Mark 13:14 "When you see 'the abomination of desolation' standing where he does not belong-- let the reader understand-- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of tribulation unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now-- and never to be equaled again. 20 If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. 21 At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it. 22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and per-form signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the elect. 23 So watch out; I have told you everything ahead of time.
Introduction
Does it seem a little strange to you that Jesus tells his disciples to run when the judgment comes? Does it really do any good, when God brings his judgment, to run and hide? Can you outrun God’s judgment on you? And if it’s not directed at you, why wouldn’t God just protect you from it to begin with? Why does he tell us to run?
We’re studying the Olivet Discourse and we left off last time at v.14 which is where things get ug-ly. And if you were here last time you’re thinking, “Get ugly? Weren’t thing’s already ugly—wars, earthquakes, famines, flogging, betrayal, your own children murdering you—isn’t that already fairly ugly? It’s the beginning of ugly. But Jesus said, “Don’t even be alarmed at that—that’s just the begin-ning of pains.” But in v.14 something happens that changes everything.
Mark 13:14 When you see 'the abomination of desolation' standing where he does not belong-- let the reader understand-- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Don’t sweat the beginning of pains, but when you see the abomination, run fast because that event will kick off a period of unparalleled, unprecedented tribulation that makes the beginning of pains look like a walk in the park. And when Jesus talks about how bad it’s going to be, he really piles it on. Other parts of the sermon are very concise and abbreviated, but not here. This paragraph that describes how bad it will be takes up 20% of the Olivet Discourse in Mark. He really wants us to get this.
14 "When you see 'the abomination … then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak.
The cloak was considered essential for survival. In Exodus 22:26, it says if you’re holding some-one’s cloak as collateral for a loan, you have to give it back before sundown. It’s illegal to hold it over-night because it was so essential for survival. But here Jesus says you’d be better off to leave even your cloak behind than to take the extra few seconds to grab it. That’s how bad it’ll be.
17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!
No offense to pregnant women, but they’re not exactly known for their foot speed. And if you can’t move fast, you probably won’t make it.
18 Pray that this will not take place in winter
Winter is the rainy season in Israel, so the rivers in the canyons are all swollen and uncrossable. You don’t want rain when you’re trying to make your escape.
19 because those will be days of tribulation unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now-- and never to be equaled again.
What more could you say than that? He does say more.
20 If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive.
Jesus is saying, “That time will be horrible, horrible, horrible beyond what you can imagine horri-ble.
What Is the Abomination?
And what’s the signal to run? The abomination of desolation. And what is that? An abomination is something God especially hates. It’s used most often of idolatry. Desolation refers to a place that has been destroyed, ruined, or abandoned. So the idea is that there will be ruin that’s associated with some horrible, idolatrous abomination. You say, “That sounds a little vague. Something horrible will hap-pen in connection with something detestable? That’s what we need to be watching for? Could we get a little more specific?”
If you find this hard to figure out, you can at least take comfort in knowing that it’s supposed to be hard. I think that’s the point of the comment about understanding.
14 "When you see 'the abomination of desolation' standing where he does not belong-- let the reader understand …
That’s like saying, “Let the reader put on his thinking cap.” It’s not going to be a simplistic an-swer.
The phrase “abomination of desolation” appears three times in the OT, all three in Daniel (Dan.9:27; 11:31; 12:11). Much of what is said about the abomination was fulfilled about 300 years after Daniel’s time when Antiochus Epiphanes came and made Jewish sacrifices illegal and desecrated the Temple. What Antiochus did followed Daniel’s prophecy so closely that the liberal commentators say that part of Daniel couldn’t have been written by Daniel. It must have been written by someone who lived during Antiochus’ lifetime, because not even God could predict the future that accurately. And later Jewish writings refer to what Antiochus did as the abomination of desolation.
They said that about the first half Daniel 11, but not the second half. The second half of Daniel 11 is full of all kinds of things Antiochus didn’t fulfill, but that are also connected to the abomination, and so the Jews of Jesus’ time figured it had to be a prophecy with a two-part fulfillment, so they were still looking for another abomination of desolation at the end of the age.” So when Jesus mentioned a fu-ture abomination, that wouldn’t have come as any surprise to the disciples.
70 A.D. Application
So this second abomination that Jesus said we need to put on our thinking caps about, is that 70 A.D.? Sure seems like it. Of all the sections of the Olivet Discourse, this section is the most obviously about first century Israel.
14 … let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
It’s not a worldwide judgment—just Judea. So yes, I believe there is a definite application for 70 A.D.
And the application is this this: Jesus was telling his disciples how to escape the judgment on Isra-el. When you see the abomination (when you see another Antiochus-like ordeal starting to materialize), run. And here’s the key—run in the opposite direction you would normally run. Normally, if you’re in the fields surrounding Jerusalem and you see armies approaching, you would run inside the walls of the city. That’s why they had walls around cities, and the walls of Jerusalem had proven pretty much im-pregnable. Jesus is saying, “Not this time.” When you see the armies coming, you need to know that this is the judgment on Israel that I’ve been talking about. Jerusalem will fall. Your only hope will be to escape to the mountains and hide.
Luke 21:21 … let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city.
It must have been a strange sight to see all the Christians running the opposite direction of every-one else. They’re running out of the city while everyone else is running in. But that’s what saved them.
End-Times Fulfillment
The Romans came, the Jews in Jerusalem were slaughtered, and the Christians (the elect) escaped because Jesus had tipped them off. That’s 70 A.D. But was 70 A.D. be-all-end-all of God’s judgment? Do we have to say that since there was a local fulfillment of the prophecy there can’t possibly be any greater, future fulfillment? Why would we say that? Especially in a situation like this, where the events of 70 A.D. don’t really fit the details in Daniel’s prophecy, or, for that matter, all the details what Jesus described. The Romans did profane the Temple, but that can’t be the signal of when to run because they only did that after they had already slaughtered everyone. There are some things in 68 A.D. that might work, but nothing we know of in history is a great fit.
So let’s go back to our method—what did the other NT writers, under the inspiration of the Spirit, say about Jesus’ words here?
The Great Tribulation
Jesus describes this period with the word, “tribulation.”
19 those will be days of tribulation
In Matthew’s account, it says, “great tribulation.” How do the NT writers use that phrase? Do we see it in the book of Acts, leading up to 70 A.D.? No. Everything in Acts fits the description of what Jesus called the beginning of pains. But we do see a reference to the great tribulation in the book of Revelation. Revelation 7:14 … These are they who have come out of the great tribulation. When you have the definite article like that, it’s referring to not just any tribulation, but the famous one—the one everyone knows about. And he describes what the great tribulation will be like.
Revelation 6:15 the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the moun-tains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
It will be so horrible that people will wish they could die in order to escape the wrath of Christ, but there will be no escape. And it won’t just be Jerusalem; it will include all the kings of the earth. Some-day God’s wrath will be poured out on the whole world. And John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, uses Jesus’ term from the Olivet Discourse (the great tribulation) to describe that future judg-ment.
So John points us to a future fulfillment, and so do Jesus’ words themselves.
20 If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive.
That’s the strongest statement in the whole Bible describing unparalleled trouble. It’s literally the worst things will ever get any time in the entire span of the existence of the world, beginning to end.
And when he says no one would survive, literally it’s “all flesh would not be saved.” All flesh would be lost. That phrase “all flesh” is a common biblical way of referring to the whole human race. After the flood, God said:
Genesis 9:11 Never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood.
Job 34:14 … If he withdrew his spirit and breath, 15 all flesh would perish.
Romans 3:20 Therefore all flesh will not be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.
It’s a common way of referring to all humanity. So the most natural way to interpret v.20, is to say that if God had not cut those days short, all human life would be extinguished. The great tribula-tion would wipe out the entire human race. That language goes way beyond 70 A.D.
The Antichrist
And one other thing in this section that seems to point to the very end rather than 70 A.D. is the fact that Mark points to a specific person as the abomination. In Matthew’s account, he refers to the abomination as an “it.” But Mark calls it a “he.”
14 When you see 'the abomination of desolation' standing where he does not belong.
Mark is putting the emphasis on the individual behind the abomination. Again, there isn’t a clear individual in 70 A.D. that stands out, but the later NT writers speak of an individual who will come in the last days who fits exactly what Daniel describes as the perpetrator of the abomination. Paul calls him the man of lawlessness; John describes him in Revelation as the beast.
So all that to say, Jesus is teaching about that great, final tribulation, but he’s painting that picture with the colors of the judgment on Jerusalem. Someday the whole unbelieving world will face punish-ment similar to what Jerusalem faced in 70 A.D.—that’s the point.
Why the Tribulation?
It’s called the wrath of the Lamb in Revelation 6:16. But why does it happen on earth? You have the great tribulation, then Jesus coms back, Judgment Day happens, and the wicked all go to eternal punishment in hell. So if hell is right around the corner anyway, why the period of wrath on earth?
Here’s why: it’s God’s mercy. It’s like hell, except they will still have the chance to repent. That’s the purpose of the punishment—to bring them to repentance. I get that from Revelation 9. The whole chapter describes all these horrific punishments inflicted on people, and it ends this way:
Revelation 9:20 The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands.
Then again in ch.16.
Revelation 16:9 They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him. 10 … Men gnawed their tongues in agony 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.
God has a two-part strategy for bringing men to repentance. The first part is patience and kindness.
Romans 2:4 do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realiz-ing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?
God uses patience to bring men to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise … He is patient with you, not wanting any-one to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come.
It starts with patience, but eventually the day of the Lord comes. Step 1 in bringing people to re-pentance is kindness, tolerance, and patience. But when that doesn’t bring repentance, and time is run-ning out, he moves to drastic measures and switches from patience to punishment. Sometimes that’s the only thing that will wake people up and make them willing to turn before it’s too late and the pun-ishment becomes permanent.
That’s the patten Jesus described in the parable of the vineyard. The owner has ridiculous amounts of patience. He keeps sending servant after servant even though the tenants keep killing them, but eventually his patience runs out and he comes and punishes them.
Jesus comes to Jerusalem to suffer and die, but before he gets to that, he spends two full chapters in the Temple calling the people to repentance. That’s patience. Later in the Olivet Discourse he’ll say, “This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” This generation, alive today, will not escape the judgment. How long is a generation? You could throw a few different numbers out there. Probably the longest would be 40 years. So Jesus says punishment is coming within 40 years at the longest. And how long was it from then until Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D.? About 40 years. Even when God says it’s going to happen soon, within a generation, still he drags his merciful feet as long as he possibly can and waits until the very end of that 40 years. He goes right up to the cusp of making it a false prophecy before he finally pulls the trigger on moving from patience to punishment.
So why the great tribulation? It’s God’s mercy, giving people one last chance to get desperate enough to repent before it’s too late and they can never repent. That’s how God operates.
If you ever have unrepentant sin in your life and things are going smoothly for you, that’s not God winking at your sin. That’s God using his patience to woo you in the direction of repentance. But if it doesn’t work, the next step is the other method, and you don’t ever want that.
And if you see people around you who need to repent, if God is being patient with them or punish-ing them—if their life is smooth and prosperous or a complete disaster, the catalyst that will make God’s patience or punishment effective is you bringing the gospel to that person and calling them to repentance.
Run and Pray for Good Weather
Okay, so what are we to make of the fact that Jesus teaches us to run and hide when the great tribulation comes? I believe the answer is clear, and it’s the same answer now matter how you interpret the Olivet Discourse. If you believe it’s 100% 70 A.D., or 100% in the future or anything in between, the implications for God’s people are exactly the same. When Jesus says to run, and he gives instruc-tions on how to escape, what he’s teaching us is that judgment isn’t for us. When the judgment comes, there will be no escape for those being judged, but for us—we should run away because wrath isn’t for us.
1 Thessalonians 5:9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath.
In the book of Revelation God’s wrath is being poured out everywhere, but never on believers. It’s not for us.
Does that mean life is a bed of roses for believers? No. God’s wrath isn’t for us, but persecution is. Persecution doesn’t magically stop just because the great tribulation starts. Remember the beast in Revelation raging against the saints and making it so they can’t buy or sell. The suffering of God’s wrath isn’t for you because that’s for the world. But the suffering of persecution is for you because that’s for Christ, and you are in Christ.
When the great tribulation comes, everyone will suffer wrath. The world will suffer God’s wrath, and God’s people will suffer the world’s wrath. And we all get to choose which one we prefer.
Why We Have to Run
But back to the question I started with—if God’s wrath isn’t for us, why does he make us run to avoid it? Why not just automatically protect all the saints? We’ve got smart bombs that can hit one house and kill the enemy without hurting any bystanders—can’t God do the same thing with his judgment? Why does God make us run—and not just run, but also to pray?
Pray for Help
18 Pray that this will not take place in winter.
The word “winter” can also be translated “storm.” Pray that it won’t be stormy. Does that seem like an odd instruction? Pray for good weather during the great tribulation. Have you ever done that? “God, when the apocalypse hits, at least don’t let it be rainy.” If we don’t pray this, is it more likely that we’ll get caught in a big snowstorm right when we’re trying to escape some catastrophe? Yes. I don’t know how else to interpret this—otherwise the prayer would be meaningless.
Even though God’s wrath isn’t for us, still, to escape we’re going to have to run fast and pray hard. Why? Because God wants to expose just how serious we are about being delivered.
Remember Lot’s Wife
It’s to test our hearts. Jesus explained this in Luke 17. This isn’t the Olivet Discourse, but it’s an-other place where Jesus spoke of the same things.
Luke 17:29 the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot's wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
Why did God turn Lot’s wife to a pillar of salt? Was it because she was just curious to get a glimpse of what was happening? No, it was because her heart was in Sodom. She was leaving, but re-luctantly. She was trying to keep her old life—and so she lost her life. And Jesus is warning us not to be like her when the Day of the Lord comes.
You may have seen videos of people who refuse to evacuate when a volcano is erupting and they end up getting burned alive by the lava. That’s someone who’s a little too attached to his house! When the day of wrath comes, it will expose exactly where your heart is. Do you love God alone, or do you love your stuff?
If your spouse were in some kind of situation where they had to choose between you and someone, if there’s so much as a split-second’s hesitation, you’d be heartbroken, right? And if there were a back-ward glance, that’d be even worse. And God has a bigger claim on your heart than you do on your spouse. The reason we’ll have to run with no time to pack is to reveal whether we will.
And this is a principle that applies in a general way even today in our day-to-day life. There’s al-ways a sense in which we need to be fleeing. The more we immerse ourselves in the anti-God system of evil in this world, the more we place ourselves in the throes of its judgment. There is a certain amount of built-in justice that comes from sin just by the way God designed the world. Sin has natural conse-quences. And to the degree we cling to it, we find that judgment coming down on us before we can escape. We can practice for the day of the abomination of desolation every day in the way we run from sin.
Don’t Be Deceived
Okay, so what does Jesus tell us to do in the great tribulation? Run and pray. That’s vv.14-20. The second instruction is in v.21. This one will sound like a broken record, but here it is: don’t be deceived.
21 At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not be-lieve it. 22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to de-ceive, if possible, the elect. 23 So watch out (blepo); I have told you everything ahead of time.
Once again we have to blepo (see with spiritual insight) in order to avoid being deceived.
We’re used to the Bible telling us to believe. But here the command is “Don’t believe.” Believing the wrong things is just as bad as not believing the right things. People talk about faith as though there were some magical benefit. “You just got to believe. It doesn’t matter what you believe; just believe.” But here Jesus says not only does it matter, it’s a matter of life and death. Do not believe the people who say, “Here’s the Christ” or “There he is.”
That’s interesting because this is exactly how these men found out about Jesus the first time. Someone came to them and said, “I found the Christ. Come and see.” That’s how it was at Jesus’ first coming, and Jesus is saying, “It’s not going to be like that when I return the second time.” When Jesus comes the second time, he’ll appear in the sky. Every eye will see him, every knee will bow, no one is going to have to tell you about it. If someone does try to tell you Christ has come back, just go outside, look up at the sky—if you don’t see him coming on clouds with millions of angels, you know the per-son is lying.
Luke 17:23 Men will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. 24 For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.
That’s one way I knew David Koresh wasn’t really Jesus—he was too slow. Way slower than lightning.
So don’t be deceived. And if that sounds familiar it’s because it was the main instruction Jesus gave for the beginning of pains period. Our biggest threat during the beginning of pains is deception, and our greatest threat in the tribulation will be deception. The difference is this time they will be even more convincing because they’ll be performing signs and wonders.
Don’t Fall for Miracles
22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the elect.
What will deceive the elect? Signs. Do you remember how this whole conversation started? It was when the disciples asked Jesus about signs. “What will be the sign that all these things are about to be fulfilled?” Jesus says, “You want me to give you some signs to watch for? How about this—instead of watching for signs, watch out for signs. Signs will be what the false prophets use to deceive you.”
There are many Christians who are enamored with signs and wonders. They love miracles. They equate the presence of God with miracles, so that if there are no miracles, they think God isn’t at work. Those are the kind of people who will really be at risk in the last days because the deceivers will have miraculous powers. Always remember—just because they can do miracles doesn’t prove they are from God. Just because their prophecies come true doesn’t prove they are from God.
2 Thessalonians 2:9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan dis-played in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders.
Revelation 13:11 Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. …13 And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. 14 Because of the signs he was given power to do … he deceived the inhabitants of the earth.
Why Does God Grant Miraculous Power to the Antichrist?
Why does God allow false prophets and the Antichrist to perform miracles? If he knows it will re-sult in many people being deceived, why does God enable them to have miraculous power? Jesus points us to where we can find the answer to that by citing Deuteronomy 13. All this language about false prophets appearing and performing signs and wonders to deceive God’s people comes straight out of Deuteronomy 13:1. That’s the chapter that teaches what to do about false prophets who perform mir-acles. It says if a prophet does signs and wonders and his prophecies all come true, but he deceives people and leads them astray, he’s a false prophet—put him to death. But then Moses goes on to tell us why God allows people like that to have miraculous power.
Deuteronomy 13:40 The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.
If you love God with all your heart, you won’t fall for the deceptions even if the guy can do mira-cles. You see, when we are deceived on spiritual matters, it’s usually not just an honest mistake. When we’re deceived into believing something that contradicts the Bible, very often it’s because we want to believe that thing. So God allows false prophets to work miracles to expose that in our hearts.
If Possible
And notice these deceivers are going to go after the elect specifically.
22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the elect.
They are specifically trying to deceive the elect. We’re in their crosshairs.
But why does Jesus throw in that little phrase, “if possible”? A lot of interpreters have tried to use that to argue that it’s actually impossible. The NIV takes that approach. They change the word order around and add a couple extra words. “False prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to de-ceive the elect, if that were possible.” (Implication, luckily it’s not possible.) People who take that ap-proach say, “Don’t worry about being led astray. You don’t have to be on your guard against that. If you’re a believer, it’s impossible for that to ever happen.” They say these warnings are only for fake Christians, because only a phony Christian can be led astray.
But that’s nonsense—phony Christians are already astray. Jesus didn’t give these warnings to fake Christians, he gave them to Peter, James, John and Andrew and said, “Make sure you aren’t led astray.”
If that were impossible, this wouldn’t even make sense. What would be the point of the warning? Be on your guard against a threat that can’t possibly happen? It would be like me telling your kids, “Watch out for the wicked witch because when she sees you, she will turn you into a rock—if that were possible. Of course, it’s not possible, but watch out anyway.” What would be the point of telling us to watch out for something that could never happen?
The phrase “if possible” does not imply impossibility. It only implies difficulty. It means the thing isn’t always possible, but sometimes it is. The exact same phrase appears in Romans 12:18.
Romans 12:18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Is he saying, “It’s totally impossible to live at peace with people”? No, he’s saying it’s hard, it’s not always possible, but to the degree that it’s possible, do it.
That’s the same thing it means here. Jesus isn’t giving us a nonsense, meaningless warning. Of all the things Jesus says in the Olivet Discourse, the clearest and most obvious is that his #1 concern is that the disciples not be deceived. It’s a very real concern to Jesus and it should be a concern to us. Any time some Bible teacher tries to tell you that you don’t need to listen to some warning that Jesus gave—that those warnings don’t apply to you, don’t listen to that teacher. Listen to Jesus.
The elect can indeed be deceived, it happens every day, it’s happened to me many times, and the main reason Jesus preached this whole sermon is to wake us up to that danger.
Remember His Compassion
So run from the wrath of God, don’t be deceived, and I’ll add one other thought—remember God’s compassion. I mention that just because I think it’s so beautiful here how Jesus interrupts his Olivet Discourse with an expression of concern for pregnant women. He’s talking about all these huge, dis-tant, apocalyptic realities, God’s wrath, judgment on the whole world—right in the middle of delivering the greatest end-times prophecy ever given, and he just stops in mid-thought and expresses his compas-sion for pregnant women and mothers of young children. You might expect a prophet to have a sec-tion of lament for the demise of the Temple at this point. Or a lament for Jerusalem or for the people of God. But Jesus’ concern is for the weak and vulnerable among his people.
And when he singles out women and nursing mothers, that’s just representative. The same would go for anyone who would have a hard time running fast. People with bum knees or asthma or people who happen to have the flu at the time, or people who are a little slow mentally—anyone who has extra difficulty. Whatever disability or injury or weakness you might have, Jesus is sensitive to that. He’s moved by it. It’s on his mind—so much so that he can be right in the middle of delivering a major pro-phetic discourse and he’ll get distracted by thoughts about your trouble—thoughts about how things are going to be even more difficult for you than everyone else. His heart is so full of compassion. Don’t ever think he’s forgotten about your plight.
Summary
The abomination of desolation was first fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes, but not completely. Jesus indicated multiple future fulfillments. 70 A.D. was a partial fulfillment (Jesus warned his followers to flee Jerusalem). But John took Jesus’ words about the great tribulation to refer to the end times. The great tribulation God’s merciful effort to move people to repentance.
Jesus said to flee, indicating that wrath is not for us. But we still have to run and pray to escape. It’s a test of our hearts, to see if we’re attached to the world.
We must see to it we aren’t deceived, even when the false prophets perform miracles. God enables them to do miracles to test our hearts.
