THE GREAT TRIBULATION
CONCLUSION
Before
writing The Great Tribulation,
Brendan brought up a number of matters that needed to be addressed, many of
which have been covered here. Yet
there are some matters that could not be addressed. The purpose of this writing has not been to try to address
everything related to this subject, but to begin making progress in the right
direction, revealing vital introductory truth.
One
of the matters he noted that had to be demonstrated was the actual occurrence
of the abomination of desolation, thereby setting forth the proof as to when the
great tribulation indeed began.
This we have done and seen.
By way of summary, following are the fourteen points of proof regarding
the abomination of desolation and the great tribulation.
1. Daniel 12:11 tells us that the abomination
of desolation occurred 1,290 days after the regular sacrifice was abolished
– on the seventh day after Yahshua departed, the apostles stood in His
place and cast lots for Judas’ replacement.
2. Attesting to the church, Antiochus IV
Epiphanes desolated the temple and Jerusalem for three years, concluded by the
acts of a Judas.
3. As it was written, the first Remnant fled
when they saw Stephen stoned and the garments of the false witnesses were
placed at the feet of Saul.
4. Christianity began in Antioch under Saul/Paul,
the very city founded by Antiochus.
5. The forty years of the great and terrible
wilderness speak of the great tribulation of the forty-Jubilee-waiting-period
time of the church in the wilderness.
6. As stated in Malachi 4:5-6, Elijah comes in
the time of the great and terrible day of Yahweh, in the 3,000 year period of
the church, the great tribulation, in order to cut those days short to 2,000
and Yahweh not smite the church with utter annihilation.
7. The New Testament itself abundantly evidences
that the period of the church is the period of great tribulation.
8. As evidenced by Revelation 2:20-23 and 1
Kings 19, “the woman Jezebel” immediately impacted the church,
causing it to go into the great tribulation, the great and terrible wilderness.
9. The Elijah second Remnant identified in
Revelation 7:9-12 come out of the great tribulation, cutting its duration short
from 3,000 years to 2,000 years.
10. The contradiction riddle of Matthew, Mark,
and Luke attests that the abomination of desolation, as well as the great
tribulation, takes place in the first Remnant and Christianity, whereas
vindication/justice comes about with the second Remnant.
11. The Scriptures following Yahshua’s
life do not support a climactic event as popularly taught, but that the
antichrist and man of lawlessness have been in the church from the beginning,
will increase all the more in the end, and will be exposed at Yahshua’s
appearance.
12. Matthew 24:37-41 and Luke 17:26-37, as well
as 2 Peter 2:1-10, attest that Yahshua’s promised baptism in the Holy
Spirit and fire comes to stop the desolation of the church that has taken place
for 2,000 years.
13. The three woes promised relative to the
fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpets, the great tribulation, were cut short to
two; and the third woe was replaced with the Millennial reign.
14. In related testimony, mystery Babylon is
identified three times as being the “woe, woe,” two woes –
the 2,000 years of the great tribulation.
Another
matter Brendan said needed to be addressed was to give the reason why all of
the affliction of the great tribulation over the last 2,000 years had to take
place. Was its purpose just to
afflict kingdom man or to punish him?
Not at all! To seek to
explain this would be the same as explaining why Yahweh afflicted Job in the
same way, and even in the same pattern as the church. Was Job’s affliction just to torment him? No, but rather to effect the entire
testimony for his life, and to bless him in the end. So it is with the church.
Anytime
Yahweh does something, its purpose is multifaceted. On the one hand, as we read regarding the purpose of the
great and terrible wilderness, which Christianity is, its testing was to effect
that which was written in Deuteronomy 8:16:
“In the wilderness He fed you manna which
your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you,
to do good for you in the end.”
But
that which Brendan most takes hope in regarding Yahweh’s affliction of
Christianity is the fact that as the body of Christ, they suffer for the sake
of the world. Even as Yahshua was
afflicted at the hands of the world, so the body of Christ has been
afflicted. The body of Christ has
equally had their eyes bound so they cannot see. The cares of this world have been a crown of thorns upon
their head. They have been beaten
to an extent by Satan that Yahshua’s appearance is not even
recognizable. And a scarlet/purple
robe has been placed upon them and a reed placed in their right hand and they
think they are ruling, when they are not.
But rather, they are afflicted!
Though
all of this is to the ruin of the body, in the end it will work for their good
and for the salvation of the world, even as it was so with Yahshua. Therefore, just as Satan’s rights
to test Job created the breach of affliction, as it is written in Deuteronomy
8:16, it will indeed be good for the church in the end, as well as for the
world.
The
matter that prevails on my own heart the most in this writing is that which is
addressed in section/page 6. Here we saw that the man of lawlessness
who takes his seat in the temple of God, in our body, is none other than
kingdom man becoming lawless. In
Matthew 7:22-23 we read: “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and
in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you;
depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
What is
lawlessness? Lawlessness is
following a course or actions ordered by one’s own will and feelings and
forsaking Yahweh’s clear instructions, His laws. It is the failure to have unchanging
standards that are based on Yahweh’s righteous mandates. He is the lawgiver; and when we violate
His laws, we are being lawless. As
it is written in 1 John 3:4, “Everyone who practices sin also practices
lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” This lawlessness is the way of man, even kingdom man, and is
certainly the exceeding practice of men today – the apostasy!
It
is quite interesting how Satan calls evil good, and good evil. For example, in Yahweh’s ways,
666 is good. This is the Remnant
who ascend alive. But in
Satan’s eyes, would this event be good? Absolutely not!
For men to ascend alive would mean that Satan would lose the power of
death that he has had for 6,000 years.
Therefore, in Satan’s eyes, 666 is evil; and he has caused men who
see things through his eyes and his ways to see it the same way.
Likewise,
people think 777 is a lucky and good number, when in fact it is the three
parts, or 3,000 years, of the mark of the beast, and thus – “My
God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Once again, this demonstrates how people look at things
through the eyes of Satan, calling evil good.
This
is the same practice demonstrated by the religious Pharisees who desired the
things and recognition of this world.
They too were looking at things through the eyes of Satan, desiring that
which was temporary and afforded fleshly pleasure, that which was of this
world. Addressing them, Yahshua
said, “for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the
sight of God” (Luke 16:15).
What an incredibly revealing and relevant statement!
Today,
people are lawless, desiring pleasures by looking at things through the eyes of
Satan, and not through the eyes of Yahweh. And this is true with both the world, as well as kingdom men
and women. By such perception,
they prove that they are lawless.
Immediately after Yahshua said this about the esteemed things of man
being detestable to God, He immediately added:
“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the
kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth
to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail. Everyone who divorces his wife and
marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a
husband commits adultery” (Luke 16:16-18).
And just before
stating that which He said concerning the outcome of those who practice
lawlessness, Yahshua also stated, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the
gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many
who enter through it. For the gate
is narrow and the way is (lit.) afflicted that leads to life, and there are few
who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
In
this regard, another flaw of men is that they do not look at the long-term
effects of what they are doing. They do not look at the big picture. Almost all people today live for the
moment, wanting that which will satisfy them at any given time, living
according to the pursuits and pleasures of the world, which is detestable to
Yahweh. They do not look at what
the long-term effects will be.
Given
these two errors of lawlessness and failing to look at long-term effects, man,
the family, the church, society, and civil government, are all in a state of
miserable failure. People divorce,
women vote and occupy the places of men, people disregard the essential
distinctions in the appearances of men and women and abandon modesty, godly
family and civil government is not preserved, people take in entertainment that
is unwholesome and destructive, families and individuals and even our nation
live undisciplined and wantonous lives and pile up debt, all because of the
failure of lawlessness and not looking at the big picture. If these two items alone were properly
regarded, everything and everyone around us would be different, and that for
the good.
We
now close this writing with a most important and relevant question: Given that
the great tribulation began four days before Pentecost when the apostles cast
lots for the office of the twelfth apostle, and has transpired unrestrained for
essentially 2,000 years, desolating the kingdom of heaven and taking kingdom
men to death, how can this destructive fate be reversed? Is there a solution; and if so, what is
it? Here is our hope.
When
the eleven apostles stood in the place of Yahshua and cast lots for the twelfth
apostle, they set into motion a curse on the church that was attested in other
like fates. In equal regard, when
lots were cast on the troubled sea, the result was that Jonah was cast into the
sea and swallowed by the great fish.
In like testimony, when lots were cast by Haman, the result was that the
Jews were to equally go to the sea of death at the hand of their enemy.
Each
of these speak of what took place in the church when, upon casting lots, the
apostles effected the abomination of desolation. The church was thereby devoted to death; it went into the
belly of Leviathan. So what is the
solution? The account in the book
of Esther affords the clear answer to this fateful dilemma.
The
message of the book of Esther is – the revelation of the hidden bride and
the deliverance she thereby effects.
But let us first set the scene.
The one who planned and implemented this death was the Agagite,
Haman. Who were the Agagites? They were the descendants of Agag, the
king of the Amalekites whom Saul was supposed to have utterly destroyed (1
Samuel 15:1-9). Obviously he did
not accomplish this, and equally obvious Haman had a vendetta against the Jews.
Haman’s
name is quite interesting, in that it has more than one meaning. On the one hand in the Persian language
it can mean “magnificent.”
In Hebrew it can mean “turmoil.” But also in the Hebrew, it can literally mean “the
manna,” or “HaMan.”
What
we find in these various matters is that they speak of the period of the
church.
But
there is much more to this similarity, and bears dramatic and important
relevance. In the truly incredible
writing, A Lesson From
Intercession, page 4, we see how Esther’s bold appearance before
the king, his extending her the golden rod, her touching the head of the rod,
and her two wine banquets, all speak of that which must take place today in
order to effect our deliverance.
This amazing account affords the answer to the question we have asked
regarding how the destructive results of the abomination of desolation can be
reversed.
The
desolation that began when the apostles cast lots, and the desolation that was
to take place when Haman cast lots, are parallel events. Where we stand in time now, we cannot
look into the future and see what it takes to reverse this desolation. But, by examining the parallel account
in Esther, we can indeed see the much needed solution. And as addressed in A Lesson From
Intercession, page 4, three
things are necessary – a golden rod, an Esther, and a second wine
banquet.
From what we
learned in that writing, there has already been the first golden rod –
Yahshua. The first Remnant indeed
touched His head and gained the truth they needed to receive the first wine
banquet – “Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave
Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, which," He
said, ‘you heard of from
Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit
not many days from now’” (Acts 1:4-5).
But
their wine banquet, like Esther’s first banquet, did not reveal who it
was who was to kill them, nor did it secure their deliverance. It did not reveal the plan of the
Haman. Also, their promised
baptism was simply the baptism “with the Holy Spirit.” As we learned in section/page 7, the baptism promised to the second
Remnant is the baptism with “the Holy Spirit and fire.” Therefore, what is needed today is the
second golden rod, to touch its head, and gather for the second Haman-revealing
wine banquet and have Haman sent to his own fifty-cubit gallows – fifty
being the number of Pentecost and Jubilee.
This
is indeed the very hope we have as this writing comes to completion. Our hope is that when the Bride meets
on Tabernacles Pentecost, January 2-4, 2008, that it will be the much needed
second wine banquet, the promised Pentecost gallows for Satan. Read “The Legal Rights To Ascend Alive”
and the latter half of “Hurricane
Ophelia – the Helper” to better understand the hope-filled
promise of Tabernacles having its own Pentecost, a body, giving Tabernacles
life. Also, this is the third
observed gathering for this feast; and if the passing over principle is in
effect here, we will receive the promise.
We
see then that Purim bears the very hope we so desperately need in reversing the
death consequence of the casting of lots by the eleven apostles, the
abomination that made desolate.
In
like manner, it seems evident that all that has to happen to reverse the curse
of falsely attempting to place Matthias in that office, is for Yahshua to now
place His timely choice in that office and displace Satan. In the testimony of the Esther account,
this is to take the signet ring from Haman and give it to Mordecai. Mordecai can then write and seal the
decree that reverses the curse of the casting of lots.
One
final note on this. You will
notice that though Mordecai’s decree gave the Jews the right to plunder
the spoil of their enemy (Esther 8:11), they did not do so – “they
did not lay their hands on the plunder” (Esther 9:15). One cannot help but notice that there
could well be a tie between the command that Yahweh gave Saul regarding destroying
the Agagites and that they were not to take the plunder, and the fact that the
Jews did not take any plunder when Haman the Agagite’s decree was
nullified. It makes one wonder
what will take place regarding the plunder of this world with the establishment
of the second Remnant and with Yahshua’s return.
We
will watch and see regarding all these matters. But for now, we do see that there is hope for reversing the
abomination of desolation that caused the great tribulation in the church for
2,000 years. May Yahweh fulfill
the hope-filled promises of the book of Esther and reverse the curse.
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