John n Claudia

Luigi, This is exactly correct. It is wonderful that the Holy Spirit is giving you this insight and I pray that we both continue growing in the Lord in strength and wisdom.

Luigi, This is a very good question and while I have some thoughts on this, the Lord has not yet revealed to me exactly what this will be. It is very possible that He only wants to reveal a little at a time in order to keep His people searching the scriptures to find out what He is telling us. I can tell you that the Russian word for Wormwood is Chernobyl, so this might indicate some sort of nuclear accident, but I do not want to read to much into this. I have found that trying to mix languages in interpreting the Bible is more likely to lead to error rather than truth. At this point, I have committed myself to watching what is happening in the world in order to see how world events line up with what the Bible says will happen. Unfortunately I have been seeing more and more prophecies being fulfilled in a shorter and shorter time frame. This saddens me because I have many friends and family members who are lost. I really want them to find Jesus and be born again before He returns and I know that the time is short. I have just told my father what I believe will be the next event and that this will occur in the next year or so. I did this in order to shake him up and get him to understand that Jesus is really going to return, and that he needs to get ready to meet Him as either savior or judge.

Luigi, While Revelation 1:1 says that the revelation was given so that Jesus could show us what must happen very soon, this does not mean that everything written in Revelation must occur in John's future at the time he wrote the book. When someone wants to convey what they think will happen in the future, they often start by talking about the past in order to set the stage and make clear what they are talking about. Have you watched the movie "The Star of Bethlehem"? This may seem a little off-topic, but I would encourage you to watch this movie. Close to the end, they go over the signs in the sky that preceded Jesus' birth 2000 years ago. Those signs exactly line up with what John described in Revelation 12:1. Also, just as Ezekiel has many prophesies about the last days and his prophecies are not in chronological order, the same is true of Revelation. For example, Ezekiel 36 tells the story of the last years before Jesus returns, while Ezekiel 37 tells the story of the Jews returning to the Holy land in 1948, Ezekiel 38 tells the story of the end of the Millennial Kingdom and Ezekiel 39 goes back to the last years before Jesus returns. Because the Book of Revelation is a prophetical book, we cannot assume that the events described in the book will happen chronologically in the exact order in which they were written. In my studies, I have found seven different timelines of events that will happen. Within each timeline, the events are chronological, but each timeline is a story unto itself and it is often difficult to determine when the events in the different timelines will occur relative to each other. With regard to the woman in travail in Micah 5:3, this is the exact verse that was brought to Herod and the Magi at the birth of Jesus to tell them that Jesus was going to be born in Bethlehem. This verse supports the interpretation of Revelation 12:2 as being the birth of Jesus. Can you clarify what you mean by "the remnant saints"? As far as I know, there are only three groups of people in the Bible, the Jews, the Church and the Gentiles. Since these are saints, I am assuming that these are either Jews or in the Church, but I do not like making assumptions and would like to make sure I understand what you mean. In order to find any Christians in the story of the woman clothed in the sun, you need to look at Revelation 12:17 which you quoted above. other than that, the entire story from chapters 12 through 14 tell the story of the last days from the perspective of the Jews and covers the time period from the birth of Jesus until the end of the Millennial Kingdom.

Luigi, I really hate to be nit-picky about this and we are truly on the same page regarding OSAS. However, the problem with the OSAS theory is not that once we are saved, we are always saved. The problem is that the OSAS crowd has confused what it means to be saved with what it means to be born again. Being born again occurs at the beginning of our walk with Jesus. We are not saved at this time, just born again. We are saved at the end of our walk with Jesus, either at our physical death or at the rapture. Once we see this, then we can understand that once we are saved we will always be saved because being saved means that we have already completed our race and once that has happened, nobody will be able to pluck us out of Jesus' hand. Because of this, when I talk to people about our faith, I ask if they are born again and never ask if they are saved. At this time they may be walking born again and with the Lord and on their way to being saved, but nobody physically alive today is saved. The reason that God was able to write a person's name in the Book of Life before they were even born is because God knows how everything will end and not because He saved someone the moment they uttered some magic words claiming the righteousness of Christ. This is all part of the lying delusion that started this post. Satan has been busy corrupting definitions in order to propagate really bad theology. Once we understand what is going on, we can then correct the definitions and all of the verses in the Bible agree with each other and present a uniform theology that leads us to righteousness.

Amen Luigi. The first thing that the Bible tells us will happen is that 1/3 of the forests will burn. Last year we saw over 20% of Australia's forests burn and with the zombie fires in Siberia, I would not be surprised if that is also approaching 20%. 33% cannot be that far ahead of us. The Bible tells us that the sea turns to blood after the fires, so it is not a surprise that we have not seen much of that yet. It is just scary to me that we are already seeing some of this, since it indicates that the trumpets will occur in a much faster succession than the seals were opened.

Luigi, I think that we are seeing two sides of the same coin. I believe that the lie about our freedom to continue living in sin and filth while claiming the righteousness of Jesus is the lie today that will be leveraged once the man of perdition comes to get people to worship him. In other words, because people today believe their freedom in Christ is the most important aspect of Christianity, when the Antichrist comes, it is these same people who will be misled into believing that he is God and worshiping him. Satan does not start this deception at the time of the abomination, but rather he has been working hard for the past 2000 years to get people to believe it.

Shilohsfoal, I am not saying that I currently know the exact day and time when the Battle of Armageddon will occur or when Jesus will return. I am instead saying that those who are listening to our Savior's voice will be able to tell you the exact day when they see the Abomination as spoken of in Daniel. I am also saying that the people who are not listening to our Savior's voice will know when the Battle of Armageddon will occur at least a few weeks or months before it occurs because they will see the armies gathering to fight that battle. Jesus also assured us that the unbelievers will not know when He will return even an hour before he does come back. Since "everybody" today associates the Battle of Armageddon with the return of Jesus, this means that if Jesus were to return at that battle, "everybody" would know when He is going to return long before He actually does. Does this better explain what I am saying?

CaptWalker, I agree that many people are under a strong delusion regarding what the last days will be like. What we know for sure is that the 3.5 years of the Great Tribulation will be worse than anything the Jews have experience up to this point. This includes everything from their slavery in Egypt to the Holocaust in WW2. With regard to the length of time of the Great Tribulation, I look first at what Jesus said in Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14 and Luke 21:20. The Jews are to flee at the time of the Abomination because that is when the Great Tribulation will start, 3.5 years before Jesus returns. Zechariah 14:2 gives more insight into what happens there and how half of the Jews captured alive will go into exile in concentration camps and the other half will be imprisoned in Jerusalem. Then, Zechariah 14:5 tells us that it is only when Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives and the mountain is split into two that the Jews in Jerusalem will be able to escape between the two halves of the mountain. This indicates to me that the Great Tribulation will last the entire 3.5 years and also indicates that there will be some trouble before because the Jews have to be defeated in some war before the Antichrist can take over Jerusalem. Based on Daniel 11:29 - 31, I personally believe that the war will be very short. There the Antichrist tries to fight a war with the king of the south and after he is turned back, he attacks Israel almost as an afterthought. I am coming from a post-tribulation perspective with the Wrath of God being executed after the full seven year period of the Antichrist. I am very much in agreement that many Christians waiting for the rapture are deceived and they will fall for the deception and worship the Antichrist as God. As far as this period being "hell on Earth" is concerned, I personally think that we are already seeing this and have just become so accustomed to things that we accept them as being "normal". Before Jesus returns we will see even more forest fires than what we have seen over the last year in Australia, Siberia and now California. By the end of the year we will be seeing over 2 million people dying each week from starvation in Africa (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/22/coronavirus-biblical-famines-could-double-global-hunger-un-warns.html). China is hiding their food shortages as well, but every now and then a news story escapes showing just how desperate they are for food (https://www.forbes.com/sites/salgilbertie/2020/07/28/china-food-crisis-rising-domestic-prices-and-large-import-purchases-send-a-signal/#4b9c656a1bcb). We are already seeing the waters turning to "blood" as a result of algal blooms that people think are pretty because the algae are phosphorescent. Life will continue to descend as we get closer and closer to the return of Jesus. It is never a good idea to think things will not get worse than they are now. I just pray that He gives me the strength to remain faithful and that I am able to endure until the end.

Paul warned us about this type of bickering and useless genealogies in Titus 3:9. Numerology should be avoided whenever we are doing a serious study of the Bible and Bible prophecy. Has anyone considered that John did exactly what he was told to do when he wrote the Book of Revelation? That is, he wrote what he saw? Greek is not the only alphabet that is out there and it is possible that the "number John saw was not a set of three Greek letters. The best explanation for this passage I have seen is the YouTube video by Dr. Chuck Missler uploaded on February 21, 2017 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8b1QmqhP2A.

R. Hartono, I had not considered that the parable of the wise and foolish virgins gave evidence that the rapture would occur after the Antichrist defeated all of his earthly enemies at the Battle of Armageddon. I will have to take a closer look at this and the other parables Jesus told about His return.

CaptWalker, There is absolutely no question that the world will be deceived by the rise of the Antichrist. This is the whole point of the end times and that the world has to completely fall away from God before Jesus can return. I also agree that the world will not realize what is happening. When the abomination occurs and the Antichrist declares that he is God, the Bible tells us that the world will accept this claim as truth. I believe that this will happen because the antichrist is given power by Satan to work supernatural miracles and the second beast, the religious institutions of the world, will back up his claim to be God. However, I do not agree that confirming the covenant has anything to do with the Jews. I believe that seventh and last empire was the Ottoman Empire because it is the only empire that both conquered the Roman Empire and controlled the Holy Land. Based on this, the Antichrist will come from a reborn Muslim Caliphate and the covenants that he confirms will be covenants with other Muslim countries in order to reestablish the caliphate. When this occurs, the world will shake their head as more trouble in the Middle East starts to occur, but we will all view this as just another new normal after everything else that we have already seen in 2020. I am a bit confused by this. The Antichrist will be the opposite of Christ. Jesus was Jewish, supported the Jewish state and recognized Jerusalem as its capital. This means that the Antichrist will not support the Jewish state or Jerusalem and instead will work to destroy it. I personally believe that we are close to the final week, but are not there yet. We will know that we have entered the final week when we see the rebirth of the empire system with the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate and the continued rise of the Chinese Empire.

Charlie, In Daniel chapter 3, I see the musical instruments listed four times. Verse 5, 7, 10 and 15. You are correct that in verse 7, only five of the instruments are listed. I do not think that anyone other than God can say for sure why there are only five instruments listed there, but let us take a look at what is happening. Verse 5: The order goes out that people must worship if 6 instruments are played. Verse 7: When only 5 instruments are played, the general public worships. Verse 10: Accusations made that the three Jews are not worshiping when six instruments play. Verse 15: Nebuchadnezzar demands the Jews worship when all six instruments play. It is possible that this is meant to show that there is more "fear of man" than there is "fear of God". After all, God tells us to worship Him and many times we just refuse to worship without even giving an excuse. However when a man told people to worship if they heard six instruments, they worshiped as long as the requirements for worship were close to being met. Imagine what would happen if we as people of God were to fall on our knees, worshiping and praising God every time He inspired us to do that? How would that change the world?

Charlie, Thank you, but the glory all goes to God. He has blessed me with writing and logic skills and has told me that I am to use those skills to bring glory to Him. Please believe me when I say that my interpretation of Daniel 7, 8, 9 and 11 does not agree with the "standard" interpretation. For example, based on my studies of Daniel and Revelation, I have come to the conclusion that Jesus will not return at the Battle of Armageddon, something that puts me at odds with pretty much every other person on the earth. The reason that I believe "he" in verses 26 and 27 refers to the Antichrist is because it says that "he will make a covenant for one week". God never makes a short term covenant, those are always forever. This means that "he" cannot be God or Jesus and must be someone else. I do not see how Jeremiah 31:31 - 34 has anything to do with Daniel 9:27. I believe the covenant in Jeremiah 31 will last forever, but for sure it will last at least through the Millennial Kingdom. This means that it will last at least 1000 years, not the 7 years mentioned in Daniel 9. If the covenants are different, then the people making the covenants should also be different. Regarding the cutting off in the midst of the last week, I have a very different take that also disagrees with anything that I have ever read. I believe the two sentences in verse Daniel 9:26 represent two different thoughts. In the first sentence, the Messiah (Jesus), will be cut off at the end of the 69'th week. In the second sentence we learn of a people and prince who will destroy the city and sanctuary. Whether we interpret city and sanctuary physically or spiritually, this would never be done by Jesus. This means that the seventieth week must be talking about a different person. This is why I believe the last week is all about what will happen with the Antichrist and has nothing to do with Jesus. I do not support the "gap" theory either. As I said above, I believe the focus of the seventieth week is the antichrist rather than the Christ. Because of this, I am interpreting this passage to be telling the Jews that there will be 69 week or 483 years until the messiah comes and is baptized. An indeterminate amount of time after the Messiah comes, a different person will come, not as a messiah, but as a persecutor who will stick around for seven years. I do not understand this either. The Bible does not say that the Antichrist will enter into a covenant with the Jews. It says that the Antichrist will enter into a strong covenant with many for seven years, but it does not say who the "many" are. I personally believe that the last empire of iron and clay in Daniel, the one that John was told would come after the Roman Empire is the Ottoman Empire. I believe this because it is the only empire that defeated the Roman Empire and also controlled the Holy Land. This means that the eighth empire, the empire of the Antichrist will be a resurrected Islamic Caliphate. It also means that it will start by one Islamic country making strong covenants or treaties with the other Muslim countries in order to bring about the caliphate. This has nothing to do with the Jews or trying to bring peace to the Middle East. This is close, but not quite true. Ezekiel chapters 40 through 43 and also all the way through 48 tell us that there will definitely be a third Jewish temple that is very meaningful to God because He will visit it on a regular basis. However, depending on the conversion of the royal cubit to inches and feet, the entire temple complex could be a little larger than 100 square miles. This is more than twice the land area of Jerusalem proper and over 40% of the land area of the entire metropolitan area. Given its size, we can rest assured that this temple will not be built until after Jesus returns. Of course when Jesus does return, the Mount of Olives will split in two and a large valley will form between the two halves. The earthquake will also split the city into three, destroying many of the buildings throughout the area. There will also be millions of deaths, so the population of the city will be much lower. All of this will mean that there is enough room to create this temple city. I also agree with you that there will not be a third temple built before Jesus returns (or that the tribulation will start with 3.5 years of peace). I interpret the temple spiritually. Other than in the Gospel or the Acts of the Apostles, every New Testament reference to the temple is a spiritual reference where the temple means either an individual where our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, or the Church. I believe that this passage is not saying that the Antichrist will stand in a physical Jewish temple, but rather that the Antichrist will be accepted and acknowledged by religious institutions and when he declares that he is God, those churches will use their spiritual authority over their flock to get them to worship the Antichrist as God. The Lord has led me on an intense spiritual journey as I have studied the end time prophecies. I am convinced that the reason there is so much confusion is that over the last 2000 years people have gotten careless in their terminology. For example, I have lost count of the number of times I have heard that the first beast in Revelation is the Antichrist. This cannot be true because in prophecy beasts are empires or groups of people. However the Antichrist is a single person and therefore he cannot be the beast. This is why I am very careful and I say that the beast is the empire of the Antichrist. Unless you keep your definitions and symbols very clear you will get confused when you try to interpret end time prophecy.

Luigi, In 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul says that he does not know if the person was caught up bodily or spiritually. This indicates that either interpretation could be correct and that Paul believed that at some point in time, people would be bodily "caught up". Revelation 12 tells the story of events of the last days from the perspective of the Jewish nation. The woman clothed in the sun is the Jews and the child is Jesus. At the end of His earthly ministry, we see Jesus ascending into Heaven in Acts 1:9, and this is what is being described in Revelation 12:5. With regard to revelation 12:17, the dragon is not warring with the child that was caught up to heaven. The text says that the dragon is making war on the rest of, or, the other children of the woman. This means that one of these events is a bodily ascension and both of these support the idea of a bodily ascension. Since both of these support a bodily ascension, it seems likely that 1 Thessalonians 4:17 should also support a bodily ascension.

Luigi, There are many truths that people will deny in the very last days before Jesus returns. We are seeing this now and it will continue to get worse until Jesus does finally come back. I while back I was in a Bible study and one person had very strong beliefs about the freedom he was given in Christ. He kept telling the group that Christ was all about freedom. When I pointed out passages like Romans 6:1 - 2 "What shall we say then, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How can we who have died to sin still live in it?", he would get flustered and start shouting that he was given freedom in Christ. On the last day he participated in the study, he had finally had enough of the corrections and blew his top. He rattled of a string of expletives and f-bombs that would make a sailor blush and then finished by shouting "Thank you God, that I have the freedom to say all this knowing that you have reserved a place in heaven for me." God is not all about freedom. In fact He tells us that we are slaves and the only freedom we have is that we can choose our owner. If we choose Satan as our owner, we will live for the day looking to satisfy the flesh and all of its cravings. If we choose God as our owner, we will live holy lives for Him, shining our light before men so that they will give glory to God. I personally believe that the lying delusion is what I described above. People have convinced themselves that they only need to say some magic words and then their sins will be forgiven and they will have eternal life. They do not have to live holy lives or develop a relationship with God. There is no need to forgive others, give to charity or even pray. In fact, they do not have to change any of their words, deeds or thoughts, but can continue living just as they were living before they "accepted Jesus as their Lord and Master". In fact, they can even act more wickedly because Jesus forgave all of their sins no matter how bad they become. As a little side note, I read an article that an indigenous tribe in Papua New Guinea received the Gospel for the very first time (https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/08/colonizing-in-the-name-of-jesus-missionary-blasted-for-bragging-about-converting-indigenous-people-to-christianity). The Bible tells us that the Bible will be preached to all men and then Jesus will come. What if this is the very last group of people who have never heard the Gospel. If you read the article and comments, you will see how the missionaries were condemned for their work. This tells me that we are indeed close to the end. Satan knows his time is short and he is attacking the Church more and more vociferously.

Shilohsfoal, I agree that the Great Tribulation starts 42 months before Jesus returns and this will be a time of trouble for both the Jews and the (capital C) Church. I also agree that those who listen to His voice will not be deceived and they will not be surprised when Jesus does return. My point was that everybody, especially the nonbelievers "know" that Jesus is coming at Armageddon. Since everybody "knows" this, Jesus returning then will not surprise anyone. Jesus can't come as a thief when nobody is expecting Him if he comes when there are armies waiting for Him and everybody all around the world is expecting Him. As far as the rapture is concerned, I am very much in the post-tribulation camp with one rapture where the dead in Christ rise first. All of this happens 42 months after the start of the Great Tribulation and 43 months after the Abomination that causes desolation.

Charlie, The seven year tribulation period is based on Daniel 9:24 - 27 which describes 70 "weeks". For this prophesy, every day corresponds to one year, so 70 weeks is 490 days and this means that the rest of the passage is going to describe events that will occur over 490 years. The weeks are divided into three sections. There are 6 weeks or 6*7 = 42 years, followed by 62 weeks or 62*7 = 434 years followed by 1 week. or 1 * 7 = 7 years. The first two sets defined the time period it would take to get to Jesus dying on the cross about 2000 years ago. The last week is about what will happen at the end, right before Jesus will return. When you read this passage, you will see that the transition to the last week occurs in verse 26 where after the messiah is cut off and has nothing, the people of a prince yet to come will destroy the city and sanctuary (or temple). The key thing to realize here is that the last week is talking about the people of a prince to come and not Jesus. This prince is the antichrist and this verse is saying that the Antichrist will stick around for seven years. Verse 27 then tells us that halfway through the week, or after 3.5 years, the Antichrist will conquer the Jews and Jerusalem, putting a stop to the daily prayers and offerings. Jeremiah 30:5 - 7 adds some color to this and tells us that there will be terror throughout Israel, men holding their stomachs out of fear. In verse 7 we are told that this is the time of Jacob's trouble and it is from this verse that we get the term "tribulation". Over time, people have combined this passage in Jeremiah with the passage in Daniel and divided the seven year time period into two 3.5 year sections, the first called the tribulation and the second called the Great Tribulation because it will be much worse than the first half. Zechariah 14:2 adds even more color to this where it says that many of the Jews will be killed, women will be ravished and of those who survive, half will be sent to concentration camps scattered around the empire of the Antichrist and the other half will remain imprisoned in Jerusalem. Daniel 11:40 - 45 gives us even more information. Verse 40 tells us that the Antichrist will fight a two front war with countries in the north and south. Verse 41 then tells us that after the Antichrist wins this war, he will enter the "glorious land", or the land of Israel. This is the midpoint of the seven year period. It is at this time that the Abomination that causes desolation will occur and the prophecies in Jeremiah and Zechariah above will be fulfilled. Verse 44 is particularly interesting because it says that near the end of the seven year period of the Antichrist, the Antichrist will get news from the east and go out to destroy and devote many many to destruction. I say that this is interesting because Revelation 16:12 - 16 tells us that around this same time, the Euphrates will dry up to prepare the way for the king of the east and Revelation 9:13 - 16 says that angels bound by the Euphrates will be released (when the river dries up?) and there would be an army of 200 million people coming from that direction, east of empire of the the Antichrist. So, with regard to your question, the verses above show where the terminology came from. Personally, I refer to the entire seven year period as the period of the Antichrist and not the Tribulation because I believe that for most of the first 3.5 years the Antichrist will be busy consolidating his power. He will not be that concerned with Israel until most of the 3.5 years is over, so this means that there will not be much more difficulty for the Jews than what they are experiencing today. However, things do change drastically at the midpoint and I do call the last 3.5 years the Great Tribulation because this is the time when the Jews will be in concentration camps that will be much worse than what they experienced under Hitler during WW2. With regard to the Antichrist, a full explanation would require twice what I have already written. Right now, he is just a man. He only becomes the Antichrist after Satan possesses him and gives him supernatural power a little bit before the time of the abomination. He is called the Antichrist because he does the opposite of what Christ did when He came 2000 years ago. Christ was rejected by religuous leaders, the Antichrist will be celebrated by them. Christ came to win a spiritual war, the Antichrist will come to win a physical war. Christ came to suffer and die for others, the Antichrist will make others suffer and die (physically). All of those who listen to and know the voice of Jesus will be able to identify the Antichrist when the abomination occurs and he declares that he is God. Those of us who are waiting and watching the signs will probably be able to identify this man several years before the abomination occurs.

A couple months ago, I was encouraged to reexamine my beliefs and question my every assumption about what would happen during the last few years before Jesus returns. I spent much of this time in prayer, asking God for wisdom and insight and searching the scriptures to see what they have to say about this time. During my studies, I realized that Jesus returning as a thief is not a problem for a pre-tribulation rapture because Jesus returns as a thief without any warning to rapture his church. Jesus returning again to at Armageddon in order to defeat the armies waiting for him does not have to be a surprise because the surprise already occurred years earlier. In contrast with this, the post-tribulation rapture theory has a problem because Jesus has not yet returned as a thief when people are not expecting Him. As an experiment, I asked a dozen people, most of whom know nothing about the Bible, what will happen at Armageddon. Eleven of them started out by saying that was the time Jesus would return. The one who did not start out that way said it is a battle of all the armies of the world. When I asked if anything else would happen at that time, he then said "Oh yeah, Jesus will return to beat up everybody." I know this is a small sample size, but I am confident that this is representative and Jesus returning at a time when the armies of the world are gathering in the plains of Megiddo would not surprise anybody. This means that you can't have a post-tribulation rapture and have Jesus returning as a thief, when nobody is expecting Him, in order to fight the Battle of Armageddon. Since I have searched too much scripture not to believe in a post-tribulation rapture followed by the Wrath of God, I have no choice but to also reject Jesus returning to fight the Battle of Armageddon. Has anyone else out there reached this same conclusion?

When I read Daniel's prophecy, I see that the first 69 weeks are all about the time the Jews will need to wait until the coming of the Messiah. However, verse 26 states that after the 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. The next sentence then says that the people of a prince yet to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, but his end will come with a flood. The 70'th week is not about the Jewish people, but rather it is all about the people of a prince yet to come. This prince is the Antichrist and this prophecy is actually saying that the Antichrist will be active during the last seven years before Jesus returns. The first half of the week, the Antichrist will be consolidating his power, and this will be completed with the abomination that causes desolation, 30 days before the halfway point of the seven years. This is why Daniel tells us in Daniel 9:27 that the Antichrist conquers Jerusalem and puts a stop to the sacrifice and daily offering. We also know that this is when half of the Jews who did not escape in time will go into concentration camps scattered about the empire of the Antichrist and the other half will remain captive in Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2). With regard to Revelation 3:10 saying that Jesus will keep the church from the time of trial, this is addressed only to the church at Philadelphia. The other six churches that received letters did not get this promise and there are many other churches scattered all over the world that did not even receive a letter. How can anyone be sure that they are a member of the church at Philadelphia so that they can claim this promise? I do agree with all of your references saying that those who are found faithful will not experience the Wrath of God. However, as we saw in Daniel, the last seven years before Jesus returns are the time of the Antichrist, not the time of the Wrath of God. There are many arguments for a pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, post-tribulation and pre-wrath rapture. Every one of these argument for all four positions has flaws. While there is scripture that supports that view, there are other passages that contradict it. As an example of a passage that contradicts the pre-tribulation rapture theory, we need to look at the story of the seven trumpets. In Revelation 10:7, we are told that with the blowing of the seventh trumpet, the secret/hidden plan of God will come to an end. When we then look at Ephesians 1:9 and 3:9 - 10, we see that this secret/hidden plan of God is the Church. This means that the Church, the people who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus will be around until they are raptured just before the seventh trumpet is sounded. It is because of this that I personally believe in a post-tribulation rapture that occurs at the end of the seven years of the Antichrist. After this, the church meets Christ in the air and join in with the angels in order to pour out the Wrath of God (Revelation 18:6 - 8) during the next 45 days. Within the Book of Revelation, the timing of the rapture occurs with the end of the seventh church (Revelation 4:1), the opening of the seventh seal (Revelation 7:14), the sounding of the seventh trumpet (Revelation 11:12), the pouring of the seventh bowl (Revelation 16:17) and the appearance of the angel with authority (Revelation 18:4).

Interesting. There are a lot of threads that the Lord is bringing together in these last days that will all converge. On a completely unrelated note, the reason I believe Jesus will return soon is that He told us that everyone will see Him when he comes. In the last couple of years interest in space exploration has exploded and once there is a permanent settlement on either the Moon or Mars, there will be at least one person who will not be around to see Him when he comes back. Given this, all we have to do is look at NASA's published timeline for the Artemis program and count backwards. Of course, government programs always have delays and I could be completely wrong about this. We won't know the timeline for sure until we see the abomination.

@Revelation Man, It seems that we are finally getting to the root of the confusion here. This is also the misconception that I found most difficult to abandon. After all, Revelation 8:6 comes immediately after Revelation 8:5, so it certainly seems obvious that the event described in Revelation 8:6 - 7, the first trumpet, would happen immediately after the event described in Revelation 8:1 - 5, the seventh seal. I could not give up the belief that the seals, trumpets and bowls formed a single chronological sequence of events until I realized that the transition from the seals to the trumpets was the same as the transition between the trumpets and the woman clothed in the sun. Since the woman clothed in the sun was obviously a different vision from the trumpets, this allowed me to accept the possibility that the seals and trumpets might also be two different visions. After I accepted this possibility, there was obviously a lot more study that was required to understand how the multiple visions in Revelation fit together. It was during this process that the Lord showed me the five different times the rapture is shown in Revelation as well as the seven different times that the second coming of Jesus and the defeat of Israel's enemies is pictured. I know that it is difficult to accept that the first trumpet does not come after the seventh seal because of how long I had to struggle with this. If the only reason you believe the Seals and trumpets are consecutive is because the transition between them comes in the middle of a man-made chapter, I pray that you take a closer look at this belief. After I did this, I reexamined all of Revelation, trying to place the events of the seals, trumpets and bowls into a single timeline while allowing but not requiring the events to overlap. I did this because I figured that if the events did form a single sequence, this would become obvious as I was creating the timeline and I would be able to go back to my belief in a pre-trib rapture and the tribulation starting with a time of peace. What happened instead was that the events of the series intertwined in a way that gave much more insight into what would happen during the Tribulation. For example, I was able to understand that the people who have the seal of God on their forehead and are protected from the locusts of the fifth trumpet in Rev 9:4 are the Church and are not the 144,000 Jews who received the seal of God between the sixth and seventh trumpet in Revelation 7:4. I urge you to do the same study I did, allow the seals, trumpets and bowls to overlap and allowing the rapture to fall wherever it falls within each sequence individually. I would be amazed if the Holy Spirit does not give you the same insight that He gave to me.

Thank you for the clarification. We will all find out soon enough who is correct and how the last days will end.

@Revelation Man, Once again you are confused. The rapture does not come until the end of the tribulation and there is no such thing as a remnant church. How else do you explain the angel telling John in Revelation 10:7 that the church will end when the seventh trumpet sounds? The timing of the rapture is told to us five times in Revelation (Rev 4:1, 7:9 - 17, 10:7, 11:11 - 12, 18:4 - 5) and every time the rapture occurs it is at the end of the Tribulation, not the beginning. Once again, let us look at look at 2 Thessalonians 2 in context and see what that says. Once again, I am quoting from the ESV: 3Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. In verse three, we see that the rebellion is going to come with the first half of the tribulation and then the antichrist will be revealed. Note that this verse says that there will be a rebellion in the first half of the tribulation. A time of rebellion is not a time of peace, so this passage disagrees with the very scenario you are painting for the start of the tribulation. We now get to the specific portion of scripture that I highlighted and is typically interpreted to say that the church is what is doing the restraining. The first problems with this interpretation is that the Church is never referred to as masculine. The Church is the bride of Christ, she is female, not male. The second problem with this interpretation is that the Church does not restrain Satan. Instead we call on the name of Jesus and depend on the Holy Spirit to restrain Satan. This passage is saying that the Holy Spirit will leave at the midpoint of the Tribulation, giving Satan and the antichrist free reign over the Earth and all of the people living on it. As members of the Church, we need to be aware of what is going to happen and prepare ourselves for this so that we will be able to endure until the end and be saved (Matthew 24:13). This passage does not imply that the Church is going to be raptured at the beginning of the Tribulation. Please do not make claims without scripture to back you up and also be careful with the conclusions you draw. The Jews have repented many times in the past. Repenting from your sins is not the same thing as accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, in the case of the Jews, from believing that the Jesus who walked the Earth 2000 years ago really is the promised Messiah. Where does the Bible say that the Jews will accept Jesus as the predicted Messiah before Jesus returns? When Daniel talks about the number of days in Daniel chapter 12, we see: 11And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. 12Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days. The 1290 days listed here tells us that the abomination will occur 1290 days before Jesus returns. This is also 30 days before the midpoint of the Tribulation when Satan will be thrown from the air to the ground and the Great Tribulation starts. This is also the time when the Jews flee Jerusalem. As I mentioned above, there is a difference between repentance and acceptance of Jesus as Messiah, just because the Jews repent of their sins at this time, this does not mean that they have accepted Jesus who will not return to Earth and proving to them that He is the Messiah for another 3.5 years. If I understand your comment about the 1335 days, you are saying that 45 days before the abomination the two witnesses will appear. Once again, we disagree on when they will appear and I am also pretty sure that we disagree on who the two witnesses are. Rather than arbitrarily putting this date on the appearance of the two witnesses, I interpret this passage according to the common English meaning of the words. Suppose I make the statement: After November 30, I will visit you in 20 days. I am really looking forward to day 25. The interpretation of this is very straightforward. I will get to your place on December 20 and am really looking forward to celebrating Christmas with you. It does not mean that I am going to be doing something on November 25th, five days before November 30'th. This is an exact parallel with what Daniel says in chapter 12. Verse 11 gives a starting point and tells us that after the abomination, there will be 1290 days and then Jesus will return. It then tells us that anyone who manages to make it through the next 45 days will be blessed. This of course begs the question of what is going to happen during those 45 days. If we think about this, we know that after Jesus returns, He needs to defeat all of the enemies of the Jews, reunite all twelve tribes and set up the Millennial Kingdom. This passage is telling us that it is going to take Jesus 45 days to accomplish all of this. People who make it to day 1335 will be blessed because they made it through the 45 days with the 70 pound hailstones, the kingdom has been set up and Satan has been locked in the abyss. Of course John the Baptist and Elijah were different people. You asked a question about Biblical prophecy and I told you what Jesus said and how Jesus viewed John the Baptist and Elijah as having the same message for the Jews. It also points out that the Old Testament prophet Elijah is not going to be one of the two witnesses any more than he was the same person as John the Baptist. It was the head of the beast that received a mortal wound, not the beast itself. Since the head received the wound, it must be the head that gets healed. The antichrist is not going to heal the beast system. In fact, the antichrist is not even going to part of the revived empire until after it is created. We know this because he is the little horn that uproots three of the original ten horns. with regard to the fourth beast, Daniel mentions that it is different from the other three beasts. As an Old Testament prophet, Daniel only saw the history of the Jewish people. Since the original Ottoman Empire did not overlap with the Jewish nation, Daniel was not told about them. Instead, Daniel saw the Roman Empire and then the vision went on to the empire of the antichrist. This means that we need to combine the visions of John and Daniel to understand what is really going on here. Since the empire of the antichrist is the rebirth of the Ottoman Empire, the fourth beast that Daniel saw was a combination of the Roman and Ottoman Empire (the sixth and seventh head of John's beast) and that is what made it different from the other three beasts. Thank you for the gracious vote of confidence in my salvation. I pray that both of us will endure until the end so that we will be saved and be able to rejoice together when we meet in Heaven .

@Marilyn C, thank you for letting me know that I am not the only person who sees the seven heads as seven leaders and seven empires. It has been a lonely fight against these preconceived ideas and it is nice to know that there is at least one other person who agrees with me. When I first started my investigation into Revelation, I really did try to believe the generally accepted view of the Tribulation years with a pre-trib rapture and the peace treaty brokered by an antichrist from Europe. However the more I compared what the scriptures actually say to how they are interpreted the more uncomfortable I became with those beliefs and the more concerned I became with how Satan would use the incorrect beliefs. At this point, I really believe that Satan will use the list of five commonly held misconceptions in my earlier post to convince the world that the antichrist is Jesus in his second coming and Christians around the world will fall for this trap and worship him. This will start during the Tribulation when Assyria is attacking Israel and some politician in Europe will step up and try to negotiate a cease fire between the warring countries. Just as the politician is making progress, someone in the press will recognize that he is doing exactly what the Christians say the antichrist will do. An article will be published and the idea will go viral. The politician will be demonized and have to resign in disgrace. Since the politician has been outed as the antichrist, this removes any suspicion among the world population that the Assyrian leader is the antichrist even though that is exactly who he is. Then, at the abomination, when the real antichrist claims to be Jesus in his second coming, he will explain away the requirement of a pre-trib rapture by congratulating the world on identifying the European leader as the antichrist and claiming that the inability to create a peace treaty resulted in a change to the end time schedule and the rapture is no longer necessary. All of this will be believable because of the misconceptions and everyone knows that the tribulation starts with peace. The other misconceptions will also be used and because so many Christians have bought into these lies, they will be easily deceived into believing the antichrist is Jesus and will worship him, falling into Satan's trap. My heart breaks for everyone who has been deceived and I have been fighting these beliefs ever since they were revealed to me in the hope that at least one other person will hear and remember that they were warned when these things start to happen.

I will order the book and read it, but I am very skeptical of any theory that claims that half of the Tribulation, the period of time the Bible says will be worse for the Jewish nation than any other time in their history will pass with peace in the Middle East and Israel will not worry about terrorist attacks from her neighbors.