July 19, 2008

• Biblical Eschatology Revisited
  
  
  
  The Timeline Analysis of the Book of the Revelation – Part 4

  As we address the matter of the 6th seal in chapter 6, we find that three things develop out of the opening of that seal.

  First, from the perspective of those who are not redeemed by the blood
  of the Lamb, we immediately see that the very signs spoken of by Christ
  in Matthew 24:29-31 appear. This is the one instance where the signs of
  His coming for His own match up the best of anywhere I’ve found. It is
  also important to note His mention of the reaction of the people of the
  earth when this happens also happens here. They all fear the wrath of
  God to come.  Such will be the upheaval that there will be no
  “atheists” on that day.

  Second, from the perspective of those who are the “chosen” of Israel at
  that time, we see the intervention from heaven on the behalf of the
  bondservants of our God by a seal on their foreheads. These
  bondservants are 144,000 from every tribe of the sons of Israel, 12,000
  from each of the named tribes. These tribes are not listed in order of
  their birth and Dan is missing from the ranks and Manasseh appears to
  replace them.

  Third, from the perspective of those who have trusted in Christ before
  this point, we see a huge multitude assembled from every nation, tribe,
  people, and tongue before the throne of God and before the Lamb, all
  clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out
  “Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And we
  are told who these people are.

  
  Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed
  in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” I
  said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the
  ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their
  robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason,
  they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in
  His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle
  over them. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the
  sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and
  will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe
  every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:13-17 (NASB)

  So the question is this… where were these people before the 6th seal?
  Where are they now? Is this not the result of the “harpazo” aka the
  “Rapture”? What a scene! All those redeemed by His blood are “home” at
  this point. The 144,000 remains on earth to be God’s redemptive witness to the world in their stead.

  As we begin chapter 8, we see there is silence in heaven for about a
  half an hour as He opens the 7th seal . I would suppose that it would
  take a while for everyone to settle down after the “harpazo” to take in
  the upcoming events that will literally rock the world to its core and
  prepare the way for the Second Coming of Christ.

  Now, we turn to what is known as the “Trumpet Judgments”. If one takes
  time to notice the first four of these trumpets release damage to the
  environment and nature. Now I’ve been wondering for quite some time now
  if the world is aware of what is coming and is trying to falsely
  prepare people for these environmental disasters by spawning the “Green
  movement” and attempting to blame “global warming” and other things on
  the work of man.  Can you see the diabolical thing going on here? The
  world system may be trying to convince itself that God’s wrath is not
  upon them at this point. This will be the heyday for those folks who
  said “I told you so!” yet they’ll be lying through their teeth. God has
  already shown us nearly 2,000 years ago what will be happening that is
  caused by His direct exercise of His power.  At the end of the 4th
  Trumpet, 3 woes are proclaimed upon those who dwell on the earth. This
  is appropriate because He begins to turn up the intensity on these
  things and the focus becomes “man” in the 5th and 6th Trumpets in
  chapter 9. (The 1st woe is the 5th Trumpet Judgment.)

   It is very difficult to understand what these things are exactly
  coming out of the bottomless pit and what is going on in the 6th
  Trumpet without going into a tremendous amount of speculation so it is
  best that we acknowledge that something that corresponds with this will
  be evident at that time. Given that the Word of God has been quite
  accurate in describing the things it is referring to at the proper
  time, it should be understood that those who will experience these
  things will understand it all too well.

  Now at the end of the 6th Trumpet, we see something very important. We
  see that the rest of mankind did not repent of all the things that were
  listed there. While that is a sad commentary for man, it is an amazing
  thing to see from a redemptive standpoint. The Lord was paying
  attention to see if any of them would repent. He was not acting in
  blind wrath in these things. He continues to look redemptively at the
  situation here on Earth.  No, it would not change anything except that He is consistent in how He
  deals with man and we begin to understand the depth of the meaning we
  find in II Peter 3:9…

  
  The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is
  patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come
  to repentance.  II Peter 3:9 (NASB)

  In the midst of judgment, He is still looking for the repentant.
  Further, we now understand a bit better the words of the angel in
  chapter 10…

  
  Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up
  his right hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever and ever,
  WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE EARTH AND THE THINGS
  IN IT, AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS IN IT, that there will be delay no
  longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is
  about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to
  His servants the prophets. Revelation 10:5-7 (NASB)

  The days of God’s patience we saw in II Peter 3:9 is coming to an end
  (i.e. there will be delay no longer). At the time of the 7th Trumpet,
  there is an important thing that will happen… the Mystery of God will
  be finished. What is this Mystery of God?  Paul tells us all about this
  in Ephesians 2:11-3:10. Please read the passage since its very long but its message is clear.
  The Gentiles, through faith in Jesus Christ become fellow partakers and
  heirs with Israel through the Gospel. (Eph 3:6). Now what could this
  mean at this point in time (at the 7th trumpet)? We will be able to
  find this out in the next installment but not before quite a bit of
  intervening information. I assure you it is an amazing thing to
  consider… at least it was for me. (Now if you are curious and can’t stand waiting, read Rev 14:1-5 and note what’s going on there.)

  It is at this point we note that we now are focused on “the temple”.
  Not one in heaven but one on the earth where its outer court has been
  given to the nations.  The measuring rod and staff that was given to
  John and the command to use them means that something is going to be
  built, presumably the temple but without the outer court since its
  under the authority of the “nations”. So how does such a temple get
  built? Perhaps 6 Trumpet Judgments have convinced the “powers that be”
  that it would be in their best interest to allow Israel to build the
  temple after all. From the reports I have heard, we already know that
  the very pieces to build it are already made waiting for the day for
  the actual assembly.  It would be easy to see how a “peace treaty”
  might come to pass in that sort of scenario and along with it the
  permission to build the temple.

  Now the “two witnesses” (the 2nd Woe) appear on the scene and are given
  1,260 days of authority to witness and prophesy. (Now this constitutes
  a 3 ½ year time period… which causes us to consider that this is the
  first half of Daniel’s 70th Week particularly since, later on, the
  Beast has authority for 42 months which is again 3 ½ years which is the
  latter half of the “week” of seven years).

  At that time, those who don’t like the witnesses’ message and
  prophesying and then try to remove them will be destroyed by fire that
  comes out of their mouth. If we are in the days just before all this
  happens, this will probably be necessary as those who currently hold
  the Temple mount now will not like the idea of these witnesses being
  anywhere near their shrine.  There’s more that we can glean about them
  so take some time to read the text regarding their power and message.
  The key thing to remember is that NO ONE will be able to hurt them
  until their time is over.  The one that will get rid of them will be
  the Beast who will make war with them, overcome them, and kill them. It
  shouldn’t be surprising then that in Revelation 13, we read that the
  world is amazed and says… “Who is like the Beast and who is able to
  wage war with him?” Once this happens, what use is the treaty made for
  the temple? Its easy to see why the treaty is broken at the midpoint of
  Daniel’s 70th week.

  At any rate, after 3 ½ days have passed since the witnesses were
  killed, they are resurrected and brought up to heaven in a cloud. This
  surely ruins the celebration the world had the few days before. There’s
  also an earthquake, 1/10th of the city falls and 7,000 people die. The
  world is terrified and gives God the glory.

  In the last 5 verses of chapter 11, the 7th Trumpet sounds and we see a “declaration of war” from heaven and indeed it
  is and is taken that way by the Enemy himself. We will see this ahead in
  the next part but, for now, in chapter 12, we are told there is a war
  in heaven and the Dragon is cast down to the earth. Whatever place they
  had before in heaven would no longer be available to them. (Rev 12:7-8)
  This becomes the 3rd Woe and after attempting to destroy Israel and is
  unsuccessful, he turns his wrath upon those who keep the commandments
  of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. But we are getting ahead of
  ourselves here. More on this later.

  We have now reached the mid-point of Daniel’s 70th week. Based on
  simply taking what has been said here, I am amazed at what has been
  shown to us. Now I know there has been a good deal of debate on if and
  when something called the Rapture was going to happen and all of the
  reasons why it was just “escapism” to avoid the horror of experiencing
  persecution and martyrdom. Folks, I think the Lord is quite clear what
  is happening here. Personally, I am beginning to think that quite a
  number of us read the part we wanted to read and missed some other
  important parts and never understood the whole.

  This has been rather interesting. The usual designations we give for
  various positions seem to be flying out the window. There is a Rapture
  but it isn’t quite where many thought it would be. There will be
  persecution and martyrdom before it but still before the terrors of the
  final years hit. Ok, that fits reality. Many think the Trumpet
  Judgments are part of Daniel’s 70th week but perhaps not given the
  strict timeline of how things are given to us. Is this God’s way of
  giving the world a “wake-up” call? We see the Mystery of God fulfilled
  by the middle of the “week” and that is quite interesting. Did we ever
  wonder what happens to the 144,000 of Israel in relation to the Mystery
  of God? Have we considered how we might describe the converts of the
  144,000 who we’ll see later in our analysis? And we also see that the
  saints are taken out of the great tribulation that Jesus said (in
  Matthew 24) started when Jerusalem was destroyed and trodden under the
  feet of the Gentiles (we now know this as 70 AD) and is not to be
  considered the same as Daniel’s 70th week even though they overlap in
  the end.  There is nothing mysterious here except the “locusts from the
  abyss” and the “army of 200 million” which may still require time to
  understand what they truly are. To me, to waste too much time worrying
  about the details of that distracts from understanding the bigger
  picture into which they fit.

  From this point forward in the analysis, we have 3 ½ years remaining
  before the Second Coming of Christ. Much of it tells us of how this
  current world system will be dismantled and ended and it prepares us
  for the real hope to come. Two more parts to go… Blessings, Mr.Vee

  Here’s page 4….

  

  • 1:59 pm
  • 5 Comments