Revelation / Tribulation
Pastor J. R. Wilhite, author
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Revelation 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Strong's Ref. # 602 Romanized apokalupsis Pronounced ap-ok-al'-oop-sis from GSN0601; disclosure: KJV--appearing, coming, lighten, manifestation, be revealed, revelation. Tribulation is a time that is revealed in the book of Revelation. It is a time when mankind will be put to the test for the sake of their very lives here and in the next life. As was with the children of Israel, it will be a time of exacting punishment and REVEALING God (Who He is and that He is), so will it be at the end. The main difference is that the children of Israel had only a promise to operate on and protect them, a promise of a Promised Land and of being heirs. Exodus 6:4-8 4. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. 5. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. 6. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: 7. And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
We, though, have much more. We have Grace. The children of Israel, at the time of their captivity in Egypt, did not even have the law yet; they did not know what sin was in all areas and aspects. They did not know what the curse or blessing was in full aspect of God's ways. They had one simple promise - that God would deliver them to a Promised Land. They were waiting on the one to save them, they were waiting on Moses.
Compare Israel's deliverance via the 9 plagues and Moses with the Revelation narrative. The last plague represents our salvation today, the death of the First Born, Jesus. Out of the plagues and wrath of God in Revelation there are none that represent salvation, except the last of the nine plagues on Egypt, the death of the first born. Jesus was the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16) His first born and our salvation. To be saved from the ninth plague they had to use the blood of a lamb; Jesus is our lamb. They placed it over their door posts. In those days a door post had two sides that went up through a board that continued on either side of the two boards. It looked like two crosses. The point is, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
II Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
OK, Paul had a thorn in the flesh sent to him by Satan. The point is that with Grace no thorn can flourish; if we resist the devil he must flee.
In the days of Israel they did not have Grace and had no way to call upon the power of God as we do.
I Corinthians 1:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
If we are of Christ (Greek for anointing) then we are of the power of God.
What is the anointing? It is the Spirit of God in, on, and through mankind (Luke 4:18).
Isaiah 10:27 And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
If our burden is taken away, and the yoke destroyed then how can we suffer the time of tribulation.
Strong's Ref. # 2347
Romanized thlipsis
Pronounced thlip'-sis
from GSN2346; pressure (literally or figuratively):
KJV--afflicted(-tion), anguish, burdened, persecution, tribulation, trouble.
Tribulation is a burden and is a contradiction to the word of God if we stay here during this time and suffer with it. Either we are removed from the earth or protected as Israel was during the last 7 plagues (7 is the number used in the book of Revelation). The first two plagues of Israel.
First before the plagues due to Moses talking to Pharaoh the people were treated badly in the name of the Lord.
Exodus 5:23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.
This will happen to us before the tribulation as like it happened then.
II Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away (apostasia) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Strong's Ref. # 646
Romanized apostasia
Pronounced ap-os-tas-ee'-ah
feminine of the same as GSN0647; defection from truth (properly, the state) ["apostasy"]:
KJV--falling away, forsake.
But this is before tribulation; it is before the son of perdition is revealed.
The first two plagues Pharaoh's magician's were able to duplicate but no more after that. Also notice that they only brought more frogs on themselves, and the frogs were a problem for a day only. And the other 7 plagues were not placed on Goshen. The first two helped convince the children of Israel that God was their God and working through Moses. If you are saved you do not need to know this, you should already know God and that He works through us all. See, Israel was not yet saved.
Law and the covenant of Abraham came to pass with the nine plagues in Egypt. This was done to deliver Israel and show the world that God is alive and well and there is only one God. From this many Egyptians went with the children of Israel from out of Egypt.
During the time of tribulation many who before would not believe, will.
The idea is this, first there is revealed knowledge as was with our call of the Holy Spirit to be saved and then when we became saved and part of the truth.
Matthew 16:15-18
15. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16. And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Simon had REVEALED to him Who Jesus was as the Son of God and the Christ (anointing) and from this Jesus stated:
Matthew 16:18. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
"Peter" in verse 18 is "Petros", a small stone or piece of the rock. The "rock" in verse 18 is "Petra" the rock or bedrock. So Simon became a piece of the rock and the rock was the revelation of Who Jesus is as Son and Christ.
Next we need to understand God does not mean tribulation for us. Tribulation means burden and our burden was removed by God, so He would not place one back on us.
Tribulation is a wake up call for those who have ignored the call on their lives from God and a warning to those who are not listening at all.
The wrath of God takes place after the tribulation.
Matthew 24:29 Imediately 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:
If you read through the book of Revelation you will see that all of the wrath is started after the sun's being darkened and the moon shall not give light. Jesus stated the powers of heaven will be shaken.
So, we have rapture, tribulation, and wrath all of which are revealed to us throughout the word.
Rapture has happened 4 times so far:
1. Genesis 5:24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
2. II Kings 2:11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Agreed, it does not say they were taken out, but they died once and God would not have them die again, so they either were raptured or are still here.
The fourth rapture is Jesus, Yes, Jesus. A rapture is the taking of the body and all, as happened with Jesus, Enoch, Elijah and the saints who were asleep.
Rapture 5 will be pre-tribulation; it happens to remove the power which restrains now.
II Thessalonians 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
The Literal says it best and makes it a lot more clear:
7.
|3588| the
|1063| For
|3466| mystery
|2235| already
|1754| works
|3588| of
|0458| lawlessness,
|3440| only
|3588| he
|2722| restraining
|0737| now,
|2193| until
|1537| out of
|9999| {the}
|3319| middle
|1096| it comes.
Two points here:
The one restraining is the Holy Spirit, and it has to be removed for the lawless one to rule. We know the Holy Spirit will never be removed from the earth, and the Holy Spirit can only work through us on the earth, so the Holy Spirit remains, but those with the Spirit are removed to give opportunity for the lawless one to rule.
Why would God allow this to happen? The same way He hardened Pharaoh's heart, God does this to help everyone (who can) see, so they can be saved. He is not a mean God, but a loving God. At the time of Pharaoh they worshipped false idols and believed in pagan gods.
The only way to eternal peace and life abundant is through the one and only God. For God to help both Egypt and Israel to see this and really get the point He had to let them see His power. He will do this again in the tribulation by showing mankind that a world without God is a world in which they do not want to live.
The sixth rapture happens at mid-tribulation to remove all the new believers so Satan can be revealed to all the most hard headed of all people. The last 3.5 years is not meant for those who accept God in the first 3.5 years, but for those who do not.
The seventh and final rapture happens at the end of tribulation to remove the remaining ones who had a change of heart in the last 3.5 years.
Then the wrath comes and all those with the with number of the beast and who worshipped him will be killed in the wrath. The remaining will live under the rule of Jesus and us for 1,000 years.
Seven is the number for completion in the Bible, seven days in the week, 7 years to tribulation, 6 years of planting, one year of rest and start all over again.
Now that we have all of this out of the way, let us look at the tribulation time.
During World War II there were some terrible acts of in-humanity comitted against Jews and other races as well. Mostly Jews, they were killed yes, they were raped yes, they were robbed yes. But none of this could compare to what we learned after WWII.
Doctors and scientists in the 1930's, under Hitler, were experimenting with humans for DNA research, cloning, pain, etc. By the last year or two of the war about 1943 these people began even more hideous acts of perversion against people.
They began operating on people alive without anything to take care of the pain or any form of sedative. They did this to in some cases see how long people would last before passing out or even dying from the pain.
They took pregnant women and cut them open and removed the babies, they performed all forms of abortion and worse.
Imagine taking children, and women and making them strip and walk naked in the cold and snow to showers where they were gassed. Some were taken directly to furnaces and burned alive.
Children were removed from parents and placed in separate areas. Imagine what this did to the child and how frightened they must have been and what it did to their parents. These monsters did some of these acts out of a sick form of enjoyment.
The point is that during the tribulation when people are not restrained from acting out their perversions, they will. As time goes on it will get worse and worse as it did between the 1930's and 1945 in Germany. Hitler and his mad men and women did not believe that Jews were humans and treated them like animals.
Today we see (even with the restraint here) people acting out hate crimes. In Texas 3 white men drug a black man to his death. In Illinois in July of 1999 a man killed 2 and injured 8 others, all either black, Asian, or Jews.
Children are killing; children as young as 12 year olds killing even younger children.
You can go back 100 years even in the USA and look at how blacks, Jews, Asians, Hispanics, and anyone who did not fit the white male role was treated like second class citizens less than human. At the very least not allowed to sleep in a hotel or drink from a water fountain.
Yes, we have always had it, but in the past 30 years it has grown like a cancer eating away at a lung and it is getting worse.
This is happening while there are those of us here who are appalled by such acts, and that will stand up for the ones being harmed, and push to stop those who are harming anyone.
I am going to say something now that may shock you, but violence towards someone who is gay, is just as bad. We should be the first in line yelling how bad it is and trying to stop it, instead of letting it happen. Many so called Christians sit back and allow this to happen by making coments like, "Well, they asked for it", or "They deserved it", or by thinking, "They got what was coming to them." No, I am not "for" homosexual acts. I am not "for" any sin, but when was the last time you were drug out of your car and beaten for some other sin. It is not the sinner we should be judging, but the sin its self.
Matthew 7:1-5
1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
No, we are not perfect; we will make mistakes and that is why, in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus told us to ask for forgiveness as we forgive others. We can try to be better and start by judging ourselves instead of others.
You may see someone who, by your standards, is far less than what you think a Christian should be, but be careful. I'll bet there is someone looking at you thinking the same thing about you. Instead of setting standards for others, we need to follow the ones set for us, to Love our neighbors (meaning all who are alive) and to love God before all things.
Back to tribulation.
Think about how in the past 40 years we, as a world, have gone from threatening to lock people up in a nut house for seeing UFO's to believing that aliens visit and abduct people from the earth. Is it possible we are being prepared or programed for something?
How about the fact that out of the middle of the Christians will come the anti-Christ. Imagine a young (say about 30-year-old male), very charismatic and a Christian leader is left behind. Since some will be left thinking, "If it was the rapture, then I would have gone also, so it must not be the rapture," when rapture happens how else will the anti-Christ (lawless one) explain what happened to us? Then in 3.5 years when it happens again, how many will be terrified? So this could give the anti-Christ a way to impose the chip on everyone.
The Chip? Yes, the number 666 is the number of man. 6 is the number of "incompleteness" and that is mankind without God, incomplete. Now the antichrist uses fear to get people to receive a chip that has the number 666 imbedded in it. He does this by telling them if the two groups before had, had it, they could have been located. Don't forget the children. He will use it to get the chip in children to protect them from random acts of violence.
Now as the time passes after rapture and so many are devastated by the loss of loved ones (especially babies), this young leader will have fore knowledge that will allow him to get a foot up on all other political leaders and he will lead the world. This new leader will bring some form of order and in doing so remove most freedom in the name of security. Do you see how the alien abduction story could help him the most?
Some of the people who are now restrained (the doctor Death types like the doctors of Germany in WWII) will start coming out of the woodwork. Unlike WWII (where it was one small country with a small population) we are now talking worldwide perversion.
As time goes on people become more and more wicked and the world seems to look more and more like Sodom. Some people will start coming around to the truth, and don't forget there will be 144,000 Jews who are priests of this time. Yes, a lot of people will die for their faith. This is the time of the reuniting of the Hebrews back into salvation.
Now we are half way through; we are at the 3.5 year Mark, the 6th (mid tribulation) rapture has just happened.
The first 3.5 years was for mankind to see man ruled by man without God. Now it is time for Satan to rule mankind without God. This is a time when the famines and pestilence and plagues brought on by the pestilence in the first 3.5 years grow big time. This is when homosexuality runs wild as does sex. Violence becomes the order of the day. This is a time that even those of WWII that comitted all the acts in Germany would be shocked.
This is pure evil, then we have 2 witnesses come on the scene for God and every time the antichrist or Satan tries to do something the two witnesses will make fools of them. As was with the magicians of Pharaoh's day, these two will be like Moses (some think one will be Moses). The people, due to their own perversion, will not see the truth, but just the results they suffer due to these two.
By now after 2 raptures, suicides of parents who lost children and others in general, death from famine, plagues and violence the population will be between 250 million and 1.5 billion (that's all).
Just imagine 7 years of violence everywhere at its worst; plagues from disease and from all the bodies, famine, suicide, heat, and cold will kill more than we can imagine.
God only gave 3.5 years for each phase; 3.5 years of man, and 3.5 years of Satan, not the normal 7 He would have given to make it complete. Had He not shortened the time there would be NO one left!
As with Israel many (after all the signs of God in the plagues, parting of the Red Sea, drowning of their enemies, being fed by God, taken all the riches out of Egypt) they still rebelled; they still had no faith. That is why there will still be some left all the way through to the wrath.
Why would God allow this? He does not, we do.
I Thessalonians 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
You can go and read up on the Holocaust on the net and in your library. See all the evil I did not mention and how I did not even scrape the surface about the wicked things that happened in WWII. Now take that and imagine a whole world gone that way.
God does not want anyone to suffer. If we do not go out in the rapture, where will we be during the wrath?
I Thessalonians 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
God, like always, offers as many ways out as possible. He sends people into our lives to remind us Him; we can dismiss them. In everything we see He is there from the sunrise to sunset, from the flower blooming to the cry of a new born baby; we can write it all off as nature. He gives us a call via His Holy Spirit, we can ignore it. For those who miss the rapture He gives them a second chance, then a third (last 3.5 years) then a fourth after the wrath. He is just trying His best to help us avoid Hell. We must not ignore Him, dismiss, Him, or write Him off! He loves each and every one of us, but even HE will not wait forever for us to receive Him.
Why did I write this? Maybe some who wait until after the rapture will read it and see the truth in it and it will help them. Maybe some, before rapture, will read it and be helped. The idea is to show that the Great Tribulation is a time for those who need a wake up call or a 2 by 4 between the eyes. It is another facet of the Love of God, not the wrath of God.
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