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10-3-2021 Weekly Message

Meditation of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: Daniel 12:1-7

Word Title: The time and the seasons of the End of the World according to the scriptures

       Prophet Daniel, after completing his detailed testimony of the Antichrist, in the chapter 12 ,said, “At that time.” The word “at that time” means that from then  toward the end of the world began.

      Prophet Daniel testified that something would happen from the spiritual world in heaven. He prophesied that Michael in heaven would finally stand up. Michael is one of the archangels and the commander of the heavenly army. Also, Michael is the great prince who rules over the people of Israel from heaven.

      Prophet Daniel prophesied that a time of trouble would come, starting with the rise of the archangel Michael. This time of trouble is the time of Jacob’s trouble so that the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, shall finally be refined and purified so that they can enter the millennial kingdom of Christ. Prophet Jeremiah prophesied how terribly the people of Israel would suffer in this time of Jacob’s trouble:

“And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.

5For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.

6Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?7Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. ” (Jeremiah 30:4-7).

         God had called the descendants of Jacob the chosen people of God out from the land of Canaan to Egypt. He first sent Joseph to Egypt to prepare the way for them. However, after Joseph died, God allowed them to be severely persecuted through Pharaoh for four hundred years, so they were severely trained. God gave the law through Moses, so that they were persecuted by God’s permission by numerous empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, for their sins against the law, so they were refined. Satan, knowing God’s plan to make the Israelites a priestly nation on the earth, has made endless attempts to wipe the Israelites out of the earth. During World War II, the Nazis attempted to wipe out the Jews from the earth, and even now, Muslim countries such as Syria and Iran are planning a conspiracy to wipe out the nation of Israel from the earth.

         prophet Daniel foretold that the time of Jacob’s troubles to come such as never since would never have been since there was a nation. This time of Jacob’s trouble refers to the great tribulation that will be carried out by the antichrist forces that will appear after the rapture of the Church of God in the future. Everything that will happen at that time is foretold in detail in Revelation 6-19.

       Until now, the people of Israel have been tried in the midst of extreme hardship in human history, but after refining them so far, they have  been saved them from their suffering through repentance. Prophet Daniel prophesied that God would deliver them even in the midst of the great tribulation.

       God has opened the door of salvation in each age through the past 6,000 years of human history. In the last two thousand years, in the Age of Grace, God has saved those who believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and gave him eternal life to make them His children. Before the great tribulation to discipline the people of Israel to save the remnant of the Jews, God will first move the Church of God, the child of God and the bride of Christ, to heaven in the day of Christ.

        Then, God will refine and purify the remnant of Israel so that they may enter the kingdom of Christ with the Gentiles who are being saved during the great tribulation to make his will be done on earth.

         The end of the world, the times and the seasons when the present sinful world shall be ended shall be done when the Lord Jesus Christ return, and cast the Antichrist and the False profit into the lake of fire, and arrest the devil called the old serpent, Satan and red dragon to put him into the bottomless pit to establish his Millennium Kingdom.  

         Therefore, if the Jews and the Gentiles living in this world do not repent their sins of not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him with all their heart, they shall enter the great tribulation, the time of Jacob’s trouble, and face with unimaginable judgment.

         Jesus told his disciples about the Great Tribulation and the end of the world:

” And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9Then 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.… But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:6-9, 13).

           Apostle John witnessed and testified that during the great tribulation prophesied by the prophet Daniel, in heaven, Michael fight against the dragon, the devil and overcome him, and expell the devil from heaven to the earth:

” And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:7-9).

         Apostle John had seen the scene where God’s will is done in heaven. Also, at the end of the great tribulation, when the Lord Jesus Christ appears to accomplish his will on his earth and establishes his kingdom, God’s will be done on earth as well.

        The apostle John at this time heard a voice from heaven:

“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

13And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. ” (Revelation 12:10-13)

       The devil, cast out to the earth, will persecute God’s people severely. But God will feed the saved remnant of Israel with the wings of eagles for the next three and a half years, 1260 days:

“And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 15And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

16And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 17And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Revelation 12:14-17).

          Prophet Daniel prophesied of a time when all things would end and the end of the world would come:

” And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

8And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

9And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” (Daniel 12:7-9).

           The prophecies sealed to Daniel were opened to Apostle John in the book of Revelation. In the prophecy given through Daniel, we need to realize what to do before the rapture and the great tribulation:

” And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.…. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” (Daniel 12:2-3,10). )

       The saints waiting for the rapture have to live pure life in order to become pure bride on the day of Christ (1 John 3:1-3), and to preach the gospel in season and out of season, winning souls to be wise (Proverbs 11:30), and to work hard for the Lord Jesus to be rewarded as the ruler over ten cities and five cities when the Lord Jesus returns as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. (Luke 19:11-19).

Amen! Hallelujah!