What Unparalled Global Events Does the Bible Predict Will Encompass the World in the Future? ā Program 2
| September 6, 2013 |
By: Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. Zola Levitt, Dr. Randy Price, Peter LeLonde, Dr. Dave Breese; ©1995 |
Will Christians be on earth to endure some or all of the time of tribulation? What promises do we find in the Bible regarding this future time of trouble? |
Introduction
Today, on The John Ankerberg Show: āWhat Unparalleled Global Events Does the Bible Predict Will Encompass the World in the Future?ā
[Program Excerpt]
- Dr. David Breese: We have the Rapture of the Church and then the world drops into the very, very dark abyss of the Tribulation. The Tribulation sees the rise of Antichrist, the establishment of world government and world religion; and then the Antichrist decides that the irritant to his total power is this faint memory of the existence of God as represented by Jerusalem, Israel. So he initiates a global war against Israel.
- Peter Lalonde: Weāve got to recognize the world in which the Antichrist arises. First of all, youāve had the Rapture take place. Millions of people have vanished off the face of the earth and while weāve been debating that subject, maybe weāve sometimes forgotten what that event really is like. People have watched family members disappear. Children have vanished off the face of the earth. Youāre sitting with your wifeāsheās gone. It is going to drive the world insane.
- Dr. Randall Price: Now, for the first time in 2000 years we see Jews. Maybe itās a minority, maybe itās a handful of Jews, but though that minority can be a very vocal and demonstrable minority, they are preparing to rebuild the temple.
- Dr. John Ankerberg: Do you find it significant that we have the peace conference going on?
- Dr. Zola Levitt: Absolutely! Look, what would you say, what would any of us say, if the headline tomorrow morning is: āHereās a new idea. Weāll let the Israelis have their temple worship. An amazing suggestion has come up. We can move the Dome of the Rock lovingly, carefully, to Mecca, Medina, Damascus, and by the way, the Israelis said theyāre a little uncomfortable. They would sign for seven years.ā Thatās the ball game.
- Lalonde: CNN will go to immediate worldwide coverage. You know that there are going to be people just glued to their TV sets trying to figure out whatās taken place in this world. There will be chaos and confusion.
[end excerpt]
Ankerberg: My guests today are four of the premier teachers on biblical prophecy in the United States. They are: Dr. Zola Levitt, Host of āZola Levitt Presents,ā Peter Lalonde, President of āThis Week in Bible Prophecy,ā Dr. Randall Price, author of In Search of Temple Treasures, and Dr. David Breese, speaker on āThe King Is Coming.ā We invite you to join us.
Program 2: What Unparalleled Global Events Does the Bible Predict Will Encompass the World in the Future? ā Will Christians Have to Experience the Tribulation Period?
- Ankerberg: Welcome! Weāre here in warm and wonderful Dallas, Texas, and we have four of the premier teachers on biblical prophecy today with us. And we are talking about the exciting events of Christās Second Coming; weāre talking about the Rapture of the Church; and weāre going to define those terms in a moment. Maybe youāre not familiar with those terms, but weāre going to talk about them.
- And then, you need to realize that the Bible says that planet earth is headed toward some very serious events; that which Jesus says is a Tribulation time, a time of trouble. In fact, Jesus Christ said that time of Tribulation will be the worst that the world has ever seen, has ever experienced. Nothing will even come close to it. What did Jesus say would happen? Well, weāre going to find out today.
- But before we do, Dr. Breese, I need a quick review of what is the Rapture and then, Randall, Iām going to come to you after that in terms of, āWill Christians who are alive now, does the Bible say theyāre going to have to experience some of that Tribulation time period or will we be raptured before it takes place?ā So, Dr. Breese, start us off. What is the Rapture?
- Breese: The Rapture is the coming of Christ for His saints, when He comes to catch us up to be in His presence. After that comes the Tribulation, and then comes the glorious return of Christ when He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords. So the Rapture is that event whereby all believers will be taken from this world into the presence of God. From the whole earth, by the way. There will not be a single Christian left in the world after the Rapture. Believers will be taken home to be with Him.
- Ankerberg: Great. Randall, a lot of people think, and are teaching today, that Christians actually will go through part of the Tribulation or all of it. We donāt believe that. Why?
- Price: Well, the Tribulation period, as itās described first by the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 4:30, is particularly designed to bring the nation of Israel to a time of repentance and deliverance so that they will see their Messiah and trust Him. And there it says āwhen these things have come upon you in the latter days.ā And so the specific reference is to the Jewish nation.
- Now, also, that time is a time of Godās wrath being outpoured upon the Gentile nations who have persecuted the people of God throughout the ages. When we come to the New Testament we see some very distinctive things concerning the Church and the message to the Church concerning that time of trouble. For instance, in 1 Thessalonians 4 we have that statement weāve already considered about the Church not grieving as it has no hope, but rather comforting one another with these words. When we come to 1 Thessalonians 5:9, just after that passage, the same word of comfort or hope is issued and there it says, āGod has not destined us for wrath but for the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.ā And this is not a type of physical deliverance but itās talking about the spiritual deliverance, the ultimate salvation that will come when we see Him face to face and are conformed to His image. And this idea of being rescued or taken from a coming wrath is quite clear here and for that reason it says, āEncourage one another in your faith.ā
- We have a similar passage in Revelation 3:10, for there it says that believers are going to be removed before an hour of trial or testing is to come upon all the earth. And there we see a very distinctive term, the term āthose who dwell on the earth.ā The Greek term tous katoi kountras eppi tes ges, āthose who are on the earth,ā really is āearth-dwellers,ā those who are characterized as belonging to this world system and not to those who trust the Lord. And so we have a situation in which wrath is poured out specifically to judge unbelievers, not believers, and it is before that hour which is going to come upon the entire inhabited earth, believers will be assured that they are removed from that time.
- Ankerberg: Peter, personally, why were you led to the view? You come from Canada, okay? This is not a popular view up there. The fact is, what made you come to the conclusion that Jesus was going to come and rescue Christians before the terrible Tribulation time period?
- Lalonde: I think the entire idea that we have discussed and been in agreement here is imminency. The Lord could come at any moment. Thereās nothing that has to precede it. At any moment. We donāt have to wait for some invasion from the north or some other thing thatās going to tick off the time when it is. We have to be ready and living and expectant at all times. The idea of the marriage ceremony that Zola has been talking about is so accurate, because when we became a Christian, we said we died to our own wills, we were buried in the death of Christ and raised in newness and life in Christ. Our whole life as the bride is to await the Bridegroom. Thatās the importance of prophecy as a whole. It is to take our eyes off this world and put our eyes back on the skies. And thatās where the Lord wants our eyes and our focus at all times.
- And you know, some people say, āWell, why study prophecy? Why study all of this stuff?ā The post-tribers say, āWhy get on all this Rapture stuff? If the Lord comes, He comes; if He doesnāt, He doesnāt. Weāll both go anyway. Weāre both believers.ā And theyāre right. Iām just concerned theyāll have a heart attack on the way up, you know.
- But the fact of the matter is, when the disciples came to Jesus and said, āWhat will be the sign of thy coming and the end of this age?ā, He gave them great detail. He didnāt say, āDonāt worry about it; if I come I come.ā It was great detail. Weāre to be expectant at all times. And what we see now in the world today are signs of the Second Coming of Christ, which is seven years after the Rapture. And if those signs are beginning to come to pass, how much closer the Rapture must be! So that gives us a sense of urgency. But itās always been imminent since the time of Christ and weāre to just be excited and expectant because in a momentāif we as Christians could come to grips with this: in a momentāweāll be in the presence of our Lord forever, how differently it would transform our lives. And I think thatās what the teaching is there for.
- Ankerberg: You know, a couple of us have Ph.D.ās and others have spent 30 or 40 years studying the Scripture in the original languages. And a lot of time people think that those kinds of folks do not think a lot about prophecy. And, Dr. Breese, I think weāve got to somehow get across to the people how serious this information is. Jesus Christ was not kidding when He talked about these things. Some of the most serious words Iāve ever heard Him speak in Scripture come about His return and whatās going to happen during this Tribulation time period. Letās change hats and letās talk about that seriousness and try to get that across to the people. Dr. Breese, letās say that Christ came, as the Scriptures are saying, in the next instant. And the Christians are gone from planet earth, then whatās going to happen?
- Breese: John, I concur as to the utter seriousness of the subject of which we speak. One-third of the Bible is prophetic and therefore a very high percentage of the things God wants us to know are anticipations for the future. The Bible says, āForgetting those things which are behindā¦reaching forth to those things which are before.ā
- Now, the scenario of which you asked is really a telling one in Scripture. When the Rapture comes and Christians are taken out of the world, instantly the salt of the earth is gone. Instantly the ameliorating feature of the presence of the bride of Christ in the world. By the way, one great argument against the Church being in the Tribulation is that Christ doesnāt want His bride to come home to Heaven bruised and beaten and battered and hardly in good shape for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb; but rather, He is going to take us, the bride of Christ, out before that day.
- But the advent of the Tribulation is one of the most spectacular passages in Scripture. āThe Horsemen of the Apocalypse,ā like a cavalry charge, which would have been the most frightening experience of the old days: The white horse, the red horse, the black horse and then the pale horse. And then, at the advent of the pale horse, one-fourth of the population of the world is killed. Two chapters later, that is, Revelation 9, one-third of the remainder is killed. So we know that one-half of the population of the world will die during the Tribulation. This is compounded by the rise of Antichrist, stars falling from heaven, Wormwood that makes the water undrinkable, and fearful scenes. For instance, one telling chapter is Revelation 6 that tells about an earthquake. But then it says, āAnd the chief captains and the mighty men and the great men, they cried to the mountains and the rocks and they said, āFall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.āā So the Bible indicates that an earthquake is more to be preferred than the wrath of the Lamb when that breaks upon the world.
- The wrath of the Lamb is not felt in the world today. āGod sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.ā But even now the world is ātreasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds.ā That happens during the Tribulation. āIt is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living Godā and that will be the case for the whole world and every person in it during the days of the Tribulation. It is not to be contemplated lightly.
- Ankerberg: Zola, Iām going to take a chance on you that youāre going to put this real quick and succinct. You could go three hours on this one by itself. Daniel 9 is written to you and to the Jewish people. And it talks about the 70 weeks there, okay? It seems like the first 69 are totally Jewish; that last week, totally Jewish. Interrupted in between, talk about that as quickly as you can and tell us why weāre talking of a Jewish picture here. God talks about history in terms of Jewish terms.
- Levitt: Yes. All prophecy is about the Jews and it all happens in Israel. We donāt stop and think about it. It doesnāt happen here in America. As the nations are affected or go back and forth with Israel in war and commerce, then they are mentioned. But it really is Jewish prophecy. The Bible is a Jewish book written and published in Israel and translated to English for use over here.
- Ankerberg: Tell us what Daniel found out.
- Levitt: The angel said in Daniel 9:24-27: āSeventy weeks are determined on thy people.ā So we had a figure. Danielās āweeks,ā shāvuim in Hebrew, is sets of seven years in reality. And if you do the arithmetic, you could check him. He was right. The Messiah indeed came and was cut off; but in 69 weeks. It left seven years some place. Comparing it out to Revelation 11 and other passages we see, āOh, this seven years is obviously the Tribulation.ā The Church is a parenthetical thing. Jesus came; He offered the Kingdom. It wasnāt taken by a majority of Israel, and He called out others not of this flock and so on. And so we have sort of a parentheses and a calling out of a āroyal priesthood,ā another nation that is chosen, a Church.
- Then, we resume. The prophecy will be fulfilled and that 70th week again will be determined on Israel. Itās about the Antichrist making a covenant with Israel. Itās about the Antichrist stopping the sacrifices and the oblations. Itās about the Antichrist going in the temple in Jerusalem and saying he is Elohim, the God of Israel. What a mouthful. And itās about the gathering storm at Armageddon which is Har-megiddo in Hebrew, āthe hill of Megiddo,ā the valley of the great judgment, the Battle of Armageddon. If weāll all understand we come into this wonderful inheritance of being chosen: Jew, Gentile, Eskimo, Hottentot, even Canadians. But when you receive Christ, what you receive thatās really precious is that youāre adopted into a family that God chose.
- Ankerberg: What I like about that is the fact is that Jewish history, up to the time of the Messiah when Heās cut off, Heās talking to the Jews. And then all of a sudden He doesnāt talkāand thatās the time of the Church. Then He comes back to the Jews, but the Church, again, is not talked about there. Weāre back to a Jewish scenario. The fact is, I think itās because the Church is out of here at the Rapture. Now it comes back to Israel.
- Levitt: Thatās another proof. Thereās just not an addressing of the Church, which is very largely Gentile, at least at the beginning of the Tribulation. Keep in mind, thereās always a remnant of Jews in the Church.
- Ankerberg: Right. Peter, what is the purpose of this terrible time, this time called the Tribulation, according to the Bible?
- Lalonde: Well, if you take a look at Daniel 9 that weāve just spoken of, you will have reference to what will take place by the end of those 490 years, the end of sin, time of peace comes in; Israel accepts their Messiah; the birth of the Millennial period; the Kingdom time. None of that appears close today. Israel hasnāt even accepted her Messiah at this point in time. This is the ātime of Jacobās trouble,ā this seven-year time period. This is where God is dealing specifically with Israel, which, once again, is one of the strongest arguments for the pre-trib Rapture of the Church. Godās focus is coming off the Church and back on to Israel for this seven-year period where God is leading Israel to the point where Israel comes to the end of her own steam.
- The end of the Tribulation period, this seven years, finds Israel surrounded by all the nations of the earth, gathered around to finally push Israel into the sea, push this last reminder of God right off the face of the earth so man can finally find his own ānew world orderā without God. And in the process, they meet not only Israel but the Lord Himself who comes to rescue Israel. Scripture says, āIn that day they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced,ā and, of course, it is Jesus at that time. They recognize Him as the Messiah. The 490 years of Daniel 9 is fulfilled on that day and we have the birth of the Millennial Kingdom, fulfilling all that was written 2500 years ago.
- Ankerberg: Randy, in 2 Thessalonians 2, the fact is, a lot of people say, āWell, if the Rapture occurs and the Rapture could only occur because the Holy Spirit is removed in terms of His influencing the world and restraining the Antichrist.ā Second Thessalonians 2 says, then the Antichrist, because the Restrainer has been removed, will come forth on the world scene. In terms of that, how will people get saved, people want to know, if the Holy Spirit has been removed?
- Price: I think the first thing to note in that passage is that those who were in Thessalonica were quite concerned about whether they were already in that period and if they had the Holy Spirit how it would be that the Day of the Lord had come? And his intent is to show that that Day of the Lord cannot come unless the apostasia, or apostasy, comes first and the lawless one is revealed. Now, he says the reason that that is not happening is because the Holy Spirit is present in the world restraining the world order so that these things donāt break out.
- Now, the Holy Spirit will still be in the world, but He wonāt be within the Church and thatās the point of that passage. The Church will be removed with the abiding Holy Spirit before that day comes. The Holy Spirit will still be there in that time just as He was in the Old Testamentāable to regenerate and to draw men to Himself, because the Lord Himselfās presence will be there, and thatās why we have those great witnesses that come during the Tribulation period, even 144,000 who are sealed to carry on that testimony. And it will still be done in the energy of the Holy Spirit.
- Ankerberg: Sure. The fact is that the Holy Spirit is omnipresent and His job description is going to change, just like it did from the Old Testament to the New Testament. He will still be here and the Bible talks about a revival going on during this time.
- But, Dr. Dave Breese, to wrap up our program today, the point we want to get across is, people donāt want to be left to go into that Tribulation time period. Thatās going to be a time of judgment. The Bible says that peopleās āhearts will be failing them for fear of the thingsā that are going on in the world at that time, which weāre going to talk about next week. For those people that say, āI do take the Bible seriously. I do take Jesus Christ seriously. But Iām afraid I would go into that time period. Iād be judged,ā how can they come to a personal relationship with Jesus?
- Breese: I think a point, John, needs to be made that you alluded to: How will people be saved during the days of the Tribulation? One of the things not well understood is there will be a different Gospel preached during the Tribulation called āthe Gospel of the Kingdom.ā āThe Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.ā And people will believe that and be saved, but they will be saved unto going into the Kingdom which is, again, a Jewish proposition and they inherit the earth. But the Gospel that people are invited to believe today is: āBelieve on the Lord Jesus ChristāHis death, His burial, His resurrection and you will be saved unto eternal life in Heaven.āWe might trigger a little interest by simply mentioning that those saved during the Tribulation, Israel, inherits the earth. Whereas, the Church inherits the universe, āWhether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours, Christ says to Christians, and you are Christās and Christ is Godās.ā Whereas, Romans 4 says, āThe promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith.ā Those saved during the Tribulation may well be beheaded for the witness of Jesus.
- So quickly I would say, the great message that comes out of discussing the prophetic word is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, now. Believe in His death, His burial, His resurrection. Genuinely receive Him as the Son of God, and that act as the sole and only basis of your salvation and youāll have everlasting life, which means also to be delivered from the wrath to come in this world. So, again, I would say, I hope folks listening will realize the imperative of coming to know Christ and believing in Him now unto eternal life.
- Ankerberg: I agree. Next week, weāre going to talk further about this time period of the Tribulation that the Bible talks about and weāre going to talk about the ruler thatās going to come into the world at that timeāor maybe heās alive right now. In fact, thatās one of the questions weāll ask the guys: Do you think the Antichrist is alive today? Weāre also going to find out, āWhat is he going to do?ā How is he going to kind of mesmerize the world? What are the nations that are involved and how will this affect Israel? Why does the Bible warn us about this person? A very interesting program and I hope that youāll join us then.