The End is Nearer!
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
We have spoke about the beging of the birth pains and we have looked at the rapture of the church.
Now lets go back to the Olivet Discourse and see whart erlse Jesus has to say:
15 “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand—
The Middle of the Tribulation.
The Middle of the Tribulation.
The midpoint of the Tribulation period is most important, for at that time an event will take place that was prophesied centuries ago by Daniel.
24 “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
25 So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress.
26 Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
27 And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.”
Please notice that this prophecy concerns only the Jews and the city of Jerusalem (“thy people and … thy holy city,” Dan. 9:24).
To apply it to the church or to any other people or place is to misinterpret God’s Word.
Weeks?
Weeks?
The prophecy involves seventy weeks, and the Hebrew word “week” means “a week of years,” or seven years.
Seventy sevens would equal 490 years.
But this period of 490 years is broken up into three parts:
(1) During seven weeks (49 years) the city of Jerusalem would be rebuilt and the worship reestablished.
(2) After 63 weeks (434 years) Messiah would come to Jerusalem and die for the sins of the world.
(3) The prince will make an agreement with the Jews for one week (seven years) to protect them from their enemies.
The decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given in 445 b.c. by Cyrus.
Exacally 434 years later Jesus was Crucified.
So lets do the math:
490 - 49 = 441
441 - 434 = 7
This “left over” 7 years is the Tribulation.
For at some future date, the prince that shall come (Antichrist) will make a covenant with the Jews for seven years.
This is where the missing “week” fits in.
This is what will happen after the Rapture of the Church.
Post Rapture Events:
Post Rapture Events:
As soon as the church is raptured the Anti-Christ will be revealed:
He will agree to protect them from their enemies and permit them to rebuild their temple.
27 And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.”
talks about a restoration of the sacrifices, and this would demand a temple.
But as we have seen, as of now there is no temple in Jerusalem.
This is why the 5 red hefners in the news comes in. The bible says that a red hefner is an ordinance of the temple sacrifice.
1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
2 “This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never been mounted.
So the Temple will have to be built a 3rd time and that is what is currently happening.
When will all this actually take place?
When will all this actually take place?
The logical place for this seven-year period is after the Rapture of the church.
7 ‘Woe, for that day is great, There is none like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s distress, Yet he will be saved from it.
“The time of Jacob’s trouble,” the Tribulation period, will be seven years long.
Second Thessalonians 2:1–12 indicates that the Antichrist cannot be revealed until the restrainer is taken out of the midst.
3 No one is to deceive you in any way! For it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
6 And you know what restrains him now, so that he will be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is removed.
8 Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will eliminate with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;
9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders,
10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not accept the love of the truth so as to be saved.
That restrainer is the Holy Spirit in the church.
Once the church is out of the world, then Satan can produce his masterpiece, the Antichrist.
The Anti-Christ
The Anti-Christ
Let us take a moment here to look closer at the antichrist.
The Antichrist is a person who is against Christ. The prefix anti can also mean “instead of,” and both meanings will apply to this coming world leader. He will overtly oppose Christ and at the same time pass himself off as Christ.
The Antichrist will be the most powerful dictator the world has ever seen.
The Antichrist will aggressively live up to his terrible name.
He will persecute, torture, and kill the people of God as he leads the armies of the world into the Battle of Armageddon.
He will be the most powerful dictator the world has ever seen, making Caesar, Hitler, Mao, and Saddam seem tame by comparison.
Even though the Antichrist is identified by that name only four times in the Bible, he appears many more times under various aliases. He is also called:
“the promise that shall come”—Daniel 9:26 NKJV
“a fierce king”—Daniel 8:23 NLT
“a master of intrigue”—Daniel 8:23 NIV
“a despicable man”—Daniel 11:21 NLT
“a worthless shepherd”—Zechariah 11:16-17 NLT
“the one who brings destruction”—2 Thessalonians 2:3 NLT
“the lawless one”—2 Thessalonians 2:8 NKJV
“the evil man”—2 Thessalonians 2:9 NLT
“the Beast”—Revelation 13:1 NKJV
When he comes on the scene, people will flock to him, and they will do anything he asks.
How will he unite the nations?
How will he unite the nations?
The prophet Daniel describes the Antichrist in these terms:
7 After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
8 While I was thinking about the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the previous horns were plucked out before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like human eyes, and a mouth uttering great boasts.
The coming world leader will be renowned for his eloquence, which will capture the attention and administration of the world.
As Daniel says, the coming world leader will be renowned for this kind of eloquence, which will capture the attention and administration of the world.
Daniel continues his description of the Antichrist by telling us he is a man
20 I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three fell—the horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke arrogantly, and that looked bigger than the others.
The combination of his magnetic personality, speaking ability, and extreme good looks will make him virtually irresistible to the masses.
Finally, Revelation 13:1-8 describes the Antichrist as a Beast—an appropriate title for him.
During the last 3½ years of the Tribulation, the Antichrist will personify Satan himself.
Why the sudden change? We are not sure, one possibility is an assignation attempt:
3 I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast;
This fatal wound is miraculously healed!
Which is what the bible tells us:
9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders,
Step by step, the Antichrist will promote himself from a European leader, to a world leader, to a tyrannical global dictator, and finally to a god.
He will make the agreement for seven years, but after three-and-one-half years (“in the midst of the week”) he will break that agreement.
He will then move into the Jewish temple himself and proclaim that he is God.
The Antichrist will cause a living statue of himself to be put into the temple, and his associate (the false prophet, Rev. 20:10) will cause the whole earth to worship it.
Satan has always wanted the world’s worship, and in the middle of the Tribulation he will begin to receive it (Matt. 4:8–11).
Jesus called this statue “the abomination of desolation”.
15 “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand—
NOTE:
NOTE:
An interesting parenthesis occurs at the end of Matthew 24:15—“whoso readeth, let him understand.”
This statement indicates that what Jesus was teaching would have greater significance for people reading Matthew’s Gospel in the latter days.
Prophetic scholars have speculated as to why the Antichrist would break his covenant with the Jews after three-and-one-half years.
Certainly Israel will be at ease and dwelling in safety at that time, for she will be protected by the Antichrist.
11 and you will say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, who live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates,
At that time, the Anti-Christ will be the ruler of a ten-nation alliance.
12 The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.
13 These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast.
The readers of this prophecy in the latter days will know what to do: Get out of Judea!
How do we know that this passage refers to Israel only and not the church?
Because of Jesus warning:
20 Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.
This entire paragraph relates only to Jews, for no Christian believer would worry about breaking a Sabbath law.
The Second Half:
The Second Half:
This event ushers in “the Great Tribulation,” the last half of Daniel’s seventieth week, when the judgments of God will be hurled on the earth.
During the first three-and-one-half years of the Tribulation, the judgments were natural: wars, famines, earthquakes, etc.
But during the last half, the judgments will be supernatural and devastating.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Prophey is not given to amuse but to amaze.