Questions and Answers, Part 15

Transcript

GRM 732
4/22/2001
The Literal Interpretation of Prophecy
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

I want to continue talking about some of the matters relating to prophetic issues as we were talking about in our study together this morning, maybe pull together some matters and add a little bit of material to what we have been talking about.

If you have been a believer very long you are aware that there are different views of prophecy. We won’t have opportunity at this time to talk in any detail about them, but basically the difference comes down to what is your system of interpretation. What would be called hermeneutics, how you interpret the bible. Even among those who claim to be bible-believing Christians there are differences over future events. How will they be fulfilled? And the difference comes down to, do you follow a system of literally interpreting what the bible says about yet unfulfilled prophecies?

Many who I believe are believers in Jesus Christ follow a system of literally interpreting the bible in non-prophetic areas and also interpreting literally all prophecy that has already been fulfilled because all prophecies that have been fulfilled, have been fulfilled literally. We have talked about this on other occasions. In other words when the bible says that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, He was born in Bethlehem. That was fulfilled literally. It just didn’t mean a small town some place. It had to be Bethlehem in Ephrathah to fulfill the scriptures. His suffering, His dying, His resurrection from the dead – all fulfilled literally.

But many who would agree on those facts, then determine that prophecies that are not yet fulfilled will not be fulfilled literally. They follow an allegorical or spiritualizing of the Scripture. We follow what would be a literal interpretation of Scripture. We are dispensationalists. The key factor in our being dispensationalists, I believe, is the fact that we see a distinction between Israel and the Church. If you follow a literal interpretation of the Scripture you will come to the conclusion that Church is not Israel. If you talk to Christians who do not follow a consistently literal interpretation of scripture they’ll talk about the Church being spiritual Israel so they do not see a future for physical Israel because all that was promised to physical Israel is being fulfilled in a spiritual way in the Church. That’s what I mean when I talk about they spiritualize prophecy. It doesn’t mean they are more spiritual than someone else, but they are not taking them literally.

I believe the bible does make a clear distinction between Israel and the Church and that all of God’s promises to Israel have to be fulfilled. Paul makes this clear in writing to the Romans when he says that “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” He cannot go back on His word to Israel so there is a future for Israel.

The Reformers came out of Roman Catholicism, John Calvin, Martin Luther and so on. Now going back to the days of Augustine when there was a change from interpreting future events in God’s plan for Israel in a literal way, there was a change to interpret that as spiritual truth fulfilled in the Church. From the time of Augustine on down, Origen contributed to that with his allegorizing of scripture. It was the view of the dominant part of the church and Roman Catholicism, in particular, that the promises to Israel were being realized in the Church. It is called amillennialism. The “a” meaning no millennium, meaning no earthly, literal, physical millennium but the Church is the kingdom of God, and we are experiencing that kingdom in the hearts of men.

Well, the Reformers, when coming out of Roman Catholicism did there battles over justification by faith, but they didn’t change their eschatology – their doctrine of future things. They still continued to hold to an amillennial view of future events and that the Church really was Israel. Some of the Reformers like Martin Luther were strongly anti-Jewish and put the blame for the death of Christ on the Jews in an unbiblical way. Some of his writings speak very harshly of the Jews and he was happy to see any suffering that they would endure. Well obviously we have a different view. I just mention that because you read commentaries, you listen to speakers, this has great impact. People say, “let’s not battle over prophecy.” Well, you understand over one quarter of the bible was prophetic when it was written so we have major portions of the scripture to deal with.

Secondly, it has great implications for our practice today. I was listening to a man on television last night who I believe is a strong bible believing Christian. Very clear on the gospel but then he got into political issues and political responsibilities of the Church, and he was just muddled. Part of the problem is the man does not follow a literal interpretation of scripture regarding future things. Now if you do not follow a literal interpretation of future things and you think the church has become Israel in a spiritual sense, then you tend to back up and go into the Old Testament and see the church is responsible to carry out and fulfill all that God told Israel to do. Israel was a literal earthly nation with social and political responsibilities, instructions given in some detail. You find these men going back into the prophets and trying to carry that into the church today for social and political responsibilities.

There’s also been a revival of a movement that was popular in the 1800’s called “post-millennialism”. And post-millennialist believed that the world was going to get better and better and it would continue to get so good that ultimately the kingdom would just begin. And “post” after the millennium, Christ would come after the millennium. Some of our hymns written in the 1800’s promotes that. One that we sing fairly often “the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noon day bright” is post-millennial in its theology. Things are going to get better and better. We are going to move from the darkness to the dawn, then from the dawn to the brilliance of the kingdom and God’s great kingdom shall come to earth. But there’s not going to be a progressive getting better.

These post-millennialist are very active today and promoting the Mosaic Law. They believe we ought to apply the Mosaic Law in our society and through this means things will begin to improve and so on. So, it’s not just a matter how you interpret specific prophetic events, but you’re system for interpretation and handling biblical prophecy has a great deal of impact on how you will then deal with issues like political involvement, social action, what is the responsibility of the Church today and so on. I listened to a man this afternoon and he was preaching dispensational theology and mixing in with it ammillennial theology regarding politics and social action. It’s just a failure to be consistent. So we want to be consistent and understand clearly what the scripture says. The Church is not Israel.

So we go to the epistles. It doesn’t mean we don’t learn from all of Scripture and we appreciate and believe that all scripture is God-breathed and profitable. But not everything that was said to Israel is directly applicable to us and almost nobody tries to institute that today. Everybody realizes that certain things are not applicable to us today. But this idea of going through the Old Testament and trying to pick and choose out of it becomes very arbitrary.

So what we’ve been talking about with prophecy primarily relates to what God says He will do for Israel in the future. The rapture of the church will occur, then God picks up His program with Israel to complete the seventy weeks of Daniel because there is one seven-year period yet to go to fulfill God’s plan and program for the nation Israel and bring Israel into the Kingdom which He has promised. That will be the time when Old Testament prophecies will be literally fulfilled. The lion will lie down with the lamb and the child will play on the hole of the poisonous snake, and they will not hurt or destroy in all My holy kingdom, Jesus says. Well, if you don’t believe in a future kingdom you have to spiritualize all of that into some kind of internal mush which may be well intentioned but wreaks havoc in the church.

Alright, we noted some of the major events in prophecy and things you just ought to be tuned to that are going on the world. The revival of the Roman Empire, we talked about that at some length. That focuses on what is known as the European Community today. The heart of the Roman Empire and the revival of that empire, and it will have the strength of iron and the weakness of clay. We already see that there. You are going to have 10 nations mixed together and none of them want to give up their sovereignty, but all of them want a view united to be a major world power. For example, in our day be able to stand as a power like the United States of America. Ultimately they will in fact they will have greater power. I have no comment on where the United States fits into future prophecy because it’s not addressed. All of North America is not addressed. The bible’s concern in biblical prophecy with nations and kingdoms that directly relate to Israel. Now I realize we are involved with Israel in these days. It does not seem that the United States of America plays a significant roll in future prophecy. Now that’s just an observation I make. I don’t know of anyone that has come up with anything that has any sound hermeneutics that finds the United States in biblical prophecy. It doesn’t mean there’s not something there that hasn’t been overlooked but at this point the future player in the western world is the revived Roman empire, which focuses as you are aware, in Europe.

We have Israel gathered back in the land and Israel is not going to be driven out of the land. The Arabs are not going to overrun Israel and drive them into the sea. There’s not going to be a sneak nuclear attack that will annihilate Israel. Israel is back in the land. They are going to become more firmly established because we noted that the seventh week of Daniel will begin with that covenant between the leader of the western world – the revived Roman empire and Israel. That marks the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel.

Somewhere along the line the temple will be re-built. We noted some of the significant passages that refer to the re-built temple. Revelation 11 goes into some detail talking about measuring the temple that will be in existence in the 70th week of Daniel. We don’t know when it will be re-built. We just know that by the time you get to the middle of that seventh week of Daniel the temple has been re-built and is in operation sacrifice, the sacrificial system and so on is under way. It would be possible for the temple to be re-built before the rapture of the church. There’s nothing in biblical that would keep that prophecy from happening. I’m not saying it will. It may be that the agreement signed with the western world leader at the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel will pave the way for the construction of the temple. We don’t know. We just know that when we get into the 70th week of Daniel and we move toward the middle of the week the temple is there and it is in operation. That’s not so hard to believe in our day with the discussions that go on about that very fact.

We also mentioned Russia and her allies in Ezekiel 38. Russia becomes a key player, within the 70th week of Daniel in launching an attack with her allies. Allies mentioned there and we just alluded to them briefly. That attack occurs at a time when Israel is living in security and peace with their defenses removed. Obviously not today so I don’t Russian could attack and fulfill Ezekiel 38 today because Israel is not living securely in a land of unwalled cities with no gates. Cities were pictured at that time as military defenses because to defend against armies people retreated into the city and closed the gates. We know that will be true during the first 3 ½ years of the tribulation. So somewhere toward the middle of the tribulation Russia will launch that. Watching just what goes on with Russia and the allies of Russia and Turkey becomes key, and Iran formerly called Persia, Libya, some of these countries over there, there animosity toward Israel will break out at that period of time. The world church there will be in existence a dominant religious body. You remember the construction of Tower of Babel back in the book of Genesis. The reason the people after the flood and subsequent events wanted to build a city and have this city united around this religious symbol, the tower with a top would reach to heaven and evidently what they meant was the top of that tower would be the focal point of their worship. That would keep them unified, and it’s clearly recognized that religion provides a unifying force in countries even today.

One of the reasons a country like China is opposed to religious activity is what? They’re trying to build a country, built on atheism. They see the religions developing as what? A threat to that unity so they want a religious unity. The Muslim countries are obviously evidences of that. We have diversity in this country, but we see more and more potential for division in our country over those kinds of things. Well after the rapture of the church, the true believers, the true church will have been removed from the earth but there will still be a religious church in existence on the earth. You remove believers from the earth it will probably facilitate the ecumenical movement. Because what is the keep non-believers from uniting? And you see a growing emphasis today on let’s play down differences. Let’s speak of our unity. Revelation 17 speaks of this final ecumenical church and what you see is Satan has attempted to build a counterfeit system down through history going all the way back to the Tower of Babel where there the people of the world would be united with a common religion and common worship. God shattered that unity by bringing diversity of languages which caused the world to be divided into different nations and that fragmentation has worked as we see division in the world today and the attempt to build unity with different nationalities. But it doesn’t last long term. Things come up and people what? Retreat into their national identities. In certain parts of the world this has created great tragedy. You see one group using their power to wipe out the other.

In Revelation 17 we get to the end of the tribulation and we’re looking at some of the major issues. We talk about the harlot who sits on many waters. This is interpreted for us. The many waters are many peoples and nations. Down in verse 15 “the waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes and nations and tongues. The harlot being a common picture for religious and spiritual apostasy in the scripture. This is what we often refer to as “religious Babylon”, commercial Babylon, political Babylon will be talked about in chapter 18. So this is the one, verse 2 of Revelation 17 with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality. “Those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.” And this woman is sitting, in verse 3, “on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.” This is the culmination of the empires of Satan. The seven heads referring to the seven empires we saw in Daniel. Daniel started with a Babylon, but now we go back prior to Babylon and pick up Egypt and Assyria, then come down through Rome.

You have the ten horns that are on the final form of this beast as we saw again in Daniel’s prophecy. The empires of the world have been dominated by this false religious system, the Babylonian system. It’s a mystery. But if you study something of the history of this you’ll see the elements of Babylonian paganism in everything from the mass and purgatory have been carried down through history. Through millenniums from Babylon and incorporated in system of religion that is present today. This woman has a dominant influence in the world.

You think about the western world with Roman Catholicism claiming some 800 million adherents. What did I see in the latest, some of the latest statistics? Over 60 million Roman Catholics in our country, the next biggest single entity I think is Southern Baptist or Methodist, one of them with 15 million. Now I realize you could add all the Protestants together and eventually what you are going to do is pull Roman Catholics and Protestants together and you will have a western world religion. And this will add to the power of the little horn. Think about Europe and the influence of Roman Catholicism there. A country like Italy, it is not so hard to see the power of the pope. I mean here’s a frail man who can hardly stand up these days and leaders of the world bow before him. No one treats him as significant and unimportant. All recognize here multiplied hundreds of millions of people bow before him and you say what? Any little kid could knock him over. I’m not making fun of him, I just want you to see the power is in the authority he represents and the position he holds, not in the person this weak man.

But you get a strong man there with the physical vigor and the power that he has after the rapture of the church – I hope it doesn’t happen before. There will be an amalgamation together. We already see people who claim to be evangelicals wanting to join the “church,” the church of Rome and the evangelical church. I’m not talking about liberal Methodist and liberal Presbyterian. No, we’re talking about evangelicals. I’ve read to you before from Charles Colson and he talks about his speaking at a Franciscan university and Steubenville, Ohio and what he experienced there. In this introduction to “Evangelical Catholics” by Keith Fournier, who is a Roman Catholic, he says “it is high time,” this is Charles Colson, we would recognize him as an evangelical, “it is high time that all of us who are Christians come together regardless of difference of our confessions and our traditions and make common cause to bring Christian values to bear on our society. When the barbarians are scaling the walls there is no time for petty quarreling in the camp.” In other words, our differences with Roman Catholics don’t make any difference. There are more important issues for us to battle over.

I say how can this be? The Council of Trent meet in the 16th century was Roman Catholicism’s response to Reformation. The Council of Trent in its doctrines and decrees still govern Roman Catholicism. An article here speaking about Pope John Paul earlier, expects to become the Vicar of the universal church, and here’s what the Council of Trent said. That middle 1500’s, quote “all temporal power is the Pope’s. The dominion, jurisdiction and the government of the whole earth is his by divine right. All rulers of the earth are his subjects and must submit to him.” That’s official Roman Catholic dogma. You see why Revelation 17 speaks about the woman riding the beast? Doctrine of the church is all earthly rulers are subject to him and must submit to him. How these fits with us, and I’ve read before and we’re not going to go into it, but Roman Catholic doctrine for example, on Mary and the present pope has devoted his “popehood” if I can use that word, to Mary. Mary is the complement of the Holy Spirit. Before God she asks not, she commands. That’s from a book that is as the official imprimatur of the Roman Catholic church. It is free of doctrinal error. No true devotee of Mary will be damned because she is the terrible conqueror of the devil. I’ve read to you excerpts from this before. It goes on and on.

How can we say our differences are minor? Something supernatural is going on and even those who claim to be bible believing Christians can make such claims. From the Vatican city, from a religious news service “the pope said this week,” and this goes back a few months “that all who live a just life will be saved even if they do not believe in Jesus Christ and the Roman Catholic church.”” Are they anything like we believe with the doctrine of salvation? Do we believe anybody will be saved if they do not believe in Jesus Christ? But the pope can declare that there will be people saved who don’t believe in Jesus Christ or the Roman Catholic church, and that inclusiveness that he can have and they re-define even those who would be Catholic’s if they knew better, so to speak. And he went on to say, and this is a quote “the gospel”, this is from the pope, “the gospel teaches us that those who live in accordance with the beatitudes will enter God’s kingdom”, so really it is a matter of salvation by works.

All of that to say another one of the significant events going on in our day is the development of an ecumenism that is becoming a tide. Neo-Pentecostalism called the “charismatic movement” has had a great role to play in this where we play down any doctrinal differences and elevate our experience together and we are united by our experience in the Holy Spirit, whatever that means. We move into eastern mysticism, and many Christians get into to this. Some of the popular books selling well among evangelicals and so-called Christian bookstores have more in common with eastern mysticism than they do with Christianity. And we move towards some kind of mushy feeling. I believe it is Time magazine this week, its cover is on yoga and how it is becoming a popular fad today. With that goes the eastern mysticism and so on.

We ought not be surprised, but what this does make us aware of what? What can we expect as a church? What can other churches that are committed to biblical truth, biblical doctrine expect? They’re going to become more and more isolated from the mainstream of Christianity. They’re going to be viewed more negatively, too narrow, too abstinent, too stubborn. See, they don’t get along with anyone. They’re always fighting about doctrine. I was in a discussion with a man who I’m firmly convinced is a believer who is involved in Christian ministry and we were talking about can’t we give on some of these things so we can work together? I had to say, which of the bible doctrines are you recommending that we give up? In other words, what has God said that you want to say is not important or worth standing for? Oh, I don’t want to say it that way. Well what are we saying? Let’s reduce Christianity to its minimum. I mean let’s get it down to just the basics. Sin, the death and resurrection of Christ. Faith, don’t make that to tight because that will exclude too many people but somewhere in this faith and works fit. We might believe it’s salvation by faith apart from works, but works will be the result of having been born again. Others like Roman Catholics may believe that the works are a necessary part of attaining salvation, but at least we both have faith and works. We start to get muddled. So we ought not to be unprepared as God’s people for what Jesus said would happen. We will be ostracized. We will be opposed. I don’t want to develop a martyr’s complex. Our goal is not to be proud that we offend people. But our goal is to stand firm, immovable for the truth of God. Doing so we will become more and more out of step with what is going on in the world. But we ought not to be surprised.

So we look around, we see the tide and we say what is happening to the church? Well, we are moving toward that time when the barriers are going to be broken down. For the first 3 ½ years they’ll be a great church. In the middle of the 7 years, while you are in chapter 17 we might as well pick this up. Remember in the middle of the 70th week the little horn, the anti-christ as we popularly refer to him, is going to take his seat in the temple of God declaring that he is God, 2 Thessalonians 2. That’s the abomination of desolation which will be in the Holy place, Matthew 24, that Jesus talked about. At this point the ruler of the western world decides he no longer needs the church, so verse 16 of chapter 17, “the ten horns which you saw, and the beast,” that’s the anti-christ, the ruler of these nations, “these will hate the harlot…will make her desolate and naked…will eat her flesh and burn her up with fire.”

So even the apostate church now will be persecuted for God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God should be fulfilled. So, you see what happens. In the middle of the 70th week of Daniel their will be common agreement among the 10 nations. The beast, he’s divine, he’s supernatural, he’s the only one who should be worshipped and that’s not so unusual. There were persecutions in the Roman empire that existed in its form in New Testament times. Many Christians gave their lives, why? They would not worship the emperor, bow before him.

Part of this may be connected. You go back to Revelation 13 and some of the events that take place in relation that seem to come to fruition in the middle of this 70th week of Daniel, verse 3 “I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed and the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; they worshiped the dragon because he gave authority to the beast;”, so you see the devil is behind the beast, “and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?””. So evidently he receives some kind of fatal wound from which he miraculously recovers and here we have a counterfeit resurrection, and all the world is in awe. He’s not just human, he’s divine and satanic power is behind him.

And “There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.” So, there is no doubt we’re in the middle of the 70th week of Daniel. He’s got 42 months to reign sovereignly. This is the time when mass persecution breaks out. He attempts to annihilate all believers. He wants to destroy even the apostate church. Israel will become the focus in a special way of his hatred. That was covered in chapter 12, and we can’t go back into that. Now those events will unfold.

The whole religious setting in the world ought to be part of our excitement. You know we sometimes look at what is happening with Israel and say that is exciting biblical prophecy. And we look what is happening in Europe and say, you know that is exciting to see the scripture fulfilled. And we look at our church getting more and more isolated and it seems like we as believers being more and more cut off, we say oh, “this is terrible.” Why is that terrible? I mean in one sense isn’t it exciting to see the word of God fulfilled? I realize there is a certain element of disappointment and discouragement to see a people abandoning the truth of God. But I come to the word of God and my faith is strengthened and I am encouraged and say this is just another indication we are moving closer to the coming of Christ for His church. And again, I am not saying we are the only church standing for the truth. Praise God there are multitudes of churches and there are churches around the world standing under much greater pressure than we have ever had to. And I have to say in my heart, I hope more pressure than we will ever have to. But we ought to see in all of this what? Part of what God is doing in these latter days.

You’re in Revelation, back up to chapter 6 and we’re not going to walk through the details but chapter 6 begins the opening of the seals and the judgments through the book of Revelation unfold chronologically, one after another and you have the seals, the trumpets and the bowls. And each of these judgments moves along with greater severity. In other words, the bow…uh-h, the trumpet judgments are more severe than the seals and the bowl judgments are more severe than the trumpets. Billions of people, literally, dying on the earth. The combination of things through the tribulation, of persecution, uh-h martyrdom, wars and then you have many kinds of natural catastrophes. Some of these are picked up early on, you have the wars that take place in chapter 6, under the 3rd seal you have famine. All kinds of things that will break out, the disease, the famine. You know it is almost difficult to comprehend how the whole continent of Africa practically is being decimated by the diseases….the disease of AIDS. They talk about there is not going to be a future generation. Well what is going to happen to this country. We’re talking about millions and millions and millions of people being infected by one disease that is the disease of choice, that is spread by illicit sexual activity and the taking of illicit drugs. You could wipe out this disease by just ending those two things. People won’t give up their choice of sin. And you have the world wringing its hands and United Nations involved and the nations of the world trying to grapple with the problem of AIDS. All I have to say we ought to return to morality and stop the illicit activity and we put an…oh no, we can’t do that. So we’ve got to find a cure. But that’s just an example of how things can multiply and disease of one kind and another are going to sweep through the world on such a level and you add the famine, the disease, the wars and that’s what Jesus said in Matthew 24, if He didn’t intervene at the end of 7 years there wouldn’t be anybody left alive on the face of the earth. But He intervenes because of His promises and program for His elect, and particularly the nation Israel, because this 7 year period serves to bring to completion and fruition God’s program and plans for the nation Israel. And within that there will be pouring out the wrath of God on a world that has rejected Him. So we read in the paper, struggling with these diseases and the outbreaks and how serious they are and the spreading and they get to a point they can’t be contained because they infect one to another. I was reading this afternoon an article of uh-h a clear believer writing in you know, back in 1983. His wife was given a blood transfusion, I think it was in the context of like the birth of their 3rd child that was infected with AIDS and now the family is infected with, with the HIV virus and now the family has lived under this for years. So it spreads out and can get to a point, how do you stop it? And I just use AIDS because we’re all familiar with that, but we just multiply it. We don’t know what there could be that given the right circumstances will decimate the world. So I read and I see the possible outbreak of this or this, and I say oh that’s the fulfillment. Am I saying all AIDS is what’s going to do it in the tribulation? No I don’t know. But its not so difficult, you know there was a time we said such confidence in drugs and that we just say will cure it. Oh, you know given a little bit of time they’ll develop a cure and it’ll be done, and now we find out millions of people can die in our modern day, and that will happen. So we those kinds of things uh-h, going out.
We’re all moving toward the return of Christ to earth. I see a clear distinction. Come back to Matthew. We uh-h looked at this in Revelation 19 uh-h recently so go back to Matthew 24. In Matthew 24 Jesus has unfolded some to the things that will happen in that 7 year period down through verse 36. And Revelation chapter 6 to 19 give you some greater detail, in uh-h those events. I said down through verse 36, down through verse 28 of Matthew 24 he gives you a summary overview if you will of that 70th week of Daniel. Talked about it on down to where verse 15, “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet,”, Daniel 9:27, “standing in the holy place”, the temple has been re-built, “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains,” hims “on the housetop don’t even go back to get something in your house.” And gonna be difficult for Jews who are pregnant in those days or if uh-h a young baby because how do you flee and look for desert security in the regions of uh-h formerly was Moab, the Jordan, what is the country of Jordan today. And uh-h where the city of Petra is, the rock city of Petra and so on. “Pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on the Sabbath.” The kind of things which would interfere with there making a quick and uh-h speedy exit. “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, (cough – excuse me), nor ever shall.” That’s hard to believe when you think about it. This is going to be so far beyond anything that has ever taken place in the world it’s hard for us to grasp it. “Unless those days had been cut short no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” That doesn’t mean shorter than 7 years, but it’s supernatural intervention that limits this to a 7 year period of time. And really it’s the last 3 ½ years that become the worst. Uh-h-hm then He interveres(?). And if someone tells you Christ has returned, and periodically you know, you’ll get the kind of reports or you’ll see somebody put an ad in the newspaper “Christ is on earth today” and you know, put it with the funnies because it’s just that true. Why? Because when Christ returns everybody will know it! Verse 29 “immediately after the tribulation of those days”, and you have all these things taking place in the heavens and verse 30 “the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.” Remember when we read about the rapture of the church and there believers are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, but here you have the Lord returning to earth in power and great glory. If you have any doubts about it, verse 35 tells us “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away…that day and hour now one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son of Man, but the Father alone.” Right down to the end it will be like the days of Noah. I say how can that be? I thought such tragedy going on. But you know, its like us today. Use the continent of Africa again, the fact that so many people are suffering famine and starvation, suffering death through diseases like AIDS that I mentioned and so on, doesn’t keep us from going about a rather routine doesn’t it? I mean your day probably wasn’t very significantly affected by the fact that there are thousands of people suffering in one place or another. People die to starvation today or of disease today. You know we left church this morning and said “what’s for lunch?” And we’ll go home afterwards tonight and what? Hit the fridge! I mean that’s snack time. Uh-h-m you know, so we think it’s going to be just like that. There will be places in the world that have become unlivable, but there will be places that things are going on – marrying and giving in marriage and so on – now if you are a believer, if you’ve become a believer in the tribulation it is going to be as close to hell as you could get as a believer. The world will be a terrible place for the persecution there. But for the followers of the beast this is celebration time. We have our man on the throne and things are good for us so to speak. It will be like the days of Noah, the flood will come on, Christ will return and they’ll be swept in judgment and caught off guard. So picture that is unfolded there, climaxing with the return of Christ, then we move to the kingdom. Judgments of chapter 25 will take place and we move to the kingdom. Going into the kingdom all those who have come to trust Christ. How did they come…how did they get saved during the tribulation? I was asked recently, can people get saved in the tribulation? Yes many people will get saved. Will people get saved who have heard the gospel? 2 Thessalonians 2 said God will send a strong delusion that they should bring a lie and particularly focuses on all those who rejected the truth. I don’t think the scripture indicates that people who heard the gospel before the rapture and didn’t believe could not be saved after the rapture. But I have to admit that it’s thin, very thin thread to think I’ve heard the gospel, I’ll wait to see if the rapture occurs I’ll believe it and pay the price. Because it will be more difficult to believe afterwards. God will send a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. So Satan will have more freedom to delude and deceive people after the rapture than he has today. But by God’s grace many people will be saved. There’ll be a 144,000 Jewish men that are sealed according to the book of Revelation, chapter 7, chapter 14. I would assume that they would proclaim gospel truth. During the last 3 ½ years there are 2 witnesses, talked about in Revelation 11, that will proclaim the truth concerning Christ, be supernaturally preserved until almost the end of the tribulation when they will be killed and their bodies will lay in the streets of Jerusalem and all the world will watch, the evening news. Here they are, our enemies finally destroyed and then that 3rd day they are supernaturally raised up and we are ready for the return of Christ. Multitudes of people will be saved during that 7 year period. People from all nationalities the bible tells us. So it is a time of grace, but a time of terrible and awful suffering. God will preserve a remnant of Jews during that time and as you get to the end of this 7 year period there will be a national mass turning of Jews from their sin to faith in Jesus as their Messiah, and that will prepare the way for the coming of Christ. Remember Jesus said you will not see me again until you say “blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” And so the sufferings and the events of this 70th week of Daniel will finally bring Israel to the point that they will be ready to have their blinded eyes opened by the grace of God. I’m not saying every Jew will be saved because they won’t, because the bible talks about the judgment of living Israel when Christ returns. But there will be such great numbers of Jews saved we can talk about a national conversion, great numbers of Jews saved. And that will prepare the way for the establishing of the kingdom. Those who are saved during the tribulation and survive to the return of Christ will go into the kingdom in their physical bodies. They will have children, those in glorified bodies do not marry, will not have children, but those who go into the millennium in their physical bodies will have children. Those children will be born with a sin nature. The end of a 1000 years there will be a rebellion against Christ. During the 1000 years every one is forced to submit or be killed immediately. No overt sin will be tolerated, but when given a chance there’ll be a number like the sand of the sea and you think the curse is lifted from creation, how many babies will be born in that 1000 years and death will only come evidently as judgment because it said one who dies at a hundred years of age will be thought accursed. Recognize that is was judgment that they only lived to be a hundred. And you get to the end of that 1000 years of perfect rule, by a perfect king and there’s a number like the sand of the sea that uh-h would rather have the devil as their king than Christ. And that’s where they come up in Revelation 20 and surround Jerusalem with a desire to overthrow Christ, dethrone Him and they are destroyed, sin is finally dealt with. The new heavens and new earth come into existence and we move into eternity. But what that will demonstrate is the absolute total sinfulness of man. The problem is not the environment, problem is not social conditions, problem is the heart of a sinful person and you put that sinner in a perfect environment under the rule of God Himself where righteousness characterizes the world, the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea – given a choice – people would rather the devil as their king and serve him than they would Jesus Christ. So we come to the great White Throne judgment.
Now stop and think about it. If we are in the closing period of time of the church’s history, the rapture may be very, very near. All these events are at hand. How diligent and urgent should we be in the work that God has called us to do in representing Him? The concerns that so easily occupy us, the things of this world – are they anything? If Jesus Christ is coming the next day or two, the next week, the next month shouldn’t there be an urgency about what we do? I’m not saying we quit our jobs and go sit on the hill out back and wait because we are to be about what He has called us to do, but we should be careful. No man who goes soldiering entangles himself in the affairs of this life. So there are certain responsibilities in this life that I must fulfill. I need to be careful I don’t get entangled with them and thus am hindered from giving my life to the things that will matter and are significant if Jesus Christ is indeed coming very, very soon.
Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for your grace. The grace of your salvation, the grace in sending your Son and the awesome and wonderful privilege we have to be the church of Jesus Christ in these remarkable days. May our hearts be encouraged and strengthened as we reflect upon the events that have been taking place around us. Lord may we lift up our eyes from the mundane cares of this life, be filled with the glorious thought that Jesus Christ is coming very soon. May we occupy ourselves with those things which are of eternal importance and significance. May we by your grace, carry with boldness and love the message of salvation to those who are lost and without hope in the world in these days that they might come to know this Savior and be prepared to meet Him. And we pray in His name. Amen.