(Daniel 7:25-27) “He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. (Vs.26) But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. (Vs.27) Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’”
In 1974 Corrie Ten Boom wrote a letter related to the persecution of faithful New Covenant believers. An extract from her letter read… “There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China, the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured.” Then came a terrible persecution.
Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, “We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution, rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes, – to stand and not faint. I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next. Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation…
“When I was a little girl,” I said, “I went to my father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.” “Tell me,” said Father, “When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?” “No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.” “That is right,” my father said, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need – just in time…”My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing, “In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.”
The reason for this current post is that the pretribulation rapture is still being widely taught and promoted throughout the evangelical world in the western democracies, especially on the internet. Those who are preaching and teaching this are our blood-washed, blood redeemed brothers and sisters in the Messiah our Lord Jesus. However, this doctrine they are teaching was not known or taught before the latter half of the 19th Century, which is another topic for another time. This doctrine has taken root in the western churches unaffected by the terrible and ruthless persecution being perpetrated on our brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus in other non-western undemocratic nations.
The idea of severe persecution and martyrdom does not sit well with multitudes of faithful believers in countries such as America, England, Europe and Australia who are being ‘sanitized’ by this unbiblical doctrine. One just has to read the reports online from VOM (Voice of the Martyrs) website to see what is really happening to faithful believers on a scale unprecedented in previous history. Severe persecution has been happening since the Imperial persecutions of the Roman Empire and perpetrated and continued under the Popes of Rome, and now at the hands of the Islamic Empire.
When you consider the numbers of our dear faithful brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus being persecuted in the Communist countries such as China and North Korea, their numbers dwindle in comparison with those in Islamic countries. Virtually every report in the VOM website concerning terrible persecution is happening in Islamic countries where millions are being oppressed, imprisoned, marginalised in society, tortured and martyred.
Now the prophet Daniel wrote about the persecution perpetrated by the Antichrist and his beast empire that in the last days would come to Israel and by extension and inclusion the faithful Church. Let’s briefly look once again at this passage of scripture in the Book of Daniel Chapter 7:25-27
(Vs.25) “He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One” and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.”
Elsewhere in God’s Word we are told that the Antichrist, also known as the man of sin, or as the son of perdition, will speak out against God and seek to promote himself as God when he sits in the Temple of God in Jerusalem which has yet to be built. When he is worshipped in a rebuilt temple structure by those who have apostatized in Israel at the same time he will also be worshipped within wider Christendom. (Daniel 11:36-37) (Matthew 24:15) (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
If the Body of the Messiah the faithful Assembly (Church) was no longer on earth, having been raptured, then why would the apostle Paul teach about the revealing of the man of sin to the Thessalonian believers if the Church was no longer here on earth when the Antichrist is revealed? We are also told that the Antichrist “will wear down the saints of the Highest One.” The word “saints” in both Testaments refers to all believers, both Jewish and Gentile believers, being one new man in the Messiah (Ephesians 2:13-16). Today Satan and his cohorts from Hades are wearing down God’s saints, “those who obey God’s commandments and hold to their testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 12:17).
When you look at the severity and cruelty being perpetrated on the faithful Church in most parts of the world can the Antichrist do anything worse than what is being done already to our beloved brothers and sisters? it can only become more intense, more frequent and more widespread, which it will just prior to the Lord’s return to this planet. Satan is seeking to wear down the saints. He has a three-fold strategy he uses to weaken our will to resist. 1. He uses spiritual deception which is an infestation today within the wider Body of the Messiah. 2. He uses the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, primarily through the internet, the videos, the movies and venues of secular entertainment that captivate the imaginations of multitudes of Christians, weakening their will to resist him. 3. He uses outright persecution when all else fails.
Many of us in the affluent western democracies are passing through tribulations of many kinds, not affiliated with direct persecution, but daily situations where trials and tests are occurring, which God is allowing to happen, not to harm us, but to strengthen our resolve to resist when the real persecution comes, and it is coming to the western Church. We also notice that Daniel writes; “and he (the Antichrist-the little horn) will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.” Like Antiochus Epiphanies did when he invaded the Holy land and desecrated the Temple and demanded the worship and allegiance of the Jews, seeking to change the laws and customs of Israel by imposing Greek customs and pagan religious practices on the Jews, the Antichrist (of whom Antiochus was a major type) will also seek to change the laws of Israel after he has invaded the Holy land.
He will demand to be worshipped, stop the sacrifices in the temple, seek to do away with the laws and commands of the Torah, and persecute and kill all who will not worship him and swear allegiance to the dictates and religious mandates of his beast empire, which I am very inclined to think will be swearing allegiance to the Koran, to Sharia law and to the tenants of Islam. Not only will this be happening in Israel but in every nation that the Islamic Beast Empire has conquered (Revelation 13:5-7). His empire will be vast expanding across the whole Middle East, sweeping down into North Africa, and with its tentacles reaching into the European continent. His reign will last for three and a half years in duration and then his end will come! And so Daniel continues to write…
(Vs.26-27) “But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’”
The time will come when God’s heavenly ruling council will take their judges seats and in agreement with the Lord sitting on His heavenly throne, will pronounce judgement on the Antichrist and his beast empire to destroy it forever! See also (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45). Suddenly and without warning God will cut those days of great tribulation short for the sake of His persecuted and beleaguered saints still living on earth, and for the very survival of the planet itself (Matthew 24:21-22). He will send His Son back to rapture and resurrect the saints, rescue the surviving remnant of Israel, destroy the Antichrist’s empire and all nations aligned with it, and to inaugurate the Messianic Kingdom with its headquarters at Jerusalem. This will happen “immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29-31) See also (Isaiah 2:1-5) (Ezekiel 37:15:28) (Zechariah Chapter 14).
After these things have occurred the saints of the Most High God will inherit the kingdom and co-rule with the Messiah over the nations that have survived the wrath of God. In that day we are told; “In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law (the Torah) will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2-3). The Messianic kingdom is our ultimate destiny as New Covenant believers in the age to come and then after that for all of eternity! This indeed is our blessed hope!
Let’s keep working for the Lord Jesus while we have the light because the darkness is coming when no one will be able to work in the same way as we can now! As the Lord Jesus Himself said; “While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work”(John 9:4). The hope and expectancy of the faithful Body of the Messiah from the first Century to the first half of the 19th Century was not a secret pretribulation rapture, but the Second Coming of the Messiah to earth, one Second Coming, to destroy all opposition and to set up His Messianic kingdom on earth to co-reign with all of His redeemed saints being a kingdom of priests corporately (Revelation 5:10). To this the scriptures testify in both Testaments.
The trials and temptations, as fierce and as unrelenting as they are we are facing every day as we seek to remain faithful and pleasing to our Lord Jesus, are preparing us for the time of Great Tribulation when we will have to stand together with our fellow brothers and sisters, and that only possible by the awesome power of the Spirit of glory and of God resting upon us all! (1 Peter 4:12-19).
