This transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors. It is provided to assist those who may not be able to listen to the message.
Again, last time we started an overview of prophetic events. That was part one of I said three, and yet I'm beginning to wonder if it might be four, but we shall see. We began last time by basically hinging between Matthew 24 and Revelation 6, and we looked at the first four seals of the book of Revelation. That, of course, includes your false Christianity, counterfeit Christianity, religion, false religion in general. It involves wars, rumors of wars, nations fighting nations, and alliances of nations, kingdoms fighting other kingdoms.
It dealt with famine and pestilence. We talked also a little bit about some natural disasters, and then the unique position we find ourselves in as a body of Christ today. Because you look across the board, the Church of God body, and there are so many members who have 30 and 40 and 50 years under their belt as far as being involved in the work of God, which is why we have so many with serious health issues at this time. Let's go back to Matthew 24, and pick it up. We read this, but I want to focus on this verse, number 8.
Matthew 24, verse 8. Right after it has given the first four signs of his return, it then reminds us, all these are the beginning of sorrows. I'll once again be reading from the King James Version today. This is the beginning of sorrows. This is a time when the warm-up phase has ended, and things are going to start moving a lot faster.
And as we look at the news and the world around us, who can do anything but conclude that something has really been ratcheted up with the events that we see, just insane acts of violence and terrorism across various places of the earth, and we expect it more and more to come home to roost right here in our country. These seals, as we looked at them last time, I mentioned that they are what we would call the telescoping-type prophecies, that there was a time when they were opened.
We saw that from Revelation, where the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ, was found worthy to open and unlock the seals. And at a given point, they were opened, and as time goes on, they intensify and magnify in their scope and intensity.
So this is the beginning, and then things are going to ratchet up. I think we should focus a little more on the next few verses, because we have always recognized there would be a time of persecution upon the church because of who we are, because of what we believe. And I believe also in intensified persecution upon the end-time descendants of Abraham as well, because you can go back to Psalm 83, that very prophetic little psalm, and here is a listing of a grouping of people, and the common denominator is, they hate Israel.
They hate Israel, physical Israel, and they hate spiritual Israel, the church. So verse 9, then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you. And you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. Now we haven't seen this, maybe little harbingers, little forerunners here and there, but we haven't seen this fulfilled as it will as we get to the time of Jacob's trouble, or close to it.
And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And the way it's worded there, it would appear that even within the body of Christ, that there would be those who would be offended to the point of turning in a brother or sister in the body of Christ. And hating one another, and many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Again, he's speaking to the disciples, as we read in verse 3. He's speaking to the disciples. Some of the disciples, the world would get its tentacles on them, so that it would impact them, and affect them. And their love for each other began to wane.
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. So it underscores the fact that we were called for the spiritual marathon. Our calling began at a certain point. Our own individual baptism, repentance, conversion, all of these are ongoing processes, and they continue to the very end.
We have to continue, and when Christ returns, he finds us there still doing the work. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. Now increasing persecution, again, becomes evidence toward physical and spiritual Israel. And as we then draw toward the opening of the fifth seal, of course that pictures the Great Tribulation, we find a lot of things beginning to intensify.
Let's go back to Ezekiel. We're going to look at Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 today, but we'll also be branching out to a lot of other scriptural areas. In Ezekiel chapter 4, we see a prophecy where Ezekiel is told, for certain days lie on one side for the sins of Israel, and then lay on the other side for the sins of Judah. But here in verse 1, you also, son of man, take you a tile, and lay it before you, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem, and lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it. Set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it. So here he's laying out in Jerusalem. Oftentimes, it was used as a type for the entire land of Israel, and in prophetic end-time fulfillment for all of the peoples, the descendants of Israel.
And here it is pictured that there will be this beseeching of the end-time peoples of Israel.
And it's not something we really like to focus on. It's a very distasteful topic to us. We love our country, but we see our country going down before our own eyes. We see through executive actions, through Supreme Court decisions, we find the Constitution is just being counter-meneted.
Just they do end-runs around it, and it's not the same country that it was 30 and 40 and 50 years ago.
And yet, we also find from these prophecies the time comes when Israel is not a factor in end-time, the latter years, because they're going to fall militarily. So in verse 3, he continues with the picture of the city being besieged. And at the end of verse 3, it says, This shall be assigned to the house of Israel. And so this is assigned to us as well.
We better read, we better listen, and better be prepared the best we possibly can.
So then he is told to lie on your left side. This is for the iniquity of the house of Israel, according to the number of days. And this is one of the places where we get that principle, in this passage of each day, is a year in prophetic fulfillment. And so verse 5 tells us 390 days.
So here was a 390-year period of sin for Israel. And then he turns to the house of Judah, lie on your right side. And toward the end of verse 6, it tells us for Judah 40 days, each day for a year. So a 40-year period of sin for Judah that was portrayed there.
Therefore, verse 7, you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and your arms shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. So that's as far as we'll read in this chapter.
But we've always looked at that, and we see a number of factors involved.
Likely an economic siege. Likely to see this country and other countries, Britain, take a shot as far as the economies. It's long, long gone that we have the gold standard where we have supplies to back up all the paper money that we have and the coins. Long gone. We don't have the gold to back that up. It's just faith in what some have called the almighty dollar. And it's just a little whisper that's about to vanish before we know it. But if you look at your handout, and again I want to give credit to John Lebisson, elder up in Knoxville, Tennessee.
We worked with up there with the Lebissonaires for years, and he put this chart together.
And again, last time we looked at the first four seals. But then the fifth seal equals the great tribulation, which is Satan's wrath. The tribulation is Satan's wrath upon humanity, and especially Israel in the church. Three and a half years on modern day nations of Israel, Britain, the United States, other British-descended peoples, and on the Jewish people.
It is described as a desolation, a time of trouble, Jacob's trouble. Another place calls it a time of trouble, such as the world has never seen. But if you'll focus there, just notice points D through G. D says an intense persecution on the people of God. The church is hated because of the truth of God. Martyrdom occurs. So that's what we were reading about in Matthew 24.
And then point E, many are offended due to abuse and mistreatment. They begin to betray one another and hate one another. Point F, iniquity, lawlessness multiplies, and as a result, the love of many grows cold. And then point G, a falling away, an abandonment, a departure from the truth occurs.
So again, I won't just go through everything in that chart. That's mainly for your information.
But following false religion, false Christianity, a lot of bloodshed, famine, pestilence, natural disasters, we come toward the point where the fifth seal is about to be opened and we have a softening up of Israel. Maybe an economic siege and maybe other factors involved. Maybe just the whole society loses its pride and its power and is unwilling to fight. And we'll just tend to lie down and yield. Well, this is when we begin to see serious persecution coming upon the church as the fifth seal is about to be opened. And then there'll be a persecution upon the remnant of the church that is in being protected. However, God opts to do that. Now, let's go to Revelation 3.
And notice verse 10. This is a letter addressed to the church of Philadelphia.
And just notice Revelation 3 verse 10. Because you have kept the word of my patience, I will also keep you from the hour of temptation. And that's the way the King James words it, which is another term for the Great Tribulation. Which shall come upon, notice all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast which you have, that no man take your crown. We have to always be on guard. There's always some new idea.
There's always some new interpretation. But you know, for decades, as we started with the first sermon of this series, I read a few paragraphs from the Plain Truth magazine, Volume 1, Number 1, back in February 1934, is a world dictator about to appear.
And for decades, the church has had the same basic framework understanding. We need to always keep our mind open to various options. Things change. We have to change our thinking as time goes on. But the church has had a marvelous track record that even as Germany is now as Germany was being pounded in a submission at the end of World War II, Mr. Herbert Armstrong was going out on the radio preaching, it's going to come back up. It's going to rise again.
And most of us in our lifetimes have seen that happen. Let's go to Revelation 12.
We went here, I believe, briefly last time. But let's look a little bit further here.
We did focus on the woman, travailing in birth. And we looked at, of course, that Mary represented national Israel, from which came this child who was to rule all nations. And we don't need three guesses on that. That was Jesus Christ. And we were introduced to this great red dragon and the seven heads and ten horns in verse 3. And, of course, this dragon is identified in verse 9 of Satan. And this seven heads, ten horns, we're going to see coming back in chapter 13 and chapter 17. And here we have this composite beast that is pictured, that it has a part of Babylon.
And then Babylon was followed by Medo-Persia. And then you have the Grecian Empire, which, as Daniel's prophecy explains, it actually broke into four separate kingdoms.
And so there are six heads, and then Rome followed. And this end time beast is going to have parts of all the above, but then ten different resurrections across the ages.
And to date, we've seen nine. And there's one more time Satan will build his house.
So in verse 4, it actually refers back into a time long before there was any humanity.
His tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven. And stars are used to represent angels in chapter 1. And Satan had one-third of the angels who followed him in his rebellion. Now, that was the one way back when that led to the destruction of the universe.
So let's go on down to verse 6. The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred three score days. And we talked about that period of time where there were edicts that came out around, say, 325, the Council of Nicaea, that essentially outlawed anything but keeping the venerable day of the sun. And the people cleaving to the Sabbath had to either keep their head down or convert or get out of dodge. And if we start with that date in 1260 days, pictured 1260 years, we get to the end of the 1500s. You have events happening like the execution of Mary, Queen, and Scots that ensured Great Britain would be Protestant. The destruction of the Spanish armada, the navy of the most powerful Catholic power on earth was destroyed. You had King James coming along. And if you have the King James Bible, you can go and look at the beginning, at the letter the translators wrote to James, who gave the decree in 1604 to translate the scriptures into the common language, the vernacular. And that was completed in 1611. And for the first time, people began to have access to their own copy of the scriptures in their own language. Now, the King James, or any translation, is not perfect, but it's pretty good. You know, it's got a good track record. So we had things breaking open, and then little churches, Church of God groups, there and coming over here to this country, but I digress. Notice verse 7.
And there was war in heaven. And actually, I think we could add the word in our understanding. There was war in heaven again. There was one that led to the destruction of the universe long ago, but there's going to be war in heaven again. Michael, of course, he's one of the archangels, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought in his angels.
So it literally is a Star Wars. And prevailed not. The dragon will not prevail. Neither was their place found anymore in heaven. So they were cast back down here to the earth, where we live.
The great dragon was cast out. That old serpent called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night. And we should take that seriously.
And consider that, that there are times when Satan accuses us, you, me, as an individual, accuses us before God. Like we get a little glimpse there in Job chapter 1.
And God, of course, used it to correct and to purify Job's character. Well, they overcame, verse 11, they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
And they loved not their lives under the death. Because again, the persecution will be such that it could be a life or death situation. We have a lot of freedoms in this country.
We live in a country where really now it's kind of like anything goes. I mean, as we have sadly seen, you can be one gender, but say that you see yourself as another gender, and you can go into whatever bathroom you want to walk into in some areas. I wouldn't try it around here, but in some areas, apparently, that's the way it's going. Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell on 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 knows that he has but a short time.
And the very thing he wants to do is completely thwart the plan of God. God is building a family.
God is bringing spiritual sons and daughters, children into his eternal family, and all humans are created in the likeness, the image of God.
And Satan hates that, and he will have great wrath.
And so then, verse 13, he persecuted the woman who brought forth a man-child. He's going to go against the church. Verse 14, the church will flee to the wilderness, to her place, be nourished time, times, and half a time, which we've understood as the final three and a half years, that God will protect us. And I always like to say, let's stay tuned and let God show us how he's going to do that, because he's done it in different ways at different times. And you know, sadly, we have a lot of our brethren, it seems like, in recent years, whose lives have been ending, and their place of safety is sleeping in the grave. They won't have to go through some of the things that others of us may have to witness. All right, so the serpent cast out... Well, I think as far as I need to go, he does there, verse 17, he does turn against the remnant of the seed.
There will be a remnant that he turns against. Notice who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So there's the fact that there will be the church, there will be those cleaving to the law of God, all the way to the very end and beyond. Let's go to Daniel chapter 12.
We have some dates or some time frames mentioned in Daniel. Did I say chapter 1? I mean chapter 12? Okay. All right. Daniel chapter 12. There are some periods of time that are mentioned, though we still puzzle over. And in part we know, and like Paul said, and then there are other parts that we see through a pretty dark glass. But notice in verse 1, and at that time shall Michael stand up the great prince who stands for the children of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even at the same time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone that is found written in the book. And I can only understand that as the book of life. If our name is written there, God is going to save. God's going to stop mankind from destroying himself because of the elect. Many that sleep. Okay, let me skip on down here to verse 7. Here's this man, this angel speaking with Daniel. Middle of the verse, he's worn by him that lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half.
When he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. Scatter the power of the holy people.
You know, that's a pretty good summary of what's happened to the body of Christ.
From the late 80s, early 90s, until today. Every time there is a split, every time one person, one family, one group of 20 decide, well, I'm just going to stay at home, or I'm going to become a part of the church smorgasbord out there and be a part of the Internet Church of God.
Every time it happens, Satan wins because it limits the power of the body of Christ to pool our resources, to put out a flagship magazine and set of booklets and correspondence courses, and have a television and Internet presence. Well, let's continue. Let's go to verse 9.
He was told, the words are closed up and sealed to the time of the end.
And so here we are. Many shall be purified. He's looking at the trials, the tests of the people of God across the ages. Many shall be purified and made white and tried. They'll be refined, I think the new King James says. The wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away. And I think we touched on that last week. There'll be a time when the sacrifices will be restored, and then there is a time when it is stopped.
And that's when we begin to have enough information to see a bit more of a framework.
Right now we're still in that period of time when Christ said, you won't know the day or the hour.
Now one time He said, you can read the seasons. But there are a lot of things we don't know yet.
And the abomination that makes desolate set up, there should be 1,290 days.
Now we have taken as granted that all of these are different periods of time.
1,260, 1,290, 1,335. We have taken that they all end the same time with Christ's return.
And the 1,260 would be, well, you can just look at your chart there. You've got A through S as far as the work of the two witnesses and everything that will happen during that three and a half years, which is Satan's wrath. Now of that three and a half years, the last year is the day of the Lord, and that's God's wrath also upon sinful, unrepentant mankind.
But the 1,290, and then verse 12, Blessed is he that waits and comes to the 1,305 in 30 days, but you go your way till the end be, for you shall rest.
So Daniel was told, I'm not going to give you understanding, you're going to die, you're going to rest in your grave, and stand in your lot at the end of the days. So he was going to be resurrected, and that is true of most of the servants of God across the ages.
But the 1,290, there's an extra 30 days before the tribulation would start. Is that a time of the abomination of desolation to be set up? Is that a time when Israel is being taken out? Because it speaks of it in words that we understand it to be rather quick and fast. Your cities are late waste, prophets say. 1335, there's another period of time. 75 days before, is that a time when the church is protected? Again, we have a lot of questions about those things, and we just have to stay tuned. Let's go back to Matthew 24. Daniel in more than one place spoke of the abomination that makes desolate, and now let's see that Jesus referred to it.
That is an extremely important event. When that occurs, we have a lot of clarity that comes.
Matthew 24 verse 15, when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.
And that was in chapters 9 and 11 and 12. He spoke of them more than once.
Stand in the holy place. Whoso reads, let him understand. Now Luke's parallel account adds the fact that Jerusalem will be surrounded by armies. So we can add that as a thought here as well.
But there will be a holy place. There will be sacrifices that will have been re-instituted.
But then there will be a time when it is stopped. Then let them who be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house.
In other words, when it's time to go, go.
Neither let him who's in the field return back to take his clothes.
Yeah, you sweat out your clothes and you're dirty, but you better run. Don't go back for clean clothes.
Woe to them who are with child and to those who give suck in those days and pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. Interesting. Time of the end.
The Sabbath day still spoken of. 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.
So there is a responsibility that you and I have.
Let's look over at 2 Thessalonians 2, where we have a bit more to tie in with this abomination that makes desolate. 2 Thessalonians 2, and in verse 3, once again we read this, Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition.
Man of sin, son of perdition, revelation referred to him as a great false prophet.
All of these are involved with this abomination that makes desolate.
Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped so that he, as God, sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
And you know, he probably will be, from one point of view, because I expect he'll be possessed by Satan the devil, who is the God of this age. But it's kind of a bringing back of what they had in the first century when a lot of the New Testament was being written. You had emperor worship.
The emperor was worshiped, placed high on a pedestal. That'll come back. Remember you not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things. Down to verse 80 speaks of, and then that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Some want to say that when Christ returns, it'll be this secret quiet rapture, but here he calls it the brightness of his coming. And this song of perdition, this man of sin, will be destroyed in a very dramatic manner. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. The man will be doing real genuine miracles.
Now, there was a forerunner, if you remember from history, and the story is told in the apocryphal books of 1 and 2 Maccabees. Basically good history, but not in the Bible.
But they tell the story of back in 168 BC Antiochus Epiphanes and his forces moving in, taking Jerusalem, desecrating the temple by placing the bust of Jupiter Olympus and the Holy of Holies, slaughtering a hog, capturing the pig's blood, and spewing it everywhere through the holy place, putting out the temple lights. So that was a forerunner, where the daily, the evening, and the morning sacrifices were ended for a period of time. They were suspended until you had the revolt led by the Maccabean family of priests. The main leader was Judas, Judas Maccabee. They retook the temple. That's where the Jewish festival of Hanukkah comes from, the Feast of Lights or Feast of Dedication. They recaptured it, they cleansed it, purged it, they reinstituted sacrifices, rekindled the temple lights. And that was a forerunner, a pattern, for what will happen on a far more dramatic manner at the very time of the end.
Daniel 7.
Daniel 7. And let's read verse 25.
In this chapter, Daniel is speaking of this final beast, this fourth beast, dreadful and terrible. And in verse 24, 10 horns, 10 kings. Verse 25, he shall speak...
well, there was another beast also. He had the marriage of the church and the state.
He shall speak great words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the Most High and think to change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and dividing of time. Once again, same pattern. A three and a half year period of time is about the only conclusion that we can come to. Let's go back to Matthew 24, go a little bit further.
And we're going to have to just draw the line and quit.
I know we just got started, but we'll continue in two weeks. But in Matthew 24, we did read verses... okay, we read verse 21, the Great Tribulation. Verse 22, time will be cut short, man will be saved because of the elect. 23, if any man say, and to you, lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christ's and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders.
Though you and I need to be full warned of that, we may see the most incredible miracles, and we have to keep our eyes on God and upon our Savior Jesus Christ, and upon the church, and upon the Word of God, insomuch that if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect.
Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore, if they say, behold, he's in the desert, do not go.
He's in the secret chambers, believe it not.
At any rate, we're gonna have to just close right there, and we'll come back. You do have a handout.
I think it'd be good that you just review that on your own. All of these events, war in heaven, the arising of the beast, work of the two witnesses, all of these things that are going to take place during that final three and a half years. So we'll just draw a line on the sermon right there, and pick it up there in a couple of weeks.
David Dobson pastors United Church of God congregations in Anchorage and Soldotna, Alaska. He and his wife Denise are both graduates of Ambassador College, Big Sandy, Texas. They have three grown children, two grandsons and one granddaughter. Denise has worked as an elementary school teacher and a family law firm office manager. David was ordained into the ministry in 1978. He also serves as the Philippines international senior pastor.