End Times Update

9.27.2023

https://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-predicts-an-israel-transformed-in-mideast-has-no-words-for-internal-israeli-peace/

Steve Cioccolanti

https://youtu.be/0Q7I1JyNXUU?si=t-YemrVN4qINamJa

Sid Roth with Rabbi Felix Halpern

https://youtu.be/mjaZxip_8Z0?si=fLHeRzgXZuhLOC5Y

(Taken from The Pre-wrath Rapture of the Church by Marvin Rosenthall: Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, p. 56) Used by permission.

(Taken from The Pre-wrath Rapture of the Church by Marvin Rosenthall: Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, p. 61) Used by Permission.

(Taken from The Pre-wrath Rapture of the Church by Marvin Rosenthall: Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, p. 149) Used by permission.

There is a lot going on right now that points towards the return of Jesus, and I want to make some comments about it tonight!

1 Chronicles 12:32 (NKJV)

Of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command;

During the transition of the kingship of Israel from Saul to David, there was a group of people who had an understanding of the scope of what was happening: Issachar’s race.

We need Issachar’s race today.

Here are some key points I want to bring out tonight about the return of Jesus.

1. We are in a time of change unlike anything we have seen in our lifetime.

Leaving the time of Grace and entering a time of Judgment.

The USA as a world leader financially and militarily is being challenged.

The world is being prepped for a global government to rise.

2. It seems as though Daniel 9:27 could be fulfilled very shortly, within a few months.

Daniel 9:27 (NKJV)

Then he [leader of Middle East, and perhaps world governments] – AntiChrist) shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;

But in the middle of the week

He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.

And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,

Even until the consummation, which is determined,

Is poured out on the desolate.

Matthew 24:15-22 (NKJV)

“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”

— The Gospel of John, Volume Two (The New Daily Study Bible) by William Barclay

https://a.co/g2ZqMFX

“It was in 170 BC that the deluge really came. In that year, Antiochus attacked Jerusalem. It was said that 80,000 Jews perished, and as many were sold into slavery. The sum of 1,800 talents–a talent is the equivalent of fifteen years’ wages for a laborer–was stolen from the Temple treasury. It became a capital offense to possess a copy of the law, or to circumcise a child; and mothers who did circumcise their children were crucified with their children hanging round their necks. The Temple courts were profaned; the Temple chambers were turned into brothels; and finally Antiochus took the dreadful step of turning the great altar of the burnt offering into an altar to Olympian Zeus, and on it proceeded to offer swine’s flesh to the pagan gods.”

Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech at the UN last Friday that seems to indicate that Israel could enter a treaty of peace, trade, and such with Saudi Arabia, leading at least 15 other Middle Eastern nations in that agreement.

This is very significant. A treaty seems to start the 7 final years before Jesus returns. It is called Daniel’s 70th week, and is typically called The Tribulation.

It will be a false peace lasting only 3.5 years.

Immediately following this Faux Peace will be what Jesus termed the Great Tribulation.

3. Most believers in the USA believe that the Rapture of the Church will occur at the very beginning of this 7 years of what is termed The Tribulation.

I have noticed a fairly significant uptick online and such of ministers and people talking about the rapture happening any day!

I do NOT see it that way now. I think that we will be here for the first few years of the global government/antiChrist rule, and that life as a believer will become more and more challenging as we proceed.

Here is what I see as we progress into the future years:

Matthew 24:4-14 (NKJV)

Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9 Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

1) A treaty with Israel starting the 7-year period.

2) Birth Pangs (a parallel to the 7 seals of Revelation 6) – A rise in global conflict; A rise in fierce weather anomalies; A great increase in earthquake activity; Inflation “on steroids”; Food shortages; Man made or natural pandemics as bad or worse than covid; A challenge to free speech, religious freedom, property rights, and personal autonomy (the goal is total governmental control); lawlessness creating cultural and societal division and animosity;

3) The Great Tribulation starting with the rebuilt Jewish Temple in Jerusalem being desecrated and the 7-year peace treaty being broken.

4) A rise of world power from China and Russia moving into the void created by the USA diminishing.

5) Great persecution and martyrdom of both Jews and Christians worldwide.

Matthew 24:

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

Matthew 24:21-22 (NKJV)

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.

John 16:1-4 (NKJV)

These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 3 And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. 4 But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.

Matthew 5:11-12 (NLT)

God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.

John 15:18-23 (NLT)

If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21 They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me. 22 They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Anyone who hates me also hates my Father.

6) Massive Deception and Delusion.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 (NKJV)

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

7) Cosmic disturbances revealing the imminent Rapture of the Church to heaven!

Matthew 24:29-31 (NKJV)

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Revelation 6:12-17 (NKJV)

I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. 13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. 14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. 15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

8) The Day of the Lord – The wrath of God poured out on earth after believers leave in the rapture.

According to scripture, the day of the Lord is more than a 24-hour period. It is a time period that moves through a sequence of events where God judges through wrath the disobedience of mankind, the nations that reject His plans, and Satan as the thief that ruined His plan for a Father and His family. This Day of the Lord culminates in the Second Coming of Christ to earth, and ushers in the 1000-year reign of Christ on earth, which ends with us living in the New Heavens and New Earth with God as our Father and we His sons and daughters.

 

Beginning with Revelation 8, the Trumpet Judgments and Bowl Judgments are the wrath of God poured out on the unbelieving, rebellious masses of people who refuse the gospel and leave to please themselves.

Revelation 8:1-11 (NKJV)

When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. 3 Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.

6 So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

First Trumpet: Vegetation Struck

7 The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

Second Trumpet: The Seas Struck

8 Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. 9 And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Third Trumpet: The Waters Struck

10 Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.

Listen to what the Bible says about the Day of the Lord…

Isaiah 2:12-22 (NIV)

The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled), 13 for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan, 14 for all the towering mountains and all the high hills, (15) for every lofty tower and every fortified wall, 16 for every trading ship and every stately vessel. 17 The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, 18 and the idols will totally disappear. 19 Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. 20 In that day men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship. 21 They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from dread of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. 22 Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?

 

Isaiah 13:6-13 (NKJV)

Hail, for the day of the Lord is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore all hands will be limp, Every man’s heart will melt, 8 And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be like flames. 9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it. 10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine. 11 “I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 12 I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the Lord of hosts And in the day of His fierce anger.

 

Isaiah 34:4,8 (NKJV)

All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; all their host shall fall down as the leaf falls from the vine, and as fruit falling from a fig tree. 8 For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, the year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

 

Joel 1:15-20 (NKJV)

Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty. 16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17 The seed shrivels under the clods, storehouses are in shambles; Barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. 18 How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, because they have no pasture; Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment. 19 O Lord, to You I cry out; For fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the trees of the field. 20 The beasts of the field also cry out to You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the open pastures.

 

Joel 2:10-11 (NKJV)

The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness. 11 The Lord gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?

 

Joel 2:30-32 (NKJV)

And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. 32 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.

 

Joel 3:14-16 (NKJV)

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness. 16 The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

 

Amos 5:18-20 (NKJV)

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light. 19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion, And a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, Leaned his hand on the wall, And a serpent bit him! 20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?

Zephaniah 1:14-2:3 (NKJV)

The great day of the Lord is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; there the mighty men shall cry out. 15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers. 17 “I will bring distress upon men, and they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.” 18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance of all those who dwell in the land. (2:1) Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation, 2 Before the decree is issued, or the day passes like chaff, Before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you! 3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.

Zechariah 14:1-4 (NKJV)

Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. 4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.

 

Acts 2:19-21 (NKJV)

I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. 21 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

 

2 Peter 3:10-13 (NKJV)

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:1-4 (NKJV)

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.

 

2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 (NKJV)

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.

 

The day of the Lord encompasses a period of time that immediately follows the rapture of the church, and includes God’s wrath, judgment on, and repossession of the world system that has been stolen by Satan from Adam. It is an intense time. There is nothing nice or positive about it from a believer’s perspective.

Additional Notes:

Not a single Ante-Nicene Church Father supports a signless, any moment Rapture. By contrast, they uniformly teach that the Antichrist must appear before Christ’s coming for the church and that the church should be watching lest they be caught off guard: (p.11)

Justin Martyr:

The man of apostacy [Antichrist] … shall venture to do unlawful deeds on earth against Christians…( Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, 110)

Irenaeus:

And they [the ten kings] shall…give their kingdom to the beast and put the church to flight …(Against Heresies V, 26,1)

Be he [John] indicates the number of the name [Antichrist 666] now, that when this man comes we may avoid him, being aware of who he is…(Against Heresies V, 30,4).

Hippolytus:

Now concerning the tribulation of the persecution which is to fall upon the church from the adversary [he has been speaking of the Antichrist’s persecution of believers]…That refers to 1260 days [the last half of Daniel’s 70th week] during which the tyrant is to reign and persecute the church (Treatise on Christ and Antichrist 60,61).

Tertullian:

Now the privilege of this favor [to go without dying at the rapture] awaits those who shall at the coming of the Lord be found in the flesh [those who are still alive] and who shall, owing to the oppression of the time of Antichrist, deserve by an instantaneous death [Tertullian’s way of describing the rapture], which is accompanied by a sudden change, to be qualified to join the rising saints [those who has already died in Christ] as he writes to Thessalonians (On the Resurrection of the Flesh xli).

(Taken from What Does God Say about The Coming and The End? Zion’s Fire newsletter by Marvin Rosenthall, November/December 2008 edition (2009: Winter Garden, FL: Zion’s Hope.org; Zion’s Hope, Inc).

pages 4,10,11.

Some of the Christian leaders who never embraced pre-tribulational rapturism, or who initially embraced it only to renounce it include:

Henry Alford, Oswald T. Allis, Matthew Arnold, David Baron, J. Sidlow Baxter, Louis Berdhof, Rowland V Bingham, Horatius Bonar, William Booth, F.F. Bruce, John Bunyan

John Calvin, William Carey, Edward J Carnell, Thomas Chalmers, Adam Clarke, Charles T. Cooke, Samuel Cooper, Jon Cotton, Alexander Cruden.

Alfred Edersheim, Jonathan Edwards, Charles R. Erdman, W. J. Erdman, Charles Finney, John Foxe, Alexander Fraser, John Gill, A, J. Gordon.

Robert H. Gundry, William Hendriksen, Carl F. H. Henry, Matthew Henry, Herschel H. Hobbs, Charles Hodge, Frank Houghton, Thomas Houghton, John Huss, John Knox.

Martin Luther, Norman S. Macpherson, Cotton Mather, Campbell Morgan, George Mueller, Isaac Newton, Thomas Newton, A. W. Pink, A. B. Simpson, Oswald J. Smith, Charles H. Spurgeon, A. H. Strong, William Tyndale, B.B. Warfield, Charles Wesley, John Wesley, George Whitefield, John Wycliffe.

If some of these names are not familiar to the reader, let it be known that among them are the men who gave us the Bible in the English language, some of the foremost Puritan personalities, the leading reformers, missionaries who with the gospel pierced the darkness of heathen lands, theologians of the first rank, some of history’s greatest preachers and authors whose books have stood the test of time to become classics within Bible-believing Christendom…. None of these men were pretribulational.

Taken from The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church by Marvin Rosenthall, Zion’s Fire Newsletter, January-February 2005. (2011: Winter Garden, FL: Zion’s Hope.org; Zion’s Hope, Inc). p. 5