of Matthew 24, you know. All about answering the disciples' questions concerning His coming, and the end of the world as we know it. The Scripture is so plain.
1. First, the sign they asked for is given: "the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet." That's the sign. Read Daniel. Study. Figure it out. Look for it. That is the signal for the beginning of the end.
2. There follows ("then", in recipe talk) unprecedented world trouble. Immediately. The A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem is a picture of what will happen, but is not the event itself. Unprecedented in world history. Ever. Even the Korean War bypasses A.D. 70. Look for MUCH worse than anything you have ever imagined.
3. THEN (do I make my meaning plain enough?) signs in the heavens! And the return of Jesus!
4. THEN, at that time actually, the rapture of the church. The Kingdom age begins.
Why is that so hard? If you really do not know, please do not make me any cupcakes any time soon.
Why do folks want to add another step between 1 and 2? That step about a "secret" coming just isn't there, folks! It will be the most un-secret event of all history: Every eye will see Him!
Believing Jesus will come and sweep you to glory before the trouble starts may fit western comfort-zone theology, but it aint in the recipe book, no matter which version you use.
I challenge every reader today to go to Mark 13 and read exactly what it says. Then to go lay down whatever it is that is keeping you from letting go of materialism and comfort, and look with hope but reality for the way Jesus will give us all grace to go through any fire that is coming.
The utter ruin of disobedient nations:
We who know Christ ought to speak only what His Spirit has breathed. The message on my heart today is not my own, but from that Spirit of Truth promised to the disciples.
That Spirit said through Isaiah (60:12) "The nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined."
There will be a measure of freedom in the millennial reign of Christ. Those that have for all or part of the 1000 years rebelled or complained or refused Christ's reign will be gathered together by the released Enemy of God, Satan, for one final -pitiful- confrontation. Those nations will then be "utterly ruined." Though Isaiah speaks much in his book of the Millennium, one cannot but see the heart of God for all nations, even today, that refuse even to allow the name of Jesus to be publicized.
That means that the days of men like Kim Jong-Il [and now his son Jong-Oon] are numbered: (Acts 17:26 ff.) Paul makes this case, through that measure of the Spirit entrusted to him:
1. God made the nations all from one blood.
2. God has determined their time of rule.
3. God has determined their boundaries.
4. God expects these nations in every generation to seek Him and repent.
5. God will eventually judge all nations by Jesus Christ.
The nations on your map. They are all about God. They serve His purposes now, and forever. And the Bible speaks of nations that will be saved from utter destruction. These are the ones that enter into the Millennium time frame and escape destruction from the angry Lord who will be bringing His vengeance and wrath on the planet. But of those who survive, if any turn against Him even then, their judgment is sure.
Some of these nations are already gone. Some survive. The nations on the Korean peninsula are survivors, for example. How? That's a great question. South Korea in particular is a miracle. It should not be here. If it continues to follow the West into debauchery, it may not last long either.
But though "How?" is a fascinating question, "Why?" is even more important. I have survived epilepsy, two blocked arteries, two angioplasties, post-traumatic stress disorder, and modern medications. Why? The answer to all survival must have to do with the purposes of God. We are here to do His will. We are here to gather a people for His name, for the Kingdom that surely is coming. Much of Korea entered into those purposes. We are praying now that the North will catch the vision.
The church has been called, one here and one there, out of the nations. Though their fellow countrymen perish, the church will be spared the wrath of God. I am not speaking of church today, but of nations and their fate.
How long will God's judgment wait? The Spirit through Luke gives us the story of the great Herod Antipas. Well, Herod thinks he is great anyway. His arrogant pride emboldens him to kill an apostle. But Herod lives.(Acts 12.) Then he arrests another apostle. He lives. Then he kills two innocent guards. And yet he lives. But one day he steals glory from God and is struck immediately and dies a most inglorious death. Hear the mind of the Lord.
How long shall the Kims and others who defy the God Who made them be allowed to prosper? Not that long, really. One day it is all over.
We do not wait for that inevitable fall to go into the "closed" nations of North Korea et al. There are no excuses, no blockades. The Gospel has never been stopped before, except by our disobedience, and will not be stopped now.
God and the nations continue to march to their destiny. We march with God or we fall into oblivion.
Secret, you say?
Paul and John knew much of the same material, being inspired of the same Spirit, and privy to similar visions and revelations.
What is spoken in I Corinthians 15 jives perfectly with Revelation 11:15, giving the lie to a secret coming by Jesus seven years before the "real" second coming. This paralleling of Biblical passages is one of many methods of debunking this 100-year-old theory known as the "pre-tribulation rapture."
And like evolution, it is still a theory, though there are believers who will swear that it's true, codify it in books, immortalize it in films...
Consider. Think.
Paul (I Corinthians 15:51 & ff.): When the last trumpet sounds, we will all be changed, "we" being those who are here when Jesus comes back. Obviously those who have died already have not received their new bodies yet. It is presumed they will do so here. For, also at that last trumpet, the dead will be raised.
Where did Paul get the notion of a "last trumpet"? It is not poetic. It fits perfectly with the language of John in the Revelation. In the 8th through the 11th chapters of that book, a series of trumpets sound. Seven, to be exact. First, there is the "first trumpet." Last, there is the seventh trumpet. The last trumpet.
What happens at John's "last trumpet" ? Why, the same thing that happens at Paul's: The heavens are suddenly alive. The reign of God begins. The wrath of God falls on the wicked of earth. The saints are rewarded. Many signs and wonders in the heavenlies.
Jesus (Matthew 24)weighs in on this scene with His own words: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened...the tribes of earth... will see the Son of man coming..., and He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet , and they will gather together His elect...
Paul (I Thessalonians 4:16) drives in the final nail to a pre-trib notion of a secret coming, when he again mentions the trumpet: The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout... and with the trumpet of God... and the dead in Christ will rise first...
At least two of the above passages are used to "prove" a secret appearance seven years before the final one. The other two are supposed to be "second coming" passages. It seems clear to me that every one of the above verses points to the same huge event.
And the trumpet sounds the note of proof.
Forgive us, reader, for fussing over this. There is a sense in which it is not important. Yet, in every generation there are those who come along and popularize a theory about Jesus, leading millions astray. I encourage you to stay true to every Word of God until he comes.
The Rosetta Stone of Tribulation Prophecy:
How would the world ever understand those scribble-like markings made by ancient Egyptians? No living person could help. The question seemed likely to fall by the wayside and be forgotten forever.
Then in the Egyptian town of Rashid, aka "Rosetta", a black basalt stone was found in 1799 bearing an inscription in hieroglyphics, demotic characters, and Greek. Well, Greek we could figure out easily enough. An ancient but living language with tons of available works. With the Greek language as a guide, the hieroglyphics were slowly deciphered, the mystery solved. From that day on, a clue or key to a mystery has been known as a "Rosetta Stone".
Greek has helped us solve another mystery. The Greek of the New Testament, specifically in Matthew 24, unravels the entire end-time scenario and debunks theories that have come and gone through the years. The current roughly 100-year-old theory of a pre-tribulation rapture is especially hit hard by Matthew 24.
I can safely challenge readers and listeners to find for me even one verse or passage in the Bible that says in clear and certain terms that Jesus will come for His own secretly, then come back to judge the world openly seven years later. It is not there. Every verse produced demands an explanation, an interpretation.
You say, show me your exhausting list of such passages showing that when Jesus comes the second time, there won't be a third! Actually, I have only one such verse-passage. It is in Matthew 24.
What a glorious portion of Scripture, what an outline of our future, what clarity! First the question, then the very specific answer. The question, What will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the world? I have come to believe that in the disciples' mind it was one question, not two. Jesus did not counsel them otherwise. He answered what they asked in brilliant language.
First He suggests that it's a tricky question, and many charlatans will have other answers. Many will show you signs that are not signs, and say, "It's time, it's time!": Wars, rumors of coming wars, famine, disease, earthquakes. These are not signs!
Serious persecution will come to you. But this too is not a sign of the end. Just keep enduring until the end really comes.
He then mentions the most oft-quoted "sign" of the coming of Christ: The preaching of the Gospel to all the nations. But that is surely not a sign. It is a process that has lasted many centuries and though it will stretch to the very end of history, who can say when it is accomplished? What is a nation? Is a nation reached when radio signals penetrate it? Missiologists debate this one still.
The sign of Matthew 24, so clear to those who study this chapter and drink it in, is an event. It starts with a "when", includes a "where", and describes a "what to do"... How specific could Jesus be? When the last generation sees this sign (which I will not describe in this piece, but the Scripture has lots of clues for that one too!) a huge tribulation will be triggered. The greatest trouble the planet has ever witnessed. All the world wars and financial catastrophes and evil dictators of all time will seem small in comparison.
And then. Then. Then. Only then. After all of this. The word is after. After the tribulation, nature goes wild and Jesus appears with His bride, gathered at that same moment, to establish His reign on earth.
I've been down this road before. I suppose someone will call this brother Bob's "pet" doctrine, the most important thing in his life. Say what you must. To me, this teaching and its demise in our post-modern (whatever that means) church is symbolic of a serious disease disrupting our consistent walk with God. Here is such a clear passage, the only one of its kind that could, if read and believed, solve the "pre-trib" question in an instant, and it is written off. That's right, written off.
"It was given to the Jews," they say. So was the sermon on the mount, most of the healings and miracles, and in fact every major teaching Jesus ever gave. So?
"Well, it's in there," they say. "He doesn't say He comes seven years earlier, but it's really in there..." Oh? What else is in there, I wonder?
And on whose authority? The movie guys that did the Left Behind series? The prophecy gurus on the Christian channels?
Secret knowledge, knowable only by the initiated is known historically as Gnosticism. It's a "trust me, I know what I'm saying" deal that leads men by the nose into nothing.
I want to know in the old way.
God, what did you say?
Oh, thank you, now I get it! There it is right on the pages of your Book! Thank you.
That's how I came up with this key passage. Did not read a human book or watch a movie. Just devoured God's Word, and how sweet it was in my mouth. Yet how sour when I realize that so few want it like it is...
The hieroglyphics of Scripture teachings are indeed hard to decipher. But for every difficult subject, there's a Rosetta Stone God will provide the earnest seeker. For the rest, hey, pass the popcorn...
The trouble-free church. Are you sure?
Question: How could God ever allow His own children to go through upheavals in nature, diseases of all sorts, malnutrition, famine, imprisonment, death, persecution, torture? In other words, Will God allow His saints to go through the Great Tribulation?
Answer: The North Korean Church. For them, tribulation is an every day event.
The answer is not: Rapture.
What the Bible calls the great Tribulation is indeed a serious time of Trouble. It will come on all men. Christians and Jews will bear the brunt of it, as they did in Nero's Rome, as they did in Hitler's Germany, as they do in Kim Jong-Il's [Kim Jon-Oon's] Korea. There is not even a hint Biblically, that they will be caught up and away from trouble. No promise of God covers this except, "My grace is sufficient for you."
After the trouble comes the judgment. Now, when Christ comes, and all agree on this, He comes to judge. Believers will be snatched out of that scenario in the twinkling of an eye. The sanctified bride of Christ will not be left behind for judgment. But the tribulation is not the judgment, pure and simple. Many will be judged, for sure, but the real judgment is a time of formal and obvious singling out of the wicked for their eternal punishment. The Tribulation is simply a prelude, a last call. Even in the worst of it, Revelation 16, Jesus is still calling people out, to come to Himself.
Through the Great Tribulation, as the bombs fall and the cities burn and the sword decapitates, Christians will be rejoicing as they realize His coming draws near. They will not complain that they were somehow left out of the Marriage Supper, or had been classed in a lower caste than the "true church"! But with the original saints of Acts they will be rejoicing that they could suffer this shame for His Name.
Western saints of God, get ready! Only an unwise servant will say, "It couldn't happen here." If it couldn't happen here, what do December 7 and September 11 mean to you? It can. It did. It will again. Horrible, horrible suffering will weed out the phony baloney believers who came to Christ only to fill their belly or their business, only to feel good while others bore their crosses.
"Lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world." That should be good enough to cover any disaster. A little suffering, a little horror, then eternal peace with Christ. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Swords in the last day:
I have long examined the comparison between Matthew 24 and Luke 21. The conventional wisdom is that much of both of these passages refer to the events of A.D. 70, with a little second coming documentary affixed to the end. Careful scrutiny demands otherwise. The abomination of desolation precedes the greatest trouble this world has ever known which in turn precedes the very coming of Jesus. Daniel, Jesus, and then John are in perfect harmony about every detail.
But that leads to some serious questions, especially in Luke. Will Jerusalem indeed be surrounded by her enemies yet again? Will Jews be scattered to other nations again? That’s what the text says. Anti-Semitism has not ended, and increases yet today. Worse than that, Israel will defiantly hang the curtain of the Temple which God meant to be torn forever. She will bring back animal sacrifices, and flaunt the sacrifice given once for all time. I tremble but say with clarity borne out by Scripture, that her worst days are yet in her future.
The other question, the subject of these few paragraphs, seems trivial by comparison, but I wish to address it to suggest the veracity of the New Testament writings. Luke mentions that people will be falling by the sword in Jerusalem as the final Holocaust begins. Is this meant to be merely symbolic of modern “swords”, weapons of mass destruction and the like? Or will there actually be swords in the last days?
If Luke 21 is at stake here, so is Isaiah 2, where we are told that last-days people will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. I am tempted to explain why ploughshares and pruning-hooks will even be needed in a Millennial setting, but that must be for another day.
Of swords. Did you know that in today’s Yemen, men walk around town with swords on their waists? It’s traditional and its decorative. But I imagine the sword could be used if necessary.
And have you heard of the Great Swordfight of Sabratha? Libya, that is. On a February Friday this year (2011), 40 rebels in that harsh land “brandishing 2 foot swords and scimitars spearheaded a group of 1,000 men who clashed with army troops in this coastal town 40 miles west of Tripoli.
“It made for a bizarre spectacle. While Colonel Gadaffi has the most modern of arms at his disposal, his civilians were relying on weaponry that hadn’t been used in anger since the days of Lawrence of Arabia.”
The quote is from an internet news article by Ian Gallagher. The point, I hope, is obvious. Hatred against Jews will be so great as to demand the use of every available instrument of punishment. Christian hatred will be mixed in soon after, as the coming Man of Sin will strive to eliminate everything related to his greatest nightmare: a world without Satan’s influence.
The Word of God will always prove to be correct. Believers should not have to stoop to using the news to prove the Bible is true. Blessed are those who don’t “see” but still believe. Yet when they do fail in this way, that Book can bear the scrutiny.
There will be swords in the last days. And they will be used.
Daniel's prophecy of the 490 years, paraphrased:
Not only paraphrased. Interpreted too. I claim no inspiration for the following verses, but offer it to the Body of Christ as a possible way to look at this incredible prophecy found in Daniel 9. I have taken several of the translations available and used what seemed to be the most appropriate translation of the Hebrew, then added some explanatory words.
This prophecy needs to be front and center in our day, for the final fulfillment of it may soon be at hand.
"The angel then said to Daniel,
"Four hundred ninety years –though not consecutive - have been assigned to the Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem. Within these years all transgressions will have been finished, sin ended, iniquity atoned for. Permanent righteousness will have come in and the visions and prophecies of all of God’s men will have been fulfilled perfectly. Also, the Holy One will be anointed during this time.
"So here is the breakdown of the years: From the time that a decree goes forth to restore and build Jerusalem, all the way until the coming of Messiah, will be 483 years. During the first 49 years of that total, the street and walls will be built up, even though it will be during difficult times.
"Then, after the next 434 years [following the 49], Messiah will live and then die for the sins of others. Also after this time, some people of the coming prince will destroy both the city and the sanctuary. His end will be with a flood, and to the end of the war that begins then, nothing but desolation can be expected.
"This prince will make a seven-year treaty –that is, the final seven years of the 490- with many world leaders. But three and one half years – 42 months, or 1260 days, or “time, times, and half a time” in various Scriptures- into the treaty, he will repeal his offer to the Jews of practicing their religion with Temple sacrifices and offerings. Then will come the ultimate abomination –antichrist claiming to be God in the Temple - and the ultimate desolation will come from it. Destruction will continue until the final judgment is poured out on all the offenders."
Seven years of unparalleled Jewish history, coming soon? Is God about to wrap everything up? The News Media are focused on the Middle East these days. Shouldn’t we be too?
