The Seal Judgments and the Birth Pangs, Matthew 24:4-8

 

I'm going to review a few things back up a little bit go over some things if I still have a chance, as I study each week. It's amazing how many things you started, correlate and build up and I want to review a couple of things. But one of the things I wanted to point out is that a last week when I was talking about this I pointed out that there are various disagreements among people with whom we mostly agree, among those who would be classified as futurist dispensationalists. That means that they believe that Matthew 24 and 25, and that Revelation chapter 4 and following to the end of Revelation, are prophetic. They're talking about events that are to be fulfilled in the future. I mentioned that there are some who interpret these as having already taken place in the past, and related to AD 70. Those are called preterists, a Latin word meaning past. And there are those who think that these events sort of span out over the entire church age. They are called historicists. This is important understand, that vocabulary is strange for a lot of people, they don't use it very regularly and so I'm trying to remind you of this. 

 

Historicism has really dominated the interpretation of prophecy for many, many centuries until you get into the early part of the 1800s. Then due to several historical events, not the least of which was Napoleon's invasion of the Middle East, people began to think, well, wait a minute, we have this in the this conqueror of Europe who is invading into Egypt and going up through Palestine, and does this have something to do with God's end time scenario? And these historical events were used by God as a sort of a catalyst to get people to think in terms of these prophetic passages as not yet been fulfilled, that they were in the future. And so futurism sort of came into its own in the 19th century and its most clear expression was in the dispensational theology that was developed by a British theologian, former lawyer, trained law, trained as a lawyer turned Anglican priest then turned against the Anglican church as he became more biblical, by the name of John Nelson Darby.

 

That became futurism as we understand it and it's a characterized by number of different things. For our purposes these passages are to be understood in the future. But dispensational who followed Darby were still influenced by the culture, the background of theology, and many of them still had a sort of historicist holdovers. So they would look at current events and try to see if there was something there that meant that we were getting closer and closer to the return of Christ. They would look at wars; they would look at earthquakes, and that's been very popular.

 

That's all part of that background, and as I went through the various different dispensational futurists and their different positions last week, somebody approached me after class and said, "I think I'm really confused now". I think that's great. Confusion is the front door to understanding truth. You think about it, and anything that we've ever tried to learn we always started off looking at a bunch of facts and we were somewhat confused by all the data. And then as we focused and concentrated it began to make sense and we began to learn something new. And that's exactly what I faced. I was just as confused as you might be because I've heard all those men that I talked about last time. I have sat under their ministries; I have read their books. They have been my professors and you would hear the slightly different views. 

 

For example, the view that verses 4 down through 14 are all trends of the present church age is exemplified by men we all respect very much—Louis Sperry Chafer, Dr. John Walvoord who was his successor and president of Dallas seminary, Pastor Theme Hal Lindsay. I've studied under all of those men. And then you had to have people like Harry Ironside. Ironside didn't agree with them, and then Fruchtenbaum disagreed with his view, and then Toussaint didn't agree with Fruchtenbaum's view, and then Dr. Ryrie had a much more consistent view. He was truly a consistent futurist in all of this. Those others that I mentioned took this as somewhat related to the present age, which I don't think is viable at all.

 

Tommy Ice wrote a 38 part series on the sermon on the mount for the Pre-trib perspectives newsletter. He was really drilling down to the to the roots. He did a lot of excellent work, but he took the view that all of this 4 through 14 was all the first half of the Tribulation. It's all future first half of the Tribulation.  However, as a result of the study that I've done, study that pastor Jeremy Thomas at Fredrickson Bible church is done, we convinced Tommy, as he said to me, just day before yesterday: "I'm committed to your position now, I think you're absolutely right." 

 

So that's what happens in the process of studying the Scripture. We move, we change; we come in maturity to understand these things better and better, and to try to be more and more consistent. So the view that I'm taking is was the view that Dr. Dwight Pentecost took 50 years ago, and most of these guys studied under Dr. Walvoord. Some of them also studied under Dr. Chafer, and yet they came to different positions as they as they worked these things out.  All of these men were solid students of the Word. And we respect them, even though there are these disagreements. That's how progress occurs. 

 

I want to finish up what I started last week and add a few more things. We are looking at how the seal judgments in Revelation chapter 6 relate to the birth pangs; that this is the beginning of the birth pangs. That means it's at the beginning, not the end; it's the beginning half of the Tribulation.

 

And so just in terms of context, this is the question the disciples asked Jesus on the Mount of Olives. Jesus is comes out of the temple. What has He been doing before this? Matthew chapters 20, 21, 22 he is gone through this series of interactions, negative interactions, hospital interactions with the scribes and Pharisees, the Herodians, and specifically on this day he has interacted with the Pharisees, and then He criticized them. He just lowers the boom, and we had this series of seven woes that He announces. This is judgment against the Pharisees. When he finished he announces that there's going be judgment on the temple. The temple is going to be destroyed; no stone is going to be left on top of another in terms of the temple buildings. Then He walks out the East Gate and walks across the Kidron Valley and walks up the Mount of Olives. Does that remind anybody of anything? This is exactly what is described by Ezekiel and in his visions when the Shekinah, the dwelling presence of God, left the first temple and went to the Gate crossed the Kidron Valley, went up to the Mount of Olives and ascended to heaven. Jesus follows that same path again when He leaves and ascends to heaven, and it is described in Acts chapter 1.

So this is a scenario that is significant and ripe with meaning. 

 

He goes over the Mount of Olives. He sits down like rabbi would to sit down to teach, and the disciples asking these two questions. When will these things be? That is, when is the temple going to be destroyed, and second, what's going to be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? 

 

He is then going to start two chapters of instruction to His disciples. He just talking to His disciples. This is the fifth and the last major discourse. That's how it usually describe the Olivet Discourse. A discourse is an instruction time a where Jesus is teaching His disciples about something, and it's helpful for us to see how this fits in. There's a point why I'm doing this. There are five major discourses or teaching or instruction periods of Jesus that are related by Matthew. Now these are the major ones. There are some other times when Jesus does a lot of talking, but they're not considered one of the major discourses. For example, from Matthew 20 and 21 and 22 where He is interacting with the hostile religious leaders. Those chapters are not discourses where He is giving instruction or teaching. And we ask question, Why is it important? Why is it that Matthews written this way where he has these five discourses where Jesus is in each one of them teaching, not the masses but his disciples. Why is that important and significant? And I am going to tell you why.

 

I want to review this but when you come to the end of Matthew, Matthew records the fullest statement of Jesus commissions, called The Great Commission, Jesus' mission statement to the disciples. He says, "Go therefore and make disciples (That is, students) of all the nations." To be a student is what do you have to do? You have to be someone willing to be instructed or taught. So it's loaded with this terminology. "Make students of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." And then you have two participles that are instrumental. It should be, "by teaching them to observe all the things that I commanded you." So the two keywords there are teaching and command, and so they are to teach. We are to teach. That's the mission given to us: to teach all believers everything that Jesus commanded.

 

Well in context that really goes back to paying attention to these five discourses. They are important. So when we come to two chapters of prophecy which is off in the who knows how far distant future, a lot of people say, Well I got all these present problems in my life. Why do I need to study prophecy? Because God says it is important, is the simple answer, and because it's part of God's Word. So we need to understand that, but it impacts us in some significant ways. This is what we are commanded to do: teach them to observe some of what I said. Is that what He said? No, it's all. That includes the Olivet Discourse. 

 

Let's just review these pretty quickly.

 

What you see when you study through these is that each one of these discourses ends with a sentence or statement such as, "and when Jesus had finished". That's what you're going to see each time. And when Jesus had finished the first time we see this is Matthew 7:28, "and so was when Jesus had ended these sayings." That comes at the end of what we call the Sermon on the Mount, and that is where Jesus instructed His disciples on the mountain. That's why it's called the Sermon on the Mount. What does He do in Matthew five through seven. He instructs his disciples about the kind of righteousness which should characterize those who are prepared for the kingdom. 

 

I want you to understand the kingdom emphasis there. John the Baptist has been preaching, "repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". Jesus has been preaching "repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". This is how people should live who have repented; that is, they have turned, changed their mind, and they are preparing for what could be imminent: the coming of the kingdom. And so He instructs them as to the kind of righteousness which should characterize those who are prepared for the kingdom. It's about the kingdom. 

 

The second instruction, we read the statement in Matthew 11:1, It came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding his disciples"—when Jesus had finished. So that ends the second discourse, and that's Matthew 10:1 through 11:1 where He gives instructions to the disciples to go out. He sends them out, but He is not sending them out to the whole world. He is only sending them to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah, and he instructs his disciples to take the gospel of the kingdom. See, once again, it's about the kingdom. It's about the coming kingdom. Go to the house of Israel and the house of Judah and tell them about the coming kingdom. They are to have the same message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. They are prohibited from going to the Gentiles.

 

The third time we see this same phrase is in Matthew 13:53, "When Jesus had finished these parables, He departed from there." That comes at the end of chapter 13 after He is rejected as the Messiah by the religious leadership in Matthew chapter 12. They have committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which is irreversible and the kingdom is going to be taken from them. Jesus begins to teach his disciples by way of parables so that those who are negative can't understand what he is saying. Here Jesus instructs His disciples on previously unrevealed information about the kingdom. 

 

It's called the mysteries of the kingdom. It's not a mystery kingdom; it's mysteries are previously unrevealed information about the kingdom: that it's going to be postponed, and there will be an interval between His time and the coming of the kingdom. He is describing this interim period. That's the parables in Matthew chapter 13.

 

The fourth time that we see this phrase in Matthew 19:1, "When Jesus had finished these words". We studied that in depth in Matthew chapter 18 and that was where Jesus was instructing his disciples on humility and forgiveness, and leadership with reference to the future kingdom. There is no mention of the church anywhere in that passage, other than if someone offends you, Jesus said, take it to the EKKLESIA, the assembly, a general term, and it is not used in the technical sense there. They don't know anything about the church at that point; nothing has been said to them. So it's not addressed in the church. That information is related to the kind of character that is to be developed in someone who will be a leader in the future kingdom when it comes. This is the fourth discourse; it's all about the kingdom. 

 

When we come to this fifth discourse, Matthew 26:1 one ends it. We read, "When Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples". This covers Matthew 24:4-25:1 one where Jesus instructs his disciples about His coming to establish his kingdom, the events that immediately precede it and the judgments that will follow. 

 

So when we understand the structure and the framework here in Matthew, we see that it's all about the kingdom. That is so important; that is one of the reasons that, especially among non-futurists and non-dispensationalists, they misinterpret this. But it's even true among dispensationalism because there are many who take elements of this and apply it to the church. They miss the point. Visit the last words of Jesus to Israel. His first words to the church come the next night in the upper room discourse. That is recorded in John chapters 13-16.

 

Now I'm reminding you that the reason these are important is because of the Great Commission. We are commissioned to teach, to take the gospel to the whole world and make to students of all the nations. That's why we teach in church rather than have homilies or devotions, or just hortatory messages of encouragement. This is the mission given to pastors. That's why they're called pastor-teachers. They are not call pastor-exhorters, they are not called pastor- a devotionalist; they are call pastor teachers because the way they pastor or lead is through instruction. And that's what Jesus did with his disciples. He instructed them, He taught them. So we are to follow that example.

 

We are to teach them everything. That includes prophecy. Now why is prophecy important? There are a lot of things I could say here. First of all, 27% of the Bible that somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the Bible was originally prophetic when it was given, and about 17% of it is still unfulfilled. That is about one out of every five verses is unfulfilled prophecy. There are a lot of people today that say what I think prophecy is divisive, so let's not talk about prophecy. Well, so you just can take your razor blade out and cut 1/5 of the Bible out because you think it might be divisive? 

 

Let me see. The deity of Christ: you think that's divisive? The infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture: you think that's divisive? Jesus is the only way to heaven: think that's divisive? There are a lot of things that are divisive in Scripture, a lot more divisive than prophecy. The reason a lot of people don't like to study prophecy is it makes their little brain cells tired. Because I believe it is the most difficult of the areas of systematic theology to understand. You really have to master all of the other areas before you can start bringing this together and truly understand the 17% verses.

 

The second reason is that it's time to hope. Hope is a present conviction of the future reality. We live today in light of eternity. We have a certain conviction of where we are headed that goes beyond history. We understand God's plan and purpose and we are living in light of that purpose. In Romans 5:3-5, which I commend you to read, it talks about this progression related to suffering and perseverance, and perseverance develops character, and character develops hope. And that is the end result of mature Christianity as we live on the basis of hope. Romans 12:12, Paul says, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation enduring in suffering". How do you think these believers who were enduring the horrors—not church age believers, but the Tribulation saints. We think we have it rough. Let me tell you we haven't even begun to think about suffering. Maybe some of those folks who are in northern Syria, some of the Christians who are in Africa, in Muslim countries where they have been slaughtered and tortured, and all sorts of unspeakable things have been done to them. Maybe they have an understanding that we don't have of what it will be like during the Tribulation. 

 

But what will give them endurance in tribulation is preceded here by being able to rejoice in hope: that confident expectation. We can learn that, even though our suffering is not on a scale of 1 to 10 at the level of 10. Our suffering even on our worst days is about 1.5. We can learn principles from this that this is how we go through those tough times. Romans 15:4, "Whatever things were written before—that's talking about Old Testament Scripture—were written for our learning É" Once again, an emphasis on teaching instruction, learning, studying. "were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of scriptures might have hope". So we study the Scripture. The Scripture teaches about the plan and purpose of God. We get a firm understanding where God is taking us, in the direction were going, and that gives us a confident expectation which is hope. It's a certainty. It's not, Well, I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow, or I hope it snows in the mountains because I'm going skiing, and it is a sort of wishful optimism. That's not the biblical idea. The biblical idea is a certainty, an absolute conviction that things are going to be a certain way in the future. 

 

And another thing that hope does his hope purifies us. As we become more and more oriented to God's plan and purpose, where He is taking us in terms of preparing us for our future destiny to rule and reign with the Lord Jesus Christ in that coming kingdom. Then that is to motivate us and it purifies us. It is a hope that purifies us: 1 John 3:3 says, "Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure." It teaches us to walk in the light, teaches us to walk in fellowship and walk by the Holy Spirit. So that helps us to understand what's going on here.

 

Now just to remind us of what we must assume, as we look at any passage like this is that Jesus is talking to the disciples, just as he has in the other four discourses. He is talking to them as Jews, as Jewish believers who were still in the Old Testament dispensation and are still under the law. They don't have the Holy Spirit, they don't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, are not church age believers. And He is talking to them in light of what they already know, which is Jewish prophecy. So that the Olivet Discourse is the last thing Jesus said to the Jews about Israel, and that, third, nothing in the Olivet discourse is about church age believers or has direct application to church age believers. It has implications for us, just as Old Testament stories about how Abraham trusted God, how David trusted God, how all the heroes mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 from the Old Testament trusted God. We learn from their example. 

 

But that's not the same thing as being directly applicable because it's not written to us. It is written to them, but it has implications for us in direct application. And we won't be here during the Tribulation. All living church age believers will be raptured and taken to heaven before the beginning of the tribulation, but we can learn principles of application anyway; principles that impact how we think. Suffering is suffering. It may not be as intense as they will go through but the principles are the same.

 

So we looked at the background for understanding this first part from verse 4 down to verse 28: that this is the Old Testament pattern of the period of 70 weeks. That starts with the coming Prince. This is the Antichrist who signs a peace treaty with Israel. That's what starts the Tribulation. That's what starts the countdown, not the Rapture. The Rapture just takes the church out of here, and then some time is going to go by, we don't know how long. But it's when the Antichrist, that's what Daniel 9:27 says: when the prince who is to come enters into that peace treaty with Israel. And then it ends with the return of Messiah. aAnd the midpoint is marked out as the abomination of desolation when the Antichrist desecrates the temple. 

 

The first part in the context here is identified in Matthew 24:4-8 as the beginning of labor pains, but in verse 6, Jesus says, "but the end is not yet. When you see these things, they must come to pass". That is, prophecy must be fulfilled. But the end is not yet. Why? Because there are another 3 1/2 years to go.  There will be increased labor pains in the second half, and He says, "Then the end will come" in Matthew 24:14

 

So we divide this. The first section, verses 4-8 talks about the first half, called the beginning of sorrows, and then verses 9-14 talk about the second half of the Tribulation. So the first 3 1/2 years of Daniel's 70th week are the beginning of sorrows, and then the second 3 1/2 years are the intensified part when the Jews are being persecuted by the Antichrist. 

 

Jesus begins by telling them to be careful. Watch out. Keep your eyes open. Stay alert that no one deceives you because there will be much deception in this time. There will be those who come saying they are the Messiah. Don't be deceived by that, and He defines this as the beginning of labor pains. I covered a little bit of this last week and if you want to read some passages that correlate to this there is Isaiah 13:6-13; Zephaniah 1:14-18; Jeremiah 30:6-7, the passage that identifies the Tribulation as the time of Jacob's trouble, related specifically to Israel. In the New Testament passage, 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3,

"For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night." "The day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night" is a term that relates to the entire seven-year period. "While they are saying, 'Peace and safety!' then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape." That is Paul's taking this imagery from the Old Testament, from the Olivet Discourse, and is applying that to the seven-year tribulation. 

 

The idea in ancient Judaism became entrenched that the coming of the Messiah will be preceded by greatly increased suffering. Where did they get that? They would get that from passages in Daniel and passages in Isaiah, passages in Jeremiah. It would be greatly increased him and that it would last seven years. Where they get that? Daniel nine. This will last seven years, and then unexpectedly the Messiah will come. Even though they understood there would be signs it would still be unexpected. That's important. We will come back to that later on in our in our study. We think: how would it be unexpected? We got all these things that Jesus talks about. The people who rejected the truth or living in a fantasy world and they're not properly understanding what's going on, and they're can be taken by surprise. 

 

Another quote: This is from Miller Burroughs and it's a plot. He says a prominent feature of Jewish eschatology as represented by the rabbinic literature was the time of trouble, proceeding, Messiah's coming. It is called the birth pangs of the Messiah, sometimes more briefly translated as the messianic woes. Now Miller Burroughs was a significant figure in the 50s after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was one of the most significant authorities. I have a huge book that is a combination of two books he wrote on the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was the head of the Bible and theology department at Yale in the 40s and 50s. He was one of the chief translators of the Revised Standard Version, so he is a notable scholar. Not necessarily a conservative scholar, but he is a notable scholar and he, because of his knowledge of the inter-testament period, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and he discovered this from his reading the Dead Sea Scrolls.

 

But not only had the inter-testament appeared rabbinical theology develop this idea that it would be seven years. It would be referred to as the messianic woes or the birth pangs that they identified these on the basis of Ezekiel 14:21 now. Ezekiel 14:21 is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the first temple. And in Ezekiel 14:21 we read, "For thus says the Lord GOD, 'How much more when I send My four severe judgments against Jerusalem: sword, famine, wild beasts and plague to cut off man and beast from it!'" And so they looked at that as a paradigm for understanding what the woes of the Messiah would be like. Ezekiel 14:21 is in talking about the Messiah coming and the judgments preceding his coming. It's talking about what happened in 586 BC. But some rabbis understood that that pattern would be repeated in that seven-year period.

 

Now doesn't that sound pretty familiar to what Jesus outlines here in Matthew 24:4-8? Interesting! Renald showers who for years has been the theologian in residence for and written Israel my glory for Friends of Israel ministry, writes in his book, The Sign of His Coming: "Ancient Judaism taught that the birth pangs of the Messiah will take place during the seven years prior to the Messiah's coming to usher in the Messiah messianic age. It also taught that these birth pangs will involve the sword, or famine, pestilence, and wild beasts. It is interesting that ancient Judaism's concept corresponds to the beginning of birth pangs and the first four seal judgments." What I'm pointing out here is there is tremendous evidence that when Jesus describes these events in verses four through eight He is not talking about things that are going on now. He is talking about these unique and distinct events that will take place prior to the establishment of the kingdom—the birth pangs, the seven-year period outlined by Daniel. 

 

So when we look at Matthew 24:4-8, we can summarize the beginning of birth pains. There are false messiahs who will arise. Then Jesus warns them against deception because many will be deceived by them; they will be entrapped. In fact He will use the word that means to be caught in a trap. They will be entrapped by this deception. So many will be deceived by them, the false messiahs, into thinking the end has arrived. This will likely be directed at the Jewish people—this opposition. The fact that they talked about false Christ's is significant in the church age, that is, from the time of the first century to the present. If you look up false Christ's or false messiahs in Wikipedia you'll see a whole list. They said Jewish false Christ's and Christian false Christ's and Muslim false Christ. But if you look at those lists there are really only a few, maybe three or four, and in the early period, that claimed to be the Messiah.

 

The most famous of these was Bar-kokhba who led the second Jewish revolt in about 135, but most of these were on Jesus younger brother, I am the reincarnation of Jesus, I'm a forerunner of Jesus. It's really debatable whether most of these people actually claimed to be the Messiah. The term a false Messiah is particularly Jewish, not really what happens in the Gentile. So this is related to Jews as Jews living in the last seven years that God decreed for the Jewish people. The hostility here is going to be directed against the Jews and there is going to be an increasing anti-Semitism, which fits with what we've seen in passages like Revelation 12 and other passages in Revelation. 

 

Then we see in verse six, NASB "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for {those things} must take place, but {that} is not yet the end." I think that that this is happening in Israel. Why, because in Israel they're under a peace treaty with the Antichrist, so they're not at war for the first 3 1/2 years. They're at peace. What's going on the rest the world? They are war. The Antichrist is on the scene he is consolidating his power as we read in Daniel seven. The 10 kings arise and then he comes up and then he rips three of those horns representing three of the kingdoms out by the roots. 

 

Israel will be in island of peace and stability because of this covenant with the antichrist. They're going to hear of wars and rumors of wars, but don't be worried. Not yet. Then he says there will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes that develop now.

 

This is very similar to what we see described in Revelation chapter 6 as the seal judgments. If you remember our study of Revelation there are three consecutive series of judgments that take place during the Tribulation period. There are seven seal judgments. Jesus is the Lamb who is qualified to take the scroll from God the Father on the throne. That is described in Revelation chapter 5. He takes the scroll, which represents the title deed to the earth, and to open the scroll. Typically, a title deed like this would be written on the inside and the outside, and to see what's written and there He has to open it, which means He has to take the seals off one after the other. Those are the seal judgments. He pops the seven seal judgments and it reveals seven trumpet judgments. Then he gets to the seventh trumpet judgment and it includes seven bowl judgments, the last of which is His return, the campaign of Armageddon and the establishment of His kingdom. 

 

So the Rapture the church takes place. And then in the first 21 months of the Tribulation, because you the first thing Jesus does after he gets the seal is He starts to open that seal. So this isn't waiting, as Dr. Walvoord postulated, this isn't waiting until the second half of the Tribulation. You may have heard people say will the first half is peaceful because of the covenant with Israel. No, it's peaceful for Israel because of the covenant with Israel. It's not peaceful for the rest of the world. That was I think an error made in the understanding of this. So the first 21 months is the beginning when Jesus opens that first seal, and it's a conquest going forth, going forth to conquer. That is a little bit different from the second seal, which is the red horse. That is where there's going to be peace taken from the earth, and that will be followed by the black horse. 

 

The third seal is famine and that will bring the fourth seal, the ashen horse, which is death. And then there will be martyrdom there will be an incredible number of believers who were martyred during this time because millions are going to be saved in those first 20 months.

 

I hear people say, well, I don't think people who turn their back on the gospel today can be saved in the Tribulation because they rejected the gospel. I really don't want to even validate that by answering it. In my opinion it's a pretty silly question from people don't understand grace. The average person from what studies have shown—I don't know that's actually true—the average person hears the gospel seven or eight times before they finally respond to it. That means some people hear it more, some people may respond a little less, but the average is six or seven times. So what they're saying is somebody's heard the gospel one time, but the rapture occurs the next day; well, too bad you don't get your second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth opportunity respond to the gospel. 

 

God is gracious and there are too many people who just want to be judgmental. I Just think it's horrible. There will be a lot of Jews and a lot of Gentiles who have heard the gospel from you and me and from many, many others and they may even get on the Internet and start listening to Bible teaching. Who knows, if there is still in Internet. And we don't know how much the interval is between the Rapture and the beginning of the Tribulation, but there will be, I believe, millions and millions from what Scripture says, who believe in the gospel, and they will be martyred. When the sixth seal is these incredible physical disturbances and cosmic disturbances, and then the seventh seal are the seven trumpet judgments. And that's all in the first half. 

 

So what we see here is that false messiahs will mislead many and Matthew 24:5, ÒFor many will come in My name, saying, ÔI am the Christ,Õ and will mislead many." William Kelly was an early dispensationalist. Were talking Darby's best friend, the guy who wrote much of Darby's material, and organized his material. So when you buy the many, many multi-volume set all the works of John Nelson Darby, William Kelly edited that. He was very close to Darby. Here is this early dispensationalist who says, "In the epistles of Paul, it is never exactly such a thought as warning persons against false Christs."  What he is saying is Jesus is warning them to don't be deceived by false messiahs. Some people take that as a trend in the church age. However, the epistles, which are written to church age believers never warn you about false Christs. They warn you about what? False teachers, but they don't warning us about false Christ's or false prophets.

 

This tells us once again this is talking about what's going to happen when things shift back to Israel and second half of the Tribulations. So Kelly says, "For there, that is, in Paul's epistles, the Holy Ghost addresses us as Christians and as Christians, and as Christian could not be deceived by man's pretension pretensions to be Christ. It is most appropriate here because the disciples are viewed in this chapter as representatives, and not of us Christians now but of future godly Jews. Bingo! A great observation from an early dispensationalist.

 

Robert Gundry who is a contemporary theologian (I'm not sure if he still alive or not) says that the in his commentary on Matthew, "The lack of evidence that anyone claim Messiahship between Jesus and Bar-kokhba 100 years later, militates against our seeing the discourse as a prophecy of an event concerning the first Jewish revolt. False prophets figured in that revolt, but one did not have to claim Messiahship to be a false prophet." Good point. 

 

In Revelation 6:1, 2 we read, "Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, 'Come.' I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer." This is conquest. Some people interpreted this as like cold war. It may involve that but I think that this is a reflection of what is described in Daniel seven. The 10 horns that were on its head, that's the fourth beast and the other horn, that's the little horn. So it's an 11th horn which came up, before which three fell. He is going to somehow conquer three of them, namely that little horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words. His appearance was greater than his fellows, and says in Daniel 7:21, ÒI kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them." That's Tribulation saints, Tribulation believers. 

 

Matthew 24:6 ÒYou will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for {those things} must take place, but {that} is not yet the end." I think that part of it relates to what is going on as the Antichrist is beginning to gain power and consolidate his power. For the rest of it Jesus isn't giving an exposition and tight analysis in relation to the seven seal judgments, but we see a similarity.

 

Matthew 24:7 ÒFor nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes." Verse seven starts getting into the second seal where a red horse shows up and the rider will take peace from the earth. That clearly means a worldwide war at this time,  whereas the conquering, I think, of the first seal is more related to the Antichrist consolidation of power with 10 nations.

 

Revelation 6:4 NASB "And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that {men} would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him." Violence all over the world and worldwide: every country, every nation, everybody. Not like World War II.  World War II was simple easy nice sweet peaceful. It didn't touch our shores; it didn't touch the South American shores, and didn't touch Canadian shores.  It didn't touch a lot of places in Africa, except indirectly; this is going to be violence everywhere. 

 

Daniel describes this fourth kingdom. Daniel 7:23 NASB ÒThus he said: ÔThe fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the {other} kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. [24] As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings." I think that subduing is part of that first seal.

 

There are going be famines, Jesus said, Matthew 24:7 NASB "There will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places". These are the third seal judgments. That is indicated by economic collapse and the high price for bread, as described in verse five and six. The black horse: the one sitting on it has a pair of scales.

 

Revelation 6:6 NASB "And I heard {something} like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, 'A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.'Ó The denarius was about a day's pay, so day's pay will buy just a quart of wheat. There's going to be death through pestilences, and earthquakes, as described in Matthew 24:7. 

 

The fourth horse, the fourth seal judgment describes the coming of death through disease. One fourth of the earth is killed, it's killed with the sword, famine, pestilences, and wild beasts. That's described in verse eight.

 

Revelation 6:8 NASB "I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth". Sounds like Ezekiel, doesn't it? Sounds like the rabbis in the inter-testamental period. You think they figured some of this out? It's not in the church age; it's in that first part of the Tribulation. 

 

The sixth seal comprises a great earthquake. Unbelievable. Earthquakes, the sun turns black as sackcloth, the moon turns like blood, stars fall to the earth like an asteroid shower. That's massive, worldwide. The sky split like a scroll, mountains and islands were moved out of their place. That's a description of the earthquake. John describes it this way: Revelation 6:12-14 NASB "I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth {made} of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

 

That's quite a description of this earthquake. Every mountain and island is shaken. What is the response from the earth dwellers? Will they just shake their fists to God? Revelation 6:15-17 NASB "Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'Ó

 

From Gordon Franson's paper on earthquakes and the signs of the times: "As the book of Revelation written about AD 95 mentions at least five earthquakes.  Revelation 6:12-17; Revelation 8:5; Revelation 11:13 and 19, and then the last greatest earthquake of all time in Revelation 16:16:21." (He says the final earthquake mentioned in the seventh bowl of wrath is described as "a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth"). 

 

"Now the great city (that's Babel), was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered by God to give her the cup of wine of the fierceness of his wrath."

 

It has been popular from popularists in teaching prophecy that we've had a lot more earthquakes. Hal Lindsay does this John Haigi does this, a number of other ones. Tim LaHaye did it to some degree. We haven't had more earthquakes. We have many more instruments and they are much more sensitive so we have greater reporting of earthquakes, greater knowledge of earthquakes, but they haven't increased. And yet what you will hear, because that's an easy metric to get, is these popularists will say we've had increased earthquake. See, that the historicists idea that I can look at my times right now and see evidence of the nearness of Jesus. You can't do that, I don't care how close you think it is. Dr. Walvoord thought it was close. Dr. Chafer thought it was close; everybody who has written about prophecy over the last 150 years thought it was in their generation group. We can't look at current events and the same is true with this. 

 

So one of the geologists from the USGS  must've had some knowledge about what some religious leaders are saying and wrote in 1969, "One notices with some amusement that certain religious groups have picked this rather unfortunate time to insist that the number of earthquakes is increasing. In part they are misled by the increasing number of small earthquakes that are being catalogued and listed by newer, more sensitive stations throughout the world. It is worth remarking that the number of great earthquakes from 1896 to 1906, which is about 25, was greater than in any 10 year interval since." He goes on to say, "In the last 20 years we definitely had an increase in the number of earthquakes we've been able to locate each year. This is because of the tremendous increase in the number of seismograph stations in the world and the many improvements in global communications. In 1931 there were about 350 stations operating in the world. Today there more than 4000 stations and the data now comes in rapidly from the stations by telex computer and satellite. This increase in the number of stations and the more timely receipt of data has allowed us and other seismological centers to locate many more small earthquakes which were undetected in earlier years and we are able to locate earthquakes more rapidly." 

 

So Jesus concludes and He says all these are the beginning of sorrows. 

 

Now just a little application. As I was reading this I was reminded of a Bible course that I sang. We sang when I was young. Haven't heard it in many, many years and I looked it up. I remember these words. I looked it up and it was written by a man name Wendell P. Loveless, who lived from 1892 to 1987. He wrote a number of Bible choruses, and the words to this were somewhat interesting. The words to this chorus were:

 

What tho wars may come with marching feet and beat of the drum,

For I have Christ in my heart.

What tho nations rage as we approach the end of the age,

For I have Christ in my heart. 

God is still on the throne, Almighty God, is He,

And He cares for his own through all eternity. 

So let come what may. Whatever it is I only say,

That I have Christ in my heart, I have Christ in my heart.

 

I have changed that chorus to I have Christ is my rock. I got that idea from Dr. Toussaint. I have Christ as my rock. And it's interesting that he did not write that because he read Matthew 24; he wrote that in 1940. Guess what he was thinking about. World War II had begun and he was taking a principle that no matter how bad things look in the world around us as Christians, because we have Christ, because we have the truth of Scripture, we should not be shaken, fearful, worried about these things at all. And I would say, because God is our refuge, our fortress, and He is our rock of ages.

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