THE END

 Jesus and His disciples were having a conversation on the Mount of Olives, when they asked of Him, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Mat 24:3).

They wanted to know the eschatology of mankind… for the people of the world. When would the apocalypse come and what would the signs be?

Firstly, Jesus warned them not to be deceived. (verse 4). He expected that there would be false signs at the wrong times. Some of those “Christians” will claim to be Christ; not just one person, but several. It seems that there will be a antichristian group whose power is convincing. Surely, they will be very convincing! (verse 5).

There will be a period of great persuasion. Many claiming to be Christ may not be, them saying, “We are Christ,” but deny the doctrine of Christ and believe us!”

Along with that, there will be wars and rumors about them but the end is not yet that time (verse 6). War has always been in the world and even more eminent. It must be a time of world war and potential global destruction. It is not global warming that is the danger to civilization, but global warfare that will preclude the ending. Surely Jesus was speaking of one hemispheric empire against another.

Presently, there are two “New World Orders,” and nuclear warfare is threatened. If that happens, forthcoming may be the “mother of all wars,” but perhaps, according to Jesus, the sign of the end of times, are rumors of global warfare. The technique today is threats to create fear in the hearts of the enemy, so with so many threats, rumors now abound. But the end is not yet here (verse 6).

Jesus added to those things, “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (verse 7). There will not be peace on Earth. There will not be until the millennial reign of Jesus.

Not only will there be wars between nations and kingdoms, but within families. But first, what is the difference between nations and kingdoms? “Nation” is ethnos in the Greek and “kingdom” basileia. Ethnos is racially oriented, and today racial division has been more eminent than ever before.

Ethnos is a time of trouble between the races with the people of one race against those of another race. In other words, there will be extreme animosity between the races; black against white and white against black. It will be a war for the survival of the fittest, and apparently a renewal of Nazism.

The government of this “Christian” nation where we live is at the present time in an ethnic war, and I hate to say it, but civil people are losing that war to extreme elements. “Nations” cannot be glossed over because we are to the point where genes determine who has commerce in the world and who cannot. That is ethnos.

Perhaps the new ethnicity in those wars will be between those who have RNA Therapeutics and those who have not. Even some of my best friends are no longer friends because I cherish my God-given genome and refuse the jab! Could it be that ethnos there is more than skin color but whether the genetic identity has been altered or not?

Whether you realize it or not, a new ethnicity is in the making. There are those who claim to be “Christ” (“believe the science”) who are in the process of changing your genetic composition to be compliant for the favor of a long life, Bill Gates style. They may not say they are “Christ” but act as if they are. Could that be of whom Jesus was speaking?

Now for basileia which is translated as “kingdom.” It is literally “authority” and is not to be confused with an actual kingdom. (Strong 1890). It could be the United Nations whose charter is to bring peace on Earth (United Nations 1946), the World Health Organization whose charter is to keep the world healthy, although at the present they have been a clear danger, or could it be the World Economic Forum that is resetting the government, the people, and their religion?

We think of wars to be between kingdoms, as Russia against the Ukraine, but perhaps it is communist East against neo-Nazi West. The clear and present danger to the world is those who would reset it, who are opposed by those who desire to keep it traditional.

Jesus said, “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (verse 8). Up to this point those times of sorrows are tribulations, but the Great Tribulation has not started. Christians, at least, will face these times of sorrows and have tribulation.

Apparently, there is one thing to be added to the wars between ethnics; wars among families, even Christian “families:” 

³³ But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. ³⁴ Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. (Mat 10:33-35)

 There will be a Jesus denial. Will anyone be so terrible as to deny Jesus? Will they say outright, I deny Jesus, as Peter did (Mat 26:75).

Denying Jesus is favoring another power over Jesus. That is much less obvious. People do not line up to go to Church for praise and healing; even Christians do not anymore, but there are larger lines lined up to “Trust the Science” and then brag about the authority in charge of bad science — Dr. Anthony Fauci.

How many praise Jesus nowadays, given a public forum? Few even consider doing that, so not to seem extreme, but look how how many praise Fauci? All who take the jab infer upon him trust and praise. To claim Christhood is not actually saying it, but Him having absolute authority. The vaccine mandates have usurped Christ, even mandating churches be closed. So much for trusting Jesus in the time of sorrows!

Jesus came to set variance against members of the same family. “Variance” is the severing of ties, in this case, the family. At one time, families shared the same doctrine of Christ. Recently there has been an upsurge in variance among family members. Even Christian family members are losing it. One Christian doctor told me that his children accused him of brainwashing just because he taught the truth.

That parents are losing authority at the present as never before is what Jesus was talking about. Even Christian parents put their pre-kindergarten infants in the “belly of Molech” when they sacrifice their children to the NEA and such in the public schools. They are letting the government be the parents because teaching children is just an inconvenience to them, almost as bad as having children!

Continuing on with Jesus’s conversation, the Great Tribulation starts: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake” (verse 9). If killing you is not great tribulation, then nothing is! Jesus is talking to His disciples; He is speaking to Christians. They will be around for a greater tribulation that comes after milder tribulation.

With that said, perhaps tribulation is for the first 3-1/2 years and great tribulation for the latter 3-1/2 years. Either way, the Christians will not have been raptured before the time of sorrows. But perhaps, there is greater tribulation at hand! 

¹² And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. ¹³ But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Mat 24:12-13)

 Those who shall be saved are those who have endured tribulation and who remain faithful through it all.  Love waxing cold is apostasy; those who once had affection for Jesus would defect from Him. That is the Church.

In the COVID lockdown, the defection began. Some even left my church because I asked, “Where is your faith?” Now, my own church has abandoned Sunday evening service and even shutdown when the perfect place to be was in the bosom of Jesus… in Church!

Next comes the reward. Those who endure tribulation “shall be saved.” That means that until then, even Christians have not been saved. The Holy Ghost had comforted them (John 14:6) by keeping them safe, but after the tribulation was the time of salvation.

Just what and when is “salvation”? It is not when you first believed! “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:11). So, Christian, you have yet to be saved because the time of salvation has not arrived. When will it? 

¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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: ¹⁷ 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. (1 Thes 4:15-17)

 “Saved” is rapture, or “caught up” with Jesus. Saved is the moment that “we ever be with the Lord,” and as can be seen, the dead will rise with new flesh because once dead, now they are alive! The rapture is breathing life unto the dead, engendering them again as in the beginning. These are the two must be’s: “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7) and “Ye must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Born again is literally, “engendered from above” (ibid). The rapture occurs when from above, Jesus engenders both the living and the dead with glorious incorruptible flesh, “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 15:52).

Incorruptibility is “saved” because never again will the Christian be corrupted. Implied therein is that before that, Christians can be corrupted, and that includes apostasy; and that is what tribulation is all about.

I questioned earlier about the end of tribulation and the beginning of Great Tribulation. Well, Jesus answered that: 

²¹ For then (after the rapture) shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. ²² And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened” (Mat 24:21-22)

 Christians, both dead and alive, are raptured before the Great Tribulation but must endure tribulation. So, pre-tribulation verse mid-tribulation depends on whether the beginning of sorrows is tribulation and the beginning of the Great Tribulation or not.

The ”elect” refers to Christians. Their days will be shorted during the Great Tribulation. But Christians have been raptured, so it seems that there is a new selection — a new crop of Christians who will indeed endure some of the Great Tribulation. Again, that depends on whether the time of sorrows is part of the tribulation period or not.

Scripture says little about the Great Tribulation other than Christians will come out of it alive and well (Rev 7:13-14), and to come out of the Great Tribulation means the Church repenting of their deeds (Rev 2:22). There will be a Church during the Great Tribulation and to be rewarded means overcoming that tribulation.

So how long is the Great Tribulation” Three-and-one-half years or seven years? Are they consecutive years? That is unknown, but there are several viewpoints for “futurists” — those who believe they are not past tribulations but future ones: 

Pretribulationists believe that all righteous Christians (deceased and living) will be taken bodily up to Heaven (called the rapture) before the Tribulation begins.[14] According to this belief, every true Christian that has ever existed throughout the course of the entire Christian era will be instantaneously transformed into a perfect resurrected body, and will thus escape the trials of the Tribulation. Those who become Christians after the rapture will live through (or perish during) the Tribulation. After the Tribulation, Christ will return to establish his Millennial Kingdom.

Prewrath Tribulationists believe the rapture will occur during the Tribulation, halfway through or after, but before the seven bowls of the wrath of God.

Midtribulationists believe that the rapture will occur halfway through the Tribulation, but before the worst part of it occurs. The seven-year period is divided into halves—the "beginning of sorrows" and the "Great Tribulation".

Posttribulationists believe that Christians will not be taken up into Heaven for eternity, but will be received or gathered in the air by Christ, to descend together to establish the Kingdom of God on earth at the end of the Tribulation. (Wikipedia 2001)

 

 What is unknown is exactly is when the Great Tribulation begins. However, that it is two parts each of 3-1/2 years is known. It makes sense that the time of sorrows is one period of 3-1/2 years and a time of great tribulation, the latter period.

The Book of Daniel reveals a little about that subject: 

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. (Dan 9:27)

 As usual in scripture a “week” may be considered seven years. Those of the Covenant (Christians) will have one “week” of seven years to confirm their faith. They must endure tribulation, perhaps the time of sorrows and the Great Tribulation.

In the middle of the week something happens (after 3-1/2 years). It sounds as if the Great Tribulation begins in the middle of the week, but still during that time Christians will be tested. The “consummation” is the ending, or the apocalypse.

With that said, the timing of the rapture remains unknown and theologians have debated it forever.

The “Consummation” appears to be the following great event:

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Pet 3:10)

 Regarding the Consummation — the ending apocalypse: 

³⁵ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. ³⁶ But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. ³⁷ But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Mat 24:25-37)

 So, I end this commentary with an admission: I am not Yahweh. I do not know the timing of tribulation nor the ending. I lean toward a mid-tribulation rapture because of the time of sorrows, but indeed there is evidence to the contrary. Perhaps, we still argue about the end to keep us from assuming the authority of God.

A pre-tribulation rapture is convenient for Christians, and I hope it is true. For Calvinists (eternal security) it must be true to be secure as tribulation jeopardizes Christians as the Book of Daniel says, the seven-year period is to confirm their faith.

The Calvinistic viewpoint is sort of arrogant; that they have so much faith that they do not need to have it confirmed, as if they are already saved. So, for them pre-tribulation is a must be because of that doctrine. However, that is not one of the two must be’s mentioned earlier.

Are we saved from perishing or are we saved from tribulation? John 3:16 points to the idea that salvation is to never perish, or to take on incorruptible flesh at the rapture.

When does the perishing end? When the test of faith is consummated at the end of seven years.

You can see the dilemma; we should want a pre-tribulation rapture, but because something is desired does not make it happen.

The timing of consummation (the Great Tribulation) is unknown, and I believe it will stay that way because only God knows. We can selectively pick scripture that confirms our bias, but we surely are not meant to know the day, hour, or even the year, but only when the times are as in the days of Noah. (To discern that would require Christians who discern scripture.)

“Noah found grace” (Gen 6:8), but Noah still endured tribulation for forty days and nights. In the end, Noah was saved from perishing but not until after the flood killed off the genes of the Wicked One. Will it be the same ending again? Perhaps all things will be as in the days of Noah.

The safe thing is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Are you prepared for tribulation? Of course, we hope it doesn’t happen that way, but many believe that Christians must confirm their faith. We do not have the assurance of salvation, but the “full assurance of hope unto the end” (Heb 6:11). The end is the end of the seven weeks before the apocalypse.

Whether that is the Way it will be or not is not for me to say, but the best assurance is that we just may have our faith tested.