Dennis Edwards
Question: What was the ultimate sign Jesus gave for the
starting of the Great tribulation?
Answer: Matthew 24:15 that leads into 24:21-22.
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel
the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whosoever reads, let him
understand:)”…“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the
beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those
days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake
those days shall be shortened.”
Question: What verses in Daniel speak of the abomination
of desolation?
Answer: “How long shall be the vision concerning the daily
sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and
the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and
three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” Daniel 8:13-14.
In the passage above, the term “transgression of desolation”
is used. We are assuming here that the term “transgression of desolation” has
the same meaning as the “abomination of desolation.” Things that are abominable
in God’s eyes, are things that are a transgression in His sight. In the
prophecy, we are told that the time period of the daily sacrifice together with
the transgression of desolation shall be 2,300 days.
Daniel 9:27 “And he shall confirm the covenant with
many for one week: and in the midst of the week he (the Antichrist) shall cause
the sacrifice to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make
it desolate…”
We are assuming again that the verse is pertaining to the
same event. The word “week,” from the Hebrew word for seven, refers to a 7-year
period. Genesis 29:15-30, we see the “week” and “seven-years” are used
interchangeably. Look especially at verses 18, 20, 27-28. Our conclusion
concerning Daniel 9:27 is then that after 3 ½ years, the Antichrist
breaks the accord or covenant and places the abomination that makes desolate.
Daniel 11:31 “And arms shall stand on his (the
Antichrist’s) part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall
take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that makes
desolate.”
The verse specifically says the Antichrist shall “take away
the daily sacrifice, and place the abomination that makes desolate,” using
military strength to do it.
Daniel 12:11 “And from the time that the daily
sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up,
there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.”
The verse tells us that the abomination of desolation shall
stand for 1,290 days after the daily sacrifice is taken away.
Jesus told us that the verses in Daniel about the
abomination of desolation were the key verses to understand, and were the key
to knowing when the Great Tribulation would begin. Reread Matthew 24:15
& 21-22.
How do we know that Daniel 12 is talking about the
same time-period of Matthew 24? If we read Daniel 12:1 we find,
“and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a
nation even to that same time.” Matthew 24:21 seems to present the same
idea: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning
of the world, to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
So far, we believe the Antichrist will break a 7-year pact
or covenant made by many in the middle of the 7-year period of the pact. Eight
times in Daniel and Revelation God tells us the length of the Great Tribulation
period. Daniel 7:25, Daniel 9:27, Daniel 12:7, Revelation
11:2, Revelation 11:3, Revelation 12:6, Revelation 12:14,
Revelation 13:5.
Matthew 24:22 says that “except those days be
shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days
shall be shortened.” If God has told us eight times the length of the
tribulation period using different terminology, I think that’s what He means.
The 3 ½ years is the shortened time period. It will not be shorter.
Where does the Antichrist come from?
Daniel 8:8-9 “Therefore the he goat waxed very great:
and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four
notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came forth
a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the
east, and toward the pleasant land.”
We see the little horn, that we consider the Antichrist,
shall arise from the breaking up of the “he goat’s” kingdom, or Alexander the
Great’s kingdom. The four divisions historically are generally considered and
remembered by the acronym: EAT-Greece. Egypt, Assyria, Turkey, and Greece.
Daniel 8:10-12 “And it waxed great, even to the host
of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground,
and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the
host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his
sanctuary cast down. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by
reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it
practised, and prospered.”
Again, we see the Antichrist stopping the daily sacrifice,
along with some of the other attributes of the Antichrist such as “magnifying
himself” above all, and “casting the truth to the ground.”
From Ezekiel 38&39 comes the idea that the
Antichrist, who is called Gog in the prophecy, will come from the extreme north
of Israel, from the land of Magog. The Jewish Rabbis have considered the
extreme north to signify Russia.
How could the Antichrist fulfil the prophecies in Daniel that say he comes out of one of the four divisions of Alexander's empire and the prophecy in Ezekiel that say he comes from the extreme north of Israel, which the Jewish Rabbis have for centuries considered Russia? Others believe that prophecies in Isaiah 10 about the Assyrian pertain to the Antichrist. How could the Antichrist come from Magog (Russia), Assyria (greater Syria), and from one of the countries that Alexander's kingdom was divided into?
The answer is simple. How did Jesus fulfil the three prophecies about where the Messiah comes from? "Out of Egypt have I called my son," Hosea 11:1. "He shall be called a Nazarene," Matthew 2:23. "But you Bethlehem Ephratah,..out of you shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, Micah 5:2. That's three different locations, but Jesus did it without stress. He was born in Bethlehem. Escaped to Egypt for some years of his childhood and then returned to be raised in Nazareth.
Likewise, the Antichrist could for example be born in Syria as a child of a mixed Russian male and Syrian woman. The Russians sent down to Syria some years ago, Russian male pilots to train Syrian pilots to use the Russian jets. Many of the Russian male pilots married Syrian woman. During the Arab Spring "uprising" against Assad some years ago, many of those Syrian woman were seeking asylum in Russia during the unrest. If at the end they stayed in Russia, a child born in Syria, into a military family, could be raised in Russia and ultimately become the Antichrist. He could fulfil all three prophecies: come from Russia, be an Assyrian, and come out of one of the divisions of the break-up of Alexander's kingdom, Syria. Problem solved.
Ezekiel 38:14-16 “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and
say unto Gog, Thus, says the Lord God; In that day when my people of Israel
dwell safely, shall thou not know it? And thou shall come from thy place out of
the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon
horses, a great company, and a mighty army: and thou shall come up against my
people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days,
and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I
shall be sanctified (or honoured) in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.”
At first God uses the Antichrist to punish Israel for her
sins. However, a third of the nation have a true repentance calling out to God
in their affliction and are saved. Zechariah 13:8-9. The prophesying of
the two end-time prophets in Jerusalem for 1,260 days has had an effect on them,
Revelation 11:3-13. The remnant of Israel come to repentance and call
upon the name of the Lord. As the two prophets are raised up and raptured into
the heavens, the whole 1/3 of the nation that is left from the terrible sword
of the Antichrist, call out to God. They believe on the Lord Jesus, whom they
can see in the clouds calling up His children at the rapture, Zechariah
12:9-14.
It is at this point, just before the battle of Armageddon,
that 1/3 of Jewish people are saved in mass, the other 2/3 having already met
their deaths under the Antichrist’s wars against them. “Then shall the Lord go
forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of
battle,” Zechariah 14:3. It is at that point Jesus returns at the
Battle of Armageddon and saves the repentant nation. “Wherefore do I see every
man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned
into paleness? Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: it is the
time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it,” Jeremiah 30:6b-7.
The first and second century Rabbis put the prophecies in
the past.
In the time after Jesus’ resurrection, the early Christians
used the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus to show He indeed was the
Messiah. The church fathers also spoke about Jesus’ future return that would be
preceded by a period persecution under the Antichrist. The Jewish Rabbis at the
same time developed their own theory. They said that Antiochus Epiphanes IV was
the little horn who fulfilled the prophecies of Daniel 8 and of Daniel
11 concerning the abomination of desolation. Antiochus greatly persecuted
the Jewish people during the period of the Maccabean revolt. He also desecrated
the Temple by throwing a swine’s head into the sanctuary. In the year 164 BC,
during the space of three days, his forces killed some 80,000 Jewish people
including “women, virgins, children, and infants.” The first and second century
AD Rabbis believed that the Daniel prophecies were already fulfilled by
Antiochus. Some Christians today follow that belief.
The church fathers put the prophecies in the future.
If they are right, then why did Jesus refer to those
prophecies as futuristic? Could it be that Antiochus was a partial fulfilment
of the prophecies, and the Antichrist is the ultimate fulfilment. Antiochus is
a precursor, or antetype of the Antichrist. Jesus referred to the prophecies in
Daniel concerning the sacrifice and abomination, because they would yet have an
ultimate fulfilment. In the writings of the church fathers, who were disciples
of the first apostles and disciples, they quote from Daniel, 2nd
Thessalonians 2, and Matthew 24, as yet being futuristic. They
understood that the prophecies of Daniel were yet to be finally fulfilled.
The church fathers talk of a period of great persecution by
the Antichrist. The persecution would precede the coming of Christ, and then
the resurrection of the dead would occur. The church fathers do not talk about
a rapture, but rather a resurrection. We find the idea of a resurrection in the
Old Testament scriptures of Job 19:25-27, Isaiah 26:19-21, Ezekiel
37:12-14, and Psalm 16:9-10.
Apostle Paul brought in the idea of the “gathering together”
of the saints to Jesus at his coming, in 2 Thessalonians 2:1. In 1
Thessalonians 4:17, we find, “Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught
up together in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” Jesus had used the
phrase “gathered together” in Matthew 24:31, “And he (Jesus) shall send
His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His
elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” The “gathering
together” is now expressed as the Rapture event. The word “rapture” was not
used by the church fathers. It became popular in the 1830s in England, which we
will talk about a bit later.
What about new revelation? How do we judge it?
In Amos 3:7 the Lord tells us that He will do nothing,
except He reveal His secrets to His servants, the prophets. As we get nearer to
His coming, it is natural that the Lord would give us more information
concerning the events that are to follow. However, any new revelation should
not contradict that which has been written. Apostle Paul wrote, “that you may
learn not to go beyond what is written,” 1 Corinthians 4:6. We use the preponderance
of Scripture to judge any new revelations. If the new revelation does not
follow and agree with previous revelation found in Scripture, then we should be
wary of it. New revelation may clarify, but not contradict previous revelation
found in Scripture.
Some of the new prophets of today have prophesised that more
than a billion souls will be saved before Jesus comes. They say the Gospel must
be preached, even more than it has been, before the Lord can come back. They
say the Bride of Christ is not ready, therefore, Christ cannot return. They say
the church must be about her business of saving souls before the end-time
events to begin.
The Chinese underground church is said to be growing rapidly.
Many souls are said to be getting saved in China through the underground church
movement. Being born in persecution, the Chinese underground church has said
that their goal is to bring the Gospel back to Jerusalem. They believe God is
calling some of them to bring Christianity to the un-evangelised nations from
China to Jerusalem. They say the western Christians have failed in their job to
preach the Gospel in all the world. The Chinese underground church Christians
who were born under persecution believe that they can reach the Muslim and
other pagan nations of Asia. What kind of success they are having, if any, we don’t
know. But some years ago, they voiced that vision.
Will there be a great revival before Christ returns? Let us
hope there will be. However, Scripture says that, “that day (Christ’s coming)
shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and the man of sin be
revealed,” 2 Thessalonians 2:3b. Jesus Himself said, “And shall not God
avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bears long
with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the
Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:7-8. Is
Jesus saying that there won’t be much faith in the earth prior to His coming?
In Revelation 13:3-4, after the Antichrist’s deadly
wound is healed, “all the world wondered (or followed) after the beast. And
they worshipped the dragon (Satan) which gave power unto the beast: and they
worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make
war with him?” We see the world will be greatly deceived by the Antichrist.
Jesus himself warned in his end-time message three times that deception would
be great in the last days, Matthew 24:4-5, 11, 24. Apostle
Paul also warned likewise, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, 2 Timothy 2:13.
Doesn’t the idea of the last 7-years come from a Jesuit
priest?
Some say that the idea of the 7-years and the rapture come
from a Jesuit priest in the 1500s. Supposedly, the priest invented the concept in
order to put the prophecies about Babylon the Whore into the future. The
reformers were calling the Catholic Church of Rome the Babylon of Revelation
17 & 18. To deflect the attack of the reformers from the church,
the Jesuit priest is said to have invented a futuristic eschatology. In that
way, the Church of Rome would not be the focal point of the interpretation of
prophetic Scripture. The ideas of the priest were published as a book and later
translated into English. A British clergyman on the outskirts of traditional
Christianity adopted into his eschatology the idea of a rapture of the church
at the time of Christ’s second coming.
The idea of the rapture then mutated in 1830. A young
Scottish woman claimed to have had a revelation that the church would not go
through the tribulation, but be raptured beforehand. John Nelson Darby, from
the Plymouth Brethren in England, travelled to Scotland to meet with Margaret
McDonald and confirm her revelation. He became convinced it was true and
adopted it into his developing eschatology. Another Plymouth Brethren Bible
scholar, Benjamin Wills Newton, a friend of Spurgeon and George Mueller, vehemently
opposed Darby’s ideas and thought them to be contrary to Scripture. The
division between Newton and Darby caused a split in the Plymouth Brethren.
Newton retreated to the Isle of Wright where he did much
studying and writing. He refuted Darby’s ideas in his books. He did an in-depth
study on the church fathers and their opinions on Bible prophecy. Over and over
again the church fathers, with a united voice, taught that the church would go
through persecution under the Antichrist before Christ’s return. Newton, also,
speculated on what nation could be the manifestation of Babylon the Whore. Much
to his dismay, London the city, and Great Britain the empire, seemed to Newton
as the most probable culprit of the great commercial empire of Babylon during
his lifetime and not the Vatican in Rome. It was C.I. Scofield and his Bible
concordance that brought the Pre-Tribulation rapture idea to America. But
that’s another story.
In the writings of the church fathers, we do see them
mentioning a last 7-year period, the prophecies of Daniel, the
prophecies of Apostle Paul, and the prophecies of Jesus. They especially cite 2
Thessalonians 2, and Matthew 24. Jesus had spoken that an
understanding of the Daniel’s prophecies was the key to deciphering the time of
His return. Some Christians today believe that Matthew 24 has already
been fulfilled. They believe in 70 AD the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and
the Temple was the fulfilment of those prophecies. They say that Jesus returned
and collected His saints at that time in the spiritual realm, as they were
being killed by the Roman troops. The church fathers were writing after 70 AD. If
Matthew 24 is already fulfilled, why did the church fathers put Jesus’
return, His coming, as a future event and not something in the past?
Let’s go back to Daniel.
Daniel 8:13-14 gives us the 2,300 days of sacrifice
and the abomination of desolation standing.
Daniel 9:27 gives us the 7-year covenant period and
cessation of the sacrifice and the placing of the abomination of desolation at
the 3 ½ year mark, half way through the 7-year period.
Daniel 11:31 gives us the Antichrist using military
force to pollute the temple, stop the sacrifice and place the abomination of
desolation.
Daniel 12:11 tells us that after the sacrifice is
stopped, the abomination shall stand 1,290 days.
What can we deduce from the information given us?
If we interpret Daniel 8:13-14 as being the total
amount of time of the sacrifice together with the Great Tribulation period,
then we can make the following calculations: 2,300 days of sacrifice and
tribulation, minus, 1,260 days of tribulation (according to Revelation 11:3
and Revelation 12:6), would give us a total pf 1,040 remaining days of
only sacrifice. To bring the 1,040 days of sacrifice up to 1,260 days for the
first 3 ½ years, we need to add 220 days. 1,040 plus 220 equals 1,260. That
would mean there would pass some 220 days or a little more than 7 months from
the beginning or signing of the last 7-year pact, until the Jewish sacrificing
on the Temple mount would take place.
However, Daniel 12:11 gives us more information and
shows that our calculations above may be wrong, as we assumed the abomination
of desolation would stand for the 1,260 days of the tribulation period. Daniel
12:11 tells us that the abomination shall stand for 1,290 days or 30 days
after the great tribulation is over. From Matthew 24:29-31, we know that
Jesus comes back and raptures His elect immediately after the tribulation of
those days. If the tribulation is 1,260 days long, then the abomination will
still be standing after the rapture for about a month.
In Revelation 19:7-9, we get the idea of the Marriage
Supper of the Lamb. Could it be that during that 30-day period after the
rapture that the church is celebrating, and getting their rewards, in heavenly
places at the Marriage Supper? Could Daniel 12:2-3 be talking about the
same event in the heavenlies? While, the vials or bowels of the Wrath of God are
beginning to be poured out on the earth, we, the elect, will be feasting with
Christ at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and then preparing for our return
with Him at Armageddon, Revelation 16:12-16; Revelation 19:12-21.
Daniel 12:11 tells us that the Abomination will stand
for 1,290 days or 30 days more than the Great Tribulation period. Daniel
8:14 confirms that after the 2,300 days, “then shall the sanctuary be
cleansed.” Could that be referring to the removal of the abomination of
desolation at Christ’s return with the saints at Armageddon? We speculate that
the thirty-day interval may be the time of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and
us going before the judgment seat of Christ to receive our rewards for a job
well done. Romans 14:10, 2 Corinthians 5:10.
Earlier we calculated 220 days from the time of the
beginning of the last 7-years to the beginning of the Jewish people starting
their sacrifice. Now, with the additional information from Daniel 12:11,
we see we need to add 30 more days to 220 to come to 250 days before the
sacrifice begins. That would mean, if we count an average month as 30.5 days, about
8 months and 6 days would pass before the sacrificing would begin.
What happens at the 1,335th day?
In Daniel 12:13, we find that they are blessed who
live to the 1,335th day. Why? Because they have lived through the
most horrific time of life on earth, the day of God’s great wrath. See Isaiah
2:10-21, 13:6-13, 24:20-23, 26:20-21, Zephaniah
1:14-18, Revelation 16:12-21, and many others. We conclude, that the
1,335th day is the beginning of a new dispensation, which Bible scholars
call the Millennium. At the 1,260th day, the great tribulation ends
and the rapture takes place, Matthew 24:29-31. After the rapture, begins
the wrath of God, (Revelation 16:1), which lasts until the 1,335th
day, a total of 75 days. Then commences the Millennium.
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling
together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall
feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and a lion shall eat straw like
the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the
weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. They shall not hurt
nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,” Isaiah 11:6-9. “And He shall
judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people, and they shall beat
their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore,” Isaiah
2:4.
“Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he has
made in the earth. He makes the wars to cease unto the ends of the earth; He
cuts the spear asunder; He burns the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know
that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen (or nations), I will be
exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our
refuge. Selah,” Psalm 46:8-11.
“And I will set My glory among the heathen (or nations), and
all the heathen shall see My judgments that I have executed, and My hand that I
have laid upon them. So, the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord
their God from that day and forward,” Ezekiel 39:21-22. “So will I make
My holy name (Jesus) known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let
them pollute My holy name any more: and the heathen (or nations) shall know
that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel,” Ezekiel 39:7.
“O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the
voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible; He is a great King over
all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our
feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us…God is gone up with a shout, the
Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises unto our
King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing praises with
understanding. God reigns over the heathen: God sits upon the throne of His
holiness,” Psalm 47:1-8.
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