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When the all-powerful Jesus Christ unexpectedly cuts short His first world rule, large numbers
of people will quickly forsake God’s Way. As this occurs, Christ opens the seven seals
of Revelation, ushering in the worst time ever. Severe punishment will come on a mankind
that was given everything it longed for by a loving God—and yet rejected it all. We
saw the scope of the first four seals last time. But what about the final three? The
answer—and who will survive them—will become clear in this last part.
The Bible is plain—impossible to misunderstand for those willing to accept it. Some of what
you are about to learn is grim beyond imagination. It is not pleasant to report—but it must
be done. The World to Come. The Restored Church of
God presents David C. Pack. The Bible speaks of basic prophetic timeframes.
Certain verses strongly suggest Christ’s first reign on Earth is at least seven years.
The length of the “short time” when Satan is released afterwards is similar or less.
Several periods are definite. The first involves 1,335 days. The prophet Daniel wrote, “Blessed
is he that waits, and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.”
This moment starts a giant prophetic countdown to the very day Christ’s Millennial rule
begins. It marks when God begins protecting His people—those who love the truth. Obviously
the resplendent, God-like judges need no protection. But faithful Christians the world over must
be evacuated before the fifth seal opens. This occurs on a single day, when angels take
them to Judea. Luke called this “the day when the Son of man is revealed”—when
“one shall be taken, and the other…left.” We can now examine two prophecies occurring
in and around Jerusalem. First is the abomination of desolation, introduced in Daniel. Notice:
“From the time…the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes
desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” Thus, 45 days
after God’s people are taken, at 1,290 days before Jesus returns, this “abomination”
appears. Here is Jesus’ first clue: “When you shall
see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know…the desolation thereof is [near].”
If something is near, it has not happened yet.
Next, the abomination of desolation appears. Jesus revealed in Matthew this related event
to look for in Jerusalem: “When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken
of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso reads let him understand).”
Mark adds, “standing where it ought not.” This involves some kind of upright abomination—a
man. Part 1 explained the holy place is a Third
Temple—and that, for the twice-daily sacrifices in front of it to stop, they must first be
restarted. When the Beast’s armies arrive, and the blasphemous False Prophet is in the
court of the temple, the abomination will officially “stand in the holy place”!
The armies and the abomination signal God’s people to flee Judea. Let’s see.
Revelation 12 briefly describes the 2,000-year history of the true Church. The woman there
symbolizes first the Old Testament Church, which was ancient Israel, but later the New
Testament Church. Now notice this: “The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent,
called the devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the
earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” And: “When the dragon saw…he was cast
unto the earth, he persecuted the woman [now spiritual Israel, the Church].” Next: “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.” A biblical time is a prophetic year of 360
days. Revelation 12:14 refers to this period, that of 3½ times. Revelation 11:2 says 42
months, or 1,260 days (3½ x 360 days). Note that the woman flies to the wilderness—not
heaven—for 3½ years. Jesus went on to tell His disciples that when
the abomination is set up, they should, “Flee to the mountains; and let them which are in
the midst of [Judea] depart out.” The message is leave quickly! God’s people are told
in three places to flee Judea, where they were taken at the 1,335.
This flight involves extreme urgency—because only 30 days remain until the worst time ever
explodes, and due to a last-ditch effort by Satan to destroy all God’s people. Notice:
“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 [obviously this is an army]. And the earth
helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood…” This
paints a dramatic picture, with miraculous delivery necessary for God’s people to survive.
Not all are protected however: “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.” Some true Christians must undergo additional hardship to complete the
character-building process. Next, the Great Tribulation begins. Recall
Jesus said the first four seals were only “the beginning of sorrows.” He added that
there would also be earthquakes, commotions and troubles. But this is far from the end
of matters. The fifth seal does not describe a horse and rider, but something worse.
Jesus said, “Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the
world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be [cut short],
there should no flesh be saved [alive].” Daniel said, “There shall be a time of trouble,
such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.” Jeremiah added,
“Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s
[or Israel’s] trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” These passages so obviously
describe the same time coming on the nations descended from the ancient patriarch Jacob—primarily
the democratic nations of the West and the Mid-east state of Israel.
This world-shattering period will be truly horrific. You do not want to be on the wrong
side of what happens. Thoroughly explaining it is beyond the scope of this broadcast.
What the nations of Israel experience is detailed all through the prophets. Extreme famine,
disease and war claim hundreds of millions more lives beyond what the horsemen took.
The prophet Ezekiel foretold, “A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and
with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of you: and a third part shall fall
by the sword round about you; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and…draw
out a sword after them.” Many passages reveal God will actively send
“pestilence”—disease. Here is just one: “The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave
unto you, until He have consumed you from off the land…The Lord shall smite you with
a consumption, and…fever, and…inflammation, and…extreme burning.” Other passages depict
the horrors of cannibalism—even within families (read Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses 53 to
57). Those who suffer these things are described by Jeremiah in Lamentations 4: “Their visage
is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets [they can’t be recognized]:
their skin cleaves to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.” Comparing these
to the third that “fall by the sword” in Ezekiel’s account, Lamentation continues,
“They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these
pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field”—in other words a
slow, agonizing death. What of the remaining third—those scattered
“into all the winds” who have a “sword after them?”
Jeremiah 15 shows this is captivity, and that God’s wrath cannot be turned away: “Then
said the Lord unto me [Jeremiah], though Moses and Samuel [among the most righteous leaders
of all time] stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people: cast them
out of My sight, and let them go forth. And it shall come to pass, if they say unto you,
where shall we go?…tell them, Thus says the Lord; Such as are for death, to death
[the Hebrew means pestilence or ruin. Notice the precise Ezekiel 5 parallel]; and such
as are for the sword, to the sword [armies invade]; and such as are for the famine, to
the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.” But Ezekiel said those
who are enslaved are further reduced in number because it adds—“and I will draw out a
sword after them.” Isaiah chapter 6 shows how tiny is the surviving
remnant—and provides a great clue as to how they survived. The punishment reaches
an extent where the “cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away [into captivity!],
and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet in it shall be a tenth
[10% survive this first phase], and it shall return, and shall be eaten [meaning kindled
or consumed or further reduced]: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in
them, when they cast their leaves [in the fall]: so the holy seed shall be the substance
thereof.” Understand God’s unusual language. The number
of those descended from Israel drops to 10%, and then further to where only the “holy
seed” remains—converted people. Almost all other translations of Isaiah 6:13 are
much clearer. Here is one—the English Standard Version: “Though a tenth remain in it, it
will be burned again, like a terebinth [a teil] or an oak, whose stump remains when
it is felled. The holy seed is its stump.” God will only allow to survive those who return
to Him and prove themselves faithful during this great trial.
This pattern would likely also apply to obedient Gentiles—meaning anyone who refuses the
Mark of the Beast, regardless of nationality. Revelation 7 calls this the “great multitude,
which no man could number.” Remember—Israel is afflicted in the Tribulation.
But the rest of the world lives in spectacular affluence during that time. Those who took
the Mark of the Beast could “buy or sell.” Revelation 18 shows the “merchants of the
earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies,” including “gold…silver…precious
stones…pearls…fine linen…silk…wood, and all manner vessels of ivory [a replenished
First Dominion elephant population is slaughtered again], and all manner vessels of most precious
wood [and much more, including]…slaves, and souls of men.” The enslaved Israelites
provide free labor. For a time, all goes well for this great system—causing
nations to proclaim its success to be worldwide! The apostle Paul told the Thessalonians: “Yourselves
know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.” Thieves
come unexpectedly—suddenly—and usually with force. “For when they shall say, Peace
and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child;
and they shall not escape.” When things could not seem better—at the pinnacle of
peace and prosperity—the calamitous whole year of God’s wrath begins. We will see
this. While the Tribulation is Gentile exploitation
of modern Israelite nations, driven by Satan and allowed by God, these nations will go
too far, making God furious. Several verses say this. Before their shorter but equal punishment
begins, God extracts from around the world people of every nation who refused the Beast’s
Mark—who proved themselves faithful during the Tribulation’s 2 ½-year trial. God is
not a respecter of persons. All who obey Him will be protected. And all who reject and
disobey Him will pay the greatest price. Next comes the sixth seal—the heavenly,
or astronomical, signs. They are horrific. The apostle John recorded, “When He had
opened the sixth seal…there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth
of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even
as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Jesus said
this: “Immediately 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.” The prophet Joel added, “The sun shall be turned into
darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible Day of the Lord
come.” The heavenly signs herald a profound shift in the speed and direction of events.
Continuing in Revelation 6, “The great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able
to stand?”—when Heaven and Earth are shaken! The answer? Very few!
The Day of the Lord—God’s Wrath—follows the sixth seal. It will be comparable to nothing
that has ever happened. This terrible period of God’s awesome power and wrath is foretold
to last an entire year—capping the 2½-year Tribulation. Together, these periods make
up the 1,260 days. Isaiah writes of God’s wrath, “It is the day of the Lord’s vengeance,
and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.” Jeremiah calls it “the year
of…visitation.” This is the seventh seal: “When He had opened
the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw
the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.”
The seventh seal equals the seven trumpets and the seventh trumpet equals the seven last
plagues, or vials. Understand! The seven trumpets don’t follow the seventh seal—they are
the seventh seal! Keep these things clear. How does humanity respond to more devastating
plagues? “The rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not
of the works of their hands, that they should not worship [demons], and idols of gold, and
silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood…Neither repented they of their murders…sorceries…fornication,
nor…thefts.” Rebellious human nature simply will not surrender to God.
The seventh trumpet signals Christ descending in the clouds (Revelation 1:7), bringing salvation
and the resurrection of the dead: “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 [meaning stand up] first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” I Corinthians 15:52 adds “at
the last trump.” The nations are not happy to see this Christ.
They will have come to believe and trust in a counterfeit system and a counterfeit Christ.
The next event is referred to as Armageddon! Many books and movies have depicted the so-called
“final battle between good and evil.” The Bible mentions Armageddon in only one
verse: “[God] gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”
Understand what will then be the world scene. The revived Holy Roman Empire—recall the
Beast and False Prophet—will have already conquered parts of the Middle East. It will
have established a foothold in Jerusalem, having invaded under the pretense of bringing
peace. Daniel wrote, “But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble
him.” While the Beast’s army is in the holy land—other military giants will come
in to oppose it. The Bible reckons locations from Jerusalem.
Now what big countries are east and north of Jerusalem? Russia, China, India and Japan!
Likely these, with possibly other nations, will constitute the huge army Christ destroys
at His coming with a plague. Ezekiel 25:4 and 10 call this army the “men of the east.”
Grasp two vital points. (1) God brings armies to Megiddo. (2) The Bible says this is a gathering
place, not an event—and not a battle (read Revelation 16:16). When the Bible speaks of
Armageddon, it is not referring to either the end of the world or the final battle between
“good and evil.” There is no battle called Armageddon! What happens is called “The
Battle of That Great Day of God Almighty!” This is God’s battle! This last great clash
will be fought by armies that will have gathered at Megiddo and then traveled 60 miles to the
Valley of Jehoshaphat (read Joel 3:2), or what is today called the Kidron Valley. This
is immediately east of Jerusalem. Major forces—including the Beast, aligned
with a coalition of Arab states (Psalm 83) and the men of the East with the remnant of
nations led by Egypt (Ezekiel 30)—will see Jesus Christ coming out of the clouds. When
the Beast and eastern hordes gather, the False Prophet will work his final miracles to delude
the masses. Considering Christ the greater threat, all armies will unite to repel what
they perceive as their common enemy. They will be angry. (Read Revelation 11 and verse
18.) Deceived, they will likely now think Jesus Christ is the “anti-christ.” The
result? They will “make war with the Lamb.” The prophet Zechariah gives the outcome: “Then
shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day
of battle,” and “This shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people
that have fought against Jerusalem; their flesh shall consume away while they stand
upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall
consume away in their mouth.” In this shocking picture, Christ is victorious
against His enemies—ending man’s failed attempt to take back power. The all-powerful,
returning Christ destroys the armies that desecrated Jerusalem! Revelation 19:20 gives
the fate of the Beast and False prophet—public execution by burning. But all others who rebelled
also perish, as you will see momentarily. First, it is critical to know the phrase “Day
of the Lord” can refer to the very final day in this year-long period before Christ
Returns to begin His millennial reign. The context always makes these passages plain.
Now a stunning, impossible-to-misunderstand description from the apostle Peter. Grasp
what we now read: “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 [more accurately in the
Greek burned down]. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, [every viewer take
note of what follows] what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy [conduct] and
godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens
being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”
God resurfaces the Earth at this time! Peter adds that in the New Heavens and New Earth
dwells righteousness. The apostle John in Rev 21 through 22 verse 5 describes New Jerusalem
coming down from heaven at the same time. While much could be said of this mind-boggling
three-fold event, it is also outside our scope here.
Come to grips with the full picture! Everyone God intends to protect will have been taken
to safety at the end of the Great Tribulation—before the Day of the Lord begins. The masses who
aren’t protected—those who accepted the Beast’s Mark—perish throughout this year-long
period, with the culmination on the final day of Christ’s Return. Peter is plain—as
are numerous prophets. Let’s examine a fraction of the overwhelming biblical evidence.
First is Isaiah 24: “Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty, and makes it waste [meaning
to annihilate], and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad [actually, the Hebrew
means dashes in pieces] the inhabitants thereof. The land shall be utterly emptied [the Hebrew
means depopulated], and utterly spoiled: for the Lord has spoken this word. The earth mourns
and fades away [is burned down]...The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof.”
Why does God do this? “Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance,
broken the everlasting covenant.” All humanity will have been given God’s laws, ordinances
and covenant in the First Dominion—with most rejecting them. Verse 6 confirms Peter:
“Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate:
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left”—those who were
protected, the Holy Seed of Isaiah 6 and the Great Multitude of Revelation 7.
The prophet Zephaniah opens with a chilling declaration from God: “I will utterly consume
all things from off the land [correctly the earth, in the Hebrew], says the Lord. I will
consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the
sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked [that’s the idols]; and I will cut off man
from off the [earth], says the Lord…The great day of the Lord is near, it is near,
and hastes greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry
there bitterly…And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind
men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out
as dust, and their flesh as the dung…the whole [earth] shall be devoured by the fire
of His jealousy: for He shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in
the [earth].” Sobering words! Of course this excludes all who did obey God.
After Christ’s decisive victory, He immediately re-establishes His world government: “[Christ’s]
feet shall stand in that day upon the [new] Mount of Olives which is [still] before Jerusalem
on the east.” The biggest moment in history arrives. Jesus
Christ again replaces all human powers and laws with His own—permanently. The utopian
conditions of the First Dominion return, this time on a New Earth, within a new universe,
with Christ and the saints dwelling in a New Jerusalem.
You’ve received advance knowledge of the greatest events in history—that change everything!
The world’s supposed prophecy experts simply do not know these things—any of them! But
you now do: will you act on precious knowledge? As Bible prophecy continues to unfold, and
world conditions advance, don’t miss a single World to Come!
Until next time, this is David C. Pack saying, “Goodbye, friends.”
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