SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
12/20/2012 8:21 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Last half of the Tribulation
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark
13:19-27
Message of the verses: I again want to take a brief moment to go
over the background of chapter thirteen this morning. Jesus is answering a question in this chapter
that takes more time to answer than any other question put to Him in
Scripture. As mentioned in an earlier SD
the things found in Mark thirteen are similar to what is found in Matthew 24-25
and Luke 21. The disciples were remaking
about the beauty of the temple when Jesus told them that in a short time it
would be torn down and destroyed along with the city of Jerusalem. Here is the question that the disciples put
to Jesus from Mark’s Gospel: “’Tell us,
when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are
about to be accomplished?’” In answering
this question Jesus will divide into time periods the things that will take
place after He goes back to heaven. The
first period of time will be a very long period of time as it will take place
from when the Lord goes back to heaven until the period of time called the
tribulation begins. During this time
Jesus describes it as “birth pangs.”
When a woman first begins to have birth pangs they are not as painful or
come as fast as when the baby is about to be born. He describes these birth pangs as religion
gone badly, (false religions), persecutions, wars and rumors of wars, and also
difficult disruptions in the weather along with earthquakes. In yesterday’s SD we looked at what will
happen in the first part of the tribulation which will end with the abomination
of desolation. Now in today’s SD we will
look at things that will happen in the last half of the tribulation.
The
Last Half of the Tribulation (Mark 13:19-27):
“19 For in those days there will
be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God
created until now, and never will be. 20
And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be
saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days.
21 And then if anyone says to you,
‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 False Christ’s and false prophets will arise
and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23 But be on guard; I have told you all things
beforehand.
“24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be
darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming
in clouds with great power and glory. 27
And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four
winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.” (ESV)
I
want to first make a comment on verse nineteen, and when a person reads this
verse a lot of times they may miss how dreadful the things in this verse
are. Jesus states that the last half of
the tribulation, which is often called the “Great Tribulation,” will be the
worst time in the history of mankind. I
take this to mean that it is worse than the flood that happened in the days of
Noah where all but eight people on this earth died. Perhaps because of the swiftness of their
death during the flood that the time of the flood was not as awful as this time
will be. When one reads over the
judgments that are found in the book of Revelations, chapters six through
nineteen, one will be able to see just how terrible life will be on this earth
during the last three and a half years of the tribulation. Jesus also speaks of the awfulness of this
period of time.
Verse
twenty speaks of the Lord cutting short this time period for the sake of the
elect. There is a verse in the book of
Revelations that speaks of this time period that I want to quote, “Re
11:18 The nations were angry, and Your
wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that
You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear
Your name, small and great, And
should destroy those who destroy the earth.’” I want to focus in on the highlighted portion
of this verse which states that the earth will be destroyed by men so when we
see all the judgments that are found in the book of Revelations we can see that
many of them could be performed by men and if the Lord would not intervene men
would destroy the earth. In the time
period that we live in now with the war materials that man has invented it
seems to me that mankind is perfectly capable of destroying the earth at this
time. Why has man not done this yet? “2Th 2:7
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.” Paul writes this verse to the Thessalonians
and most believe that the “He” that Paul is writing about is the Holy Spirit of
God who restrains the evil that could be going on without His restraining it
now. This brings up another point that
perhaps needs to be discussed at this point and that is what is called the
Rapture of the Church. I have always
been taught and believe with firm conviction that the rapture of the Church
will take place before the beginning of the tribulation period. With this said we can see how the verse in
2Thes. ties into all of this because when the Church is taken to heaven the
Holy Spirit will be removed in the function that He had while the Church was on
the earth for all believers have the Holy Spirit living within them. We will address the Rapture more fully in an
upcoming Spiritual Diary. I think that
we need to talk about the “elect” that Jesus speaks of in this section. Again I believe and have been taught the
following: First the Church is removed
at the rapture, next we see the antichrist sign a peace treaty with Israel for
seven years which ushers in the tribulation period, there are two parts to the
tribulation which we have discussed. One
of the purposes of the tribulation is to prepare Israel for her Messiah who
will come at the end of the tribulation and actually stop the battle that is
then going on. Next the Lord Jesus
Christ will judge the “sheep and the goats” as spoken of in Matthew’s gospel. “
Mt 25:32 "All the nations will be
gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divides his sheep from the goats. Mt 25:33
"And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the
left.” The next thing that happens after
this is Christ will begin to rebuild the earth in order to set up His 1000 year
kingdom upon this earth headed up from Jerusalem. In the book of Ezekiel chapters 40-48 you can
see how some of this is accomplished.
After the 1000 years are complete there will be a short battle in which
the people who have not trusted Christ in the Kingdom will be defeated. Satan who had been put into a pit at the end
of the tribulation period will be let out to lead the battle and after his
defeat will return to the lake of fire where he will spend eternity there. The next event will be what the Bible calls
the “White Throne Judgments,” and this judgment will only be for those who have
not trusted Christ as their personal Savior.
At the end of this judgment they too will be cast into the lake of
fire. Next God will destroy the entire
universe by fire as we learned in yesterday’s SD from 2Peter chapter
three. Next there will be a new heaven
and a new earth and a New Jerusalem which will usher in eternity.
Getting
back to the verses in Mark 13 that we are looking at today we see a description
from our Lord as to what will take place during this last half of the
tribulation period. One thing that is
seen here is that there will be false Messiahs who will come upon the scene who
will deceive those who are not believers, but will not deceive the elect. This will be the worst possible time for
anyone to live, but there will be many people who will be saved during this
time. The biggest revival ever will take
place during this time as there will be 144,000 people from Israel who will be
great witnesses along with the two men described in Revelations eleven and even
angels will give out the gospel so that men can hear and understand it and be
saved.
We
will begin to look at the second coming of Christ in the next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Prophecy is one of the things that I love to
study about as it was the vehicle that the Lord used to bring me to a saving
knowledge of His Son. Prophecy brings
hope to all believers for Paul writes to Titus these words, “Tit 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious
appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” This is what we are looking for as believers
in Jesus Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to learn contentment; continue to
have the Word of God transform my life so that I will become more like Jesus
Christ. Look for the blessed hope, the
return of Jesus Christ to take His Church to heaven.
Memory verse for the week: Psalm 121:1
1
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my hope come?
12/20/2012 11:28 AM
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