(#4 Session 6) Day 7 - The Day of the Lord

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog!

The Day of the Lord marks the beginning or sundown as it were of the Seventh and Final Day of Creation, before giving way to the glorious dawn or sunrise of the New Millennium of Christ’s rule (remember, the Jewish day starts at sunset). It is the end of the world as we know it, a dreadful day where God’s discipline of His people and judgment of His enemies reach their climax. As Israel and the world plunges into the dark and fearsome night of the rule of the Antichrist during the Tribulation period, God will pour out His wrath upon the wicked and unrepentant through His Two Witnesses.

As recorded in various Old and New Testament passages (you can get the detailed references in my write-up for the video), all these will culminate in Satan’s last-ditch attempt to destroy God’s people by gathering the nations against Jerusalem and Israel, even as the Antichrist overpowers and kills the Two Witnesses to the delight of the wicked. At this eleventh hour just days before the nation is to celebrate the Fall Feasts, Israel finally acknowledges and cries out in desperation and true repentance for her Messiah.

In that moment, the Two Witnesses come back to life, striking terror in the hearts of the wicked. They then ascend to heaven as a great earthquake strikes Jerusalem, destroying a tenth of the city and killing 7,000 inhabitants. The Mount of Olives is split from East to West, and Jerusalem is raised up high with a fountain of water opening up from under the Temple.

There will be great cosmic signs - “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken … [while] on the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world.” “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains 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! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”” (References)

Then, at midnight as it were, on the Feast of Trumpets, “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”

“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

At that very moment, “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet ... the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed … For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (References).

Because of the great cosmic disturbances during this time, it is plausible that the 10 days between the Feast of Trumpets (1 Tishri) calling God’s people to meet the Lord in the air, and the Day of Atonement (10 Tishri) when Jesus returns and sets foot on the Mount of Olives to rescue and restore a repentant Israel while judging the nations, are compressed into a single day so that these two events happen at the same time.

If this is so, then the Wedding Supper of redemption and restoration of God’s people with Jesus the Lamb is also the Great Supper of judgment of God’s enemies by Jesus the Lion. This is consistent with the Old Testament prophetic narrative concerning God’s discipline of His people (which nonetheless ends in comfort, hope and restoration) and judgment of His enemies - both of which culminate on the Day of the Lord.

Link to presentation.

(#3 Session 6) Day 6 - The Tribulation Week

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog!

Previously, we looked at the last days which, seen from the perspective of the Seven Days of Creation, refer to the past 2,000 years since the time of Christ and birth of the Church. We saw how Jesus warned us that there would be deception, war, famine, and natural calamities and plagues, but that these were only “the beginning of birth pains.”; how believers will be persecuted until the full number of those who are to die for their faith is in; and finally, how the fullness of the Gentiles, once reached, marks the end of the summer harvest, the Age of Grace or Church age, and the beginning of the 7-year Tribulation. There will be NO MORE Gentile harvest from this point on, as the Church experiences its greatest ever earthly rupture rather than a heavenly rapture. In such a time, we are called to patiently endure and remain faithful as we enter into this final stretch of history before Jesus returns.

As we turn now to the Tribulation Week itself, there are four key events or things to take note of:

First, the Antichrist will “confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven’/week” as mentioned in Daniel’s prophecy. This will likely take place on the Feast of Trumpets - which is also the Jewish New Year - to mark the start of a New Year/new beginnings for Israel and the world, thus kicking off the Tribulation countdown and the start of the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” This covenant or treaty is likely a deceptive offer of world peace, as the Antichrist promises to put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflict and also the wider “clash of civilisations” between Christianity and Islam through his demonic kingdom. Israel will, for the first time since its rebirth in 1948, be “a land of unwalled villages ... a peaceful and unsuspecting people” as described by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 38:11). The Third Jewish Temple will also be built then, likely side-by-side with the Dome of the Rock/Al-Aqsa Mosque and perhaps even a Church as the Temple Mount becomes the prime example of world peace and inter-faith harmony.

In this new age of “peace” and “enlightened tolerance”, we will witness (ironically) an increasing intolerance of those who refuse to compromise their faith - something that is already happening today. There will arise widespread suppression of true believers by governments and even by their own churches as they buy into this deceptive argument. The path to world peace will be paved with the bodies of possibly millions of God’s faithful, their cries drowned by the shouts of those celebrating this new world order under the Antichrist and His False Prophet.

However, this false peace will not last. The Old Testament prophecies record at least two major wars involving Israel’s Arab neighbours and nations from as far north as Russia, as well as the destruction of Damascus. The deception, war, famine, natural disasters and persecution mentioned earlier will continue until the very end.

This brings us to the next key event - after 3½ years (that is, midway through the Tribulation Week on the Feast of Passover of the fourth year), the Antichrist will break this covenant to set up what is known as the “abomination of desolation” in the Temple. He will declare himself the Passover Lamb, defiling the Temple by making himself God and Christ. Aided by the False Prophet and ten leaders who will come into power then, the Antichrist will trample Jerusalem, blaspheming God and persecuting God’s people while deceiving the rest of the world and making them receive the mark of the beast (666 - see here for its meaning). He will also destroy his former ally, the apostate church, and go to war with various nations.

The remaining half of this 7-year period is known as the Great Tribulation. Jesus described how “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled,” while John described in detail the key events and characters during this period. In particular, John spoke of the miraculous display of God’s power and judgment by the Two Witnesses - possibly Moses and Elijah, both of whom had performed such amazing acts in their lifetimes and who were with Jesus at His Transfiguration (Rev 11:1-12). There will be a spike in all the calamities unleashed by the first 5 Seals as well as in demonic activity, as Satan will have been thrown down to earth during this period and knows that his time is short.

Third, now those who believe that we can “speed up” the Second Coming of Christ by finishing the task of world evangelisation often quote Jesus’ words in Mt 24:14 that “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” While we should certainly try our best to fulfil the Great Commission, when we realise that in verses 9-13 just prior to this Jesus was speaking of persecution, of many turning away from the faith and betraying and hating each other, of many false prophets appearing and deceiving many people, and of increasing wickedness, where the love of most will grow cold and one needs to fight to even stand firm in the faith just to be saved, let alone save others, it is clear that Jesus was not referring to a victorious Church winning over the world - in fact, it will be despite the Church. As John would later reveal in Rev 14:6-7, the Gospel would be preached by supernatural means, likely through the supernatural witnessing of the Two Witnesses as we will see afterwards. The purpose here is not world evangelization, to bring about salvation - for the fullness of Gentiles will have already come in by then. Rather, it is to announce that “the hour of his judgment has come,” for the wicked will remain unrepentant and defiant towards God even after being confronted with the Gospel.

Finally, the Great Tribulation climaxes with a series of cosmic signs and the outpouring of God’s wrath on the wicked with the breaking of the last 2 Seals and releasing of the 7 Trumpet and Bowl judgments described in Revelations. The Old Testament Prophets also spoke of great cosmic signs that would mark the Day of the Lord, while Jesus described how these signs would accompany His return. Now, given how similar the 7 Trumpets and Bowls judgments are to the miracles performed by the Two Witnesses, it is likely that these judgments are the means through which the Two Witnesses demonstrate the truth and power of the Gospel before a wicked and unrepentant world.

As we conclude, let us bear in mind that there are 3 conditions - all known only to God - that must be fulfilled before Christ returns - Fullness of the persecuted, fullness of the Gentiles, and fullness of the Gospel.

Only then will the end come with the Day of the Lord.

Link to presentation.

(#2 Session 6) Day 6 - Living in the Last Days

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my bi-monthly blog!

In our previous session, we saw how God’s greatest creation - mankind - became very bad with the Fall of Man. We then did a quick overview of the Kingdom of Man that emerged under the demonic influence of Satan - the Spirit of the Antichrist - which is opposed to the Kingdom of God led by the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Christ. This demonic kingdom will ultimately bring together the State and Church in the end times in the form of an evil world power that will attempt to destroy Israel while the Church turns apostate and persecute those who remain faithful to Christ. The Bible speaks of a revived Roman-Babylonian Empire and Babylon the Prostitute to describe this evil end-time State and Church.

Let us now look at the key events from the time of Jesus’ departure and birth of the Church until His soon return on the Day of the Lord. Here, it is not wrong to say that we have been living in the LAST DAYS all this while since this entire 2,000-year period is literally 2 days - the Fifth and Sixth Days of Creation - before Jesus returns to usher in the Seventh or Sabbath Day rest of His Millennial Rule, according to what the Creation Account tells us. So what should we expect in these last days?

First, Jesus warned us that there would be deception, war, famine, and natural calamities and plagues, but that these were only “the beginning of birth pains.” These signs correspond to the opening of the first 4 Seals mentioned in Rev 6. When we take these signs together with the Fifth Seal concerning the persecution of the saints, we see that they are what the Old Testament prophets had foretold earlier as God’s way of disciplining His people and judging His enemies. As the Day of the Lord draws nearer, we can expect these events to happen more frequently and increase in severity but Jesus also cautioned us that we should not be alarmed, as such things must happen but the end was still to come. Unfortunately, over the past 2,000 years, many have pointed to these signs and cried wolf that Jesus was coming. As a result, many in the Church today are numbed and do not see the urgency of this message when God’s Rhema is finally telling us now that the end of the end times is indeed here! May we see and correctly understand the signs of the times as they are happening today.

Second, the persecution of the saints mentioned earlier is the other key feature of the last days. As the early Church writer Tertullian put it, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Jesus had warned us of this on many occasions. Salvation may be a free gift of grace by faith, but it does not come cheap - Christ paid with His blood on the Cross and many of us will be called to do likewise. How different this Gospel sounds compared to what we hear among some churches today! At the opening of the Fifth Seal in Rev 6:9-11, John heard the cries for justice of those who had died for their faith. They were given white robes and told “to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.” God is keeping count and is faithful to avenge them in His perfect time, when the full number of those who died for Him has come in.

Third, fullness of the Gentiles. This is different from the full number of those who died for their faith. We have already discussed before what the fullness of the Gentiles means. The point that I want to highlight here is that the fullness of the Gentiles, once reached, marks the end of the summer harvest, the Age of Grace or Church age, and the beginning of the 7-year Tribulation. Let me briefly explain - in a prophecy given to Daniel, we were told that the full cycle of God’s sacred time was made up of seventy ‘sevens’ or Weeks - here, one ‘seven’ or week refers to 7 years. This is made up of 69 Weeks from the time of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem in 444 BC until the time of Christ’s crucifixion in 33 AD, and a final 70th Week - the 7-year Tribulation. If we recall the Seven Feasts of God, the first 69 weeks ended with the Spring Feasts marking Jesus’ first coming and birth of the Church, while the 70th week will end with the Fall Feasts when Jesus returns. For the past 2,000 years, we have been living in that summer interval between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel’s prophecy. But once the fullness of the Gentiles is reached, the world harvest will end as God turns His attention back to Israel with the sealing of those Jews who belong to Him and to the final events that will take place before Jesus returns. There will be NO MORE Gentile harvest from this point on - as Jeremiah had so vividly described it in the verse above.

So what happens to the Church? As mentioned earlier, what awaits it is not a rapturous return to Christ but rather a rupturing of an unimaginable scale, resulting in widespread persecution of the true saints of God until the full number of those who are to die for their faith is in. Revelations speak of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language … who have come out of the great tribulation [through martyrdom]”; of how the dragon (Satan) would wage war against “those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus”; how the beast (Antichrist) “was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them”; how Babylon the Prostitute (apostate church) “was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus”; and therefore how “this calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people … [for] Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”

Link to presentation.