Abstract p.3
Wars and uprisings
9 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”
Here is another distinction between Luke, and Matthew and Mark. In Luke it is “wars and tumults” and in the other two gospels it is wars and rumors of war. We now have “police actions” where we don’t consider that it rises to the level of a war. Panama Canal was not a war, it was a tumult. Falkland Islands was not a war, it was a tumult. The Gulf war is a war, and police actions are tumults. This will be the situation prior to the tribulation and the first rapture.
10 Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
World War I, World War II, and the two Gulf wars are examples. But if we consider the whole church age you can include many other wars: Vietnam, Korea, Napoleonic, etc.
Earthquakes, Famines and Pestilences
11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places,
Krakatoa, Japan’s Tsunami, Indonesia Tsunami, and various pestilences like Black plague and Spanish flu.
Fearful Events
and fearful events
The terrorist attacks are fearful events. Munich Olympics and taking the Israeli team hostage was a fearful event. 9/11 was a fearful event. This bombing in Afghanistan was a fearful event. The mortgage meltdown was a fearful event. Chernobyl was a fearful event.
Great signs from heaven
and great signs from heaven.
The Revelation 12 sign on September 23, 2017 was a great sign from heaven. There have been a whole host of lunar eclipses and solar eclipses which are very prophetic, within this blog you can see links to videos that go into great detail on the significance of each one. The lord describes these things as though there would be lots of them, kind of like a bowl of M and M’s, but then at the very end you will have great signs from heaven. The sense I get is don’t get all bent out of shape over a war or a famine or a pestilence or an earthquake, or even from a fearful event. All of these things will happen, there will be many of them, and they don’t really tell you that the day of the Lord is at hand. However, at the very end you will get great signs from heaven, that is the key sign. The Revelation sign is a great sign, the last time something similar to this happened was six thousand years ago depicting that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. This sign will not appear again for several thousand years. It is a great sign. You have the woman (Virgo) crowned with 12 stars, clothed with the sun and the moon is at her feet. In her belly you have Jupiter for 9 months and then comes out the birth canal. This sign occurred at the feast of trumpets in 2017.
The feasts are prophetic, Paul in Colossians said that the feasts were a shadow of things to come. Passover was fulfilled when Jesus was crucified. The feast of firstfruits was fulfilled at His resurrection. The feast of unleavened bread was fulfilled indicating the church age. The feast of Shavuot was fulfilled at His ascension. The feast of Pentecost (feast of new wine) was fulfilled in Acts depicting the new testament ministry as the new wine, the church as the new wine skins and everyone hearing the great things of God in their own tongue as the gospel that is preached to the whole world. The next major feast is the feast of Trumpets which announces the coming of the King. It is ten days before the feast of Atonement where we are all judged to see whose name is written in the book of life. These ten days signify ten years known as “Jacob’s trouble”. This September 23rd, in the evening, is the fourth anniversary of the Revelation 12 sign and many believe this will be when the tribulation begins.
So then it is very important to know what these heavenly signs are that have been prophesied and to dive deeper into a fuller understanding of what these mean. Most of the intense watchmen posting on the internet concerning the day of the Lord approaching began with this Revelation 12 sign. It is the nail on which many of these prophecies of the Lord’s coming hang.
If you look at all these events: wars, uprisings, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, fearful events and great signs from heaven it seems every time we had one we had some false Christ claiming the day was near and to follow him into some cult. Think about Haley's comet, or Krakatoa. James Nichols Thom claimed to be Christ in an uprising against paying taxes. The Black death was interpreted by many to be a sign of the end of the world. Likewise with the Bubonic plague and the great fire of London.
So if you look at this it seems the Lord is warning against using these events to predict the end of the age and to avoid the false prophets who claim to be Christ and that you should follow them.
If you think about it all these kooks are the reason no one wants to touch this topic. So there are two different approaches Satan can take, first he can ridicule, mock and slander those who explore these prophecies. If that doesn't work he can push those who are pursuing them to go off the deep end. We are supposed to thread the eye of the needle, being a doomsday cult sitting on your rooftop is unbalanced, but so is taking the attitude that "no one knows the day or the hour" so don't even touch these verses.
