“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. 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.” (Daniel 7:25-27)
Most of you have heard of sister Corrie Ten Boom. During World War II Corrie Ten Boom and her family were arrested by the Germans for the crime of helping Jewish people hide. She was sent to a concentration camp and endured great hardships, but she survived. In 1974 Corrie Ten Boom wrote a letter warning Christians about the false teaching of the pre-tribulation rapture. She said; “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.” She went on to say; “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.”
The idea that the Body of the Messiah will be raptured before the coming of the man of sin and the Tribulation sits well with comfortable western Churches that by and large are not being persecuted for their faith as they are being persecuted in Islamic countries, and in other Communist countries like North Korea and Red China. According to the 2021 Open Doors World Watch List more than 340 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.” About 309 million of these Christians “suffer very high or extreme levels. That’s one in 8 worldwide, 1 in 6 in Africa, 2 out of 5 in Asia, and 1 in 12 in Latin America.”
The apostle John wrote of a time at the end of this age when the man of sin (the Antichrist) would persecute faithful Jews and Christians throughout the extent of his empire which will be one of global proportions. Electronic surveillance and personal ID with a number will most likely be the means of controlling the population and tracking those within the Antichrist’s empire considered by the state to be dissidents but more so an attempt to eradicate faithful Jewish and Gentile believers in the Messiah our Lord Jesus. The apostle John tells us that the man of sin will come from Turkey. (Revelation 2:12-13) Pergamum located in modern day Turkey was the city where Emperor Worship was fully established by the Roman Emperor Augustus who had himself deified as a god and worshipped throughout the entire Roman Empire. Augustus numbered people’s heads throughout the empire when he took a census just before the first coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. (Luke 2:1)
The Antichrist will also initiate an electronic census just before the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. In Turkey now every citizen’s “religious affiliation” is recorded on the electronic chip of identity cards, making it easy to discriminate against Christians. The Islamic world is most certainly not backward in using this kind of microchip technology to control people’s daily lives. With the advance of technology in surveillance and a personal ID number it is very feasible that the man of sin will number people with an electronic tattoo or quantum dot under the skin of the forehead or right hand just before the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus.
Those who take it voluntarily will worshipping the Antichrist and conform to his ideology and system of government if they want to buy or sell and more so if they want to live and not be killed. Cash is disappearing. EFT is now common place especially since the COVID-19 ‘Pandemic.’ There will be nothing hidden about this ‘mark.’ (Revelation 13:16-17) Believers in the Lord Jesus will have a choice to make, Christ or the Antichrist? In that day there will be no room for ‘fence sitting.’ Ultimately it will see the martyrdom of multitudes of believers on a scale never seen before in history. (Revelation 13:5-8) (Revelation 20:4) Considering this prophecy in Daniel 7:25-27, we notice several things…
#1. The man of sin “will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One.” Today Satan is waging a war with faithful believers on a global scale unprecedented in past history. For most of our brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus physical deprivation, imprisonment and martyrdom are a daily occurrence. Can the Antichrist commit worse atrocities than what we see occurring in Islamic countries today not to mention what is happening to faithful believers in North Korea and Red China? Already the faithful Body of the Messiah is experiencing tribulation (thlipsis) as the Body of the Messiah has always experienced down through history.
At the end of this age for three and a half years by the Jewish calendar the persecution by the Antichrist and his beast empire will intensify and multiply as never before. Both faithful Jewish and Gentile believers in the Messiah our Lord Jesus will be hunted down throughout the beast empire. Satan is wearing down the saints through physical persecution but also through attacking believers in their minds and seeking ways to entice them to give into the fleshly desires of the old nature. Satan may not have many believers in the western democracies imprisoned for their faith or physically persecuted at this stage but he has many believers constantly fighting against his enticements to sin through the internet and from the pressures to conform to the pattern of this world’s thinking and lifestyles.
The mind is the battlefield for those believers seeking to walk in the all will of God and follow after his commandments in His Word the Bible. This is why our minds must be governed and consistently and continuously renewed by the Word of God. As the apostle Paul writes; “Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2) If the blessed Holy Spirit can get our bodies with its appetites and desires under His control, then He also gets the contents as well, namely the mind, the emotions, the will and the inner human spirit. It has been said that “Christians are walking battlefields.” (Galatians 5:16-18)
#2. We are also told that the Antichrist “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” (three and a half years). This will apply especially to the nation of Israel but also to the wider Body of the Messiah as the Antichrist seeks to impose his ideology and way of life upon all citizens within his empire both Jews and Gentiles.
#3. Now Daniel also tells us “But the court will sit for judgment, and his (the Antichrist’s) 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.”
When the Lord Jesus comes back He will completely eliminate the Antichrist and the empire he has established and inaugurate the Messianic Kingdom on earth. At that time the saints (faithful Jewish and Gentile believers in the Messiah) will also inherit the kingdom on earth. As believers we are going to co-reign with our Lord and Messiah in His Kingdom. (Daniel 7:21-22) (Revelation 2:26-29; 5:10) Don’t fall for the Kingdom Dominion theology of the NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) / ICAL (International Coalition of Apostolic Leadership) proponents teaching that the church is going to possess the nations, invade every level of society (the seven mountain dominion teaching) and present the Christianised nations to the Lord Jesus when He comes back. This movement by its own theology replaces Israel as God’s prophetic time clock for the nations and for His Second Coming. This Kingdom Dominion doctrine is just another spiritual deception of Satan, as is the pre-tribulation rapture, to expose the underbelly of the wider Body of the Messiah to the coming persecution.
Indeed in one hour when Satan falls from heaven to enter into the man of sin the persecution will really kick in that will see a falling away from the faith unlike any other apostasy in history. (Revelation 12:4) (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) Because of the infestation of many false prophets within the wider Body of the Messiah and because of the increase of wickedness (lawlessness or Torahlessness) the love of most Christians will grow cold. Only those who persevere to the end through the enabling supernatural power of the Holy Spirit will be ultimately saved out of this present evil age according to the will of God the Father in heaven. (Matthew 24:11-13) (Galatians 1:3-4)
When speaking to a congregation in Africa who were facing persecution Corrie told them a story from her childhood; “When I was a little girl, 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.”
This world is finished, democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of worship are eroding fast with the advance of technology and COVID-19 has advanced Satan’s agenda to set up the Empire of his man the Antichrist. How do we prepare ourselves for the coming persecution? I like what Corrie also wrote on this matter…
“First we need to feed on the Word of God, digest it, and make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives. Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right hand of God. We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not an optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary.
Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it. In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other. But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian’s life.”
In closing this post, even though Satan is wearing down the saints today may the God of the peace that passes all understanding grant us who love the Lord Jesus and daily battle with the world, the flesh and the devil, to stand fully clothed with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus that comes from faith and with the whole armour of God as we take our stand against the wiles and the works of the devil who is wearing down the saints of the Highest One!
Source:https://z3news.com/w/corrie-ten-boom-beware-false-teaching-pretribulation-rapture/
Source:https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16963/calamity-christians-persecuted
