(#46 5982) Day 6 - The Tribulation Week

FIRST POSTED ON 15 JUNE 2020.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat 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.

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(#45 5982) Day 6 - Living in the Last Days

FIRST POSTED ON 1 JUNE 2020.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat 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.”

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(#44 5982) Day 6 - Rule of the Antichrist

FIRST POSTED ON 15 MAY 2020.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

God created Man on the Sixth Day to rule over Creation. However, what was originally intended to be “very good” became very bad with the Fall of Man.

Previously, we mentioned the emergence of a Satan-inspired kingdom of man beginning with the Tower of Babel. We later saw how this kingdom - in the form of the ancient empires of Babylon and Rome - destroyed God’s Holy City Jerusalem and exiled His people twice. In the end times, Satan will raise up an evil world power - a revived Roman-Babylonian empire - to destroy Israel, even as he misleads the increasingly apostate Church - Babylon the Prostitute as revealed to John in Revelations - to turn against those who remain faithful to God in the Body of Christ. This kingdom of man that opposes God’s Kingdom and people throughout history was what was revealed to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream 2600 years ago. It is a demonic kingdom working under the spirit of the Antichrist, just as God’s Kingdom is directed by the Spirit of Christ (Holy Spirit).

We see the spirit of the Antichrist at work in the first son of man, Cain, when he murdered his brother. Just as Cain was jealous that God favoured the offering of his brother Abel, Satan (Angel of Light) is jealous that God favoured Man (Lesser Light), God having made us in His image to reflect His divine light/glory. In Nimrod, whose name means “Rebel”, who established the first kingdom of man in Babylon where the Tower of Babel was later built. In Pharaoh, the hardened heart who tried to destroy God’s chosen people, Israel, when they were in Egypt. In Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed the First Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylon. In Herod, who tried to kill the infant Jesus. And in Israel - God’s very chosen nation - whose leaders crucified the Messiah.

Even within the Body of Christ, we saw how, throughout Church history, the divine life brought about by the Holy Spirit characteristic of the Fifth Day of Creation was quickly robbed away by the opposing spirit of the Antichrist characteristic of the Sixth Day. This unholy spirit was already at work among the Apostles - had it not been for the overwhelming power of the Holy Spirit that came upon them during the Pentecost, the natural inclination of the Apostles was to fight among themselves for position and power within Christ’s Kingdom (References). As the hope for Christ’s soon return faded over time and with Christianity becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Church became more and more “of this world”. What the Apostles had earlier struggled against - earthly power and politics - became the focus and ambition of the Church as man started to justify their own authority and rule in the name of God. This rule of man within the Kingdom of God culminated in the Great Schism or division in 1054 AD (AM 5013 - marking the beginning of the Sixth Day of Creation), when the Bishop or Pope of Rome declared himself head over all the other key bishops with authority over the entire universal Church. Indeed, Pope Innocent III put forward the famous idea that the Emperor was the moon (lesser light) to the Pope’s sun (greater light), meaning that the Pope ruled not only over the Church but over the earth’s kingdoms and nations. The Kingdom of God has now become the kingdom of this world!

As we approach the end of the Sixth Day of Creation in our generation, we can expect the unholy spirit of the Antichrist that has been working in the kingdoms of man and God to come together to form the rule of the Antichrist - the end-time Roman-Babylonian Empire and Babylon the Prostitute that we mentioned earlier. This joining together of the State and Church has happened before in the Christian Roman Empire, which lasted from the time of Emperor Constantine in 312 AD to 476 AD (in the West) and 1453 AD (in the East - this Eastern kingdom was also known as the Byzantine Empire). Following the fall of Rome, there were efforts to revive the Western Roman Empire (as the Holy Roman Empire) by both the French and Germans, with the Holy Roman Emperors crowned by the Roman Popes of that time. This was followed by Napoleon Bonaparte (1804-1814) and ultimately Adolf Hitler (1933-1945). In Hitler’s Third Reich (“Third Empire”), which he declared would last a thousand years (Millennium); the Jewish Holocaust where 6 million Jews were slaughtered on this Sixth Day of Creation (incidentally, there are about 6 million Jews in Israel today); and the German Church during that period comprising the apostate Nazi national church and the true “confessing church” (Reference); we were given the clearest glimpse into how the future kingdom of the Antichrist may look like.

Finally, we need to consider the role that Islam and the Muslim countries could play in this end-time demonic kingdom - Islam is the dominant religion in those areas occupied by Israel’s former enemies; it is on the rise in Europe; and there are attempts to bring Christianity and Islam together as one religion for the sake of peace.

When we fit all these pieces together, we see the beginnings of the end-time evil empire of the Antichrist.

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