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THE "GREAT TRIBULATION" |
For details see what "the prophets" say!
(should be reviewed in the order shown)
When should the "Great Tribulation" occur?
This initial step will not attempt
to set a date for the Great Tribulation, but simply to study its
general time frame in relation to other events during the End Times. The
Olivet Discourse recorded in (Matthew 24; Mark 13; and Luke 21) of the New
Testament Gospels will be the scripture source for this portion of the
study.
Since the Olivet Discourse provides a general chronology for those events
leading up to the conclusion of the Times of the Gentiles and thereafter,
and since the Great Tribulation is mentioned among those events,
we will be able to determine just where it should fit within this overall
sequence of events. When this is done, it will become evident that the Great
Tribulation should occur during the Times of the
Gentiles.
This finding is extremely important, because we already know that the Body
of Christ will remain on earth until the completion of the Times of the
Gentiles, and that these believers have been given the Biblical promise that
they will not be subject to God's judgement or wrath. Therefore, if the
Great Tribulation is to occur during the Times of the Gentiles,
it follows that it cannot constitute God's judgement or wrath upon all of
mankind.
What
should be the nature of the "Great Tribulation"?
If the Abomination of Desolation and Great Tribulation
are to occur during the Times of the Gentiles, we need to learn something
about their nature so as to identify them when they occur. Here we have the
benefit of a great
deal of history on which to build. It becomes apparent from a reading of the
Olivet Discourse that the Great Tribulation and its associated Abomination of
Desolation are in some way directed against the
Jewish people. For that reason, Bible historians have carefully compared the
prophecies in the Olivet Discourse with Jewish history and found that they were
at least partially fulfilled when the Romans invaded Israel and destroyed the
Temple and city of Jerusalem in AD 70. This historic evidence is detailed
in this section.
However, those same historians are also in general agreement that the Roman
destruction did not completely fulfill that prophecy, certainly with respect to
the Lord's visible return. Consequently, it is generally accepted that there
must be another final fulfillment of these disasters during the End Times,
just prior to the Lord's apocalyptic return.
These views create somewhat of a dilemma with respect to the proper way to
interpret the Olivet Discourse, and this dilemma becomes the primary focus for this portion of our study. For example, it will be shown that this curious
"duality" concerning the fulfillment of events described in
eschatology is
common to numerous other Bible prophecies, and that a careful study of the way
in which those dualities appear can provide us with some clues about how to
interpret this important New Testament prophecy.
Could World War II have been the "Great Tribulation"?
After studying the general timing
and nature of the Great Tribulation and Abomination
of Desolation, we take up the specific job of trying to
identify it. For this search we begin with the findings developed
in the first two sections, that these
events should occur sometime during the Times of the Gentiles, that
they should be military in nature like the Roman destruction, and that
they should constitute the worst disaster ever to befall the Jewish
people prior to the Lord's return.
At this point in this study, it takes no great insight to cause us to focus initially
on World War II, for without a doubt that was the worst thing in recorded
history ever to
befall the Jews. However, we are no longer limited
to just a qualitative assessment, because the material developed in
Coming Glory now
provides us with quantitative tools with which to test such events for
their possible prophetic character. For example, those Jubilee, Levitical, and 360 day
calendars now provide a way to check the dates and time periods
associated with World War II to determine whether or not they were
prophetic. Moreover, "Israel's Redemptive Timeline" in Coming Glory also
indicates that the Lord seems
to have a propensity for repeating the timing of Israel's major
redemptive events, so it can be utilized to determine whether or not
World War II could have been a part of God's redemptive Plan for
Israel.
When these techniques are applied to World War II, the results are
electrifying:
It
is discovered that World War II was indeed a prophetic event by virtue of
the way in which it was timed with respect to the Jubilee calendar, by the
unique way in which its starting date can be related to the Levitical
calendar, and by the discovery that it was patterned after certain historic events within
Israel's Redemptive Timeline.
After learning that World War II can be viewed as a
prophetic event, this portion of the study then takes a detailed look at its
barbaric character, in terms of the Holocaust against the Jews and its
worldwide nature, relating them to specific prophetic texts in the Olivet
Discourse.
A new perspective is then developed using another set of
prophetic scriptures in (Daniel 11.36-12.4), thought by most conservative
Bible scholars to also relate to the End Times. As such, these texts are
understood to provide information about an evil "Willful
King" who is to conduct a military campaign, detailed in a series of
steps, during the End Times. Since Daniel first connects this Willful King
with an Intertestament figure by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who
also carried out an Abomination of Desolation against the Jews, there is a
basis for seeing whether any known World War II figure can likewise be
associated with those prophecies.
The thrust of this portion of the study leads to some very intriguing results, for it turns out that the character of Adolph Hitler may be related closely to that of Antiochus Epiphanes, and thus to the Willful King of the End Times. But perhaps most surprising of all is the finding that the End Times military campaign prophesied for the Willful King is a carbon copy of the military campaign conducted by Adolph Hitler throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa during World War II !