100% Bible Based Teaching
Provides in Depth teaching from the Word of God
Clear distinction between worldly and Christian music
Aim to fulfill the great commission as commanded by Jesus
Seeking to find answers to your faith based questions from God’s Word
Israel’s coming tribulation
While it is clear that Israel will continue until the end, it is also clear that this will be accompanied by severe tribulation and great oppression. In fact, Jesus promised Israel (via the Jews) that it would be the greatest tribulation that they would ever experience in all their history. (For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. – Matthew 24:21) Other nations around them also sinned but God held Israel particularly responsible for their sin because they alone of all nations should have known better. The prophet Amos, speaking God’s words to Israel, said, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” (Amos 3:2)
Back around 740 BC, Isaiah gave God’s message to Judah and Jerusalem, long before they were taken into captivity (607 – 587 BC). Even then God pronounced them rebellious, sinful, iniquitous, corrupters, revolting, sin-sick from head to toe. He refused to accept their sacrifices according to the Law because they were corrupted, unclean from their spiritual adultery with the gods of other nations.
Some excerpts from Isaiah 1 demonstrating their serious problem with mixing the worship of God with the worship of false gods:
Isaiah 1 – 2Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
4Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 5Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
11To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 13Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; [it is] iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear [them]. 15And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. 16Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
18Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken [it].
Judah thought they could enjoy sin as long as they carried out the temple sacrifices as well. They thought that it was OK as long as they also did what God required. But when you mix unclean with clean, the consequence is that it all becomes unclean. Even the “clean” actions of worshiping God according to the Law were rendered unclean by their worship of the unclean. Clean + unclean = all unclean!
Haggai 2:11-14 – 11Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ask now the priests [concerning] the law, saying, 12If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No. 13Then said Haggai, If [one that is] unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. 14Then answered Haggai, and said, So [is] this people, and so [is] this nation before me, saith the Lord; and so [is] every work of their hands; and that which they offer there [is] unclean.
There are many today who believe the lie that it’s OK to do sin as long as you “get right” with God on Sundays!
Israel was warned to not serve other gods to see what happened or else they would be ensnared into worshiping them.
Deuteronomy 12:29-31 – 29When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; 30Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 31Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
They were told, not just once or twice, but many times to not go after other gods.
Deuteronomy 6:14 – Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which [are] round about you;
They were to not to listen to close friends or family members who tried to get them to serve other gods. Instead, God ordered them to put such people to death.
Deuteronomy 13:6-9 – 6If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which [is] as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; 7[Namely], of the gods of the people which [are] round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the [one] end of the earth even unto the [other] end of the earth; 8Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: 9But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
Even after they (Judah) came back from captivity at Babylon, they went further in their spiritual adultery. Malachi was the last of the prophets of the Old Testament, writing about 400 years before Christ.
Malachi 2:11 – Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
And Jesus declared the pharisees (who were effectively the religious leaders of their day, even overruling the Levitical priesthood) to be the children of the devil.
John 8:44 – Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
So ultimately, Israel (via the Jews) had dug a sinful hole so deep that they couldn’t escape from it. God had sent punishments one after the other, but while they might have temporarily repented and turned back to God, it never lasted; they just went deeper and deeper into spiritual adultery against God.
God had demonstrated His lovingkindness to them as His special people, yet they had abused this privilege. They would not be purged via God’s kindness, but by being refined in “the furnace of affliction“. God sent plague after plague, judgment after judgment, but even today Israel is still under God’s condemnation for their spiritual sin.
Isaiah 48:9-11 – 9For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. 10Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 11For mine own sake, [even] for mine own sake, will I do [it]: for how should [my name] be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.
Daniel 9:24 (Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.) makes it clear that one day their sin will be ended and they will be declared righteous for ever. This has never happened yet, in spite of all the affliction God has brought upon them so far. It will take an affliction far greater than they have ever experienced or could ever imagine to bring them to this point, to break them so surely that they will call upon the name of the Lord to be delivered (Joel 2:32). This time of extreme affliction is yet to come, and the fruit of that affliction will be their everlasting righteousness. (For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. – Matthew 24:21)
Daniel 9:24 also mentions the 70 weeks determined for Israel, actually 70 x 7 = 490 years remaining on their timeline. When they rejected Jesus (John 1:11) after 483 of those years, Israel (via the Jews) were sidelined with the Church taking over their tasks and promises. They were 7 years short of the end of their timeline.
But one day (very soon, now) Israel will take over again their ministry as God’s people once more. They have one week of years (7 years) remaining, and this 7-year period will involve the most extreme affliction they could ever know, so extreme that Jesus said, “For 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 shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-22)
At the end of this final 7-year period, Christ their Messiah will return to annihilate their enemies at Armageddon and then set up His thousand-year reign over the earth.
Zechariah 12:9-10 – 9And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn.
Ezekiel 37:22-27 – 22And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: 23Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. 24And David (= Christ the son of David) my servant [shall be] king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. 25And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, [even] they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David (= Christ the son of David) [shall be] their prince for ever. 26Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Much of Revelation records the extreme tribulation of that final 7 years before Christ returns to save His people Israel. It is only this extreme affliction that could ever turn the hearts of Israel back to their God. It has to be far more extreme than anything they have ever experienced up until then, for nothing else less than that has ever worked. However, it also has to be limited in time or else even the redeemed ones of Israel would not survive.
Matthew 24:15-22 – 15When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 17Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.“
Just one final note here. Any who think that Israel being hit with such suffering will enable their enemies to better defeat Israel, think again. In spite of Israel’s extreme tribulation and suffering, they will be the ones left standing at the end after Armageddon! And God’s everlasting covenant with Abraham long long ago has never been rescinded, never been revoked.
Genesis 12:2-3 – 2And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Those who today are seeking the destruction of Israel had best keep this in mind. No matter how much weaponry, nor how many soldiers, nor how many countries try to oppose Israel, at this time they will not ever be destroyed.
Zechariah 12:8 – In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David [shall be] as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.
************************************
If you have any questions or comments about this information, please feel free to say it or give advice, by using the Contact page. Genuine comments may be recorded on the Comments page. However, I may choose to reply to reasonable comments via email.
List of all my posts on this site.
If you wish to read other documents on the heresies of calvinism, please use this link.
Please feel free to comment on the Comments and contact page
Reasonable comments and replies may be recorded on the Comments page.
However, due to the lack of logical comments, most comments will not be recorded.
God’s people Israel and their end-times victory
In the Bible, end-times refers to those days when God will draw His people Israel back to Himself, causing them to be redeemed according to His promise to them in Daniel 9:24 – Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. That 70 weeks represented a year for each day; thus 490 years yet remained on their timeline until their eventual redemption. Effectively Israel was promised everlasting righteousness as God’s people after a period of 490 years. This was to be counted from the date of an order given to rebuild Jerusalem (including the temple).
Daniel 9:25-26a (25Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26And after threescore and two weeks (following that initial 7 weeks) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:) sets out a period of 7 weeks of years plus 62 weeks of years, making 69 weeks of years (= 483 years) before their Messiah (Jesus Christ) is cut off (= cut down). This occurred when Jesus was put to death on the cross for the sins of the world. This left but 1 week of years (7 years) to bring in the everlasting righteousness of Israel.
But. after that 69 weeks of years (= 483 years), Israel (via the Jews) rejected their Messiah. (John 1:11 – He came unto his own, and his own received him not.) Consequently most of Israel was blinded from the truth and separated from God’s will for some time, not cast away but sidelined. God has never cast away His people for ever! Their final 7 years before their everlasting righteousness was effectively put on hold; they were sidelined (but not thrown away as some today try to teach).
Romans 11:1-2a – 1I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, [of] the tribe of Benjamin. 2God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.
Israel continued to seek after a God whom they considered to be their special property, but most were blinded such that they just couldn’t see that they were blinded.
Romans 11:7-8 – 7What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded 8(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
A remnant of Israel would continue to seek and find God through repentance …..
Romans 11:5 – Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
… according to God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:12-13 – 12Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13And ye shall seek me, and find [me], when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
But most of Israel would be spiritually blinded, shut off from God until He chose to seek them once more; this would mark the beginning of the end-times.
On 14th May 1948 Israel returned to a part of her ancient lands; this was an act of God to commence the countdown to their becoming once again His people and He would be their God (according to Ezekiel 37:24-28). In fact, Ezekiel 37 talks about the valley of dead bones becoming a living whole house of Israel once again. This is happening in our time; Israel will not ever be sidelined again; no enemy will ever be able to destroy Israel again.
However, the refusal of Israel to accept their Messiah 2000 years ago opened the way for the Gentile Church to take over the tasks and promises given to Israel; this would continue until the Church age was completed according to Romans 11:25 (For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.) But now that time is very near. When the Church age is fulfilled (“when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in“), then Israel will be brought back onto her timeline to complete that final week of years. A Saviour, the Deliverer, their Messiah, will return to Zion (Israel) …..
Romans 11:25-27 – 25For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27For this [is] my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
…. and all the remnant of Israel would be saved according to Joel 3:31-32 – 31The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. 32And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.
This is still mostly in the future. Certainly Israel has already returned to some of her ancient lands, and right now it does appear that the war of Ezekiel 38 is approaching fast, that war which will usher in that final 7-year period.
Joel talks a lot about the end times. To begin with, God will return them from where they have been scattered around the world; He will “bring again their captivity” which means that God will restore them back from their captivity. The captivity here could mean restoration back to their lands, but the context does strongly suggest that it includes being restored from their captivity to sin.
Joel 3:1-4 – 1For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, 2I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and [for] my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. 3And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink. 4Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
All the nations who oppose Israel’s return to their land and instead desire the destruction of their people, all those who demand pay-back against God and His people, will instead have their demanded recompense paid back to them (Israel’s enemies); it will be upon their own heads. In particular, “Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine” will receive what they have demanded for Israel. Today we can see how relevant this really is!
Over many centuries they have taken from Israel to give to the temples of their gods, and sought to destroy Israel as a nation. They have persecuted and dispossessed God’s people Israel in order that they might steal their lands. But God will raise His people Israel from where they have been banished (Israel became a sovereign state in 1948) and will use Israel to pay back those who have persecuted them over the centuries. Because Tyre, Sidon and the coasts of Palestine have destroyed God’s people Israel and dispossessed them of their lands, behold, God will now do the same to them as Israel’s oppressors. They will receive what they have given to God’s people. Because they have dispossessed and enslaved God’s people Israel, God will sell their sons and daughters into the hands of God’s people, and Israel in turn shall remove them far away from their lands, “for the Lord hath spoken [it].“
Joel 3:5-8 – 5Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: 6The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border. 7Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head: 8And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken [it].
Not only will God pay back Israel’s enemies in kind for what they have given to Israel, He demands that they gather all their allegedly mighty men to prepare for war against God who will defend His people Israel.
Joel 3:9-11 – 9Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: 10Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I [am] strong. 11Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.
The start of this appears to be a taunt made to those barely-ordinary men of war who think they are champions in battle because perhaps they are so great in number. Let those who are weak (and ordinary) boast of their mighty acts of war; let them beat their chests and proclaim themselves to be the heroes who will win this battle. Barnes Commentary says: So universal shall be the rage of Israel’s foes for invading her, that even the weak among them will fancy themselves strong enough to join the invading forces. Age and infirmity were ordinarily made valid excuses for exemption from service, but so mad shall be the fury of the world against God’s people, that even the feeble will not desire to be exempted.
It does remind one of their “so courageous, such mighty” cowards who do not dare go into battle without the protection of women and children gathered around them! All may feel brave when they are with a lot of other like-minded people or surrounded by women and children!
thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord – This seems to be praying that God would cause His mighty ones (gibbowr) to come down (from heaven) to fight in this battle. Revelation 19:19 (And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.) says that the armies of earth will gather to fight Christ the Messiah and his army (which may be assumed to be angels).
Also note that angels are used to gather people for judgment: Matthew 13:41-43 – 41The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Psalm 2:4 – He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. God will mock Israel’s enemies for their futility.
This next passage from Joel 3 does appear to jump forward to that greatest of battles opposing Israel: Armageddon. At the end of that final 7-year period of Israel’s timeline, the nations of the world will gather a huge army to oppose Jerusalem itself. Christ the Messiah returns to slaughter Israel’s enemies and then sets up His thousand-year reign over the whole earth.
Joel 3:12-15 – 12Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. 13Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness [is] great. 14Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord [is] near in the valley of decision. 15The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
Judgment comes to all those who oppose God’s people. The sickle cuts down all the enemy armies; it pictures all the dead being placed into a huge wine vat and crushed so that the blood runs freely at a depth of about 1.2 metres for a distance of around 300km.
Revelation 14:16-20 – 16And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. 17And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 18And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. 19And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast [it] into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand [and] six hundred furlongs.
And, at the end of this final 7-year period of Israel’s timeline, Israel will be the victorious nation who goes into the thousand-year reign of Christ their Messiah. All those of other nations who are yet alive after Armageddon will go every year to worship Christ the King, the Lord of hosts.
Zechariah 14:16 – And it shall come to pass, [that] every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Those who choose to not worship Christ the King at Jerusalem each year will be punished with drought.
Zechariah 14:17 – And it shall be, [that] whoso will not come up of [all] the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
Jesus the King will rule forever and there will be no end of His kingdom, ever.
Luke 1:32-33 – 32He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
************************************
If you have any questions or comments about this information, please feel free to say it or give advice, by using the Contact page. Genuine comments may be recorded on the Comments page. However, I may choose to reply to reasonable comments via email.
List of all my posts on this site.
If you wish to read other documents on the heresies of calvinism, please use this link.
Please feel free to comment on the Comments and contact page
Reasonable comments and replies may be recorded on the Comments page.
However, due to the lack of logical comments, most comments will not be recorded.