The Seven Beast Empires Of Satan

There are seven empires Satan has used to persecute Israel throughout its history. These empires are called beasts empires because primarily they are depicted as beasts in both Daniel 7 and Revelation 17, and secondly because of their satanically inspired obsession to destroy Israel and the Jewish people throughout history. The term beast is used, especially in the scroll of Revelation to describe the beast empires of Satan, and the leader of the Eighth And Final Beast Empire, the aniChrist. Sometimes, it is the context that reveals which usage is in view. Occasionally, the phenomenon of double reference may apply. In Revelation 17, the revelator John gives us an overview of these beast empires.

“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast”(Rev.17:3,9-12).

Introduction Of The Eighth Beast Empires Of Satan.

The passage cited above is critical to our understanding of the cosmopolitics and geopolitics of the world. The scarlet beast mentioned here with seven heads and ten horns is Satan. Satan is the ruler of this age. The seven heads are representative of the seven beast empires and their leaders he has used throughout history to persecute the Jewish people and Israel. The Eight Beast Empire is represented by the ten horns. The Eighth And Final Beast Empire will be ruled by one of the seven heads of the seven previous beast empires.

“And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast”(Rev.13:3).

“And the beast thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is”(Rev.17:8).

So the leader of the eighth head is a dead man who has ruled over one of the seven previous beast empires come back to life to rule over the 8th head. The first seven heads are representative of seven different kings in the past. These kings refer to kingdoms Or beast empires that satan has used in the past to persecute Israel and the Jewish people throughout history. At the time John the revelator wrote the Scroll of Revelation(ca. 90-96 AD), five of the beast empires were history. The sixth was then in existence. And the seventh was yet to come. The existence would be brief. Following the seventh, would be the Eighth and final beast empire. The Eighth And Final Beast Empire would be the one in existence during the last seven years of the present age, the 70th seven of Daniel. The Eighth and final beast empire is still future. It will consist of ten kings who shall receive power and authority with the beast at the same time. In other words, the ten kings shall be contemporaneous with the beast, the antiChrist.

The Five Beast Empires Of Daniel’s Dream(Dan.2).

In Daniel 2, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream of which he neither remembered the dream nor the interpretation therefore. His wisemen were called to tell him both the dream and the interpretation thereof. They could not. Eventually Daniel was called in, and he told the dream and the interpretation thereof to the King Nebuchadnezzar. The dream consisted of an image or statue, the head of which was of gold, and the arms and breast of silver, the belly and thighs of bronze, it’s legs of iron, and its feet and ten toes partly of iron and partly of clay. The king watched until a stone cut out without hands hit the statue at its feet and it crumbled and vanished. But the stone that struck it became a great mountain and filled the whole Earth(Dan.2:1-35).

The Image Of Daniel’s Dream

Daniel interpreted the dream as follows: King Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom represented the head of gold. After him shall arise another kingdom inferior to him. This kingdom is represented by the arms and breast of silver. After this is another yet inferior kingdom represented by bronze. The fourth kingdom which shall be as strong as iron is represented by the legs of iron. This kingdom shall be very strong and shall break, shatter and crush the other kingdoms in pieces. The fifth kingdom, represented by the two feet and ten toes, shall be partly of iron and partly of clay. It will be a divided kingdom. But it will have in it the toughness of iron, and the brittleness of clay. And in the days of those kings, the two feet and ten toes, the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break and consume all these other kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, five beast empires were identified. The fifth is diverse from the rest in that it comprises peoples with two different ideologies. This empire consisted of ten nations which were partly strong and partly weak. These beast empires covered the period from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar(605-562 BC) to the time of the Eighth And Final Beast Empire that shall dominate the world during the 70th seven of Daniel.

The Five Beast Empires Of Daniel’s Vision.

The Beast Empires Of Daniel’s Vision

In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a night vision. Belshazzar was a vice-regent. The actual ruler of the kingdom was his father, Nabonidus, who was in self-imposed exile in the Arabian city of Tema for health reasons.

“Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld until the wings were plucked, and it was lifted from the earth, and made to stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. And hehold another beast, a second like a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, arise, devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and lo another, like leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast has four heads; and dominion was given it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and break in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. And I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things”(Dan.7:2-8).

There is correlation between the beast empires in the vision of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The lion corresponds to the head of gold, the bear to the breast and arms of silver, the leopard to torso of bronze, the strong beast to the iron legs, and the strong beast with ten horns to the feet and ten toes of iron and clay. God revealed to Daniel that these kingdoms will oppress Israel with increasing intensity. The worst of them will be the Eighth And Final Beast Empire of Satan, consisting of ten toes or ten horns, which shall seek to destroy Israel during the 70th seven of Daniel. In the days of these ten kings shall God Almighty step up a another kingdom of a different kind, which shall not be left to other people, but shall crush and put an end to all these other kingdoms.

“And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another kingdom shall arise after them: and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey. Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for Daniel, my cogitation much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart”(Dan.7:24-28).

The antiChrist and the ten kings under him shall attempt to annihilate the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. But at the end, the judgment shall sit, and his kingdom and dominion shall be taken away from him and given to the saints of the Most High who shall reign for ever and ever.

The Identity Of The First Six Beast Empires.

We shall now deal with the identity of these beast empires of Satan that were revealed in Daniel 2 & 7.

(1) Egypt.

The Sphinx

The first of these beast empires in history was Egypt. The origin of this empire is Hamitic through Mizraim. Mizraim was the son of Ham, one of the three sons Noah(Gen.10:6). When God cut a covenant with Abraham, He informed him that his descendants shall be strangers in a land that was not theirs for four generations, but afterwards shall they come forth with great substance. Through Joseph, Israel came to dwell in the land of Ham. But a time came, when there arose a king who did not know Joseph. Because the children of Israel were multiplied, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt was afraid the Israelites might join their enemies in time of war. Therefore, he ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill the Hebrew babies at birth. Because the decree ordering the Hebrew midwives to commit infanticide was unsuccessful, Pharaoh ordered all male Hebrew infants drowned in the Nile River(Exod.1:15-22; Acts 7:19,20). It was at this time that Moses was born. By a miraculous turn of events pharaoh’s daughter adopted him. Moses was brought up in the palace of pharaoh and was learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in word and indeed. It was this Moses that the Lord used to lead Israel out of bondage in Egypt and to forge Israel into a nation in the wilderness. He received the sacred Torah for Israel on Mount Sinai from God which set Israel apart as a theocratic kingdom. After the overthrow of pharaoh and his army in the Sea of Reeds, Egypt declined in power and glory, and never recovered.

(2) Assyria.

Nimrod

The foundation of the capital city of Assyria is Hamitic.

“Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a might hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of the land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city of Rehovoth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.”

Although Nimrod did not build Nineveh, the city which later became the capital of the Assyrian empire, one of his descendants did. The foundation of the empire however is Semitic through Asshur, one of the sons Shem(Gen.10:22). The national god of Assyria was named after their grandfather Asshur. It was a god of war and arrogant brutality. The Assyrians were known for their cruel treatment of war captives. It was the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser V who led the northern kingdom of Israel into captivity in 722 BC. He settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes(2 Kin.17:6). He brought men and women from Cutah and Zepharvaim and settled them in the cities of the Northern kingdom of Israel. These intermarried with the poor peasants amongst the Israelites left in the land and gave rise to the Samaritans. The Samaritan therefore is a mongrel Jew, that is, a Jew of mixed blood. There are lots of variations in the Jewish and Samaritan Pentateuchs. Senacherib, the king of Assyria besieged Jerusalem in 701 BC, but withdrew after the angel of the Lord slew 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. Twenty years later, 681 BC, he was slain by his two sons Adramelech and Sharezer, while he worshipped in the house of Nisroch his god who fled to the land of Armenia, and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead(Isa.37:36-38). Assyria declined in power, and was defeated by the rising Neobabylonian empire at the battle of Babylon in 626 BC, and finally, twelve years later at the battle of Nineveh in 612 BC, and never recovered.

(3) Babylon.

Babylon

Like Assyria, the foundation of the city of Babylon was Hamitic through Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. It was this Nimrod who instituted false human government and false religion, the mother-child worship vestiges of which is evident amongst all peoples of the Earth. It was that Nimrod who in defiance to God builded Babel. Following the confusion of languages at Babel(Babylon), the various descendants of Noah bore the vestiges of the religion founded by Nimrod to the various parts of the Earth as they migrated. Although the foundation of the city is Hamitic, the rulers of the Babylonian empire were Semitic. It was the language and literature of the Chaldeans that dominated the empire(Dan.1:4). The founder of the Neobabylonian empire was Nabopolassar. Abram the Hebrew was from Ur of the Chaldeans, a city about 160 km southeast of Babylon(Gen.11:31). Nebuchadnezzar IIwas his foremost general. He married the Daughter of Nabopolassar, Nitocrix. Nebuchadnezzar became king of Babylon after the death of his father-in-law, Nabopolassar. Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt at the battle of Carcemish in 605 BC. Nebuchadnezzar II invaded the land of Israel in three waves in 606 BC, 596 BC, finally in 586 destroyed the Solomonic temple. Israel was in exile in Babylon for 70 years according to the words of he prophet Jeremiah, unto the defeat of Babylon by Medopersia in 539 BC at the battle of Babylon. Babylon is the head of gold of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

(4) Medopersia

The Medopersian Bear

The Medopersian Empire was founded by the Medes and the Persians, both of whom are the sons of Japhet, Medai and Tiras. The sons of Japhet; Gomer, and Magog, and Medai, and Javan, and Tuval, and Meshech, and Tiras(Gen.10:2). The Medes were the ones who founded the empire around 550 BC. They were later joined by the Persians. Once the Persians joined the empire, they became dominant and the empire expanded under their leadership. It was Cyrus the Persian who made a decree freeing Jews from exile in Babylon in 538 BC after 70 years of exile, according to the words of Jeremy the prophet(Jer.25:12, 29:10), after the Medopersian empire overpowered the city state of Babylon in 539 BC. Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of God by the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet might be fulfilled,……(Ezr.1:1-11).

It was a Median general Darius who whose army conquered Babylon. It was during the reign of Xerxes, in 474 BC, the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther that Hamman, the son of Hammendatha, the Agagite attempted to wipe out the Jews in the whole realm of the Medopersian Empire, 120 provinces that stretched from Africa to India. The attempt gave us the book of Esther and the Jewish feast of Purim. The modern Persian name of Khumeini is derived from the ancient name of Haman. It was during the reign of the Persian king Artaxerxes Longimanus that the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was given in 445 BC, marking the terminus-a-quo of the 70 seven of Daniel(Neh.2:5; Dan.9:24). Medopersia was the arms and breast of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan2:39), and the bear tilted on one side, with the three pronged ribs in its mouths in Daniel’s vision(Dan.7:5).

(5) The Greek Empire.

The Four Divisions Of The Greek Empire

The Greek empire expanded rapidly under the military leadership of Alexander the Great, the son of Philip II of Macedon. Within a space of ten years, The Greek Empire extended from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. Alexander was born in 356 BC, in Pella, Macedon. His mother’s name was Olympias of Epirus. It is known that Olympias believed she was impregnated by a snake. So, Alexander is believed to be the son of a god. Alexander became the king of Macedon after the assassination of his father, Philip II of Macedon in 336 BC at the young age of 20. Alexander is known for his prowess in battle. He had unusual intelligence for military conquest. He is believed to have possessed a third eye which signal supernatural intelligence. Alexander overran the Medopersian Empire in 330 BC, was crowned king of Persia the same year after a series of battles at Arbela, Issus and Gaugemela between 333-330 BC. He invaded India in 326 BC. The battle with king Porus of India ended in a stalemate at the Indus River. Alexander withdrew after his soldiers mutinied. He died in Babylon at the young age of 32 in 323 BC.

The Greek Empire at Its Apogee

After his death, his kingdom was divided amongst four of his generals called the diadochi. This is the four-headed four-wing leopard of Daniel’s vision(Dan.7:6). The ptolemies ruled Egypt, the Seleucid in Syria, Lysimachus ruled Greece and Asia Minor, and Cassander, Macedonia proper. Incidentally Alexander never oppressed the Jews. When he entered Jerusalem, the High Priest met him in full sacerdotal regalia. He gave the Jews a wide latitude of freedom. The problem began with Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the fourth Seleucid king who wanted to hellinize the Jews. Antiochus came to power in 175 BC, and almost immediately began to persecute the Jews(Dan.8:23-25; I Macc. 1-6). He plundered the temple treasury. Antiochus was a prefigure of the Antimessiah. His life and career paralleled that of the antiMessiah. After a failed invasion of Egypt where he was humiliated by a legate of the Roman senate, he stopped in Jerusalem, defiled the Jewish altar of holocaust by sacrificing a pig, an unclean animal on it. He brought a statue of the Olympian Zeus in the Holy of Holies of the temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. He demanded all peoples under his domain be one, by worshipping one god, the Olympian Zeus, the image of which was the burst of Antiochus himself, practise one culture and one custom. He demanded the Jews abandon the law of Moses. He built a gymnasium in Jerusalem where men exercised naked, disguising their circumcision. Jewish mothers who had their sons circumcised, had those children hung on their necks.

The kings officers sent to enforce the apostasy at the Jewish village of Modein were killed by Mattatias and his sons. Thus began the Maccabean revolt that resulted in the rededication of the temple in 164 BC and the Jewish feast of Hanukkah.

The Greek empire of Syria was the bronze of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream(Dan.2:39). The Greek empire was Japhetic through Javan(Gen.10:2).

(6) The Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire

The sixth empire according to chronological order is Rome. It is obviously of Japhetic descent. It is the fourth according to the dream of Nebuchadnezzar and the vision of Daniel(Dan.2:33; 7:7,23). Like iron Rome was very strong militarily. The two legs of iron speak to the two divisions of the empire which began during the reign of Constantine. The Eastern Roman Empire with capital in Constantinople, and the Western Roman Empire with capital in Rome. The patrician families that founded Rome as a republic in the plain of Latium were Japhethites from the lines of Magog, Meshech and Tuval. These were the nomadic Caucasians. But the Magogites were dominant in pushing out the frontiers of history. They also dominated Rome.

The Roman Empire

The Roman Empire covered more territory than any of the other previous five beast empires. It was also more ruthless and brutal in its persecution of Jews. Although Nero was not particularly antisemitic, for he hated all nonromans, he was the first Roman Emperor to severely persecute Jews. Claudius had earlier barred Jews from Rome(Acts 17:2). Nero declared Christianity illicit region( Religio illicito) in 64 AD. He committed suicide in 68AD. During the Jewish revolt of 66-74 AD in Palestine, the Roman general Vespasian was despatched to squelch the revolt. He landed at Sephorris on the Mediterranean in 67 AD., and began the invasion of Palestine, but was called back to Rome to assume the status of the Emperor following the demise of Nero. His son Titus continued the invasion. According Daniel 9:26, the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. It was the Roman general Titus who destroyed the second Jewish temple built by the returning exiles from Babylon on Mount Moriah and refurbished by Herod the Great in 70 AD. Over a million Jews were killed during the siege of Jerusalem. In the fortress of Massada, the last holdout of the Jews, almost a thousand men, women and children committed suicide as did also those at Gamla in the Galilee earlier on. Thousands were killed and crucified daily outside the wall of Jerusalem. Millions more were sold into slavery. Thus began the diaspora, the dispersion of the Jews around the globe. Although nominally, the diaspora ended when Israel regained her independence on 14th May, 1948, there are as many Jews still in diaspora as are in Israel today. The diaspora shall be officially terminated after the final ingathering of the Jews in the early part of the millennial reign of Christ. During the Bar Kochba revolt between 132-135 AD, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, Jerusalem was ploughed with yokes of oxen after the defeat of the Jews. It was rebuilt and renamed Aelia Capitolina, and Jews were barred from it under the pain of death. Palestine was under Roman domination in days of Jesus. Rebellion was a frequent occurrence. Judas, the Galilean and Theudas led rebellions against Rome(Acts 5:36,37). The chief captain Lysias mistook Paul for that Egyptian who made an uproar and led thousands into the wilderness(Acts 19:38). There were some whom Pilate mingled their blood with the sacrifice(Luk.13:1). It is this sixth empire that was in existence at the time of John the revelator(Rev.17:10). It is during this same period that the Messiah was cut off in AD 33(Dan.9:26).

(7) Nazi Germany: The Mysterious Seventh Beast Empire.

Adolf Hitler Of Nazi Germany

The seventh beast was not revealed in the statue of the dream Nebuchadnezzar nor amongst the beasts of Daniel’s vision. It was hidden. The seventh beast empire ought to appear after the legs of iron but before the ten toes of iron and clay(Dan.2:40,41; Rev.17:11). It was only revealed to John the revelator in Rev.17:10-12. “And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” A biblical mystery is something that has always been part God’s plan, which was not revealed in the OT, but revealed in the NT, and is always known by divine revelation. The reason why it was not revealed to Daniel was that Israel had the option of accepting Jesus as their Messiah. Had they accepted Him, the Roman Empire which was in existence at that time would have morphed into the ten nation confederation, the final beast empire. But because they rejected Him, Israel had to go into exile. Israel was exiled in 70 AD. The diaspora was a consequence of the national sin of rejection of their Messiah(Deu.28:65-68). God knew exactly the choices Israel would make, and therefore made provision for the gap of time between the 69th and the 70th seven within which Israel would not exist as a nation and the seventh beast empire would come up. Nazi Germany persecuted Israel in exile during the gap of time between the 69th and the 70th seven of Daniel. It existed for a short period of 12 years(1933-1945). And it was vicious and brutal in its persecution of the Jews. Within this short period of time, 6 million Jews, including 2 million children whose lives were snuffed out in the embryo, were annihilated in the gas chambers and crematoria scattered all over Europe. It was the darkest hour so far in human history. Although the holocaust was the consequence of Israel’s rejection of their Messiah, the perpetrators were not thereby justified. The seventh beast empire has the following characteristics: it will come after the sixth beast empire, Rome; it would persecute Israel in diaspora; it would last for a very short time; it would be hideous and brutal in its persecution of Israel; it would become extinct before Israel regains it independence; must have existed between 70 AD and 1948 AD. Only one nation in history fits these criteria. Adolf Hitler, the founder and the absolute ruler of Nazi Germany was a consummate Jew hater, the ultimate antisemite. Adolf Hitler did not consider Jews as subhuman. He said that they are a bit more removed from animals than we are. Therefore his hatred of Jews arose out of inferiority complex. Hitler being the ultimate antiChrist was ambitious to establish a thousand year Reich, and to exterminate all Jews worldwide. Like the rulers of all the other beast empires that persecution the Jews throughout the 70 sevens or 490 years, the times of the Gentiles, Hitler is a Japhetite from the ancestral line of Magog. Originally from Austria, he became a German citizen. Austrians and Germans are the same people and speak the same German language. They are the leaders of Europe.

Avraham Shallom.

Reconciled

There is a lot of confusion about the 144,000. There are some that teach that the 144,000 in Rev.7:1-8 are different from the ones in Rev.14:1-5. The Jehovah Witnesses teach that they are the same which is biblically accurate, but then turn around and teach they are the only ones who will go to Heaven while the rest of us are unqualified or disqualified and will inherit the Earth only. Some of those who teach they are one and the same from the household of Israel go on to say they are evangelists who will powerfully preach the gospel after the Church is gone in the Rapture and will win billions of souls who will then be all martyred during the Great Tribulation in other to enter Heaven, the so called “left behind” or “tribulation saints.” They regard the innumerable multitude in Rev.7:9-17 as the products of their efforts all of whom are martyred. How 144,000 Jews in the land of Israel will win innumerable multitude from all tribes, nations, and tongues all over the whole world to Christ in a short period of less than seven years, and the antiChrist and his acolytes will martyr all of them within the same period, they proffer no solution and the Scriptures are silent. Some of those who teach they are different groups go on to allegorize the ones in Rev.14:1-5 to be faithful saints like those in the Church Of Philadelphia(Rev.3:7-13) who will be raptured before the 70th week of Daniel or the Great Tribulation begins.

Two factors account for this confusion and multiplicity of interpretations. First is the lack of understanding concerning God’s plan of redemption and the distinction between Israel and the Church. There are three groups of peoples on Earth, the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church Of God. “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:”(1 Cor.10:32‬). The other factor is lack of understanding concerning the chronology of events of the end times. For one to properly understand and interpret biblical prophecy, one must of necesssity understand the chronology of events of the end times, the time and timing, and the sequence of events of the end times. The best and most biblically accurate sequence of events and chronology of the end times I know are the ones given by Marvin J. Rosenthal and Robert Van Kampen in their seminal works on eschatology, “The Pre-wrath Rapture Of The Church” and “The Sign” respectively. Alan E. kurschner follows the same sequence of events in his book, “AntiChrist Before The Day Of The Lord,” as does Paul Dogan in his narration of End Time Events. They are appear in the featured graphics in this article. I encourage everyone who is interested and seeks to understand eschatology to study and master the featured graphics.

If we follow the sequence of events of the end times, we see that the 144,000 in Rev.7:1-8 are sealed in the interlude between the end of the sixth seal in Rev.6:12-17 and the breaking of the seventh seal in Rev.8:1. Afterwards the Church is raptured in Rev.7:9-17. The innumerable multitude which no man could number are the raptured saints appearing in Heaven. The Church Age which began with the enactment of the new covenant and the inception of the Church at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in 32 AD ends with the Rapture in the interlude between the end of the sixth seal and the breaking of the seventh seal way into the second half of the 70th week of Daniel. The breaking of the sixth seal is associated with the cosmic and celestial disturbances, the darkening of the Sun, Moon, and Stars which is the sign of the End Of The Ages(Rev.6:12-14).

The Church is about to be taken away, apart from the two witnesses whose ministry are restricted to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, God would have no Witnesses on Earth after the Rapture of the saints. The ministry of the two witnesses will end on the last day of the 70th week of Daniel. They will minister for 42 months which is the length of the second half of the 70th week of Daniel which corresponds with the time allotted to the antiChrist to reign(Rev.11:2; 13:5). They are killed on that day or early on the first Day Of The 30-day Reclamation Period Of The Kingdom(Rev.11:7-10). They are not raised from the dead until the fourth day of the 30-day Reclamation Period Of The Kingdom(Rev.11.11-14). Without the 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel, there will be an interval of three and one-half days when God will have no witnesses on Earth. That would grant Satan the victory he desires and craves. But that will not be allowed to happen. Do you see how close Satan comes to victory and how slim the chance of God winning? This is to show God is the Sovereign Lord Of The Universe. He cannot lose. He must win.

When we look at the 144,000 in Rev.14:1-5, they appear with Christ on the earthly Mount Zion. What those who do not understand God’s plan of redemption and the chronology of events of the end times do not know is that they are the same Jews who were sealed in the Edomite and Judaean wildernesses before the Rapture of the Church. Christ appeared to them there and matched with them on foot to the summit of Mount Zion in Jerusalem from day 1 to day 3 of the 30-day Reclamation Of The Kingdom(Mic.2:12,13). Jesus came from the heavenly Mount Zion(Isa.59:20) to the earthly Mount Zion for the spiritual salvation of the remnants of Israel(Rom.11:26). Here all Israel that survived the 70th week up to this point without the mark of allegiance to the antiChrist are saved(Zech.12:10-14). Prior to this point the 144,000 from the household of Israel are the ones that are saved. When they arrive on the earthly Mount Zion, the redeemed(raptured) saints in Heaven are singing the song of redemption from the temple of God on the heavenly Mount Zion. No other group of people on Earth could understand it but the 144,000 on Mount Zion. Why? Because they are the only ones on Earth at this time who are washed in the blood of the Lamb, sealed with seal of God which is God’s name written on their foreheads. They are the only ones on Earth who are redeemed.

When we look at the 144,000, they are suddenly introduced in Rev.7, shortly before the Rapture of the Church and the beginning of the wrath of God in the Day Of The Lord. How they survived from the beginning of the 70th week to the end of the sixth seal, we are not told. They went through the first three and one-half years of the 70th week, the emergence of false Christ, wars and rumours of wars, commotions and threats of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes, and the Great Tribulation without caving in to the antiChrist(Matt.24:5-29; Rev.6:1-17). And they are not Christians, though they believe in the Messiah of Israel. They do not believe He is Jesus Of The Christians. How could they be preaching the gospel at this difficult time when they do not believe in Jesus? Just as in the present, there are many Jews who believe in the Messiah, but they do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Do orthodox Jews who believe in the Messiah preach about Jesus of Nazareth whom they regard as a curse? They most probably survived by hiding with other Jews in the Edomite and Judaean wildernesses when the antiChrist made his debut at the Rebuilt Third Jewish Temple On Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, the Temple Mount(Rev.12:13-17) and began his reign of terror(2 Thess.2:3-8). They are called God’s servants(Rev.7:3). Why were they sealed? Because they belong to God.

Though they belong to God, they are not yet saved until they have accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour when He appears to them in the Edomite wilderness which is several years after their sealing. This occurs after the Church is raptured. So, they are not part of the Church. They belong to the household of Israel. If they were born again before the Rapture, they would have been part of the body of Christ, and would have been raptured with the rest of the body of Christ at the sounding of the trumpet with the voice of the archangel(Matt.24:29-31; 1 Thess.4:14-18, 1 Cor.15:50,51). This is the reason why they are called firstfruits in Rev.14:4 because they are the first to be redeemed from the Earth after the Rapture. They belong to a new dispensation, the Millennium. They are the firstfruits of them that will enter the Millennium. They are in their “unglorified” natural physical and mortal bodies. The others are the Jews who survived the first six trumpet judgments who are reconciled to God On day 3 of the 30-day Reclamation Period Of The Kingdom, and the Gentile survivors of the Sheep and Goat judgments that occurs during the 45-day Restoration Period Of The Kingdom(Hos.6:1-3).

When God’s wrath is about to begin, they were given this mark. It is to protect them from the wrath of God. Seals are for protection, identity, authenticity, security, and ownership. At the sounding of the fifth trumpet(Rev.9:1-12), the demonic locusts from the bottomless pit were instructed to afflict anyone without the seal of God. These would include those who have the mark of the beast and those who do not have the mark of the beast, both Jews and Gentiles who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. The Jews who have survived without the mark of the Beast right up to the darkening of the Sun, Moon, and Stars thought redemption has come to them, not knowing they are not exempt from the trumpet judgments.

“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”‭‭(1 Thess.5:3‬).

The prophet Amos chided them. 

“Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?”(Amos‬ ‭5:18-20‬).

They think they are exempt from all the wrath of God. They desire the day of the Lord when under siege by the forces of the antiMessiah, not knowing that the day of the Lord is darkness and not light. Their passage through the first six trumpet judgments is to purify, purge and cleanse them from sin. They must get to the point where they accept Jesus as the Messiah of Israel. No one will be saved without being washed by the blood of the Lamb whoever he may be. This will happen when they see that their Messiah has nail pierced hands(Zech.12:10-14).

The Jews and Gentiles who do not have the mark of the Beast are not exempt from the first six trumpet judgments. The Jews who do not have the mark Of the beast are exempt from the Bowl judgments because they are reconciled to God before the outpouring of the Bowl judgments. The Bowl judgments target those with the mark of the beast only. The Gentiles who do not have the mark Of the beast are not specifically targeted, but they are not offered protection either and may suffer collateral damages. The 144,000 and the Jews who survived the trumpet judgments and are reconciled to the God of Israel on Day 3 of the 30-day Reclamation Period Of the Kingdom are hidden in Azal before the outpouring of the final wrath of God in the Bowl judgments(Zech.14:5). They as well as the 144,000 are in their mortal bodies. They must be protected from the final seven Bowl judgments which are the most severe(Rev.16-19). 

Do we begin to see how odd it is to label the 144,000 in Rev.14:1-5 faithful and uncompromising Christians who will not go through the Great Tribulation? Do you begin to see how odd it is to say they are not Jews and are different from the ones in Rev.7:1-8? By the time they appeared on Mount Zion with Christ in Rev.14:1-5, there is not a single Christian on Earth. The Rapture had occurred several years previously. And do you begin to see why they are called firstfruits? If they were members of the church, they would not merit the label and status of firstfruits simply because they would not be the first to believe in Christ in the Church age. They are the first to believe in Christ in the Millennium. And God’s order of salvation is the Jew first and also the Gentile. Salvation is of the Jews(Jon.4:22). God’s order of judgment is also the Jew first and also the Gentile. “Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.”(Romans‬ ‭2:9-11‬). The Gentiles who will enter the Millennium would be the sheep of the Sheep and Goat Judgment Of The Gentile survivors of the wrath of God(Matt.25:32-45).

Avraham Shallom.

The Precursor To The Rapture

At His first Advent, a star announced His birth to the Magi, the wise men from the East.

“Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”(Matt.2:9-11).

At His second Advent, the Sun, Moon, and Stars will announce His Coming(Parousia) to the whole Universe.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”(Matthew 24:29-30 KJV).

“And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”(Revelation 6:12-17 KJV).

Therefore, the darkening of the Sun, Moon, and Stars is a precursor to the Second Advent. There is not a single verse of the Scriptures that speaks to His coming seceretly or silently or suddenly to rapture the Church.

Then, when these things begin to happen, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”(Luke 21:25-28 KJV).

There shall be signs in the Sun, Moon, and Stars. The nations of the Earth shall be in distress, with perplexity. Men and nations shall be confused and confounded, and their future uncertain. All the statesmen and the academics of the world put together will not be able to profer solutions to the chaos and confusion in the world. Men will go to war not knowing what they are fighting about. The seas will be roiling and waves will be roaring. There shall be tsunamis, earthquakes, tropical storms and hurricanes etc. The hearts of men who are in ignorance of the times and seasons(epochs) shall fail being seized with fears, anxieties and worries over the goings-on on Earth.

On the contrary, when these things begin to happen, believers who have survived up to this time shall begin to rejoice. They will lift up their heads because their redemption draws near. They are about to be rescued, evacuated from the scene of persecution, destruction and devastation. Opi ike g’egbu. Then, the sign of the appearance of the Son Of Man, the Shekinah, shall be seen in the heavens. Then shall He dispatch His angels with the sound of the trumpet to gather His elect(ekklektos), from one end of the heaven to the other. Behold, am with you always unto the End Of The Ages(Matt.28:18). He that endures to the end(of the ages) shall be saved(rescued)[Matt.1022].

I challenge every pretrib to show me the verse of the scripture in the Olivet Discourse in Matt.24, Mk.13, And Luk.21 that speaks of the rapture before the darkening of the Sun, Moon, and Stars. It does not exist.

Avraham Shallom.

My Objections To A Brother Whose View On The Rapture Is Pretribulational(7)

(n) Incapacitaion Of The antiChrist.

It is biblically unjustified for anyone to teach that after the rapture, the antiChrist will arise to persecute those left behind. Shortly before the rapture, the antiChrist will be paralyzed, masterly inactivated by the cosmic and celestial disturbances and the appearance of the Shekinah in the heavens. The only two things he will be permitted to do will be to kill the two witnesses at the expiry of their ministry at the end of the 70th week and to gather his armies for destruction 30 days later at the battle of Armageddon.

“And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly”(Rev.11:7-14). “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”(Rev.16:16).”

And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.”(Rev.19:17-21).

Up until now, the restrainer is the one that hinders the antiChrist from manifesting. And the restrainer is archangel Michael according Dan.12: 1,2. “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 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. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”(2 Thess.2:7-12).

After the removal of the restrainer, the antiChrist will manifest and persecute the saints during the Great Tribulation. But as soon as the Lord appears in the heavens, he is masterły incapacitated. What follows is the Day Of The Lord. The antiChrist cannot persecute the saints in the Day Of The Lord because they are no longer here, and again he is incapacitated by the terrestrial and celestial disturbances. In that Day, only the Lord is exalted. In that Day the haughtiness of men and the loftiness man shall be bowed down. In that Day, men shall throw away their idols, the demonized images of the Beast which they have made for themselves to worship in their homes, offices and cars, being instructed by the enforcer, the second Beast, also called the false prophet(Rev.13:14), to the moles and the bats to hide in the rocks and mountains from the glory of the Lord and his majesty when He arises to shake terribly the Earth(Is.2:8-18).

(o) The antiChrist Cannot Persecute The Believers After The Rapture

The reason why the antiChrist cannot persecuted the saints after the rapture is two fold. Firstly, there are no saints to persecute. The believers have been raptured, taken to heaven. Anyone in the Church who is unbranded with the Mark Of The Beast and left behind after the rapture is not a true believer in Jesus Christ in the real sense of it. The one has been a false believer all along. The 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel are sealed for protection and hidden in the modern day red rose city of Petra which is biblical Sela, a very difficult terrain to access. In New Testament times, it was called Pella. It is in the Edomite wilderness which is in modern day Jordan(Rev.7:1-8). Even during the outpouring of the bowls, the newly saved remnant of Israel are hidden in Azel(Zech.14:5). No one knows the location of Azel. It is an undisclosed location being unmentioned in biblical times either in the land of Israel or anywhere else in biblical history and geography.

Secondly, the antiChrist will be masterly inactivated by the cosmic and celestial disturbances(Rev.6:12-14; Matt.24:29-30), and by the brightness of Christ’s Coming(2 Thess.2:8). The only two groups of people left on Earth unprotected at that time will be branded followers of the antiChrist, both Jews and Gentiles, who will be the majority, and unbranded Jews and Gentiles, the minority. We come to this understanding through the process of elimination. Remember that during the first part of the wrath of God, the trumpet judgments(Rev.8,9), all the inhabitants of the Earth are targeted including the surviving unbranded remnants of Israel. This is to purify them. Only one-third of the Jewish population which enter the 70th week of Daniel will survive(Zech.13:8). Every Jew who survived the 70th week unbranded will be automatically saved(Rom.11:26) because Israel have been purged, purified, and cleansed by the Great Tribulation, the Time of Jacob’s trouble(Jer.30:7), and her sin atoned for. Because by the end of the 70th week, her transgression is finished, her sin ended, and reconciliation made for her iniquity(Dan.9:24). And then they will look upon Him whom they pierced and mournful Him as one mourneth for his only son when they see that their Messiah has nail pierced hands.

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.”(Zech.12:10-14).

The only ones exempted from the trumpet judgments are the 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel(Rev.7:1-8). The branded followers of the antiChrist will be the object of God’s wrath in the bowls, being specifically targeted(Rev.16,17,18,19). The unbranded Gentile unbelievers will not be specifically targeted in the bowl judgments. Any hurt they incur will be collateral damage. By the way, it is the unbranded Gentiles who survive the wrath of God that will appear at the sheep and goat judgment(Matt.35:31-46). The sheep will be justified to repopulate the Earth in the Millennium alongside the saved remnant of Israel(Rom.11:25 26). The goats will be executed and banished to Hell. We can see the enormity of the teaching that some believers will be left behind after the rapture to face the antiChrist. There are no two Great Tribulations, but one which occurs beginning from the midpoint of the 70th week before the rapture of the Church. After the rapture is the wrath of God which is contained in the seventh seal. The breaking of the seventh seal which occurs on the same day the Church is raptured opens into the wrath of God consisting of the 7 trumpets and 7 bowls.

(p) Pretrib Rapture: Harvest before Maturation

In the parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus is the Master who showed the good seed. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son Of Man;”(Matt.13:37). The good seed are the children of the kingdom. “The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom;”(38a). The tares are the children of the wicked one. “But the tares are the children of the wicked one;”(38b). The wicked one is the Devil. “the enemy that showed them is the Devil;”(39a). Because in the early stages of growth, the tares look like the real wheat, it will be virtually impossible for the angelic reapers to separate the tares from the wheat. “But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.”(29). Therefore they must be allowed to grow together until maturation when the tares are clearly distinguishable from the real wheat. “ Let them grow together until the harvest:”(30a). When they are ripe, the farmer harvests the tares first, bundles them into heaps at the edges of the farm to be burned later after the harvest of the real wheat. “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”(41,42). Jesus makes it clear the harvest is the end of the ages, and the reapers are the angels. “the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.”(39b). As we have shown, the end of the ages occurs after the Great Tribulation and the terrestrial and celestial disturbances which interrupt the Great Tribulation. The wheat and the tares come to maturation during the Great Tribulation when the tares are marked for destruction with the mark of the Beast during the day of the Lord. Without the Great Tribulation, the angelic reapers cannot distinguish the tares from the wheat. The tares will be burned in the day of the Lord which occurs at the end of the ages. “The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”(39-42).

This is the message of the third angel: “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”(Rev.14:9-12).

There is no separation before the Great Tribulation. As a matter of fact, the purpose of the Great Tribulation is to separate the wheat from the tares in order to enable the angelic reapers to conduct the harvest of the real wheat. When the marking of the tares is complete during the Great Tribulation, and the full complement of the saints to be martyred is reached, God cuts short the Great Tribulation with the sign given in the Sun, Moon, and Stars. Then the Shekinah Glory appears in the heavens as Jesus descends to the sky from the Heaven with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. The angelic reapers can now do their job of reaping the real wheat, the true believers who not only believe in Jesus but have not the mark of the Beast. This is the Prewrath Rapture Of The Church. Thereafter, the wrath of God begins in the Day Of The Lord at The End Of The Ages which corresponds with the breaking of the seventh seal. This same sequence of events occurs in Rev.14. The third angel announces the wrath of God on those with the mark of the Beast. This is followed by the final harvest in two stages. First the real wheat are harvested into the barn(Rev.14:14-16). This is followed by the second harvest which is the wrath of God on the unrighteous wicked(Rev.14:17-20). It ends in a bloodbath at Armageddon. The height of blood reaches up to the horse bridle, about 1.5 meters, and covers a distance of about 188 kilometers. The Armageddon Campaign begins in the vicinity of Jerusalem with the remnants of the armies of the nations surrounding Israel who are part of the Eight Beast Empire involved in the Jehoshaphat Campaign which occurs shortly before the amputation of the Great Tribulation, and ends in a final bloodbath involving the armies of all the nations of the Earth on Mount Megiddo in the valley of Esdraelon approximately 188 km north of Israel.

The Pretrib Rapture Position teaches harvest before maturation which Jesus says is impossible in both the parables of the ten virgins and the wheat and the tares. The Prewrath Rapture Of The Church is in consonance with the clear unforced interpretation of the parable of the Ten Virgins And The Wheat And The Tares. Jesus interpreted these parables Himself. We have added nothing to His interpretations of the parables. We have simply analyzed His interpretations and applied it to the eschatological timeline. The result is obvious to any honest exegete of the word of God. For further clarification see my article on the parable of the wheat and the tares, https://mtzionheritageministries.com/2019/09/01/the-parable-of-the-wheat-and-the-tares/.

Avraham Shallom.

My Objections To A Brother Whose View On The Rapture Is Pretribulational(6)

(k) The 144,000: Are They Evangelists?

The 144,000 are Jews, 12,000 chosen from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Scripture is clearly explicit on that. They are suddenly introduced in Rev.7 in the interlude between the sixth and the seventh seals prior to the outpouring of the wrath of God in the Day Of The Lord which begins in Rev.8:1. They are called the servants of God(3). They are sealed with the seal of God in their foreheads(3). In Rev.14:1, we are told the seal is the name of God written on their foreheads. We are not told what that name is. It may be the Hebrew Tetragrammaton YHWH. That is the name of the God of the Hebrews revealed to Moses, “the I AM WHAT I AM hath sent me unto you.”(Exod.3:14). It was inscribed on the mitre worn by the High Priest, indicating he belonged to the and was the servant of Yahweh of Israel, and represented Him amongst His people of Israel and vice verse. They are sealed prior to the rapture of the saints(Rev.7:9-17). They passed through the Great Tribulation just as did the raptured saints. Rather than being raptured after the amputation of the Great Tribulation with terrestrial and celestial disturbances, they were sealed for protection from the wrath of God. They would pass through the wrath of God but with divine protection unlike their fellow Israelites who would pass through the first six trumpet judgments without divine protection in order to purge, purify, and cleanse them from the defilement of sin. Why? They rejected the mark of the Beast, but are not born again like the saints who are raptured. In other words, they were not washed by the blood of the Lamb. No man will enter heaven without purification by the blood of the Lamb. And no man will be purified with the blood of Jesus by the Holy Spirit without acknowledging Jesus as Lord and Saviour(Rom.10:8-13). They will finally accept Jesus as their Messiah when He rescues them from Petra in the Edomite wilderness. They will see that their Messiah has nail-pierced hands(Zech.12:10).

These Jews believe in the Messiah of Israel. They do not believe that He is Jesus. They also rejected the claim of the antiChrist to be the Messiah of Israel(Jon.5:43). So, they were not Beast-marked. How they survived the Great Tribulation is a wonder inasmuch as they were sealed after the Great Tribulation. They survived by hiding I presume. The Scriptures do not say they were evangelists. What they did during the first three and one-half years and the Great Tribulation, the Scriptures are silent. It is therefore presumptuous and preposterous to assume they were evangelists. In all probability, they were observant Jews. How then could they be preaching the message of salvation in Christ Jesus if they do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah? If at all they preached to anyone, the content of their message would not be the apostolic kerugma. They could have warned their fellow Jews and anyone else not to believe in the antiChrist as the Messiah and to reject his mark even under the pain of death. There are some unbelieving Gentiles, free thinkers and nonconformists that will do the same. They could also have warned that the wrath of God would come on anyone who gave allegiance to the Beast by accepting his mark. They could have urged their fellow countrymen and women, and anyone else within their immediate audience to only worship Yahweh of Judah, the Lord God of Israel. That the false humanistic religion of the antiChrist, spearheaded by the false prophet, and epitomized in Babylon would be committed to the flames together with their adherents(Rev.14:6-11). The true believers in Jesus Christ will also be saying the same thing but with a caveat that Jesus is the only true Messiah of Israel. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus Christ.”(Rev.14:12).

They are the only ones offered protection from the first six trumpet judgments. The unbelieving Jews who do not have the mark of the Beast shall go through the first six trumpet judgments unprotected, so also the unbelieving Gentiles who do not have the mark of the Beast. The 144,000 are called virgins, a very strange term indeed to describe men. Obviously they are celibates. The Scripture also says they are not defiled with women. This may mean either that they never had sexual intercourse with women, or and also they never participated in the mass idolatry characteristic of the worship of the Beast-antiChrist and the Dragon(Rev.13:4,14:9). Religionists like these are usually reclusive. They lived like hermits like the Qumran community. They followed the Lamb wherever He went. They are His human entourage in all His earthly journeys from the moment Christ rescued them from the Edomite wilderness(Amos 3:15). They matched with Him on foot from Petra in the Edomite wilderness to the summit of Mount Zion in Jerusalem joined along the way by the remnant of Israel from the Judaean wilderness, Jerusalem and its environs, and the survivors from the remote areas of Assyria and Egypt(Mic.2:13; Rev.14:1). We must also bear in mind that Jesus is never alone. God the Father is always with Him. He is also always surrounded by an innumerable company of angels(Heb.12:22-24). But they are invisible to the unaided human eye. So, the 144,000 are the ones with Him that men would see. They would not see the Father, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the innumerable company of angels.

Whilst with Christ on the earthly Mount Zion, the redeemed of humanity in heaven, on the heavenly Mount Zion sing a song. The song is heard on Earth, but no one on Earth could learn that song but the 144,000. Why? Because it is the song of the redeemed; they are redeemed also. If they were not redeemed, they could not be sealed. They were sealed because they were reconciled to God shortly before the rapture of the saints. On the same earthly Mount Zion, the Jewish remnants who survived the first six trumpet judgments were reconciled to God to finish the mystery of God and to complete His spiritual kingdom(Zech.12:10-13). This was before the sounding of the seventh trumpet. “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.”(Rev.10:7).

But they are not part of the Church, the bride of Christ. They are the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb(Rev.14:4). This term firstfruits is also used of the initial disciples of Jesus or the first to receive Jesus in a city in any evangelistic mission, and of those who were the first to be filled with the Holy Spirit ; and of Christ as the first to rise from the dead(Rom.8:23, 16:5; Jam.1:18; 1 Cor.15:20,23, 16:15). This designation clearly indicates they belong to a new dispensation; the New Millennium. They are not part of the Church. They will not be translated. They will not receive glorified eternal immortal resurrection bodies like the saints in the Millennium. They will live here on Earth in their mortal bodies, still prone to sin, sickness and disease and physical death. They will be the firstfruits of those that will repopulate the Earth in the New Millennium alongside the redeemed Jews and Gentiles that survive the wrath of God(cp. Matt.25:31-46). Whether they will marry like some others in the Millennium, or remain celibates throughout the Millennium, the scriptures are silent.

After the rapture of the saints, apart from the two witnesses whose ministry would last throughout the entire length of the second half of the 70th week, the God of Israel would have no witnesses on Earth. God will not leave Himself without witnesses. It is like the handing over of a baton in relay race. They will represent the God of Israel on Earth while the believers are in heaven, in the interim between the rapture and Armageddon. If the 144,000 were not reconciled to the God, the God of Israel would have not witnesses on Earth after the demise of the two witnesses on the last day of the 70th week. There is a 3-day interval between the death of the two witnesses and the salvation of the remnant of Israel on day 3 of the 30-day Reclamation Period. If at any time there are no witnesses of the God of Israel on Earth, Satan has prevailed. But this must not be allowed to happen. That is why the 144,000 are so important. They are God’s sole witnesses on Earth in this 3-day interval between the death of the two witnesses and the conciliation of the remnant of Israel on day-3 of the 30-day Reclamation Period.

(l) Will There Be A Worldwide Christian Revival In The 70th Week?

Pretribs teach that the rapture will occur prior to the commencement of the 70th week of Daniel. To account for the huge number of believers that will be here during the Great Tribulation, they propound an unbiblically supported theory that there will be a worldwide revival during the 70th week that will make other revivals this Earth has ever witnessed pale in comparison. That there would be more massive conversions to the Faith than at any other time in the annals of Church history and evangelism. They also hold the unbiblical view that these so called “Tribulation Saints” shall gain heaven by being martyred, all of them, by the antiChrist and his acolytes(Rev.6: 9-11, 7:9-17, 20:4). This phenomenal success in missions and evangelism will occur when all the good pastors, teachers, and Christians have been taken to heaven prior to the beginning of the 70th week. Incredulous!

Who will conduct these revival meetings that will see innumerable multitude come to the Faith in so short a period of time, at a time when there is a preponderance of false christs, false prophets, and false teachers, all vying for the believers attention and faith, and Christianity is proscribed, and there is no formal worship; the so called “Tribulation Saints” are in hiding and have little or no food to eat, and are being hounded and ferreted out to be killed by the antiChrist and his gang?

In the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, the prophets of Baal failed to conjure fire from heaven to consume their sacrifice(1 King.18:20-40). But the false prophet and his gang will excel where the prophets of Baal failed. They will command fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men, and make the image of the Beast to speak, and to cause as many as would not worship the image of the Beast to be killed(Rev.13:15). Elijah ordered the massacre of the prophets of Baal after their failure to conjure fire from heaven. During the 70th week, the reverse will be the case. The servants of God shall be massacred by the prophets of Baal. Satan will get his revenge: like Shylock, he will demand a pound of flesh. The coming of the antiChrist is with signs and wonders. “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 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.”(2 Thess.2:7-10).

The antiChrist will be empowered by Satan to perform outstanding miracles, signs and wonders which will be very difficult to refute in order to authenticate his claim to be the Messiah just as Jesus did. But it will all be false, intended only to deceive if it were possible the very elect. Certainly, there will be revival in the 70th week of Daniel, but it will be satanic in nature with all manner of signs and lying wonders, to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before.”(Matt.24:24-25). Why would Jesus warn His disciples if they would not be here? There will be role reversal here. The antiChrist and his gang will perform outstanding and notable miracles, signs, and wonders, but the saints will not. On Mount Carmel, the God of Israel was present but Baal was absent. This time around the opposite will happen. It would be as through the God of Israel were absent and Baal present. Why? Because it is the hour of darkness.

These miracles, signs and wonders will be intended to lure the believers out of hiding in order to coax and coerce them to receive the mark of the Beast or to be killed outright or taken captive ant tortured on refusal to accept the mark of allegiance to the Beast. The antiChrist will make war with the saints and overcome them(Rev.13:7). So, in all probability, the number of the saints will depreciate and dwindle very rapidly due to mass executions of believers who refuse to bow to the image of the Beast during this period of the reign of terror by the antiChrist. That the world marveled at the Beast does indicates that the so called evangelists of the Faith do not command their attention(Rev.17:8). Rather than a revival of Christianity, there will be a mass exodus of false believers to worship the Beast. There will be mass conversion to Baalism. This will be the apostasy or falling away from the faith spoken of by our brother, Apostle Paul, one of the two signs that will precede His coming and our gathering together unto Him or the rapture(2 Thess2:3,4). When the antiChrist signs the 7-year peace treaty with Israel, these ignorant believers will conclude the rapture has taken place, that they have been left behind: and that the next thing will be a worldwide revival of sort of the Christian faith, the rapture having taken place secretly and silently as it were. But what do they get? A huge number of false christs, false prophets, and false teachers performing outstanding and notables miracles to authenticate their claims. They will tell them, “The Messiah has come: we know where He is: in the secret chambers and in the deserts.”(Matt.24:23-28). If the rapture had taken place earlier prior to the commencement of the 70th week, why would the so called Tribulation Saints be deceived by the false prophets and teachers, that the Messiah has come, and is in the secret chambers or in the desert? Is this how His Second coming at Armageddon will be? Thusly the unsuspecting believers are lured into a trap where they are either coaxed or coerced, and hoodwinked into receiving the mark of allegiance to the Beast or be taken into captivity and tortured or be killed outright on refusal to accept the mark of allegiance to the anitMessiah.

This is the Apostasy which will take place after the unveiling of the Man Of Sin in the rebuilt Third Jewish Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem at the midpoint of the 70th week(2 Thess.2:3,4). But the Pretribs have cancelled it out saying that “apostasia” means physical departure, thus denoting rapture. What a theological legerdemain! There is not a single instance in koine Greek where apostasia was used to denote physical departure. That usage was only apparent almost 500 years later. When we read Shakespeare or Geoffrey Chaucer, we do not interpret them based on the present meaning of the words. We seek to understand them based on the meaning and usages of the words in their times.

The Scriptures do not tell us there would be worldwide revival at this time. Obviously, the two witnesses will perform outstanding miracles, and command fire from heaven to consume those who would hurt them(Rev.11:5,6). Their ministry covers the second half of the 70th week, but is essentially restricted to the land of Israel, especially the Holy City, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Will their ministry be duplicated in other parts of the world? There is no biblical evidence there are any others like them in other parts of the world. Admittedly, some faithful and uncompromising believers will damn the consequences and go about persuading others not to take the make of the Beast, but they will pay with their heads. Cephalizomai; they will be decapitated(Rev.20:4). Assuming the pretrib rapture view is correct, believers who miss the rapture, who have been taught there will be a worldwide revival during the 70th week will be easy prey to the antiMessiah, the false prophet, and their army of charlatans and mountebanks. The Pretrib doctrine is designed by its originators to sell the saints short to the antiChrist, to render them unprepared to face the horrors of the Great Tribulation. Unfortunately sincere believers and biblical scholars and theologians are ignorantly proclaiming it.

(m) The 70th Week: The Period Of God’s Judgment

Dr Thomas Ice believes and teaches that the 70th week is a period of God’s Judgment, and I concur. Who decides when the 70th week begins? God. Who has the seven-sealed Scroll, the Title Deed Of The Earth, and breaks the seven seals that determine the unfolding of the end time events? Jesus the Son Of God. Who announce and supervise the breaking of the seals? The cherubim, the angels of God. Who casts down Satan to the Earth from the heavenlies? Archangel Michael, the warrior angel of God. Who removes the restrainer in order that Satan’s wrath may be executed(Dan.12:1)? God. Satan can do nothing without permission from God. He could not tempt Job without divine permission(Job 1:6-12, 2:1-6). He could not tempt Peter to sift him as wheat until Christ permitted him(Luk.22:31,32). The 70th week is indeed a period of God’s Judgment. But God is not responsible for the activities of wicked men. God permits evil, but does not sanction it. God does not approve of man’s inhumanity to man. God used Assyria, “the rod of my anger” to judge the Northern Kingdom of Israel(Isa.10:5). Assyria was an evil nation notorious for its cruel treatment of war captives. The prophet Habakkuk was perplexed that God could use Babylon, a nation more wicked than the Southern Kingdon of Judah to punish Judah(Hab.1:6-13). God’s ways are past finding(Rom.11:33). The people of the world have to be tested and fail in an ultimate sense before they can face the wrath of God. In like manner also, even the saints must be tested and pass ultimately in order to be counted worthy to escape the wrath of God. There is an on-going Judgment Of God. When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the unrighteous wicked. “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”(1 Corinthians 11:31-32).

The first four seals of the Scroll Of Revelation are a test for saints and sinners alike to determine eligibility for exemption from the wrath of God. But Dr. Thomas Ice has equated the Judgment of God which is a much broader term, more encompassing, with the wrath of God which is more narrower, and involves the outpouring of His indignation on the unrighteous and impenitent wicked at the End Of The Ages. I demure. If we judge ourselves we will not be judged. When a believer is judged of God, the ultimate goal is exemption from condemnation with the wicked. When God judges us, and He does, is He pouring out His wrath upon us because we are irreversibly and irredeemably impenitent? No. His judgment is corrective. But His Final eschatological Wrath is damnation. When a juvenile breaks the law, he is sent to the penitentiary, unlike an adult who commits a capital offense receives capital punishment. There is no correction in a death sentence except as a warning and deterrent to would-be offenders. The aim is to protect the living and damn the murderer. The final eschatological wrath of God, the bowl judgments are not corrective at all. Their targets are the Beast marked wicked earth-dwellers who are unwilling to repent even in the face of God’s severe punishment for their evils(Rev.9:20,21, 16:9,11). Their goal is first physical destruction, and finally eternal damnation of the unrighteous wicked in the Lake Of Fire And Sulphur.

Abraham Shallom.

My Objections To A Brother Whose View On The Rapture Is Pretribulational(5)

(h) The Timing Of The Removal Of The Restainer

The restrainer has been variously identified by pretribs as the Holy Spirit who hitch-hikes with the Church when she is raptured pretribulationally, the Church herself, and human government which of course is functional throughout the 70th week, and cannot be removed until destroyed by Christ at Armageddon(Rev.19:17-21). How ridiculous? The fact the Church(ekklesia) is feminine and the restrainer masculine rules out the church. Dan.12:1 identifies the restrainer as archangel Michael who stands for the people of God. His identity has been known amongst Jewish scholars in antiquity. The identity of the restrainer is not germane to the validation or invalidation of any rapture view. The issue here is the timing of his removal. The pretribs do not make bones of this issue because it undermines their teaching that he hitch-hikes with the Church when she is raptured pretribulationally. The Scriptures make it clear that until the restrainer is taken out of the way, there shall be no Great Tribulation. Archangel Michael is the restrainer of evil on the Earth. He is the angel that stands for the people of God. He wrestled with Satan over the body of Moses(Jude 9). The angel that was sent by God to deliver the answer to Daniel’s prayer was withstood by the Prince of Persia until archangel Michael gave him relief(Dan.10:13). At the midpoint of the 70th week, he shall wrestle down Satan and his fallen evil angels from the Dark Void and Starry Heavens to the Earth, after which he shall “amad” or stand still. He will not restrain Satan any more.

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.”(Rev.12:7-9, 12-13).

Then evil shall run riot on Earth. Satan shall possess the antiChrist, invest Him with his power and authority. “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”(Rev.13:2). He will declare himself God, demand worship of all mortals, and kill anyone who refuses to give him allegiance. Thus will begin the Great Tribulation.

“And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 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. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”(2 Thess.2:6-12).

The revelation of the antiChrist occurs after the removal of the restrainer. Up to now, the restrainer keeps evil at bay until removed at the midpoint of the 70th week, then shall evil run riot on Earth. There is a confluence of factors here. First, Satan and his immediate subordinates, the principalities, powers, and wicked spirits in the heavenlies shall be cast down to the Earth. Second, the restraining influence of Michael the archangel of God in charge of war shall be removed. Third, Satan angered by denial of his right and place of abode in the heavenlies shall have great wrath knowing that it would be a short time before he is cast into the abyss. From the midpoint of the 70th week, one can calculate the exact day Satan Shall be cast into the abyss. It will be three and one-half years plus 30 days which is the end of Armageddon, that is 1, 290 days. All these events occur at the midpoint of the 70th week. The cumulative effect is synergistic, resulting in the escalation of all forms of evil on Earth.

(i) The Tribulation Saints

The phrase “tribulation saints” is coined by pretribs to describe believers who according to them missed the first round up, and have to make it by the skin of their teeth. First, this teaching is contradicted by the parable of the Ten Virgins which teaches that there is no secondary entry once the bridegroom has entered and the door shut. Second, pretribs teach that all those who missed the first round up are weak believers who have to make it by paying with their lives. This is as it were, salvation by works through martyrdom which flies in the face of salvation by grace through faith(Eph.2:8). Thus they teach that the innumerable multitude in Rev.7:9-17, including the fifth seal martyrs are tribulation saints martyred by the antiChrist and his security apparatus. That they will be raised to reign with Christ for a thousand years in the Millennium. But not all the innumerable multitude in Rev.7:9-17 are martyrs. The angel described them as those who came out of the Great Tribulation. There is no evidence they were all martyrs. Some were martyred and others certainly not martyred.

In contrast, the fifth seal martyrs were all killed for the word of God and the testimony they upheld. On the other hand all the saints that were raised and reigned with Christ in Rev.20:4 were beheaded. There is no biblical justification to assume that all the Fifth Seal martyrs were beheaded. Some may have been beheaded, and others may not. The beheaded saints were those who were a torn in the flesh of the antiChrist. They not only refused the mark of the Beast, but went about persuading others not to take the the mark of the Beast. This infuriated the antiChrist who ordered their execution by beheading to serve as a deterrent to others.

We contend that the innumerable multitude in Rev.7:9-17 are the saints, both living and dead, raptured at the interlude between the end of the sixth seal and the breaking of the seventh seal, and that the fifth seal martyrs are part of this group as well as those beheaded for the word of God and the witness of Jesus(Rev.20:4). We contend that the fifth seal is the concurrent with the fourth, and does not advance the chronology of events in the 70th week. There is no distance in the realm of the spirit. The disembodied spirits and souls of these saints arrive in heaven as soon as they are killed, and are quartered under the golden altar of incense till the complement of believers to be killed during the Great Tribulation is reached, thereafter, the killing of the saints shall be terminated with the breaking of the sixth seal. They are subsequently raptured and are part of the innumerable multitude in Rev.7:9-17. On the other hand, the beheaded saints are raised to reign with Christ for a thousand years on the first day of the Millennium. This view expounded by Robert Gundry is shared by Marvin J. Rosenthal. However, Alan E. kurschner demurs, advocating that they were raptured prewrath together with all the saints at the appearance of the Shekinah in the Heaavens. And I concur. There is really no biblical justification for their resurrection to be deferred till the first day of the Millennium.

The Pretrib notion that all the so called “Tribulation Saints” have to be killed in order to make heaven is absurd and unbiblical. It sounds like salvation by works. The Scriptures make it clear that the Great Tribulation will be cut short in order to preserve some saints alive for translation at the rapture. If the Great Tribulation were to be permitted to run its full course to the end of the three and one-half years allotted to the antiChrist to reign, no believing flesh or anyone without the mark of the beast shall survive the Great Tribulation. But there are survivors of the Great Tribulation. Apart from the living saints who are translated at the rapture at the appearance of the Shekinah in the heavens, there are the 144,000 who are sealed for protection, and the surviving remnants of Israel who go through the first six trumpets and are reconciled to God on the third day of the 30-day Reclamation Period. Besides, those Gentile survivors of the Great Tribulation, who appeared at the Sheep And Goat Judgment do not have the mark of the Beast(Matt.25:31-46). If they had, they would have been killed at Armageddon or else executed instanta whenever apprehended. The essence of the amputation of the Great Tribulation, in addition to preserving some saints alive for translation at the rapture is to save some Gentiles alive in order that they may repopulate the Earth in the Millennium alongside their Jewish counterparts who survived both the Great Tribulation and the first six trumpet judgments of the wrath of God. To teach therefore that every true believer is murdered during the Great Tribulation, thus obtaining salvation by martyrdom, or that all Gentiles without the mark of the Beast were wiped out during the wrath of God, leaving the surviving Jewish remnants to repopulate the Earth in the Millennium, has no biblical merit, and therefore indefensible.

(j) The Mark Of The Beast

The mark of the Beast is the number of the Beast. It is the number of his name. It is the number of a man. It is described by John the revelator as 666. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”(Rev.13:16-18). It is described in conjunction with the carrier of the enforcer of the Beast, the false prophet. It is a computer chip with an 18-digit bar code with other biometric data specific to the individual which shall be implanted in the right or left hand or forehead as a mark of allegiance to the antiChrist, the First Beast(Rev.13:16,14:9, 20:4). It shall be implemented worldwide because power shall be given to the antiChrist over all peoples, tongues, and nations. “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.”(Rev.13:7). Anyone without this mark shall not be able to buy or sell or engage in other transactions under the reign of the antiChrist.

Biometric implants have been used in animal husbandry for decades. Cattles are branded to identify and indicate ownership, track growth, and determine age, etc. They are now being used in humans. Branding has been in practice for hundreds of years. Slaves have been branded even in ancient times. Branding indicates ownership, authenticity, protection, security, preservation. Over 50,000 people have been chipped worldwide with RFID. Good things can be put to bad use. Those in government have the responsibility to protect the citizenry. RFID can be used to identify criminals and felons, track the whereabouts of felons and sex offenders such as pedophiles, and those with dementia and mental illness. It will make cashlessnes possible which has a number of uses. Therefore it is most probable this practice shall have been accepted worldwide before the emergence of the antiChrist. The antiChrist will legalize it and also make it compulsory. It shall be strictly enforced. Satan is not dumb. No one will be chipped by force. He knows it will not count. But people can be coerced into accepting the mark of the Beast. Those who do not have this mark shall be denied food stamps. Those who have it will have plenty to eat and drink. The antiMessiah shall put chicken in their pots. Those who take the mark of the Beast shall have fiat money credited to and lodged in their accounts.

Besides, those who do not have this mark shall be ferreted out, coerced to take the mark or be killed on refusal to coöperate. There will be robotic images of the Beast, equipped with artificial Intelligence(AI) and Near Field Communication(NFC) to identify those who do not have the mark of the Beast, coerce them to accept it, or be killed on refusal of the mark of the beast. The Scripture makes it clear that anyone who takes the mark of the Beast is doomed for eternity; “the wrath of God abides on him.” This is the message of the third angel made at the midpoint of the 70th week at the commencement of the Great Tribulation.

“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”(Rev.14:9-12).

Apart from teaching for nearly two centuries that the rapture will take place before the commencement of the 70th week, thus making believers unprepared and vulnerable to face the horrors of the Great Tribulation, some pretrib teachers like Brannon Howse, Jimmy De Young, and John MacArthur have of late been propagating the teaching that it is possible to take the mark of the Beast, and repent later on. This teaching flies in the face of the Scripture that clearly indicates that anyone who takes the mark of the Beast is doomed for eternity because the wrath of God abideth on him for ever. This development is very dangerous, and must be denounced with utmost vehemence. It is to make believers utterly vulnerable. The Pretrib teaching that the Church will be raptured before the commencement of the 70th week makes believers unprepared for the horrors of the Great Tribulation, but the teaching that believers can take the mark of the Beast and repent afterwards makes them think they can eat their cake hot and have it all the time. It makes believers think they can be part of the antiChrist system of government, enjoy the benefits, and afterwards stroll into the kingdom of God. This is unthinkable and must be refuted because it is a very big lie. It is true that God will forgive them if they repent. It is also true they are unwilling to repent. They have sinned beyond repentance. It is therefore very dangerous to tinker with the notion that anyone who takes the mark of the Beast will repent later on.

Avraham Shallom.

My Objections To A Brother Whose View On The Rapture Is Pretribulational(4)

(e) The Great Tribulation

Pretribs designate the second half of the 70th week the Great Tribulation. This designation flies in the face of Scriptures. The Scriptures make it clear that the Great Tribulation does not last the whole length of the second half of the 70th week which is the three and one-half years allotted to the antiChrist to reign because the Great Tribulation is cut short by the cosmic and celestial disturbances associated with the breaking of sixth seal. “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”(Matt.24:22). At the breaking of the sixth seal, the Sun, Moon, and Stars are darkened, thusly throwing the Earth and the starry Heavens into utter darkness and cold which make it impossible for the antiChrist and his acolytes to continue their killing spree. “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”(Rev.6:12-14). This heavenly phenomenon frightens the unrighteous wicked out of their pants. They take to the rocks and the mountains to seek non-existent refuge. The dark and frozen Earth, the massive worldwide earthquakes, with meteorites, comets, and asteroids flying across the sky to the Earth make it impossible for the antiMessiah and his acolytes to continue their persecution of the saints. “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”(Rev.6:15-17). This is how the Great Tribulation is amputated.

The essence of the amputation of The Great Tribulation is to save some saints alive for rapture because some saints of the last generation that shall enter the 70th week of Daniel to experience the horrors of the Great Tribulation shall be raptured alive(translated) without passage through the intermediate process of death. If the Great Tribulation is not cut short, no believing flesh will be saved alive. With the technology available to the antiMessiah, if the Great Tribulation is permitted to go on, he will be able to ferret out all believers on Earth, coerce them to recant and take the mark of allegiance to him or be killed on refusal to recant. The Great Tribulation must be distinguished from the Day Of The Lord which also begins in the second half of the 70th week at the breaking of the seventh seal. The Great Tribulation is not the same as the wrath of God in the Day Of The Lord. The wrath of God consists of the seven trumpets and seven bowls. The seventh trumpet opens into the seven bowls just as the seventh seal opens into the seven trumpets. The first six trumpets occur within the second half of the 70th week of Daniel abutting on the end of the 70th week with the death of the two witnesses. Therefore, the Great Tribulation must be distinguished from the eschatological Day Of The Lord. Pretribs do not make any distinction between the Great Tribulation and the eschatological Day Of The Lord, just as much as they do not make any distinction between the wrath of God and the wrath of Satan(Rev.6:17; 12:12).

(f) The Seals, Trumpets, And Bowls

The occurrence of the seals, trumpets, and bowls are consecutive and progressive. They are not simultaneous or coincident, except for the fourth and fifth seals. The fifth seal being a heavenly event is superimposed on the fourth. It does not advance the chronology of the end time narrative. The fifth seal is a heavenly reflection of the killings going on Earth under the fourth seal. There are no overlaps between the seals, trumpets, and bowls. There is an interlude between the end of sixth seal and the breaking of the seventh to enable certain events to transpire. The length of this interlude is not specified. These events are the appearance of the Shekinah Glory in the heavens which dispels the darkness and frigidity precipitated by the breaking of the sixth seal, the sealing of the 144,000, and the rapture of the dead saints and the translation of the living saints. The same day the saints are raptured, the seventh seal is broken, and the wrath of God begins. This interlude is represented by the Rev.7. Rev.6.17 is the end of the cosmic disturbances associated with the breaking of the sixth seal. Rev.8:1 marks the breaking of the seventh seal which inaugurates the day of the Lord in Rev.8 & 9.

There is also an interlude between the end of the sixth trumpet(Rev.9:21) and the sounding of the seventh(Rev.10:7). Unlike the length of the interlude between the sixth and the seventh seals which is not specified, the length of this interlude is about seven days. This is the first seven days of the 30-day Reclamation period if the kingdom which follows the end of the second three and one-half years of the 70th week of Daniel. “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.”(Dan.12:11). This interlude enables certain events to occur between the end of the sixth trumpet and the sounding of the seventh. Within this interlude of seven days, the two witnesses are killed on the first day and raised on the fourth(Rev.11:1-13), and the surviving remnants of Israel are reconciled to the God of Israel on the third day. “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”(Hosea 6:1-3). Shortly before the blowing of the seventh trumpet, the mystery of God is finished, and His spiritual kingdom is completed as the surviving remnants of Israel are brought in. On the fifth day, God Almighty reclaims His rule over the Earth at the sounding of the seventh. “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.”(Rev.10:7).

From Mount Zion, Jesus hops over to the Mount of Olives with his retinue of 144,000 and the surviving remnant of Israel, in fulfillment of the promise made to His disciples after His resurrection from the dead. “And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.”(Acts 1:9-12).

When Jesus stands on the Mount of Olives, it splits into two halves from the East to the West. One half shall move up North, and the other half shall move down South, creating a roadway that shall reaches unto Azal. “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.”(Zech.14:1-4).

On the sixth day, the surviving Jewish remnants which includes the 144,000 are sent into protective custody in Azel. “And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.”(Zech.14:5). On the seventh day, the final seven bowl judgments begin to be poured out by the seven avenging angelic reapers on the unrighteous wicked who bear the mark of the Beast(Rev.16:1).

Anyone who has read the works of the pretribs would quickly notice, they make no distinction between the wrath of Satan and the wrath of God. The seals, trumpets, and bowls are treated as concurrent and simultaneous. But there is a distinction between the wrath of God and the wrath of Satan. The wrath of Satan contained in the first four seals precede the wrath of God which is contained in the seventh seal. The first five seals have nothing to do with the wrath of God. Until the breaking of the sixth seal associated with the cosmic and celestial disturbances which interrupt the Great Tribulation, the wrath of God is not in view. The wrath of God begins with the breaking of the seventh seal.

(g) The Day Of The Lord

The pretribs conflate the day of the Lord with the whole length of the end time beginning from the commencement of the 70th week and including the Millennium. This is absurd. How could the Day Of The Lord possibly include the Millennium when it is clearly stated in the Scripture that the Day Of The Lord is darkness, not light. “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?”(Amos 5:18-20). Here the prophet Amos upbraided the Jews who rejected the Mark of the Beast, who believe in the Messiah of Israel, but do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, who are in expectation of the Day Of The Lord as a day of deliverance for the whole house of Israel, who are ignorant of the fact that the remnant of Israel who survive the Great Tribulation without the mark of the Beast must be purged, purified, cleansed, and broken in spirit by going through the first six trumpet judgments in order to accept Jesus as their Messiah who has nail pierced hands.

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.”(Zech.12:10-14).

After they accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour, they shall be taken into protective custody in Azel while the remaining wrath of God in the seven bowls is meted out on the Beast marked unrighteous wicked. “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.”(Zech.14:3-5). The national repentance of Israel will precede the coming of the Lord with the raptured saints at Armageddon.

We have unequivocally proven from the Scriptures that the day of the Lord is synonymous with the day of His wrath, and that it does not start at the commencement of the 70th week of Daniel, neither does it encompass the whole length of the second half of the 70th week. We have also shown that the wrath of God must be distinguished from the wrath of Satan, and that the Great Tribulation which is the Great Wrath Of Satan does not cover the whole length of the second half of the 70th week of Daniel which is three and one-half years in duration. Both the Great Tribulation and the day of the Lord occur within the second half of the 70th week of Daniel with the latter extending to the end of the 30-day Reclamation Period. The major part of the second half of the 70th week of Daniel is taken over by the wrath of God. For example, the fifth trumpet alone lasts as long as five months(Rev.9:10). The sixth trumpet may even be longer. We have also shown that the wrath of God in the Day Of The Lord is contained in the seventh seal which is broken the very same day the saints are raptured. It opens into the seven trumpets. The seventh trumpet opens into the seven bowls. The first six trumpets occur within the remaining part of the second half of the 70th week which ends with the death of the two witnesses whose ministry runs concurrent with the time period allotted to the reign of the antiChrist which is the whole length of the second half of the 70th week. The period of the reign of the antiChrist is not the same as the Great Tribulation, although the Great Tribulation occurs within it. Although the antiChrist is incapacitated by the terrestrial and celestial disturbances associated with the breaking of the sixth seal, he does not totally lose power and authority and the seat of his government which is the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem until defeated at Armageddon.

The day of the Lord which begins with the breaking of the seventh seal during the second half of the 70th week ends at Armageddon 30 days after the expiration of the 70th week of Daniel. The extra 45 days that follows the battle of Armageddon is solely for the renovation of the Earth damaged by the wicked reign of the antiChrist and the fires of the wrath of God on the unrighteous wicked, the final ingathering of the Jewish exiles in Diaspora, and the Sheep And Goat Judgment of the Gentiles survivors of the Day Of The Lord Wrath(Matt.25:31-46), preparatory to The Millennial reign of Christ and the resurrected saints in their glorified eternal immortal resurrection bodies.

Avraham Shallom.

My Objections To A Brother Whose View On The Rapture Is Pretribulational(3)

The 70th Week Of Daniel

This is the last seven years of the 70 weeks or 490 years appointed by God for Israel to finish the transgression, make an end of sin, make reconciliation for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. “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.”(Daniel 9:24). The starting point of this seven year period is the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and the leader of the Eighth And Final Beast Empire of Satan, the leader of the most powerful empire in the history of man on Earth. “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 9:27).

This leader of a powerful confederacy of ten nations will enforce a false peace agreement between Israel and her Arab and Islamic neighbours who are part of the ten nation confederation. These nations are Put(Libya), Cush(Sudan), Arphaxad or Babylon(Iraq), Tiras(Persia or Iran), Javan(Seleucia, Greek Syria), Gomer(Turkey), and Togarmah(Turkey). These are the seven secondary nations of the Eighth And Final Beast Empire. This leader will pose as the Saviour of Israel from her surrounding enemy(Arab and Islamic) nations who would want her driven into the Mediterranean Sea. Jesus told the Jewish leaders, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”(John 5:43). It is most probable that many from within Israel, especially the scornful leaders(Isa.28:14-19) of the nation will see this great and powerful emperor of a consortium of ten nations as the Messiah of Israel. This period is divided into two equal halves of 1, 260 days, 42 months or three and one-half years.

(a) The Tribulation Period

Pretribs call the whole of this 7-year period the Tribulation Period. Obviously it will be a time of trouble. But does that warrant it being designated the Tribulation Period? We must bear in mind that this period relates to Israel. It is the last 7-year period appointed for her to finish the transgression, make an end of sin, make reconciliation for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. For the first three and one-half years, Israel enjoys relative peace under the protection of this powerful leader of ten nation confederation. He will probably station a protection force in Israel and her Holy City, Jerusalem, as did the United States in South Korea and Japan, and Russia in East Germany, Poland, etc., after the Second World War. Although this leader is the antiChrist, he is as yet veiled. Apart from the saints who understand the end times, and some members of his inner circle who know his mission, the large majority of the inhabitants of the Earth, including the leadership of Israel will see him as the answer to humanity’s myriads of problems. He will enjoy worldwide acceptance. Designating the 70th week of Daniel the Tribulation Period builds an a priori case for the Pretrib Rapture Position. There are no Scriptures that give warrant to this designation. It is better to refer to it as simply the 70th week of Daniel.

(b) The Time Of Jacob’s Trouble

Another error the pretribs commit which is like the first is the designation of the whole of the 70th Week as the time of Jacob’s trouble. “And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? 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 even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”(Jere.30:4-7). Although not all pretribs share this view(Dr. Ronald E. Showers), the large majority do. Like the previous one mentioned above it builds an a priori case for the Pretrib Rapture Position. If the whole of the 70th week is the time of Jacob’s trouble, then the Church is exempt from it. After all, God is dealing with Israel and not the Church.

But the whole of the 70th week cannot be the time of Jacob’s trouble because Israel enjoys relative peace during the first three and one-half years of the 70th week under the protection of the antiChrist prior to his unveiling at the midpoint of the 70th week. There are some Pretribs that concede that Israel enjoys relative peace during the first half of the 70th week, but go on to designate the whole of the 70th week as the time of Jacob’s trouble(Meno Kalisher).

The antiChrist will enforce this false peace agreement for the first half of the 70th week. He will ensure that none of the surrounding hostile Arab and Islamic nations attack Israel during the first half of the 70th week. This is to give Israel a false sense of security. He will deal with Israel himself. Until the midpoint of the 70th week when he abrogates the False Covenant of peace, he does not attack Israel. It is precisely in the middle of the 70th week when the antiChrist breaks his Covenant with Israel, and surrounds Jerusalem with his armies in what is called the Jerusalem Campaign by Robert Van Campen of blessed memory that every Jewish Israeli will put his hands on his loins, and face turned into paleness as a result of fear. “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.”(Luke 21:20). How can these hostile Arab and Islamic nations get their armies to surround Jerusalem when Israel has nuclear weapons? It can only be through subtle peace diplomacy brokered by the antiMessiah. If the antiMessiah happens to be or claims to be of Jewish descent, the added sense of “umbuntu” will make it easier for her to be subverted by the initial benevolence of the antiMessiah. However, there is no clear biblical evidence to warrant such assumption. At the same time he surrounds Jerusalem with his armies, he also desecrates the temple, and abrogates the daily animal, drink, and grain offerings began at the ratification of the false peace agreement. This is the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet(Dan.9:27, Matt.24:15). Therefore the time of Jacob’s trouble begins at the midpoint of the 70th week of Daniel. It does not include the first half of the 70th week of Daniel.

(c) The Time Of God’s Wrath: The Day Of The Lord

It is obvious from the Scriptures that the Church is exempt from the wrath of God: for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus the Christ(1 Thess.1:10, 5:9). If it can be established or proven from the Scriptures that the wrath of God begins at the commencement of the 70th week, hurrah, game over, the Church cannot go through any part of the 70th week. But are there any Scriptures that teach explicitly or implicitly that the wrath of God begins at the beginning of the 70th week? Pretribs teach that the whole of the 70th week is the period of God’s wrath, thusly building an a priori case for Pretrib Rapture Position inasmuch as the Church is exempt from the wrath of God. But the Scriptures are unequivocal in teaching that the day of the Lord is preceded by cosmic and celestial disturbances, and that the wrath of God occurs in the day of the Lord.

The prophet Joel announced that the day of the Lord shall be heralded by the darkening of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and the appearance of the blood Moon.

“The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.”(Joel 3:15). If the wrath of God begins at the commencement of the 70th week, then the 70th week must be preceded by the darkening of the Sun, Moon, and Stars. This singular truth destroys the Pretrib doctrine of imminence.

“And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.”(Joel 2:30-31).

The prophet Isaiah spoke of the same. “Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.”(Isaiah 24:23).

John the revelator told us that this event occurs at the breaking of the sixth seal, after the breaking of the fourth and fifth seals which signal the Great Tribulation and the martyrdom of the saints. The Great Tribulation begins at the midpoint of the 70th week. The sixth seal therefore is broken way into the second half of the 70th week. “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”(Rev.6:12-14). It is obvious therefore that the wrath of God which occurs in the day of the Lord begins in the second half of the 70th week.

The cosmic and celestial disturbances shall send men scurrying for non-existent refuge under the rocks and mountains in fear of the wrath of God which is about to begin. “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”(Rev.6:15-17).

In the Olivet Discourse, our Lord Jesus told His disciples that the darkening of the Sun, Moon, and Stars shall be preceded by the tribulation of those days. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:”(Matt.24:29). The tribulation of those days is the Great Tribulation spoken of earlier in verse 21.

In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. “This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”(2 Cor.13:1). We have established from the Scriptures that the day of the Lord is preceded by cosmic and celestial disturbances, and that this phenomenon is preceded by the Great Tribulation which begins at the middle of the 70th week. It is evident therefore that the wrath of God does not begin at the commencement of the 70th week but rather begins way into the second half of the 70th week after the Great Tribulation which begins at the midpoint of the 70th week, after the cosmic and celestial disturbances which amputate the Great Tribulation.

(d) The Tribulation

Pretribs generally label the first three and one-half years of the 70th week of Daniel the Tribulation. Is this designation biblically accurate? Admittedly, the first three and one-half years of the 70th week of Daniel is a period of trouble. Apart from the emergence of false christs, false prophets, and false teachers, and of course the ultimate false christ, the antiChrist, there are wars, commotions, rumors, and threats of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. These are troubles no doubt, but is there any biblical warrant to label it the Tribulation? Believers are not specifically targeted for genocide. The troubles are such as arise from human conflict and attempt by the antiChrist to gain world domination. In the Olivet Discourse our Lord Jesus calls this period the beginning of birth pains. “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”(Mat.24:5-8).

It is better therefore to stick to the biblical label or simply call it the first three and one-half years. If we designate it the Tribulation, is it in relation to Israel or the Church? During this period the antiChrist protects Israel. So Israel enjoys relative peace, tranquility, and prosperity during this period. And because the notorious world leader has not yet declared himself God, nor has demanded worship by all mortals, the saints are not specifically targeted for genocide because of their refusal to worship the Beast and to give him allegiance by bearing his mark. Who is persecuting who? Nations are at war with one another, jockeying for power and prominence, and there is realignment of nations. On top of that are famines, pestilences, and natural disasters like earthquakes which are the natural consequences of war. There is utter chaos. The rules of engagement enshrined in the Geneva convention will be rubbished. The WHO and international NGOs like Medicine Sans Frontier, the Red Cross and Red Crescent will not be able to function. The essence of the second horse and rider is to take away peace from the Earth in order that men shall kill one another(Rev.6:3,4). This is not particularly against Christians and the Jews. But that is not to say it will be easy for the believers and Jews. Not at all. But this is the narrow window of opportunity for both Jews and Christians who understand the end times to abandon the cities and towns, move into villages, forests, and wildernesses to prepare safe havens, store away food, medicine, and other supplies. It will be extremely difficult to do these things once the Great Tribulation has begone, and the Christians and Jews, and any other persons who refuse to give allegiance to the antiChrist are targeted for genocide.

Avraham Shallom.

My Objections To A Brother Whose View On The Rapture Is Pretribulational(2)

The Fifth Seal: Martyrs Under The Altar

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”(Rev.6:9-11).

Biblical scholars have long recognized the parallelism between the Olivet Discourse in Matt.24, and Rev.6. But when we examine the Olivet Prophecy in Matt.24, we observe that there is no segment of it parallel to the Fifth Seal(Rev.6:9-11). The reason is simply because the Fifth Seal is in its entirety a heavenly scene. Christ is the author of both the Olivet Discourse and the Scroll Of Revelation. In the Olivet Discourse, Christ tells us what is going on here on Earth during the 70th Week of Daniel. In the Scroll Of Revelation, He gives more light by showing us what is going on Earth as well as in heaven. He wants us to know that He is in sovereign control of the events both on Earth as well as in heaven. This does not mean however, that He is responsible for the activities of wicked men. God permits evil, but does not approve of it, neither does He perpetrate it.

The first four seals of Rev.6 are sequential, consecutive and progressive. But the Fifth Seal is concurrent, coincident, and simultaneous with the fourth seal. The Fifth Seal does not advance the chronology of events here on Earth in the 70th week of Daniel. It occurs in heaven during the fourth seal. In consonance with the parallelism of the Olivet Discourse and Rev.6, the fourth seal is the Great Tribulation. During the Great Tribulaion, believers are being hounded, ferreted out and killed, and some taken captive. Our Lord Jesus told us in the Olivet Discourse believers shall be led captive into all nations(Luk.21:24). The Scroll Of Revelation tells us that those who will be taken captive were so destined. So also those who are to be killed. “He that is destined to go into captivity, into captivity he goes; and the he that is destined to be killed with the sword, with the sword the one shall be killed.”(Rev.13:10). The Great Tribulation shall be worldwide but the epicenter shall be the Land of Israel and its holy and capital city, Jerusalem.

During the Great Tribulation, the fourth seal, believers are being killed, and their disembodied spirits and souls are arriving in heaven. There is no distance in the realm of the spirit. As soon as these believers are killed, their disembodied spirits and souls arrive in heaven and are quartered under the golden altar of incense in the Holy Place in the Temple Of God in Heaven. This is the fifth seal. Remember that the Tabernacle in the wilderness was patterned after the Temple of God in Heaven. God reminded Moses: “see that thou do everything according to the pattern shown thee on the Holy Mount.”(Exod.29:9,40; Heb.8:5b). No Israelite who is not of the High priestly family of Aaron has access into the Holy Place, not even the Levites. In like manner, no Israelite who is not the High Priest, and of the family of Aaron has access into the Holy Of Holies, and that once a year, only on the Day Of Atonement, and after he has offered sacrifices for himself and the errors of the people of Israel(Heb.9:6,7). Any violations of these ordinances attracted the death penalty.

That the Fifth Seal martyrs merited to be quartered under the Golden Altar Of Incense in the Holy Place Of The Temple in Heaven indicates that they were priests. And Christ has made us kings and priests. “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”(Rev.1:4-6). If the fifth seal martyrs were Jews who did not believe in Jesus, they would not have access to the Holy Place. They are believers both Jews and Gentiles who share a common faith in the finished and soteriological works of Christ on the Cross Of Calvary.

The Fifth Seal martyrs asked God how long it would be before He avenges their death on their murderers. If the wrath of God has already begun in the Day Of The Lord from the commencement of the 70th week as pretribs teach, would it not have been proper for God to tell them:

“Can’t you see, I have already begun to punish those wicked murderers: the antiChrist has emerged on the World Stage, he has formed a coalition of ten nations. He has also tried to win the rest of the nations of the world to his side through subtle peace diplomacy. That has failed, and he has now resorted to war. There are wars and commotions, rumors and threats of wars. Nations have risen up against nations and kingdom against kingdom, and as a result, there are famines, pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. My servant Michael has cast down my enemy Satan to the Earth. He is now angry with the inhabitants of the Earth, knowing that he has but a short time. He has possessed the antiChrist who has moved his headquarters to Jerusalem. He has desecrated my Temple, and is demanding that men worship him in place of Me. He is killing my saints who refuse to worship him, and that is how your souls come to be under the golden altar in my temple in heaven?”(Rev.6,12,13).

Ridiculous you would say, and you are right. How can the antiChrist come to power in the Day Of The Lord and complish all these things including the martyrdom of the Fifth Seal martyrs at a time when God alone is to be exalted, in the day no man shall be exalted and the haughtiness of men brought low, in the Day when the idols shall be abolished, and the gods that had not made the heavens and the Earth perish from under the Earth and under these heavens?(Isa.2:18-22; Jere.10:11).

If the wrath of God had already begun, they did not need to wait: in fact, there would have been no need for their question how long. God admonished them to wait until their fellow saints to be martyred had been accomplished. There is a certain number of saints to be martyred. It is a secret number known only to God. The secret things belong to God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and our children(Deut.29:29). Those to be martyred were so destined, and those to be taken captive were also so destined. This is the patience and faith of the saints(Rev.13:10). It is a display of ignorance to denigrate and cast aspersions on the Fifth Seal martyrs, and to make them the butt of a joke of being made the “bottom” of the altar. The Scripture did not say they were made the “bottom” of the altar, but that they were kept under the altar pending the completion of the number of the saints to be martyred during the Great Tribulation that was going on at that time.

If the Great Tribulation were allowed to run throughout the whole length of the three and one-half years allotted to the antiChrist, no believer will be left alive to be raptured. But because some believers must be raptured alive, God will cut short the Great Tribulation(Matt.24:22). Also no Jew or Gentile who did not take the Mark of the Beast will survive the second half of the 70th week. But some Jews will survive and be reconciled to God on the 3rd day of the 30-day Reclamation Period when the Mystery Of God is finished and His spiritual kingdom complete(Rev.10:7). And some Gentiles will survive the second half of the 70th week to appear at the Sheep And Goat Judgment(Matt.25:31-46). The Sheep will be justified to enter the Millennium in their mortal bodies to repopulate the Earth alongside their Jewish counterpart. The goats shall be executed and their souls banished to Hell.

God will cut short the Great Tribulation with cosmic and celestial disturbances(Matt.24:29-31). This is the sixth seal which will send all the wicked scurrying for non-existent cover and protection under the rocks and mountains in fear of the wrath of the Lamb before which no man shall be able to stand, abruptly bringing the Great Tribulation to a halt(Rev.6:12-17). The Fifth Seal martyrs were executed for the word of God and the testimony which they held. They should be admired and congratulated not denigrated and disparaged.

We must distinguish the wrath of God from the wrath of Satan(Rev.6:16; 12:12). The wrath of Satan comes first and is directed against the saints of the Most High. “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”(Rev.13:7-10).

The wrath of God comes last and is directed against the wicked Earth-dwellers who worship the antiChrist and the Great Dragon and have murdered the saints of the Most High during the Great Tribulation. This is the theology of the second. Carnal things first before spiritual things. “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”(1 Cor.15:46-49). The saints must be tested first to purify them before the sinners shall be subjected to the wrath of God.

“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:”(Eph.5:3-8).

Apart from the sins listed in the above quoted segment of the Scriptures, the other reason anyone would be subject to God’s wrath is to take the mark of allegiance to the antiChrist. “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”(Rev.14:9-12).

God will recompense tribulation(the wrath of God) to those who have troubled us the saints during the Great Tribulation by the antiChrist(2 Thess.1:6). It takes time for sin to pile up to heaven. God cannot punish the wicked until their cup of iniquity is full. Until they have killed the saints in a rage that reaches up to heaven, God cannot begin to punish them for their evils. The wrath of God does not begin until after the breaking of the sixth seal.

The first four seals have nothing to do with the wrath of God, but have everything to do with the wrath of Satan; in fact, the Great Tribulation is the Great wrath of Satan which does not begin until Satan is cast down to the Earth at the midpoint of the 70th week and possesses the antiChrist ceding his power and authority unto him to act on his behalf, and the Restrainer is removed. As Christ is God’s representative on Earth to administer His wrath against the wicked Earth-dwellers and worshippers and adorers of the Dragon-Beast, so also is the antiChrist Satan’s representative on Earth to administer his wrath against the saints of the Most High, the Jews and Gentiles, who reject his Mark of allegiance.

The Fifth Seal martyrs were not feeble saints who missed the first roundup, for the Rapture has not yet occurred. The Scriptures make it clear in both the Olivet Discourse and the Scroll Of Revelation that the Rapture occurs after the Tribulation of those days, after the breaking of the sixth seal with the attendant cosmic and celestial disturbances, shortly before the breaking of the seventh seal. The same day the Shekinah Glory(the appearance of the Son Of Man) appears in the heavens, the 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel are sealed for protection, and the saints raptured to take them away from the scene of the Great Tribulation and the wrath of God which is about to begin at the breaking of the seventh seal(Matt.24:29-31; Mk.13:24-27; Rev.7:1-17).

Avraham Shallom.

My Objections To A Brother Whose View On The Rapture Is Pretribulational(1)

There is not a single verse in both 1 & 2 Thessalonians that teaches either explicitly or implicitly that some Christians shall be raptured and receive glorified eternal immortal resurrection bodies pretribulationally before the antiChrist is revealed. Rather it teaches that that day in which the rapture will take place will not occur until two events take place. “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;”(2 Thess.2:3). First, the Man Of Sin, the Son Of Perdition, the antiChrist must be revealed(unveiled). Second, there shall be an apostasia(Hellenistic, Classical Greek: apostasis), a falling away from the Faith. The massive abandonment of the Christian Faith will be precipitated by the unveiling of the antiChrist as a dead man who ruled over one of the seven previous Beast Empires of Satan, was killed with a military weapon in battle, descended into the abyss, and ascends from there to rule over the Eighth And Final Beast Empire of Satan. “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”(Rev.13:3, 17:8). He will demand to be worshipped by all mortals. He will use food and commerce as bargaining chips. “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”(Rev.13:17). His unveiling will take place in the yet to be rebuilt Third Jewish Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. This is the abomination of desolation which will occur at the midpoint of the 70th week(Dan.9:27; Matt.24:15; Mk.13:14). It is concurrent and coincident with the invasion of Jerusalem by the armies of the antiChrist(Luk.21: 20-24). For clarity, consult this article: https://mtzionheritageministries.com/2019/09/01/the-two-most-important-events-that-must-occur-before-the-rapture-can-take-place-and-the-wrath-of-god-begins/

The Holy Spirit as the restrainer is another pretrib mantra. It is not revealed any where in the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit is the restrainer. The Holy Spirit cannot hitchhike with the Church at the Rapture. The Holy Spirit as the Third Person Of The Godhead, the Trinity, has always been here. He was here at the Creation. He glided over the waters(Gen.1:1-2). He anointed Moses and the prophets of Israel. Jesus was anointed of the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil(Act.10:38). That was before Pentecost. At Pentecost, a new relationship between man and God was created within the framework of a new order, the New Covenant. After the Rapture, the Holy Spirit will still be here. As God He is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. The two witnesses will be uniquely and extraordinarily anointed of the Holy Spirit(Rev.11).

The restrainer is not an NT doctrine. It is Christian scholars who debate about his identity. The restrainer is an OT doctrine. His identity has been known in Judaism for hundreds of years before Christianity. His identity has been revealed by Jewish scholars like Rashi. He is archangel Michael who stands for the people of God(Dan.12:1). His identity was known to Paul’s immediate audience in 2 Thess.2:6-8, some of whom were Jewish. That was why Paul did not bother to disclose his identity in that passage. After he casts Satan down to the Earth at the midpoint of the 70th week, he shall “amad,” that is stop doing what he normally does which is restraining the Devil. Then there shall be Great Tribulation(Rev.12:7-9). When Satan is cast down to the Earth, he shall possess the antiChrist who shall declare himself God(Rev.13:2). Satan has Great wrath when cast down to the Earth because he knows he has but a short time. He will go to make war with the remnant of the seed of the woman who keep the commandment of God(observant Jews who repudiate his authority by refusal to bear his Mark of allegiance, the Mark of the Beast), and those who have the testimony of Jesus(the believers who refuse to take the Mark of the Beast). Who are those who have the testimony of Jesus? Are they not believers in Jesus The Christ? They are some of the greats of the saints at this momentous hour of history. How can they be feeble saints left behind to bear the brunt of the antiChrist’s reign of terror?

There are no Scriptures that teach that there are two phases of the Christ’s Second Advent. The Greek word Parousia translated coming is a compound word consisting of “para” and lousia” which mean arrival and subsequent presence with. The First Advent consisted of a series of events like the annunciation, the birth of Christ, the presentation in the Temple, His temptation, His three year Ministry, arrest, trial and condemnation, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, appearances to His disciples, ascension and session and intercessary ministry at the right hand of the Throne Of The Father at the Throne Room in the Temple in Heaven(Heb.7:25). Like the First advent, the Second Advent will also consist of a series of events. The Second Advent begins with the breaking of the 6th seal which begins with a massive worldwide earthquake or series of massive worldwide earthquakes, followed by cosmic disturbances that darken the heavens and freeze the Earth(Rev.6:12,13). This shall be followed by the appearance of the Shekinah Glory in the heavens, which is the sign of the coming of the Son of Man in the heavens(Matt.24:29,30). When the Shekinah Glory appears in the heavens, the saints are advised to look up, for their redemption draweth nigh(Luk.21:28). If the rapture had already taken place, what is their redemption at this time? The Shekinah Glory is the visible manifestation of the Yahweh of Israel. Every eye shall see Him when He appears in the darkened heavens with an entourage of angels who will blow the trumpet and gather His elect from one end of the heavens to the other to meet the Lord in the air(1 Thess.4:14-17). So the Rapture cannot be silent, quiet or secret as pretribs teach. Quite the opposite, the heavens shall blaze it forth. It occurs at the parousia.

The trumpet will be blown. Christ will dispatch His angels to gather His elect from the fours corners of the Earth. But before then, the 144,000 must be reconciled to God and sealed for protection with the name of God(Rev.7:1-8, 14:1). God will not leave Himself without a witness. It is like the handing over of a baton in a relay race. The Church will be taken away in the Rapture, and the 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel will become God’s witness on Earth. Then the 7th seal shall be broken and the wrath of God begins. After the wrath of God which ends at Armageddon at the end of the 30-day Reclamation Period Of the Kingdom, the whole Earth will be renovated during the 45-day Restoration Period Of the Kingdom, and Christ coronated by the Father in Heaven to reign over the Earth in the Millenium. These series of events constitute the Second Coming Of The Lord. There is no silent or secret rapture anywhere in the Scriptures. That is a pretrib concoction and fabrication. The people of the Earth who see His appearance like lightning in the heavens shall mourn because He is about to punish them for their evils(Matt.24:29-31; Rev.1:7, 6:15-17). See article on The Tribulation The Great: https://mtzionheritageministries.com/?s=The+tribulation+the+great

The Sheep and the Goats are not Christians as you have also rightly pointed out. They are Gentiles unbelievers who did not take the Mark of the Beast who somehow and miraculously though survived the Great Tribulation and the wrath of God. The basis of their judgment is how they treated the Lord’s brethren(Jews, His brethren according the flesh; and the believers, His brethren according the spirit) during the Great Tribulation(Matt.25:31-46). The Sheep shall be justified to enter and repopulate the Earth in the Millennium alongside their Jewish counterpart who survive the Great Tribulation and the wrath of God, specifically the first six trumpet judgments.

Your view of and comment on the 5th seal matters is both fallacious and egregious at the same time(Rev.6:9-11). The pretribs have always denigrated these wonderful saints as spiritual weaklings who could not make the first roundup. This is totally false. These were martyred for “the word of God and the testimony which they held.” They were quartered under the the golden altar of incense in the Holy Place in the Temple in heaven from where they make their plea of vengeance to God. They are referred to as souls because they have not yet received their glorified eternal immortal resurrection bodies because the Rapture has not yet taken place. They were instructed by God to wait until the number of their fellow believers who were to be killed is complete. There is a certain number of believers to be martyred before God can interrupt the Great Tribulation with cosmic and celestial disturbances. This number is not revealed to us. The secret things belong to God(Deut.29:29).

The patience of the saints during the Great Tribulation is that if anyone is destined to killed with the sword, with the sword, the one shall be killed; and if anyone is destined to go into captivity, the one shall be taken into captivity(Rev.13:10). The KJV translation of this verse is faulty, and does not reflect the original meaning of the Greek. At the time these saints made their plea to God, the killing was still going on here on Earth under the 4th seal which is the Great Tribulation. The 5th seal is entirely a heavenly scene, a reflection of the killings going here on Earth. It does not advance the chronology of the end time narrative. It is therefore concurrent, coincident, and simultaneous with the 4th seal. The other seals are progressive and consecutive. There is no distance in the real of the spirit. The souls and spirits of the 5th seal martyrs arrive in heaven as soon as they are killed here on Earth. Whatever happens to the saints who are taken captive if the rapture has already taken place? The 5th seal martyrs are raptured with the others in Rev.7:9-17. They are not inferior to the other saints at all. If anything, they are highly honored. If the wrath of God has begun at the commencement of the 70th week as pretribs teach, then God should be held accountable for the death of the 5th seal martyrs. This is utter nonsense. Please read my refutation of the Pretribulational Rapture Position, a critique and rebuttal of Dr. Dave Williams 20 pieces of counsel to those left behind after the Rapture. Link: https://mtzionheritageministries.com/2020/04/28/a-critique-and-rebuttal-of-dr-dave-williams-20-pieces-of-counsel-to-survivors-after-the-rapture-2/

https://mtzionheritageministries.com/2020/04/29/a-critique-and-rebuttal-of-dr-dave-williams-20-pieces-of-counsel-to-survivors-after-the-rapture2/

Christ will come as a thief for those who do not known the times and the seasons. Those who are in darkness. We the saints are not in darkness. We are of the day being children of light, not of night nor of darkness. That day cannot come upon us unawares(1 Thess.5:1-13). We cannot know the day and the hour of His coming but we can know the general time period(Matt.24:36). The Fig tree is a sign of approximation not the symbol of Israel as you taught in your book( Matt.24:32-35 ). In the Lukan account(Luk.21:29-33), it says “and all the trees.” All the trees cannot be the symbol of Israel. When those in the temperate region see the Fig tree and all the trees begin to sprout and bud after the Fall and the Winter and the rain in the Spring, they know that Summer is near. Likewise when we see the events of the 70th week of Daniel begin to unfold, we know that the coming of the Lord draws near. This generation shall not pass till these things be fulfilled(Matt.24:34). The generation of believers that shall enter the 70th week, experience the horrors of the Great Tribulation perpetrated by the antiChrist and his acolytes shall be the generation of believers that shall be raptured alive. That generation shall witness the end of the Ages at which point in the eschatological timeline that the rapture occurs. The end of the Ages is the point of transition from this age to the age to come which is the Millennial reign of Christ. For details, see my article on the Fig Tree: https://mtzionheritageministries.com/?s=The+fig+tree.

See also the article on The Parable Of The Wheat And The Tares. Link: https://mtzionheritageministries.com/?s=The++wheat+and+the+tares

Avraham Shallom.