Having completed the
letters of warning and instruction to the seven churches, the Lord now begins
to reveal things about the future. Again,
my understanding of these next two chapters does not conform to the predominant
pretribulational view. I hold to a
pretribulational prewrath view; one view does not have to exclude the
other. I define the tribulation as the
last seven years on earth before Jesus returns as King of kings to rule the
world from the throne of David; it is also known as the 70th week of
Daniel. According to Daniel, this seven-year
period is directed toward the Jews to bring forth a believing remnant of Jews
that will accept Jesus as their Messiah and through whom God will fulfill His
covenant with Abraham.
Daniel 9:24 “Seventy weeks
are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the
transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for
iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision
and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore
and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous
times. And after threescore and two
weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the
prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end
thereof shall be with a flood,
and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he
shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the
week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the
overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined
shall be poured upon the desolate.”
Daniel’s prophecy references
“weeks,” and each week references seven years.
(A more detailed explanation can be found in my journal on Daniel 9 at www.momsbiblejournal.com.) Note that the first 69 weeks ended when the
“Messiah,” Jesus Christ, the Son of God in flesh, was “cut off” or killed. The 70th week will commence when
the coming Antichrist confirms a covenant with the Jews for “one week” or seven
years, the last seven years before Jesus returns to establish His kingdom.
It was Daniel’s prophecy
referencing a specific timeframe for the coming of the Messiah that should have
caused the religious leaders of the day to expect the Messiah during the time
that Jesus lived. That prophecy along with the testimony of the miracles He
performed should have at least made them consider the possibility that He was
the promised Messiah—but their hearts were hard and they refused to accept the
possibility that their understanding or expectations were wrong. No wonder the Lord rebuked them so harshly
even as His heart yearned for their acceptance.
Matthew 23:13-39 “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go
in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go
in….Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and
land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the
child of hell than yourselves….O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not! Behold, your
house is left unto you desolate. For I
say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord.”
The wrath of God will run
more or less concurrently with the tribulation, but it is directed toward the
enemies of God in vengeance against those that have persecuted His people (Jews
and believers).
Isaiah 13:6-11 “Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a
destruction from the Almighty….Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both
with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the
sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations
thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going
forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the
world for their evil, and the
wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to
cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.”
Obadiah 1:15 “For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be
done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.”
Nahum 1:2 “God is
jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take
vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.”
Just as one fire can be
used to accomplish more than one thing, so too will the judgments detailed in the
coming chapters of Revelation serve both to purge the Jewish nation to produce
a believing remnant and exact God’s vengeance against His enemies and those
that persecuted His people. I believe
that it is the beginning of the outpouring of His wrath that provides the stage
for the Antichrist to rise to power as he establishes his ability to lead and inspire
hope through the working of Satan using “power, signs and lying wonders” as
foretold by Paul.
2 Thessalonians 2:8-10 “And then shall that Wicked be revealed,
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy
with the brightness of his coming: Even
him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs
and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved.”
(to be continued…)
No comments:
Post a Comment