3/20/2020 Questions:
- With great upheaval unlike any the world has seen in recent generations, are we headed for a great repentance and revival back to YHWH the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as many are prophesying and hoping for?
- What does Scripture say about revival in the last days?
- Does it matter how accurate our expectations are?
- Well, I believe it’s incredibly important. If a coach told his team – the opponent is weak and easy and we’re going to mop the court with them, and then pride gets in there (or even without pride), and the opponent turns out to be impossibly skilled and destroys the coach’s team… Will the team ever respect the coach again? Will the team ever feel like playing again? Will the team continue being a team?
- If many of the prophets speaking in the name of God are not properly preparing Yah’s people for the time ahead, which Scripture describes as the times of greatest distress in ALL of history – even more than the global flood of Noah’s days – then false expectations could leave weaker believers utterly vulnerable and lacking the basic grit needed to overcome nearly impossible tests of faith and perseverance.
- Are we truly in the last days or maybe not? Other decades (1910s-1930s) were pretty horrific with pestilence, famine, war, and economic collapse.
- What (if anything) makes this decade or generation any different?
- Maybe Israel being a nation now makes EVERYTHING different in prophetic potential?
- Is there any Scriptural hint of the righteous achieving political / governmental victory and establishing a stable and freedom-based society? Or is the opposite described?
- We can only see through a glass dimly right now, but if we compile all the pieces from Scripture and hold them against what we observe in the world today, what is the dim picture merging? What road signs should we actually be looking for to understand where we are along time’s overall journey?
Biblical Chronology of the Last Days:
| Reference | Text | My observations | |
| Matt 24:4 | what is the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? | Yahushua’s answers are in this context | |
| Matt 24:5 | wars and rumors of wars… have to take place, but the end is not yet | Wars in the world are a “normal” part of the fallen state of earthly kingdoms Rev 6:4 | |
| Matt 24:7-8 | nation rises against nation, kingdom against kingdom, scarcities of food, deadly diseases, and earthquakes are the beginning of birth pains. | All these components are present in various parts of the world throughout history, and have apparently intensified significantly in the last century Rev 6:5-8 | |
| Matt 24:9 | then (after that) they shall deliver you up to affliction and kill you, and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake. | This has already been happening in China, India, Pakistan, Iran, and many other countries. The anti-messiah mindset is now growing rapidly in western countries as well. | |
| Matt 24:10 | then (after that) many shall stumble, and they shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another. | This sounds like the opposite of revival – this is the Great Falling Away which we’ll look at in more depth as it reaches culmination in the chronology. | |
| Matt 24:11 | and many false prophets shall rise up and lead many astray. | Opposite of revival. | |
| Matt 24:12 | and because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of many shall become cold. | Opposite of revival. | |
| I believe we are currently somewhere in the continuum of “the beginning of birth pains” as described by Matt 24:7-12. We are likely on the cusp of the events needed to usher in the Anti-Messiah, who may very well enter the scene on the wings of a great world crisis. Could the covid pandemic be the first domino that topples everything else needed for such a crisis? | |||
| In Matt 24 at this point in verse 13 Yahushua fast forwards quickly to the “end” before going back and filling in the rest of the gaps from the end of the beginning of birth pains to the beginning of the Great Tribulation to then finally the end again. | |||
| Matt 24:13 | he who shall have endured to the end shall be saved. | Matt 10:22 | |
| Matt 24:14 | this Good News of the Kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then [(after that)] the end shall come. Rev 14:6-7 where an angel flies in the air and holds “the everlasting Good News to announce to those dwelling on the earth, even to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.” | This is NOT a human effort to evangelize all people and language groups This is NOT the Great Commission, which is about making disciples – full-on passionate followers of Messiah willing to die for him – (not just sinners prayer saved pew warmers and church program tithers).This is 100% fulfilled supernaturally as revealed in Rev 14:6-7 | |
| Now, after the quick fast forward through which Yahushua answered the fundamental question his disciples asked about what sign would be to indicate the end, he goes back to the timeline and continues forward with what happens next. | |||
| Matt 24:15 | so when you see the ’abomination that lays waste,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, set up in the set-apart place – he who reads, let him understand
Dan 9:27 | This is the TRIGGER which starts the Great Tribulation and the 3.5 year final countdown to Messiah’s return. It must take place during some future Passover season, knowing that Yahushua returns again according to the pattern of the Feast of Trumpets. | |
| Matt 24:16+ | then let those who are in Yehuḏah flee to the mountains. let him who is on the house-top not come down to take whatever out of his house.let him who is in the field not turn back to get his garments. | ||
| Matt 24:19+ | woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing children in those days! pray that your flight does not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. | This is one of the Biblical, prophetic reasons for my counsel to very carefully and prayerfully consider whether or not to pursue conceiving children if we’re truly about to cross the threshold from the beginning of birth pains into the Great Tribulation. | |
| Matt 24:21 | for then [when you see ‘abomination that lays waste,’] there shall be great distress, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. | Dan 9:27Dan 12:1 / 2 Thess 2:6-7 | |
| 2 Th 2:3-4 | the falling away is to come first [before the coming of Messiah and our gathering to Him (verse 1)], and the man of lawlessness is to be revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called Elohim or that is worshipped, so that he sits as Elohim in the Dwelling Place of Elohim, showing himself that he is Elohim. | “falling away” = apostasia only shows up in one other place in the NT:Acts 21:21 by which we understand it is defined as “to forsake [the Torah given by Yah through] Moses”Also in LXX: Josh 22:222 Chron 29:19Jer 2:19Also as masc. form apostasion in:Deut 24:1,3Is 50:1Jer 3:8Matt 5:31, 19:7; Mar 10:4for “divorcement” | |
| 2 Th 2:6-7 | now you know what restrains, for him to be revealed in his time. For the secret of lawlessness is already at work – only until he who now restrains comes out of the midst. | Many claim the “Holy Spirit” is the “Restrainer” and is removed with all the believers raptured before the tribulation, but there is zero Biblical evidence of this. Scripture clearly reveals who the Restrainer is in perfect connection with the timing. | |
| Dan 12:1 | now at that time Miḵa’ěl shall stand up, the great head who is standing over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of distress, such as never was since there was a nation, until that time. | Rev 12:7-12 “And there came to be fighting in the heaven: Miḵa’ěl and his messengers fought against the dragon. …And the great dragon was thrown out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who leads all the world astray. He was thrown to the earth, and his messengers were thrown out with him… Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has little time. | |
| 2 Th 2:9-10 | the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and with all deceit of unrighteousness in those perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth, in order for them to be saved. | Dan 7:23-25Rev 13:4-7 | |
| Matt 24:23+ | if anyone then says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe. For false messiahs and false prophets shall arise, and they shall show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones. See, I have forewarned you. | The signs and wonders from the evil one will be so powerful that even the “elect” or Yah’s chosen ones could be deceived if that were possible. I believe these will be miracles of healing and a show of power and other “good” wonders. | |
| Again, here at verse 27 we have a brief fast forward to the end and then backtrack in v29 | |||
| Matt 24:27 | as the lightning comes from the east and shines to the west, so also shall the coming of the Son of Aḏam | The only visual description we’re given as to the appearance of the TRUE Messiah’s return. | |
| Matt 24:28 | wherever the dead body is, there the vultures shall be gathered together.Ez 32:3-6Matt 13:30, 40-42; 24:40-41Luke 17:30-37Rev 19:17-21 | This is the “rapture” where “one is taken and another left” – they are taken suddenly to the final battle and destruction, just as the tares are gathered FIRST and THEN the wheat | |
| Matt 24:29 | immediately after the distress of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. | This is describing the Day of YHWH which nearly all the prophets spoke about.This is the pattern of judgment, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, where either one’s sin is covered by the blood of Messiah or judgment falls.Is 13:9-13Ez 32:7-8Joel 2:1-11, 31; 3:14-16Amos 5:20Obad 1:15Rev 6:12-17 | |
| Matt 24:30 | then (after that) the sign of the Son of Aḏam shall appear in the heaven, and then (after that) all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of Aḏam coming on the clouds of the heaven with power and much esteem. | Rev 1:7Rev 11:15Zec 12:10-14Dan 7:13-14 | |
| Matt 24:31 | and He shall send His messengers (angels) with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. | Rev 10:7, 11:151 Cor 15:51-52Is 11:2; 27:12-13; 43:6Jer 32:37+Ez 34:12-13; 36:24Zec 8:7-8Mar 13:27Deu 30:1-4 | |
| Matt 24:36 | concerning that day and the hour no one knows, not even the messengers of the heavens, but My Father only | Hebraism referring to the Feast of Trumpets which was called “the day and the hour no man knows” because it had to be determined by visually sighting the new moon of the 7th month which could happen on one of two evenings. | |
| APPLICATION – What then should we be doing??? | |||
| Matt 24:42 | watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Master is coming | ||
| Mat 24:44 | because of this, be ready too, for the Son of Aḏam is coming at an hour when you do not expect Him | ||
| Matt 24:45 | who then is a trustworthy and wise servant, whom his master set over his household, to give them food in season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, having come, shall find so doing. Truly, I say to you that he shall set him over all his possessions. | Ex 19:5-6Dan 7:18, 22, 27Matt 25:14-30; 34-36Rev 1:6; 2:26-27; 3:21; Rev 5:10; 20:4-61 Cor 6:3-41 Pe 2:9 | |