What to Do if You Miss the Rapture

5:00PM EDT 3/29/2017

Dr. Dave Williams

Now is the time to repent. (Pexels)

It is possible to be a professing Christian and not actually be in the faith. Paul said, “Examine yourselves, seeing whether you are in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5a). Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21-23).

If you are reading this after the rapture has occurred, it’s because you weren’t ready. Jesus said in Matthew 25:10 that “those who were ready went in … And the door was shut.”

Let me give you 20 pieces of counsel to survive this terrible time if you miss God’s first roundup, the rapture.

Dr. Avraham Shallom:

The background to Dr. Dave Williams counsel is appropriate. He establishes the fact based firmly on the Scriptures that not all professing Christians are true believers in Jesus the Christ. It is therefore possible for one to be a church goer, and actively participate in the activities of the local assembly without a personal relationship with Jesus and without experiencing the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in one’s life. Like the Church of Sardis a professing Christian could have a reputation for being alive while in actual fact one is spiritually dead. “Cuculus non facit monacum(a hood does not make a monk).” The presence of all the paraphernalia of religion, and the use of all the right phrases are no indications of spiritual life or a living and vibrant relationship with the Living Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord.

“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.”(Rev.3:1).

It therefore behoves us as individual believers in Christ to examine ourselves from time to time whether we are in the Faith(2 Cor.13:5a). It is also possible for one to outwardly profess Jesus as Lord of one’s life without subjecting oneself to the lordship of Jesus. If one calls Jesus Lord but does not seek his will, listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, hears and does not obey the voice of the Holy Spirit, to that extent, the one is a hypocrite.

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”(Matt.7:21-23).

If one hears the word of God and does not do it, or hears a command from the Holy Spirit and does not obey, to that extent one is a hypocrite and lives in disobedience. It is utterly foolish to hear the word of God and not walk in the light of that revelation.

“And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”(Matt.7:26-27).

On the other hand, those who hear the word of God and obey are the house with the foundation laid firmly in the rock.

“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”(Matt.7:24-25).

Dr Dave Williams made reference to the parable of the ten virgins(Matt.25:1-14), that the doors will be shut after the five wise virgins were allowed entry into the marriage of the Lamb. Admittedly, the marriage of the Lamb occurs in Heaven after the Rapture of the Church at the End Of The Ages during which the wrath of God is meted out on the living wicked earth-dwellers. If the doors of Heaven will be shut after the Rapture to keep out the hypocrites, how does he account for the secondary entry of the unwise virgins into the marriage of the Lamb if the Rapture occurred before the commencement of the 70th week which the parable of the ten virgins does not support? If Dr. Dave Williams line of reasoning is correct, then there will be no secondary entry into the kingdom of God after the Rapture; in other words, there will be no so called “Tribulation Saints,” “those left behind,” and there will be no Fifth Seal martyrs, inasmuch as these events occurred after the Rapture and the shutting of the door of entry into the kingdom. The Martyrdom Of The Fifth Seal martyrs occurred here on Earth inside the 70th week, during the Great Tribulation which is the Fourth Seal: they are part of the so called “Tribulation Saints” according to the Pretribulational Rapture Position which as we can see is not biblically accurate.

Dr. Dave Williams:

1. Do not believe the explanations given by the secular media.

Christians have not been beamed to some interplanetary spaceship to be reprogrammed. We have not been taken by aliens, and we’re not in Buenos Aires, Togo or Europe. We have left the earth on a cloud of glory to be with Jesus forever.

Dr. Avraham Shallom:

How much of the world’s media houses will be functioning after the Rapture is any one’s guess. Dr. Dave Williams assumes contrary to the Scriptures that the Rapture occurs before the 70th week of Daniel begins, that the media houses will be functioning, spewing out deceptive messages to explain away the Rapture. We have heard this mantra from the pretribbers for a long time. Our Lord Jesus in His Olivet Discourse firmly establishes that the Rapture occurs after the cosmic disturbances following the Great Tribulation.

“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. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”(Matt.24:29-31; cp. Mk.13:24-27).

The fifth seal promises the wrath of God. The sixth seal which parallels the cosmic disturbances after the Great Tribulation in the Olivet Discourse portends the wrath of God. It announces to the wicked earth-dwellers who will be left behind after the Rapture that God is about to punish them for their evils. The condition on Earth at this time is one of utter chaotic confusion as men and women of every cadre scurry for cover under the rocks, the caves and the mountains having disposed to the moles and the bats the images of the Beast they have made for themselves to worship.

“Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?”(Isaiah 2:10-22).

This passage in Isaiah parallels Matt.24:29-31 and the sixth seal of Rev.6:12-17 in that they speak of condition on Earth following the cosmic disturbances and during the outpouring of the wrath of God.

“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?(Rev.6:12-17).

The seas will be roiling and the waves will be roaring, and men’s hearts are failing them for fear of those things that are coming upon the Earth.

“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).

This is the chaotic condition under which the Rapture shall occur. It is under this condition that the believers are admonished by Christ to “look up, lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh”

If the high and low, all the great and rich men as well as the poor are all on the run for their dear lives following the breaking of the sixth seal and the attendant cosmic disturbances, how could anyone at this time be spewing out false propaganda messages to the world, at a time when communication is severely hampered by severe earthquakes, tsunamis, darkening of the sun and moon, and wild fires caused by comets, meteorites, and asteroids impinging on the Earth from outer space? During and immediately after the cosmic disturbances, it will be extremely difficult for anyone to fly aircrafts. The darkened sun and moon and stars will frozen the Earth and darken the heavens. It is under this condition that the Shekinah will appear in the heavens which is the sign of the coming(Parousia) of the Son Of Man. Every eye will see Him, and the inhabitants of the Earth shall mourn(Matt.24:30b; Rev.1:7). Then will He dispatch His angels to rapture the elect.

How can anyone at this time be reading newspapers and viewing programmes on televisions? Which media houses are churning out these newspapers? How are they being distributed? Which television station will be operating under this condition of worldwide chaos? Who will be spewing out these propaganda messages inasmuch as the antiChrist and his minions are on the run for their lives. The electromagnetic pulse waves(EMP) and coronal mass ejections(CME) caused by meteorites, asteroids and comets falling on the Earth from outer space will disrupt telecommunications. The natural lights of the Universe will be switched off. The Earth shall be thrown into utter darkness and frozen. Roads will be rendered impassable by the earthquakes and snowstorms due to extreme low temperatures ; bridges shall be broken. It will take some time for the antiChrist and the other kings of the Earth to effect some repairs. These are phantasy stories fabricated by the Devil and his agents to hoodwink the saints into thinking the Rapture will take place under normal conditions, the remnants of the inhabitants of the Earth would then be saddled with the responsibility of inventing stories to explain away the Rapture. After the Rapture no one is at liberty or has the pleasure to concoct such stories as Christians have been beamed to interplanetary spaceship to be reprogrammed, or whisked away by aliens to Togo, Buenos Aires, or Europe; for what follows the Rapture is the Day Of Lord Wrath which will put every man on Earth on the run for his dear life. The appearance of the Shekinah in the heavens which is the sign of the coming(Parousia) of the Son Of Man, will dispel the darkness, defrost the Earth and then He will rapture the saints after the sounding of the trumpet with the voice of the archangel. The Rapture will not be silent, secret, nor sudden. It will be viewed by all and sundry alive at that time. Anyone alive at that time will know that such stories are not true, considering the accompanying cosmic phenomena. As a matter of fact, the whole world will know intuitively that God is about to punish the world for her evils: “for the day of the Lord is come and who shall be able to stand?” That is what the unbelieving world will say.

Dr. Dave Williams:

2. Get rid of your cell phone.

If you do not agree with the government of the final shabua and the charming world leader, you will be hunted. Your cell phone can be tracked. Throw it in a river or lake far from where you are going to be.

Dr. Avraham Shallom:

The Hebrew word “shavua” means week or seven. It could be a week or seven of days, months or years. It is the context that determines the meaning. It is singular. The plural form is Shavuot as in the Hebrew feast of weeks or Pentecost. The final “shavua” therefore is the last seven years of the present age. It is the last week of the 70 weeks of Danial. It is the 70th of the 70 Sevens allotted to the Gentile to dominate Israel.

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”(Daniel 9:24-27).

69 of the 70 weeks are history. We are now in the prophetic gap of time between the 69th and the 70th week or seven. This gap of time is called variously the Gentile Interlude, the Church Age, the Mysterion, the Timeless Period, the indeterminate intermediate period or simply the Gap. Each of these terms and phrases reflect various aspects of this period of time. It is the intermediate period between the 69th and the 70th of Daniel.

Dr. Dave Williams assumes without biblical proof, as do all pretribs that the whole of the 70th seven is the period of God’s wrath, and because the Church is exempt from the wrath of God, the Church must be raptured before the wrath of God commences at the beginning of the 70th week when the antiChrist signs a 7-year peace agreement with Israel(1 Thess.1:10, 5:9; cp Dan.9:27). Do the Scriptures teach that the Church will not enter the 70th week of Daniel? Our brother Apostle Paul taught the Thessalonians that that day, the day in which the Rapture will occur and the Day Of The Lord will begin will not come until two events occur:

(1) the revelation or unveiling of the Man Of Sin, that is the antiMessiah, and

(2) apostasy, a massive abandonment of the faith.

The first event, the revelation of the Man Of Sin, the antiChrist occurs at the midpoint of the 70th week of Daniel(2 Thess.2:3,4 ) when he relocates his headquarters to the rebuilt Third Jewish Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem(Dan.11:45).

The massive exodus from the Faith is specific, not nebulous, and occurs beginning from the midpoint of the 70th week, during the Great Tribulation by the antiChrist, and is triggered by the self-deification of the antiChrist and his demand to be worshipped by all mortals, the abomination of desolation and surrounding Jerusalem with his armies in what biblical scholars call the Jerusalem Campaign.

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.”(Matthew 24:15-18; cp Mark 13:15-20).

The abomination of desolation occurs at the same time as the surrounding Of Jerusalem with the armies of the antiMessiah.

“And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”(Luke 21:20-24).

The first three and one-half years will witness the emergence of false messiahs, wars, commotions, and rumours and threats of wars, and famines, pestilence and earthquakes(Matt.24:4-8; Mk.13:5-8; Luk.21:8-11; Rev.6:1-6). During this period, the condition on the Earth will be one of war, and death will be brutal, but the believers and Jews will not be specifically targeted as in the second half of the 70th week during the Great Tribulation by the antiChrist. So, there is a window of three and one-half years for believers who understand the End Times to prepare safe havens beginning from the time the antiChrist signs a 7-year peace pact with Israel. We must avoid going to those locations with any gadgets that have GPS. This sequence of events is the same as in the Olivet Discourse given by our Lord Jesus the Christ(Math.24, Mak.13, Luk.21), and in Rev. 6. Jerusalem will be the epicenter of the Great Tribulation being the seat of the government of the antiMessiah.

Due to exponential increment in technology, it is estimated that by the year 2027, smartphones may become obsolete, to be replaced by augmented and virtual reality headsets or neural lace and nanobots planted in the brain and blood vessels for communications and healing of the body. In other words we would have become cyborgs, a situation a true believer must avoid at all costs. Man-machine meld is antiGod. Transhumanism is antiGod. Beginning from the breaking of the sixth seal which is associated with cosmic and celestial disturbances, these electronic gadgets may no longer function. After the Rapture is the wrath of God. The wicked earth-dwellers will naturally dispense with all communication gadgets which are images of the antiChrist for fear of the Lord and the glory of His Majesty(Isa.2:10-22; Rev.6:12-17).

Dr. Dave Williams:

3. Do not kill yourself.

Whenever there’s social disorder and confusion, people tend to think suicide is the only way out. It’s not. You probably feel hopeless, but there is still hope. The Holy Spirit will still be working during the final shabua. Pray and ask Him to guide you, give you strength and dwell in you.

Dr. Avraham Shallom:

During the First three and one-half years of the 70th week of Daniel and the Great Tribulation which occurs in the first part of the second half, some believers who have been deceived by the pretrib message that the Rapture will occur before the beginning of the 70th week may commit suicide out of anguish of soul or to evade capture and torture, hunger, martyrdom and extreme suffering, humiliation and indignities.

During the Day Of The Lord, lots of folks who have been deceived would like to kill themselves out of anguish of soul and remorse of conscience, but will not be able, especially those who have been branded with the mark of allegiance to the antiMessiah. These have sinned beyond repentance. In spite of their desire to die, they will not repent of their sins.

“And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”(Rev.9:20-21).

Men will desire to die but death will flee from them. They killed those who did not want to die during the Great Tribulation by the antiChrist. They themselves will desire death, but their wish will not be granted(Rev.9:5,6). The fifth trumpet judgment will torment those who do not have the seal of the Almighty for five months(Rev.9:4). The agent of this torment will be demons with the physiognomy of locusts and sting of scorpions who have been incarcerated in the bottomless pit for thousands of years(Rev.9:1-3). These demons are fallen angelic beings who did not keep their first estate, but cohabited with human females, which was a satanic attempts to hybridize the human race during the antedeluvian era(Gen.6:1-8). God spared Noah and his family because they were pure, that is, unhybridized. Today as in the antediluvian era, effort is being made to hybridize humanity not only through intermarriage between fallen angels and human females but also through alteration of human genome by bioengineering. Don’t ever think that everyone on Earth is a pure human. There are humanized demons, demonized humans, and hybrid humans.

Away from the prying eyes of activists, scientists are attempting to incorporate animal and plant genes into human genome. In not distant a future, the world would pressure us to become cyborgs through biometric implants in various parts of the body and neural mesh and nanobots injected into the brain and blood vessels. This will present serious challenges to the younger generation of believers who may be under pressure to conform or become obsolescent and irrelevant and be economically maginalized or ostracized and boycotted. The buzz words nowadays are financial inclusion and internet banking. To remain economically relevant some ignorant believers may accept to become cyborgs. Man wants to be a Homo Deus independent of God which is an affront on God.

After the deluge, God imprisoned the spirits of these fallen angelic beings and their humanoid offspring under darkness waiting to be employed to punish the wicked earth-dwellers during the fifth trumpet judgment(Jude 6). Their incarceration in the abyss for thousands of years have rendered them more vile and wicked than ever. Nevertheless, they cannot go beyond the command of God. They have a king over them who is  the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon which means destruction or destroyer(Rev.9:11). The antiChrist is one of these fallen angelic beings(Rev.11:7, 17:8). He is the Beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit, and shall go into perdition, that is, descend back into the abyss, the bottomless pit. He is the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is, and goeth into perdition.

It is interesting that Dr. Dave Williams teaches that the Holy Spirit will still be here during the 70th week of Daniel. Most pretribbers believe the Holy Spirit is the restrainer, and will hitchhike with the Church when the Rapture occurs before the Great Tribulation. Some others teach the restrainer is human government. Human government will still be here till the sounding of the seventh trumpet at which point God Almighty reclaims His rule over the Earth, and will not be totally defeated and dispensed with till Armageddon.

“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”(Rev.11:15). Human government shall be at the apogee of its glory when Jesus takes over the kingdoms of This Age.

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”(Dan.2:44-45).

The Holy Spirit has been here even before the creation of man.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”(Gen.1:1-2).

The Holy Spirit has been present throughout Israel’s history. “The Lord God and His Spirit has sent me.” The kings of Israel, the prophets of Israel, the warriors of Israel, David’s mighty men were anointed of the Holy Spirit. Bezaleel and Aholiab were anointed of the Holy Spirit to construct the Tabernacle in the wilderness(Exod.31:1-11; cp. 2 Kin.2:1-18). John the Baptizer was filled with the Holy Spirit from the mother’s womb though he was not part of the bride of Christ(Luk.1:15). He described himself as a friend of the bridegroom. Jesus was baptized with the Holy Spirit. What happened on the day of Pentecost was a new relationship between God and man based on the framework of a new order, the New Covenant. After closure of the Church Age at the Rapture, the Holy Spirit will continue to be here. The Holy Spirit is God, and as such is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. On that count, I totally concur with Dr. Dave Williams. The Holy Spirit need not hitchhike with the Church on the day of Rapture.

The restrainer is an OT doctrine. He is a well known figure in Judaism. His personality is not arguable amongst Orthodox Jews. He is archangel Michael who standeth for God’s people(Dan.12:1; 2 Thess.2:6,7). He will cast Satan down to the Earth at the midpoint of the 70th week, after which he will “amad”, that is step aside(Rev.12:7-9, 13-17; Dan.12:1), and then the Man Of Sin shall be unveiled, and there shall be a very Great Tribulation. Believers will certainly be here on Earth during the greater part of the 70th week, it will be wise to pray and ask God for guidance, direction, and strength, and not to take one’s own life. But there will be extreme situations in which it may be wise for a believer to take one’s own life rather than live and give away vital information that may betray other believers, compromise their security, and jeopardize the lives of loved ones. Discretion will be required in this sort of situation. Situation ethics may apply; that is do as occasion demands.

Dr. Dave Williams:

4. Repent immediately and make your peace with God.

If you’re reading this after the rapture, you’ve already witnessed many of the events we described. Now is the time to repent. Jesus Christ is the only Savior and only way to heaven (John 14:6). Pray, “Lord Jesus, be merciful to me. I have sinned against you. Save me now. I receive you as my personal Savior.” For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13).

Dr. Avraham Shallom:

We have established based on Scriptures that the condition on Earth under which the Rapture will take place will be one of utter chaotic confusion. “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).

People of all cadre will be running helter-skelter for fear of those things which are coming upon the Earth. At the breaking of the sixth, the living wicked earth-dwellers will be scurrying for cover under the rocks and mountains, and caves, invoking these to fall upon them and to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb, for the day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand(Rev.6:15-17). The atheist, the humanist will know automatically that there is God, and that He is about to punish the wicked earth-dwellers for their evils. All proponents of false religions will know intuitively that they have been deceived and have themselves deceived others. Evil men shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived(2 Tim.3:13). The very same day the Rapture takes place, the seventh seal will be broken and the wrath of God begins.

After the Rapture, there will be two major groups of people left on Earth, the branded Jews and Gentiles, and the unbranded Jews and Gentiles. The branded Jews and Gentiles who constitute the majority are those who received the mark of the Beast. They are doomed for eternity. This is the content of the message of the third angelic announcement.

“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.”(Rev.14:9-11).

The unbranded Jews and Gentiles can be further divided into unbranded Gentiles and unbranded Jews. The unbranded Jews can be further divided into two groups, the 144,000, and others. The 144,000 shall be brought into saving relationship with the God of Israel and sealed with the seal of God for protection from the wrath of God shortly before the Rapture of the Church(Rev.7:1-8). They are hidden in Bozrah, in the Edomite wilderness, in the red rose city of Petra in modern day Jordan, which in OT Times was called Sela, and in NT times Pella(Isa.16:1-5; Mic.2:12,13).

The Church Age ends with the Rapture of the Church technically speaking, but generally at the signing of the peace pact between Israel and the antiMessiah which marks the beginning of the 70th week(Rom.11:26). What I mean is the end of organised christiandom. The two witnesses are the only servants of God with active ministry in the second half of the 70th week of Daniel after the Rapture of the Church. And their ministry is limited more or less to the vicinity of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem albeit with worldwide effect(Rev.11:1-14). God will not leave Himself without a witness on Earth. It is like the handing over of a baton in a relay race. The Church is raptured into heaven and Israel becomes God’s only witness on Earth. The remaining unbranded Jews other than the 144,000 are the ones saying peace and safety, not knowing that they will have to go through the trumpet judgments segment of the wrath of God in order to be purged, purified and cleansed from the defilement of sin.

“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 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.5:1-3).

The Jews who are not branded with the marked of the Beast nor sealed with the seal of God are the ones who will shout peace and safety after the appearance of the Shekinah in the heaven, because they think the Messaiah of Israel has come to deliver them from persecution by the antiChrist, not knowing they have to go through the trumpet judgments unprotected in order to be purged, purified, and cleansed. The prophet Amos chided them saying:

“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).

Of all the unbranded remnants after the Rapture of the Church, they are the ones living in expectation of deliverance from Jacob’s trouble by the arrival of the Messiah. The prophet Amos ridiculed them saying, woe unto you that desire the Day Of The Lord! To what End is it for you? It is darkness and not light. It will be as though a man did flee from a lion(the Great Tribulation, the time of Jacob’s trouble), and a bear(the wrath of God) met him; or went into his house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent(the wrath of God) bit him. For them, the Day Of The Lord is darkness and not light. It shall be very dark, and no brightness in it. It will be a day of gloominess.

The unbranded Gentile remnants know nothing about the Day Of The Lord. They shall go through it unprotected. The trumpet judgments are general. The ones exempt from them are the 144,000 from the twelves tribes of Israel who are branded with the seal of God. Those branded with the mark of the Beast are specifically targeted in the last seven bowl judgments. The unbranded Gentiles may suffer collateral damage. The unbranded Gentiles who survive the wrath of God shall appear at the Sheep and Goat judgment(Matt.25:31-46). Those who are justified, the sheep shall enter the Millennium to repopulate the Earth alongside the Jewish remnants who are purged, purified, and cleansed through the trumpet judgments. These Jews will come to the saving knowledge of God on the third day after the close of the 70th week in order to complete the spiritual kingdom of God and finish the mystery of God(Hos.6:1-3; Rev.10:7). Of the total number of Jews who pass through the time of Jacob’s trouble(Jer.30:7), only a third shall survive. This one-third shall be passed through the six trumpet judgments in order to purge, purify, and cleanse them(Zech.13:8,9). Probably, only a tenth of them shall make it to the Millennium(Isaiah 6:13). I am not dogmatic about this.

Because we thus teach, orthodox Jewish rabbis regard us as theological antisemites. The scornful leaders of Israel say never again, but the truth is that a worse persecution than the Holocaust will come upon the Jews all over the world, and worst still, in the land of Israel. Unlike the Holocaust, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount shall be the epicenter of this persecution. The antiChrist will set up shop and hold court in the rebuilt Third Jewish Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. Would God their leaders had understanding concerning this matter, then they would prepare for the protection of the Jewish people rather than deny the inevitable. This is the sin of presumption. We Christians sometimes are guilty of the same. We presume what will happen, and make our confessions accordingly. But God has not spoken, or we have no word of God to back it up. Faith begins where the will of God is known. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Faith is always based on the word of God, not just human desires. Human desires which are not in consonance with God’s word are not God’s will at all no matter how lofty the ideal on which they are founded.

The psalmist prayed that God will prevent him from committing the sin of presumption.

“Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.”(Psalms 19:12-13).

How can one be upright and free from the Great Transgression? By being cleansed from secret faults, and being kept back from presumptuous sins. The Jewish rabbis and the scornful leaders of Israel are not cleansed from their secret faults. They are not free from presumptuous sins. They err by saying never again in contradiction to the teaching of the Scriptures.

Does anyone love Israel more than I do? Do I write this out of hatred for the Jewish people? No. These things are painful to my heart. Let all men be liars, but God remaineth true(Rom.3:4). The word of God is truth. Father sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth(Jon.17:17). There is a sense in which every man is a liar. We have all lied and dissembled at one time or the other. But shall we continue in falsehood when the truth has been revealed to us in His word? No matter what we say, they will seek “refuge in lies” and “security in falsehood” and enter into “agreement with Sheol.” Therefore when the overflowing scourge shall pass through they shall become its trampling place. And it shall be so terrifying to them to understand the report when they are subverted by the antiMessiah(Isa.28:15,18,19).

Shortly before the sounding of the 7th trumpet, the Jewish remnants who have been purged by passage through the first six trumpet judgments shall be brought into saving relationship with the God of Israel in order to complete the spiritual kingdom of God as the mystery of God is finished(Rev.10:7). On that day, they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced and mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son.

“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).

Any professing Christian who is left behind after the Rapture is not a true believer at all. After the Rapture no one can be saved and become a member of the body of Christ as we are today. The “Church Age” which began with the “inception of the Church” on the day of Pentecost shall terminate with the Rapture of the Church. Admittedly, Jesus is the only name under the heavens given amongst men whereby we must be saved(Acts 4:12). He is the only way, the truth, and the life(Jon.14:6). It is true that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved(Rom.10:13). The branded Jews and Gentiles will never repent. The unbranded Jews are still stiff-necked until their stubbornness is broken by passage through the trumpet judgments, when they see that their Messiah has nail pierced hands. Salvation after the Rapture is not as easy as our brother Dr. Dave Williams has painted. He thinks the scenario will be as it is in the Church Age. It is obvious he has not critically examined this issue in the light of the Scriptures.

Let me summarize what the Scriptures say about salvation after the Rapture. After the Rapture, the 144,000 virgins from the household of Israel are given special protection having been reconciled to God and sealed with the name of God just prior to the Rapture. The surviving Jewish remnants who were not branded with the mark of allegiance to the antiChrist shall be passed through the six trumpets to be purged, purified, and cleansed before reconciliation to God on Day 3 of the 30-Day Reclamation Period of the kingdom. The branded unbelievers who constitute the majority of the Earth’s population at that time, both Jews and Gentiles who have received the mark of allegiance to the Beast shall go through the wrath of God, and shall finally be liquidated at Armageddon. The unbranded unbelieving Gentiles shall go through the whole wrath of God during the Day Of The Lord. They shall not be specifically targeted during the 7 bowl judgments, neither shall they be offered any protection. Therefore they may suffer some collateral damages. At the end of Armageddon, they shall appear at the Sheep And Goat Judgment. The Goats, the condemned shall be liquidated. The Sheep, those who shall be acquitted, shall enter the Millennium to repopulate the Earth alongside their Jewish counterparts.

Whether the 144,000 will be translated and given glorified eternal immortal resurrection bodies at the beginning of the Millennium or permitted to live in the Millennium in their natural death-doomed bodies is anyone’s guess. I am of the opinion that since they were celibates and virgins(Parthenoi) all their lives, they may not need to continue to live in their natural bodies, marry and beget children during the Millennium, which is a heavy burden. They may be translated into glorified eternal immortal saints inasmuch as they shall be always part of His Royal Majesty’s entourage in the Millennium.

“And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.”(Rev.14:1-5).

They are without fault having been washed by the blood of the Lamb. They follow Him wherever He goes. They stand before His Throne. They minister before the Throne of God. They stand in His presence all the time. So, it is possibly they may receive, glorified eternal immortal resurrection bodies in the Millennium.

Dr. Dave Williams:

5. Make sure you have a printed Bible.

You will not want any electronic tablets during the Tribulation. God’s Word and promises will still work after the rapture because Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away” (Matt. 24:35). Keep your Bible in a safe place because when the Antichrist’s government takes over, he will eventually try to destroy all the Bibles.

Read the Ten Commandments and follow them (Ex. 20:1-17). God’s grace is still available, but after the church is gone, the age of grace has concluded, and everything reverts to something like Old Testament times.

Make sure you read Daniel 2-12. Chapter 12 will give you the general time Jesus is coming the second time. Read Matthew 24, Mark 13, 1 Thessalonians 5, 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation. Everything will begin to make sense to you.

Dr. Avraham Shallom:

Pretribbs generally divide the 70th week into two halves. The first they dubb the Tribulation, and the second half the Great Tribulaion. The whole of the 70th week they call the Tribulation Period. Admittedly, the 70th week of Daniel is a period of trouble. The first half witnesses the emergence of false christs, wars, commotions, rumors and threats of wars, and then famine, pestilences, and earthquakes. These are the beginning of sorrows or beginning birth pangs. That there are troubles in the first half of the 70th week does not warrant it should be labeled the The Tribulation. There have been many periods of trouble in the history of man on Earth but they are not called The Tibulation.

The first half is a time of treaties between nations, subtle peace diplomacy, wars, commotions, rumors and threats of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, but that does not make it The Tribulation. There are no scriptural bases to label the whole of the second half of the 70th week the Great Tribulation. If the whole of the second half of the 70th week were the Great Tribulation, whatever happened to the Cosmic and celestial disturbances, the Shekinah in the heavens, the final harvest, the breaking of the seventh seal and the first six trumpets all of which occur in the second half of the 70th week of Daniel? The second half witnesses the Great Tribulation, the Cosmic disturbances, the appearance of the Shekinah in the heavens which is the coming of the Son Of Man, the sealing of the 144,000, the Rapture of the Church, and the first six trumpet judgments of the wrath of God. The death of the two witnesses marks the terminus-ad-quem of the 70th week. But the pretribulationists teach that the whole of the second half of the 70th week of Daniel is the Great Tribulation whereas the Scriptures teach that the Great Tribulation is cut shut or better still to use the scriptural term amputated(Greek: koloboo) by the cosmic disturbances which is the sixth seal of Revelation 6. The fifth seal is a heavenly scene and is coincident with the fourth seal, the Great Tribulation.

The fifth seal does not advance the chronology of events in the second half of the 70th week, inasmuch as it is concurrent and simultaneously with the fourth seal. As soon as the saints are martyred here on Earth, their disembodied spirits and souls are arriving in Heaven, and are quartered under the Golden Altar Of Incense, from where they make their plea of vengeance to God. Does this scenario warrant dubbing the whole of the 70th week, the Tribulation Period? This phraseology is problematic and biased in that it builds an a priori case for pretribulation rapturism. The pretribber Thomas Ice says the prewrathers are chopping up the second half of the 70th week. We are not the ones who chopped it up but the word of God did. What we have done is to show the details which the Scriptures have outlined. The second half of the 70th week is therefore divided into two unequal halves, the Great Tribulation and the Day Of His Wrath.

Dr. Dave Williams teaches us that the Rapture occurs before the commencement of the 70th week of Daniel, bringing closure to the Church Age. How then does one account for the so called “Tribulation saints” who are martyred under the fourth seal and arrive in Heaven under the fifth seal? Why are they called believers and are martyred for their faith in Christ if the Church age has closed? When they made their plea of vengeance to God, He answered in the affirmative, and instructed them to be patient until the number of their fellow believers to be martyred is complete. He did not say that those to be martyred were left behind due to their unpreparedness. There is a complement of believers to martyred during the Great Tribulation. When that number is complete, God cuts shut the Great Tribulation with cosmic and celestial disturbances. This number is not revealed to in the Scriptures. The secret things belong to God: but the things which are revealed are for us and our children(Deut.29:29).

Pretribbers teach that the wrath of God begins at the start of the 70th week. That will make God responsible for all the troubles of the first half of the 70th week as well as the Great Tribulation and the death of martyrs under the altar in Heaven at the breaking of the fifth seal. If the wrath of God begins at the beginning of the 70th week, would God ask the martyrs in Heaven to wait until their fellows believers have been martyred as well? Has God forgotten that His wrath has already started? Do we begin to see what an impossible to defend position that is pretribulation rapturism?

Dr. Dave Williams made reference to the Olivet Discourse(Matt.24; Mk:13), and 1 & 2 Thessalonians. He indicated that these Scriptures will give us an inkling of the general time period of the coming of the Lord, but not the Day and the hour. The question that arises in one’s mind is will there be two comings of the Lord, first to rapture the Church before the beginning of the 70th week, and second to punish the wicked. But the Bible teaches that once the Rapture takes place, what follows is the punishment of the wicked. Pretribbers affirm the same in that they teach that the wrath of God begins at the start of the 70th week of Daniel after the Church is raptured pretribulationally. If the the wrath of God has begun at the commencement of the 70th week, why the delay into the second half of the 70th week before His coming? But the Scriptures teach that there is only one coming of the Lord to rapture the Church, and to punish the wicked for their evils and impenitence; for that is what parousia means, arrival and subsequent presence with in order to accomplish certain purposes.

In His post-resurrection speech on a Mount in the Galilee, Jesus promised His disciples who were representative of the protochurch as well as of Israel, “I am with you always, even unto the End of the Ages. Amen”(Matt.28:20b). He told His disciples, “And ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake: but he that endureth unto the end shall be saved”(Matt.10:22). The coming(parousia) of the Lord occurs at the End Of The Ages. The very same day the Church is raptured, the wrath of God begins. The same day Noah entered the Ark, the rain deluged the heavens(Gen.7:11; Luk.17:26,27). The same day Lot left Sodom and Gomorrah, the heavens rained fire and sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plain, Zeboim, and Adamah(Luk.17:28-30).

The question His disciples asked Him on the Mount of olives relates to His coming and Of the End of the Ages.

“What shall be the sign of thy coming and Of the End of the Ages?”(Matt.24:3b).

The coming of the Lord and the End Of The Ages are concurrent. When He comes, He takes away His own, and punishes the wicked.

“And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.”(Mark 13:7). “But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.”(Luke 21:9).

The pretribbers have jumped the ropes. The End will not come until after wars and rumours of wars. The End will not come until the gospel is preached to all the world.

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”(Matt.24:14).

Does the end occur outside the 70th week of Daniel? At the midpoint of the 70th week of Daniel, the everlasting gospel will be proclaimed by the first horizontal flying angel. “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”(Rev.14:6-7).

If the Church Age has closed with the Rapture, and I concur, and everything has reverted back to OT times as Dr. Dave Williams proposes, why is the gospel of the kingdom preached in the midst of the Great Tribulation?

Let us now examine some classical rapture passages. Our brother, Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians that that day will not come until there be a falling away first, and the Man Of Sin be revealed.

“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; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?”(2 Thess.2:3-5).

The apostasy or massive abandonment of the Faith will occur when the Man Of Sin is unveiled in the Temple of God at the midpoint of the 70th week of Daniel. How then can the Rapture be pretribulational? In the Olivet Discourse, the coming of the Lord and the upward gathering(episunagoge) of the elect occur after 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: 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. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”(Matt.24:29-31).

The other two passages of Scriptures relate the Rapture and the coming of the Lord to the last Trump or Trumpet as does also Matt.24:31.

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”(1 Thess.4:13-18). “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”(1 Cor.15:50-52).

The Greek word “harpagesometha” is rendered caught up by the KJV. The Latin Vulgate renders it rapiemur. The English word Rapture is a derivative of the Latin rapere. The Rapture is associated with the blowing of the last trumpet as in these three classical rapture passages.

In ancient Israel, as is also practised till today, the trumpet is blown at the new moon, the calling of a solemn assembly, on Israel’s feast days, and to prepare for war.

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps. And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And if they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee. When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward. When ye blow an alarm the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall take their journey: they shall blow an alarm for their journeys. But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets; and they shall be to you for an ordinance for ever throughout your generations. And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God.”(Numbers 10:1-10).

When the last trumpet is blown, the sons of God are gathered into His presence for the solemn assembly in Heaven, and then the God of Israel, the Man-o-war goes to war with the kings of the Earth. This event will most probably occur on the new moon as the whole Earth is enveloped in darkness at the breaking of the sixth seal which is celestial disturbances until dispelled by the appearance of the Shekinah in the heavens. What then is the last trump? It is the breaking of the seventh seal. There is an interlude between the sixth and the seventh seals. During this interlude, the Shekinah appears in the heavens, God dispatches His angels with the sound of the trumpet to gather together His elect from one end of the heavens to the other. Thereafter, God goes to war with His enemies, the living wicked earth-dwellers and the kings of the kingdoms of the Earth and their armies. The same day the Church is taken away, the seventh seal is broken, and the wrath of commences. The seventh seal does not have any judgments of its own but opens in the seven trumpets. Can we see why then the seventh seal is the last trump?

Relating this to the feasts of Israel, the last day of the 70th week of Daniel is the Day of atonement, Yom Kippur as Israel mourns for her first born(Zech.12:10-14). On this third day after the 70th week of Daniel, the mystery of God is finished(Hos. 6:1,2,3; Rev.10:7) as the unbranded remnants of Israel that have survived the 70th week of Daniel are brought into saving relationship with the God of Israel, having been purged, purified, and cleansed from defilement of sin by passage through the Great Tribulation, and the first six trumpet judgments. At the end of the 70th week of Daniel, the first three of the six things that have to do with sin to be accomplished during the 70 weeks of Daniel are history.

“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).

On the fifth day, the seventh trumpet is sounded and God Almighty reclaims His rule over the Earth(Rev.11:15). This event shall take place on Mount Zion in the company of the 144,000 of the remnant of Israel.

“And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.”(Rev.14:1-5). These were brought into a saving relationship with the God of Israel, and sealed with the seal of God shortly before the rapture of the Church(Rev.7:1-9).

The fifth day into the 30-Day reclamation period is the feast of Tabernacles or “Sukkot.” The kings of the Earth will be infuriated by God reclaiming His rule over the Earth and will react by massively invading the land of Israel.

“And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.”(Rev.11:18). God’s fury shall come on His forehead, He shall wipe these kings and their kingdoms out at the Armageddon Campaign(Rev.16,19).

The Euphrates River will be dried up either supernaturally or by an engineering feat to make way for the kings of the East to transport their armies to the scene of the War of Armageddon which ends on the last day of the 30-Day reclamation period(Rev.16:12). Am persuaded it shall be by supernatural means considering the facts of the condition on Earth during the ongoing wrath of God and that there is but a few days to Armageddon. In this war, the armies of the kingdoms of the Earth will be utterly annihilated by Christ and His heavenly hosts(Rev.19:17-21). The antiMessiah and the false prophet shall be taken captive and cast alive into the Lake of fire and brimstone. Within the next 45 days, the Earth shall be renovated and restored by Christ, and the Fourth and Millennial Temple built(Ezek.40-43). On the last day of the 45-Day Restoration Period is the feast of Hanukkah, which is 70 days from from the feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot, the day God Almighty reclaims His rule over the Earth, or 75 days from the end of the 70th week of Daniel or the Day of Atonment, Yom Kippur.

We do not have to wait till after the Rapture for these passages of the Holy Scriptures to make sense to us. They make sense to us right now. As par soft copies of the Bible, we have already established that it is senseless to use anything electronic or has GPS during the second half of the 70th week. It will only betray one’s location. It will be wise to acquire plenty of hard copies of the Bible during the first half of the 70th week as we prepare safe havens. Obviously, the antiChrist will not like us to have access to the Bible in whatever form during his allotted period of time which is three and one half years in duration and corresponds with the second half of the 70th of Daniel. It might even be outlawed by a decree.

As always the commandments of the first and second tablets contain the principles of the Golden rule of love. To love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves is to fulfill the Ten Commandments. On these two Golden rules of love hang all the law, the prophets, and the writings. In them also, they are fulfilled. During the 70th week of Daniel, more so during the Great Tribulation in the second half, iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall grow cold(Matt.24:12). Pastors have enormous task to begin now to instruct their congregations to walk in love, and practice communitarian system of collective co-existence as also did the the early Church in Jerusalem(Acts 2:44-47, 4:34-37). We should love one another, flow into one another, and share our possessions with one another. This is a tall order for the Church at the moment especially in Europe and North America and some cities of Africa where the western lifestyle has been given fillip by individualism, commercialism, and consumerism imported from the west which have have arrived our shores. The book of prophet Daniel, the Olivet Discourse, and Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians make sense to us right now, to get ready to face the antiChrist during the Great Tribulation and not succumb to his propaganda and terror.

Dr. Dave Williams:

6. Leave your home and get away from the cities, especially the big cities.

You’re going to be tempted to wait and see what happens, but if you do, it will be a fatal mistake, just as it was for the Jews who waited too long during the holocaust years. Go to some remote area. Learn to live off the land. Don’t take your cell phone because you can be tracked down. Disconnect the transponder on your vehicle, or ditch the vehicle altogether.

Make sure your family is safe and in agreement with your decision to leave. Take them if they will come. If not, you must go alone.

Dr. Avraham Shallom:

As we have established, Dr. Dave Williams assumes without biblical proof that the Rapture occurs before the antiChrist signs a 7-year peace pact with Israel which marks the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel. These are good pieces of advice which should be given to believers today. The proper time to implement these pieces of counsel will be during the first half of the 70th week of Daniel. If anyone waits till the Rapture has occurred before implementing these pieces of advice, the one will be caught off guard, because after the Rapture the Day Of The Lord begins which is the outpouring of God’s wrath on the living wicked earth-dwellers, worshippers, and adorers of the Dragon-Beast. I am persuaded that believers who are conversant with the End Times Scenario will recognize the antiChrist when he signs a 7-year peace treaty with Israel before his unveiling to the rest of humanity at the midpoint of the 70th week when he relocates his headquarters to the rebuilt Third Jewish Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem from somewhere in the land of Magog or even from Babylon if he relocated there earlier(Dan.11:45). Below is an excerpt on survival tips from my article “The Tribulation The Great.” Link: https://mtzionheritageministries.com/?s=The+tribulation+the+great

Survival Tips

We are now in the gap of time between the 69th and the 70th weeks of Daniel, the intermediate period. On May 14, 1948, Israel became an independent nation. On 7th June, 1967 Israel regained control of her Holy City, Jerusalem. The one major event that remains to be fulfilled before we enter into the 70th week of Daniel is the signing of a 7-year peace treaty between Israel and the ruler of the three power base nations of Magog, Meshech, and Tuval. The other two major events that need occur are the formation of the ten nation confederation, the 8Final Beast Empire of Satan, and the erection of the Third Jewish temple on Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Both events may occur before the signing of the 7- year peace treaty or after.

We believers as people who live at the edge of human history should be wise(Matt.25:1-12), faithful(Matt.25:21,23; Luk.18:8), watchful(Matt.25:13), fruitful(Matt.25:14-30), and prayerful(Luk.18:1-7). We should be conversant with the goings-on in our world. We should be listening to breaking news and reading the headlines to see when a powerful leader of Magog overthrows the three heads(leaders) of Magog, Meshech, and Tuval. This event can happen before the formation of the ten nation confederation or after. We should also be watchful to see when this great political figure goes ahead and signs a 7-year peace treaty with Israel. Or when the Jews are permitted to rebuild their temple. This is how we can identify the antiChrist before he makes himself known to the rest of the world and tightens the noose on the Church, the Jews, and all those who will not give him their allegiance.

The antiMessiah shall be a consummate politician. He shall have the knack for cracking hard nuts, and dissolving doubts, and unraveling mysteries. He shall unite Magog with Meshech and Tuval, a hard political nut indeed. He shall bring temporary peace between the Jews and Arabs, especially between the Palestinians and the Israelis; another political feat. He shall unite the postdemocracies of the West with the emerging Islamic and Arab pseudodemocracies of the Middle East, and the banana democracies of Africa. This is the union of the iron and the clay in the feet and ten toes of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream(Dan.2:33, 41-44). This temporary peace shall enable the Jews to rebuilt their temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The mosque of Omer and the Al-Aqsa mosque may not come down. The studies of Asher Kaufman have shown that the Holy Of Holies of the Solomonic Temple is not located in either of the two. Besides, a massive temple like that of Solomon or that built by the returning exiles and lavishly refurbished by Herod the Great need not be built.

A temporary tabernacle-like structure may suffice. Although a plan of the Third Temple based on Ezekiel 40-43 has been drawn, and building materials procured, a temple of that magnitude need not be the Third Temple. My understanding is that the description given in Ezekiel 40-44 is the Fourth and Millennial Temple to be built by Christ Himself after the war of Armageddon(Ezek.38,39) during the 45-Day Reclamation Period of the kingdom prior to the commencement of His Millennial reign of Christ. Besides, the Third Temple will function for a short time before being taken over and desecrated by the antiMessiah. “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”(Rev.11:1-2). It shall be subsequently destroyed in the series of massive and devastating earthquakes that will occur in Jerusalem beginning from the breaking of the sixth seal. “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). “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.”(Rev.16:17-20).

When the 7-year peace agreement is signed with Israel, the Jews shall resume temple worship and the daily animal sacrifice, drink and grain offerings(Dan.9:27). From this point in the eschatological timeline, the believer who understands the theology of the End Times knows he or she has about three and one-half years to prepare before the midpoint of the 70th week when the Great Tribulation will begin. After the emergence of the antiChrist which is the first seal(Rev.6:1,2), there will be wars, commotions, and rumors of wars which constitute the second seal(Rev.6:3,4). One should study the trend of wars and commotions before one decides where to build a safe haven. The third seal which brings the first three and one-half years to a close will consist of famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, which are the aftermath of wars(Rev.6:5,6).

It is generally not reasonable to build safe havens before this time, inasmuch as one does not know which areas of the world would be safe. But the ten nations of the 8th and Final Beast Empire will not provide safe havens for believers, Jews and other nonconformists who repudiate the authority of the antiMessiah. The land of Israel will not be a safe haven at all, more so her Holy City, Jerusalem. It will be advisable for Christians in these areas to migrate to other parts of the world which are not allied to the antiChrist or are part of his ten nation confederation as soon as the antiChrist shows up on the world stage. We know that apart from the nations of the ten nation confederation, there will be other nations which are allied to the antiMessiah. Edom, Moab, and Ammon will probably be allied to the antiChrist. Egypt shall not be allied to the antiChrist, but it shall be invaded and conquered by the antiChrist and its treasures looted(Dan.11:41-43). These parts of the world will not be safe for believers and Jews at that time. Eventually all the regional powers shall be at war with the antiChrist and no place will be safe at all. But before it becomes that bad, the rapture would have taken place. These wars will occur at the end of time(Dan.11:40).

Believers should avoid residence in cities, and seek out hideouts in forests far from cities and towns where they may not be easily discovered. Should believers hide in cities, they must do so in basements, bunkers, and cellars. But it will be very difficult considering the fact that they shall do so for at least a year or more. One could suffer from depression and claustrophobia living in such unhealthy environment.

When we choose a location for a hideout, especially if we have in mind to construct an underground bunker, it should not be in an area prone to flooding and land slides, and there should be vents for proper ventilation. We should avoid valleys which are prone to seasonal inundations in the rainy season or spring. Mountains, caves and grottos would be preferable. Avoid mountains prone to vulcanite eruptions and landslides. We must not go to our hideouts when they are in preparation with cell phones, tablets or computers, cars or any electronic gadgets equipped with GPS. These will betray our location. Music and loud noise should be avoided in our hideouts at all cost, not even with earphones. These electronic devices have GPS which could betray one’s location.

We shall only go there with trusted believers who share the same aspirations. Before we finally retire to our lair, we must ditch all electronics and revert to primitive style of life. We may choose to construct a makeshift house(s) with wood or other building materials, or use prefabricated plastic houses. They must be carefully inspected to ensure there are no GPS and electronic bugs implanted in them. Plastic materials are highly combustible. When used to construct houses, fire safety measures must be instituted to avoid fire disaster. We must remember that we are dealing with a mortal enemy who is also very smart. It will not be a surprise if these materials are implanted with electronic bugs to betray our locations. We can be sure that the antiChrist will leave no stone unturned in order to undermine our efforts.

Apart from food and clothing, heating is very important. We may resort to firewood where available or use kerosine stoves or gas cookers which means kerosine and gas will be stored in large quantities. These are combustible and highly inflammable materials. Therefore strict rules and fire safety measures must instituted and adhered to. Members should be instructed in basic fire safety measures. If we decide to use generators, they must be thoroughly inspected for GPS and electronic bugs, they must be silent ones, and they must be properly hidden in underground bunkers with vents for outlet of fumes to avoid carbon monoxide poinsonig and to avoid revealing our location. Solar panels should be avoided because of the risk of their being spotted from the air. With the exponential increase in technological development, it is most probable that efficient solar batteries made from silicon, quartz, and granite would be in use by then. We must ensure they are not equipped with GPS. Believers who have the means and the technical knowhow can manufacture these products for use at that time. In the US, some believers with survivalist and doomsday preppers mentality are already doing so.

It will be better to be in groups of trustworthy believers, in order that some may be deployed on rotational security duties. In this regard, it shall also be necessary to acquire some firearms. A situation may arise where we have to defend ourselves against wild animals or security agents of the antiChrist. In the midst of the Great Tribulation, after we have finally dropped out of the society, and retired to our secret locations, any members who wants to return to the city and cannot be dissuaded should be arrested and incarcerated or eliminated altogether depending on the resources available to the group lest he or she endangers the lives of all the other members. It is better for one person to die than that the whole group perish.

If the location is far into the forest, some form of subsistence farming may be engaged in to meet the nutritional needs of the family or group. It is advisable to provide sufficient food store to take care of every member for a maximum of two years and a minimum of one. Dried nuts, energy bars, and grains stored in grain silos may last for quite some time. If the group have good power supply, all kinds of foodstuffs may be brought in and stored in deep freezers, refrigerators, and cold rooms. It will be difficult to store vegetables for a long period. They can be grown on dishes for subsistence, even on window seals and roof tops for those who hide in cellars.

The reason why I said that foodstuffs should be provided to last every member of the family for two years is because, of all those events that will take place in the second half of the 70th week, the fifth trumpet is the only one with known duration of five months(Rev.9:5). The durations of the first, second, third, and fourth trumpets are not known. The sixth trumpet which brings the 70th week to a close with the death of the two witnesses may probably last longer than the fifth trumpet. The sixth trumpet may last about a year. If the first four trumpets last about a year, it therefore follows that the Great Tribulation will last about a year or thereabouts with a margin of error of a few months, give and take. So, it will be safe to provide a store of foodstuffs enough for every member of the family for a minimum of one year and a maximum of two.

Those with special health issues should be taken into consideration. There should be medicine and other supplies. First Aid box is a necessity. Diabetic and hypertensive patients should procure insulin and oral antidiabetics, and antihypertensive drugs for the same period of time. Medicines with near expiry dates should be used first. Special needs of children should be taken care of. Nursing mothers should ensure they procure baby food for their children. Special needs of the elderly should also be taken care of, so also the disabled if they happen to be members of the Christian family or group. All these entail enormous planing and management. At the peak of it all however, it may be every man for himself. O ga o.

Clothing should be provided for all seasons, winter, summer, autumn, and spring, or dry and rainy seasons for those in tropical Africa. Warm clothing in winter is paramount lest we die from exposure to the elements. May our flight not be in the winter, or severe harmattan in subsaharan Africa. If the antiChrist emerges in Summer, we know assuredly that the Great Tribulation will begin in Winter, three and one half years later. So adequate and appropriate, preparations, and arrangements should be made according to the time of his emergence as world leader.

If a Christian couple marries after the antiMessiah signs the 7-year peace agreement with Israel, they should avoid pregnancy. They should adopt a safe method of contraception with the counsel of Christian doctors who understand the intricacies and dangers of childbearing during this difficult period of human history. They might even elect to undergo a permanent contraception, either the man, bilateral epididymovasostomy, or the woman, bilateral tubal ligation, or both. It will be very difficult for women who rear children in those days. The childbearing mother must understand that in the face of the wars, commotions, rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes of the first three and one-half years, women of childbearing age, children, and the elderly suffer the most. Add to that the unspecified period of the Great Tribulation, we are pretty sure we have a worst case scenario.

Believers who are rich should take care of the needs of others. The antiChrist is a vandal(Is.16:4). He will vandalize peoples’ property in the areas he conquers. Whatever money we have in the bank which is not retrieved before the Great Tribulation begins, even more appropriately before the mark of the Beast is issued will be lost for ever. The antiChrist will run a cashless society. In no distant a future, cash will no longer be in use. We must retrieve our moneys in the banks through purchases of necessary food items and other materials before he tightens the noose, and use them to meet our own needs and those of our brethren. The 70th week will not be the time to accumulate wealth. Churches which do not use their wealth and resources to meets the basic needs of its members in providing them safe havens will find them seized by the antiChrist and his cronies. The antiChrist will desecrate and vandalize churches, impound their properties and confiscate their wealth. It will be advisable for churches to stymie building programmes, and channel all resources to provide safe havens for its congregants starting from the approaches of the 70th week of Daniel. But how will the Church leaders do this if they themselves do not know the times and the epochs?

All the members of a family in a hideout should adopt a communitarian system of collective coexistence. They should share all things in common. Every member must play his or her part to keep the family or group going. The golden rule of love should be the unwritten law. Those who have landed properties should dispose of them and donate the proceeds to the family to meet the needs of everyone. We should revert back to the primitive lifestyle of the early church when no one said that anything he had was one’s own(Acts 2:44-47; 4:32-37).

Believers must realize that despite all precautions, some hideouts shall be discovered through no faults of theirs. The members will be coerced to recant or their lives terminated. That one recants, does not mean the antiMessiah and his acolytes may suffer the one to live. Strong leadership shall be very important at this time. The leaders of the group or family must prepare the members ahead of time for this kind of eventuality. Every member must be encouraged never to recant or betray one another. Those who do and take the Mark of allegiance to the antiChrist shall be allowed to buy and sell. But they must be made to know that the wrath of God abides on anyone who is branded with the Mark of the Beast(Rev.14:8-12). The wrath of God and eternal punishment in Hell and the Lake of fire and sulphur is incomparably worse than whatever temporary punishment including physical death we may receive from the antiMessiah and his cronies.

Besides, if anyone of them survives the wrath of God, the one shall be executed at the end of the Battle of Armageddon. So, it is better they refuse the Mark of the Beast, be executed by the antiChrist and his security apparatus, and gain the life of the age to come, than to recant, be executed by Christ and be banished to the Lake of Fire and Brimstone for eternity. The wrath of God is worse than the wrath of Satan executed by his minion, antiChrist. The wrath of Satan is temporary, the wrath of God is eternal. The wrath of Satan leads only to physical death, but the wrath of God leads to not only physical death but also the second death which is eternal damnation and separation from the presence of God in the Lake of fire and brimstone(Matt.10:28).

There must be strong teaching on the love of God. True believers must not suffer themselves to be embittered by the wickedness of men at that time. And because iniquity shall abound, due to the preponderance of demons, principalities and powers evicted from the heavenlies to the earth’s premises at the midpoint of the 70th week(Rev.12:12), the love of many shall wax cold(Matt.24:12). No matter what we do, there shall still be false brethren who will betray others, even their own blood relations(Luk.21:16). We must not suffer ourselves to be offended and embittered by these things(Matt.24:10; Luk.12:5).

We must realize that no matter our efforts to survive the Great Tribulation and be raptured alive, some of us must be ferreted out, hunted down like wild animals, and killed. There is a complement of believers to be martyred(Rev.6:10,11). When that number is complete, God will cut short the Great Tribulation with cosmic disturbances(Matt.24:29-30). Some of us will be taken captive, and others killed. Some of us will be made public examples even in churches and synagogues. Some will think they are doing God a favour by killing us, miserable undesirables(Jon.16:2). Our faith and patience should rest on the fact that if anyone of us is destined to captivity, into captivity the one goes; and if anyone of us is destined to be killed with the sword, with sword, the one shall be killed(Rev.13:10). This understanding does not permit irresponsibility on our part. We are in partnership with God. God’s sovereignty does not preclude human responsibility. Some of us will also die of hunger, starvation, and exposure to the elements because they have not prepared adequately ahead of time(Rev.3:10), and others through no fault of theirs. It may also be due to unforeseen eventualities like when a family or group is attacked. Some member may escape but may not find food and shelter, and so succumb to starvation and exposure to the elements, or wild animal attack. Despite the dangers of the Great Tribulation, some believers will take it upon themselves to go about persuading others not to take the mark of the Beast, and will pay with their dear lives. If you are not called to do this, please let no one persuade you to embark on it. The inner fortitude not to recant under torture can only come from above; it is uncommon and is only available to those who are commissioned by heaven.

Dr. Dave Williams:

7. Pray for God to help you and give you strength.

It’s going to be difficult to survive, but God will still hear you, and He’ll still help you. It won’t be easy, but Jesus said, “He who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13). You’re going to need His strength as you’ve never needed it before.

Dr. Avraham Shallom:

Dr. Dave Williams conflates the chronology of End Times. He places the rapture before the 70th week of Daniel and the Great Tribulation. Here he addresses his audience in third person singular which indicates he is exempted. But he that endures unto the end could be anyone. This thou and I, and us and them theology is discriminatory within the body of Christ. Any truly biblical view of eschatology should be inclusive and not exclusive and discriminatory. The starting point of The End Of The Ages is coincident with the rapture, and occurs after the tribulation of those days and the cosmic and celestial disturbances that interrupt it. In the Olivet Discourse, the disciples asked Jesus the question: “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”(Matt.24:3). The first of the question relates to the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. He had earlier told them that the Temple would be destroyed to the extent that no stone will be left one on top of another that shall not be thrown down which speaks of utter destruction. “And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”(Matt.24:2). In His response, Jesus ignored that part of the question concerning the time of the destruction of the Temple. The reason was that they were going to witness it. The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman Tenth Legion under the command of General Titus Vespasian. And some of the disciples were still alive at that time. They witnessed it. Of course Jesus knew exactly when the Second Temple was going to be destroyed. He could have told them in 70 AD, the Second Temple would be destroyed. He chose not to because nothing was going to be gained by that kind of information, and they were going to witness it. It could have been unsettling and could have bred laxity. Time answered the question. And there are questions time will answer. There is nothing to gain from such answers ahead of time. It was sufficient for them to have known that the Second Temple was going to be destroyed.

The second part of the question concerns the back-to-back sign to be given in the sun, moon, and stars which shall indicate and signal His coming to raise the dead and rapture the living in the Church and to punish the wicked left behind after the rapture during the Day Of The Lord’s Judgment of the wicked earth-dwellers. The Greek word “seimeon” is singular and relates to these two events, the coming of the Lord, and the End Of The Ages. This sign indicates that God is about to punish the world for their evils. The wicked inhabitants of the Earth are instinctively aware of God’s judgment once this sign is given in the sun, moon, and stars. “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). They do not need anyone to tell them that the wrath of God is about to be poured out on them. The atheists and the humanists and all false religionists, indeed all men of every cadre, tongue, nation, creed, and color will know instinctively that the one true God is about to punish them for their evils.

Jesus made it clear in the Olivet Discourse that this sign occurs after 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: 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. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”(Matt.24:29-31).

This sign is synonymous with the sixth seal of Revelation.

“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).

In the midst of this utter chaotic confusion, the darkened heavens and frozen Earth, the Shekinah will appear in the heavens. This is the appearance of the Son Of Man in the heavens. The Shekinah will brighten the heavens and defrost the Earth. Then every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the Earth shall wail because of Him(Rev.1:7). Why are they wailing? Because they suddenly instinctively know that the one they crucified is now the judge of the whole Earth, and they are unwilling to accept Him as their personal Lord and Saviour. Then shall He dispatch His angels to gather the elect with the sound of a great trumpet. The admonition, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”(Matt.24:13, cp. 10:22), relates to believers who are under intense persecution by the antiChrist during the Great Tribulation not some spiritually enfeebled believers left behind after the rapture. Which parent would abandon his or her weak and disabled children to their fate in time of danger while spiriting the strong and healthy away to safety? When did Jesus become a Hitler who euthanized the disabled and the mentally ill in Germany during WWII while cross-breeding the strong? Does Jesus practice eugenics? It is going to be very difficult during the Great Tribulation. Believers will need to depend solely on the Lord. We will need to call upon Him; for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved(Rom.10:13).

Dr. Dave Williams:

8. Don’t go to church.

That’s right—don’t go to church or join the world conglomerate religion because it will be under the control of the false prophet (Rev. 13). All true, godly ministers have left the earth in the rapture. Do not believe the lies of the ministers who are left behind. Even if you see miracles and apparent wonders, do not believe them. They are lying wonders (Matt. 24:24; Mark 13:22; Luke 21; 2 Thess. 2:9). Deception will be the order of the day. Delusion will be everywhere, especially in “churches.”

If possible, try to find others who may have accepted Christ after the rapture. You will be able to find ways to support and encourage one another.

Dr. Avraham Shallom:

Dr. Dave Williams has turned the chronology of End Times on its head. During the Great Tribulation the Church will be scattered. The antiChrist and his acolytes will impound church buildings and property. The saints will be martyred, imprisoned, and led captive into all nations. Even in those areas of the world over which the antiChrist does not have direct control, the authorities will see believers as antigovernmental subversives and security risks. Quite frankly the antiChrist will have worldwide control for a given period of time.

“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).

After the rapture, everyone left on Earth is running for one’s dear life. Even the One World Religion of the antiChrist headed by the False prophet, the second Beast is in disarray. There is no Church to attend. Everyone is hiding under the rocks and mountains, and in the caves of the Earth.

“And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.”(Isaiah 2:19-21).

The Church Age has closed. There is no more formal church. Can anyone be looking for a church to attend at this time? According Dr. Dave Williams, the Church Ages closes with the Rapture, and I concur. Also, the good pastors and good Christians have been taken way in the Rapture. Once again I concur. Who will be running the Churches after the Rapture? How could any sensible person be looking for a Church to attend after the departure of all the good pastors and Christians? If the Rapture is pretribulational, and the good pastors and Christians have left, how would the new converts learn to be strong in the faith? How will the so called tribulation saints develop the inner fortitude to resist the antiChrist and his minions? Rev.13 refers to the career of the antiChrist and the False prophet, the First and the Second Beasts during the Great Tribulation. Matt.24, Mk.13, and Luk.21 refer to the Olivet Discourse which deals with events in the 70th week of Daniel. 2 Thess.2 is the classical passage in which our brother, Apostle Paul expounds on events in the second half of the 70th seven of Daniel. Believers are to take heed of these teaching now in order to prepare for the horrors of the Great Tribulation.

Dr. Dave Williams:

9. Get a small, self-powered radio.

If you can’t get the kind you crank by hand, get a battery-operated radio and a good supply of batteries, because you’re going to need to listen. Don’t believe the propaganda, but believe when they tell you about certain events relating to wars and geophysical calamities. You’ll be able to know what will happen next by reading Revelation 6-19.

Dr. Avraham Shallom:

This advice is suitable for believers during the Great Tribulation, not unbelievers after the Rapture. The cosmic and celestial disturbances that amputate the Great Tribulation will disrupt communications worldwide. It will be after some time that the antiChrist and the kings of the Earth will be able to effect some repairs. This will be limited considering the condition of the Earth during the wrath of God which follows the Rapture of the Church. Believers who enter the 70th of Daniel can follow the sequence of events outlined in the Olivet Discourse(Matt.24; Mk.13; Luk.21) which run parallel to Rev.6-7 till the Rapture of the Church after the interruption of the Great Tribulation with the cosmic and celestial disturbances and the appearance of the coming of the Son Of Man in the heavens.

The believers are exempt from the events of Rev.8-18 (excepting 10-14 which are periscopes on previously discussed events) which occur during the outpouring of the wrath of God in the Day Of The Lord. Rev.8 & 9 cover the first six trumpet judgments which end with the death of the two witness after the completion of their ministry which corresponds with the end of the 70th week of Daniel.

“And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. 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.”(Rev.11:3, 7).

This shall be one of the two things the antiChrist shall be able to do after he shall have been incapacitated by the brightness of Christ’s coming.

“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:”(2 Thess.2:8).

This is not total annihilation but masterly inactivation. The Greek word rendered destroy by the KJV is “katageo” and is bettered rendered paralyze, render useless, incapacitate, and inactivate.

The other thing the antiChrist shall be able to do is to gather his forces and those of the other kings of the kingdoms of the Earth for the final showdown at Armageddon.

“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.19:19-21).

There is an interlude between the sounding of the sixth trumpet and the blowing of the seventh trumpet. Within this short interim of about a week(7 days) or thereabouts, certain events unfold. On the first day, the two witnesses are overpowered and killed by the antiChrist having completed their ministry.

“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.”(Rev.11:7-10).

From day 1 to day 2 Christ appears to the 144,000 hidden in protective custody in the Edomite wilderness, precisely in the red rose city of Petra in modern Jordan, and leads them on foot northwards and then westwards across the Jordan River, through the Judaean wilderness, and southwards up to Mount Zion in Jerusalem. On the way, they are joined by the surviving Jewish remnants in the judaean hills, survivors who have been fighting back against the antiChrist after his incapacitation by the appearance of the Shekinah in the heavens, Jewish survivors from Jerusalem and its environs, and the remnants from the remote areas in Egypt and Assyria. On day 3, they are reconciled to God, thus completing the spiritual kingdom of God as the mystery of God is finished(Hos.5:15, 6:1,2, 11:10,11; Is.35:4, 8, 63:1-3; Mic.2:12,13; Hab.3:3-6,12,13; Zech.12:7; Rev.10:7). On day 4, the two witnesses resurrect, and ascend to heaven(Rev.11:11). On day 5, the sevent trumpet is blown on Mount Zion, and God Almighty reclaims His rule over the earthly domain of His universal kingdom which was usurped by Satan, the supreme personality of evil and the archenemy of God and man.

“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.”(Rev.11:15-17).

On day 6-7, the surviving remnants of Israel are hidden in Azal(Is.26:20,21; Zech.14:2-5). Thereafter Christ returns to heaven to hold the Bema Seat Judgment and the Marriage Of The Lamb while the seven bowl judgments are poured out on those who have the mark of the Beast during the remaing 23-24 days of the 30-Day Reclamation Period of the Kingdom culminating in Armageddon(Rev.11:15-18).

It is clear from the foregoing that our beloved brother Dr. Dave Williams has not thoroughly examined the events on Earth covered by Rev. 8-18 excepting 10-14. The believers have nothing to do with these events-excepting 10-14 which are parenthetic-as they are in heaven during the occurrence of these events on Earth. However, at the completion of the Bema Seat Judgment, and the Marriage Of The Lamb in Heaven, the believers reappear on Earth at Armageddon in the company of Christ and His angelic hosts.

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND Lord OF LORDS.”(Rev.19:11-16).

The heavenly hosts that accompany Christ at Armageddon consist of resurrected saints in their glorified eternal immortal resurrection bodies and the angels of God who are eternally locked in righteousness.

Dr. Dave Williams:

10. Keep praying for your loved ones who are unbelievers.

God will still answer prayers during the Tribulation. Your prayers may be the key to seeing your loved ones again after this period of supreme agony is over.

Dr. Avraham Shallom:

Now is the time to pray for our loved ones who have not yet come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ our Saviour. The Great Tribulation will be a very difficult time. We may not be able to pray as much as we can today being hounded and chased down by the forces of the antiChrist. We may not have enough to eat, also may not have a shelter over our heads or even clothes to put on.

Avraham Shalom.