GREAT TRIBULATION

BEHOLD THE BEAST

GREAT TRIBULATION

For a printable, foldable, PDF of this subject please click here.

2 Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

In Indonesia 3 teenage girls were beheaded on their way to their Christian school and one head left on the steps of a Church. The note left behind reads: "We will murder 100 more Christian teenagers and their heads will be presented as presents."

"Once again, women are the targets. In mid-March, rebels assaulted three women gathering firewood and cut off their ears, lips, and breasts."

"Starting in 2003, Janjaweed Arabs, a Sudan-backed militia, have driven 2 million villagers from their homes in ethnic-cleansing attacks designed to suppress local rebels."

"Eyewitness accounts detailing the militia attacks are horrifying. "They killed my 3-year-old son right in front of my eyes," one father from West Darfur said. Since last fall, women have reported more than 500 rapes. Three women said five militiamen beat and raped them last August. The women said, "After they abused us, they told us that now we would have Arab babies. And, if they would find any [more] women, they would rape them again to change the color of their children.""

Revelation 6:6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

If you clicked on the links in the above verse you might get an idea that great tribulation is not necessarily reserved for some future someday. Particularly when we view videos like this one from Walid Shoebat's site regarding radical Islam in the United States (double click on the image for full screen). Video from The Investigative Project of Terrorism.

For updates on the latest terrorist attacks around the world a good site is The Religion of Peace.com. There have been more than 9,000 deadly Islamic terrorist attacks just since 9-11.

In the Olivet Discourse we found that Luke provided the date pins for the beginning and end of the period of great tribulation "such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be". We found that this period closed, as we then entered Daniel's "time of the end". This obviously does not mean that tribulation is over, as evidenced by the 2 million slain, in the Sudan alone. What it may mean is that we have moved from one era into the next - the last.

Do we have to wonder if the poor Sudanese souls have any doubts about when the tribulation is? First photo from Journey With Jesus.net

Second photo from here.

Here is a photo of a Sudanese child trying to make his way to food, while a vulture haunts him from behind, taken by the late Kevin Carter.

Our dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus are being martyred around the world, including through crucifixion and beheading. To get a better understanding of a major portion of the period of "great tribulation" that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24, read Fox's Book of the Martyrs or Martyr's Mirror for free, online.

Today in "civilized" Saudi Arabia if a national lets it be known that they converted to Christianity they are beheaded. Death is the punishment for apostasy required by the Quran for turning away from Islam. In world news we all saw the same resolve displayed by the Afghanis. The Afghani government had to pretend the Christian was mentally retarded to avoid the required beheading, and subsequent exposure of their evil before the global community. A Christian evangelist disappeared into the Palestinian territory for a couple of weeks and was butchered and cut into 4 parts and sent back home to his family in a box.

In Indonesia 3 teenage girls were beheaded on their way to their Christian school and their heads left on the steps of a Church. The note left behind reads: "We will murder 100 more Christian teenagers and their heads will be presented as presents." Next Sudan/Angola border where:

The crime committed by the above martyrs could have been as simple as admitting to a being Christian when asked. You can study this subject with a Yahoo search. Don't expect to see Christian persecution reported on ABC, CBS, NBC or CNN. Visit Voice of the Martyrs to learn more and to find out how you can help.

The above are examples of those who have truly been "left behind". Christians are slaughtered at a rate of perhaps 160 thousand per year (conservative estimate). Christian martyrdom today and throughout the entirety of the Christian Era is global in scope. Instead of opening our Bible and praising Christ with our families on Sunday afternoon are we sometimes more preoccupied with helping our kids pick out which football star is most worthy of praise? Can it be reasonably argued that we are not in the "falling away".

(16 font test) On this link are videos of Muslims who have come to know the love of God.

(link to this spot) Jeremiah 30:4-7 And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.

And the Lord used the allied forces to save Judah out of it, shortening those days.

Jeremiah 30:8 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves [make slaves] of him.

And the yoke was broken and Israel came out of the wilderness of the nations, declaring her independence in 1948.

WHAT DOES SCRIPTURE SAY ABOUT THE GATHERING OF THE ELECT? (link to this spot)

Are Christians supposed to be looking for our blessed Savior's return, or our own personal exit? Isn't it our job to be here?

John 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

I will be humbly honored to remain my brother John's fellow partaker in THE tribulation and in THE kingdom (of God) and endurance of Jesus Christ:

(NASB): Revelation 1:9 I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance {which are} in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

(Greek/English Interlinear (tr) NT) Revelation 1:9 | egw <1473> {I} iwannhV <2491> {JOHN,} o <3588> {WHO} kai <2532> {ALSO} adelfoV <80> {BROTHER} umwn <5216> {YOUR} kai <2532> {AND} sugkoinwnoV <4791> {FELLOW PARTAKER} en <1722> {IN} th <3588> {THE} qliyei <2347> {TRIBULATION} kai <2532> {AND} en <1722> {IN} th <3588> {THE} basileia <932> {KINGDOM} kai <2532> {AND} upomonh <5281> {ENDURANCE} ihsou <2424> {OF JESUS} cristou <5547> {CHRIST,}....

1 Chronicles 15:51-52 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

At the last trump. Not a few trumps before the last but at the last trump, and if there is any THEY group I am pretty confident I would not want to be in it.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

"Note the WE [again]. Paul was speaking to the Church of which he was part and we have every scriptural reason to believe that we also includes us. You and I and the rest of the church are the WE.

And the Olivet Discourse again demonstrates the order:

Matthew 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time.

Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days ... the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

Matthew 24:30 they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds

Matthew 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet [a great trumpet, NASB], and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

(1) Great tribulation.

(2) After the tribulation.

(3) Son of man coming

(5) Gather together elect

Clearly the book of Matthew would have to be rewritten to support more than one gathering of the elect.

Look at 1 Thess 4:16 again:

"...the Lord shall descend from heaven..."

Matthew 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

"...with the voice of the archangel..."

Revelation 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become [the kingdoms] of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

"... trump of God..."

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,

More on this section of the Olivet Discourse can be found on it's own page here.

The 19th century brought us

Mary Baker Eddy - Christian Science

Joseph Smith - LDS Mormon

Charles Taze Russell - Jehovah's Witness

Ellen White - SDA Seventh Day Adventists

Madame Blavatsky - Theosophical Society - satanist acquaintence of Westcott and Hort

John Nelson Darby - dispensationalism futurism

Westcott and Hort - wrote corrupt 19th century minority Greek text that is the basis of the vast majority of modern bible versions.

2Cr 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him].

Are 7-year future tribulation doctrine holders expected to believe that in the future yet a different billion and a half people will also be united in antichrist by religion, and that there will be yet another - future - "man" AND "beast" AND "false prophet" that will also identify themselves with the number 666, that will build yet another abomination on the temple mount, in some future 7-year period of tribulation? With two million saints killed in the Sudan alone are we to continue to look somewhere over the horizon for a "future" shedding of the blood of the saints and martyrs as hundreds more fall to the knife, around the world, every day?

How prepared does the soothing allure of a pre-trib rapture leave Western Christians to have their hair grabbed in one hand, and a beheading knife held to their throat by another, and have it demanded of them to reject Jesus Christ before their captors? As I write, the call to prayer blares over loudspeakers, 5 times a day 2 minutes each, in downtown Detroit (Hamtramck), and in suburban Dearborn, Michigan. Might it be high time some Christians review their "end time" doctrine that was proffered by Darby/Scofield just a little over a hundred years ago, who annotated the Bible in light of their understanding of the book of Daniel, over a half century before God likely lifted the seal from the book?

RISKS OF PRE-TRIB BELIEFS (link to this spot)

Here is why I believe the enemy put this doctrine in the 20th century western protestant futurist church. The most obvious risk of holding a pre-trib rapture belief is that it offers the promise for deferred judgment. You can give in to the flesh, and then if Jesus arrival catches you, metaphorically, "with your pants down" when he returns, you can always repent during the "7-year", "great tribulation", right? Indeed you could even delay repentance exactly 7 years since you would know the day that Jesus is to return.... right? Imagine the eternal horror of those who delayed repenting, only to find that there is only going to be one opportunity - at the last trump. They will find that they have been "left behind" ..... FOREVER.

This shock would, of course, be no different for the procrastinating unrepentant if they get killed in a car wreck today. I understand this frame of mind first hand. I fell to my knees a time or two and said the "sinner's prayer" at the end of the Jack Van Impe show, but nothing changed, because I wasn't ready to repent. That "sinner's prayer" was simply lip service to God. Salvation come's through repentance, not a simple act of the flesh. I loved my life, I loved my stuff, I loved my booze, and everything about my life here on earth. But I figured that if Jack Van Impe ever disappeared, or a bunch of cars ran into trees with no drivers, or planes fell out of the sky then I would know that it is time to really knuckle down and repent. Reading that last sentence I have a hard time ever imagining that I ever believed that "pre-trib" rapture business! What about the reluctant husband? Or the teenager that gets dragged off to church? "Well when mom and dad disappear I'll know it's time to repent." But what if that unrepentant kid dies in a car wreck today? Folks in their middle age and younger don't generally think in terms of their immediate mortality.

Additionally if Jesus came today, might pre-trib rapture holders believe that He was "The" "Antichrist", because if he was Jesus, wouldn't they have been "raptured" 7 years beforehand? Further, if they do face real tribulation, how is their pastor preparing them to be confronted by a beheading knife? Those that hold Darby's 7-year future tribulation doctrine, but do not believe in a pre-trib rapture, would still have to believe it wasn't Jesus because the temple hadn't been rebuilt and Jewish animal sacrifices - an unscriptural restoration of the old covenant - hadn't resumed.

Having recently been a futurist pre-tribber myself, and having communicated with many futurists on the Internet, I have found that they tend to defend their 20th century Ribera-deLacunza-Darby-Scofield eschatological scheme, seemingly no less staunchly than the Catholic Church defended it's doctrine during the reformation, and some Catholics unto today. It is only logical that the bigger a Church is, and the older a Church is, the harder it is for it to review or adjust doctrine. This is why Churches rot from the top down, eventually through dictate and nicolaitanism, as in the Episcopal church example. Indeed, the overcoming that is repeatedly mentioned in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3 is about overcoming Church doctrine, not Satan. Make no mistake. All false doctrine is the handiwork of the enemy.

The pre-trib blinds us to the very real tribulation suffered by so many in the world today, replacing it with an event in some future "someday", but only after were "raptures". Perhaps John the Baptist simply wasn't pious enough to get pre-trib raptured, and instead got nailed to the ground and beheaded. And the rest of the apostles suffering similar fates must not have been up to snuff. Or the million Jews killed in 70 AD, and another 750,000 in 135 AD, or the Christians and Jews killed in the First Islamic Jihad throughout almost the entirety of the whole known world, or the 5 to 20 million Christians killed by the Catholic Church or the 8 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, let alone the 2 million murdered in the Sudan and all over the world in this Second Islamic Jihad. I guess it must just be that we Western Christians, reclined in our easy-boy chairs with a beer, are the group that really deserves escape from tribulation. Every Christian should read Fox's Book of the Martyrs and/or Martyr's Mirror.

PSEUDO EPHRAEM (link to this spot)

The Bible instructs:

Job 8:8 For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers: 9 (For we [are but of] yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth [are] a shadow:)

But when we look to the fathers of the former age we find only an absence of historical support for a pre-tribulation rapture. Even "Dr. Harry Ironside of Moody Bible Institute, himself an ardent supporter of the Ribera-Lacunza-Macdonald-Darby-Scofield eschatological scheme, admitted in his Mysteries of God, p.50: ". . . until brought to the fore through the writings of . . . Mr. J. N. Darby, the doctrine taught by Dr. Scofield [i.e., the Seven-Year Tribulation theory] is scarcely to be found in a single book throughout a period of 1600 years. If any doubt this statement, let them search, as the writer has in measure done, the remarks of the so-called Fathers, both pre- and post-Nicene, the theological treatises of the scholastic divines . . . the literature of the reformation . . . the Puritans. He will find the 'mystery' conspicuous by its absence."

It is so sad to see the lengths that some go through to claim that there is. Even a visit to raptureready.com, who censor alternate points of view, demonstrates the same bankruptcy in regard to historical precedent for this doctrine.

Thomas Ice, for example, points to a paper written in the 8th century by someone using a fake name - Pseudo Ephraem - as proof that the pre-trib rapture doctrine was taught in the church before John Darby penned his doctrine. Even the title of Ice's paper suggests his volume of historical proof: "Ancient Pre-Trib Rapture Statement". This is some entertaining reading, but so sad to see the lengths someone will go through to advance false doctrine.

Here is an expose by Tim Warner on the Grant Jeffrey article "Ancient Pre-Trib Rapture Statement", to which Thomas Ice refers. Also Grant Jeffrey's 'Apocalypse' Debacle by Tim Warner.

Even in this thin case that Ice highlights, the argument that Pseudo Ephraem's paper is post-trib, is stronger. And even if the paper was about a pre-trib rapture, would this be enough historical precedent on which to base a doctrine that is so clearly unsupportable by scripture, except through an inverted pyramid of pile-on presumption? Seems appropriate to call it thin Ice. Here is the website of the Pre-Trib Research Center. Considering the importance of looking to the fathers of the former age, you would think they would include a special section regarding historical support for their doctrine if there was any.

But in either event regarding this single paper, it is unreasonable to suggest that this would have been the source of John Darby's pre-tribulation rapture doctrine. The historical record shows that Darby, also called the "father of dispensationalism" was influenced by the Irvingites after attending several meetings, and that the Irvingites were influenced by a dream of a little Scottish girl named Margaret Macdonald, who dreamed up this pre-tribulation rapture. There is even an argument however that even Margaret Macdonald's dream was post-trib! And John Darby's eschatological doctrine is what found it's way into the 20th century western protestant church. This cannot be reasonably refuted.

"But the Emperor has nothing at all on!" Said a little child. "Listen to the voice of innocence!" exclaimed the father; and what the child had said was whispered from one to another. "But he has nothing on!" at last cried all the people. The Emperor was vexed, for he knew that the people were right; but he thought, "The procession must go on now!" And the lords of the bed-chamber took greater pains than ever to appear holding up a train, although, in reality, there was no train to hold. - Hans Christian Anderson

2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

The 19th century brought us

Mary Baker Eddie - Christian Science

Joseph Smith - Mormons

Charles Taze Russell - Jehova's Witness

Madame Blavatsky - Theosophical Society - renouned satanist acquaintence of Westcott and Hort

John Nelson Darby - dispensationalism

Westcott and Hort - wrote the corrupt 19th century minority Greek text that is the basis of the vast majority of modern bible versions.

Demonstrating how far the stuff of itching ears can go, there are currently 101 YouTube results for - micro chip 666. What if someone went in for an appendectomy and was implanted with the "beast's" micro chip while under anesthesia and he didn't know it? Would he go to hell?

(link to next page on the Parable of the Fig Tree)

Here is a link to a good sound bible teacher, where you can go to church online, anytime you want, to get into the Word of God.

Other Skolfield papers:

By ministry partner:

"We have the assurance of the New Testament regarding events to come. I find it difficult to keep from laughing when I find people worrying about future destruction of some kind or another. Didn't they know they were going to die anyway? Apparently not....The world might stop in ten minutes; meanwhile we are to go on doing our duty. The great thing is to be found at one's post as a child of God living each day as though it were our last, but planning as though our world might last a hundred years." - C.S. Lewis

"God is truth, so how well a person serves the Lord is not dependent on how artfully he can defend his doctrines, but on his willingness to seek out and follow the truth." - Ellis Skolfield.