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Mark 13:19 - Mark 13:27 ;During the Tribulation just as always believers must live by means of Doctrine

In our study of Mark last time we left off in Mark 13:19; where Jesus tells His disciples that this period of human history will be the worst ever. This would include the time of the Flood where only 8 people were delivered.

The worst three and a half years in history will be the last 3 1/2 years of the tribulation but they will survive by being in the mountains.

Mark 13:20; It will be so bad that if the Lord did not cut the days short no one would be saved. They will be there for a bit less than 3 1/2 years.

The Lord God (Jesus Christ) has already determined in the divine decree that He will cut 7 year period of the tribulation short and intervene to deliver His people otherwise all of mankind would be destroyed in satan's attempt to kill them.

At the mid point of the Tribulation satan is thrown from heaven (Rev 12:7-9;) and his agenda is changed from trying to establish a Millennium on the earth to an attempt to make it impossible for God to fulfill any of His unconditional promises to Israel by killing everyone. Of course God will not permit that to happen so God will cut the time short.

Satan knows that the time will be shortened because it is in the prophecy but he does not know how much time will be shortened so he attempts to move as fast as possible to destroy the Jews.

The lack of disclosure regarding the shortened time creates a non-deterministic component that is unpredictable that God uses to save mankind. This shows us that while God is absolutely deterministic and faithful he works his grace policy through the uncertainty of non-determinism.

This means that rather than fearing the uncertainties that we face in the devil's world we should lock into the absolute determinism of God's essence and have confidence in Him because we know that he will always come through for us in every uncertainty we face. Rom 8:38-39; Rom 8:28;

Faith sees God and His Word in uncertainty and loves it because it presents opportunity for blessing from God.

Fear rejects God and His Word and loathes uncertainty because the uncertainty presents additional risk.

This is why the natural man hates uncertainty

The principle is that "Fear knocked at the door and when Faith answered, God's Promises were there."

Mark 13:21; "Then if (3rd class condition) any man shall say to you, here is Christ, or He is over there don't believe them. Don't become a victim of the propaganda.

Mark 13:22; "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders that if possible would even deceive the elect."

These great signs are described in 2Thess 2:7-10, and they include performing miracles, like healings and speaking in tongues. And this will be used to suck people in just as it does today only in a much more convincing way.

In order to get these believers out of the protection of the mountains so they can torture and massacre them, they are going to try to lure them out by sending false messengers who do miracles and tell them that "Christ is in Jerusalem."

But God's Word says don't believe it stick with doctrine. Only what the Bible says is important, and that is just as true now as it will be in then.

If there is a conflict between what you see or how you feel and what the Bible says, the Bible is always right.

Once they get up in the mountains the only thing that is important is to live by the Word. Don't go by how you feel or what some impressive person says, go exclusively by what the Bible explicitly says and reject everything else no matter how good it looks or sounds.

Mark 13:23; Jesus has already told them everything they need to know. It is in His Word they must be careful not to be deceived by what they see and hear and they must not believe anyone.

The only way to really know the doctrine is to have it repeated over and over again so that you can't forget it. It is to our advantage to have God's word repeated such that we cannot forget it. The rate of learning has to exceed the rate of forgetting and this requires constant repetition.

The doctrine that they have to apply is to just stay in the mountains until Jesus returns because no one will miss His return because it won't be ambiguous when He returns because of the clearly visible supernatural events that will occur as He returns.

Mark 13:24;" But immediately after that adversity the sun will be darkened and the moon will give no light." No one will miss this. There will be a supernatural darkness what causes the entire planet will be blacked out.

The Greek word "alla" translated "but" introduces a sharp contrast between the false signs of the deceivers who are trying to lure them out and the true sign of Jesus' actual return.

This is one of the signs of His coming that the Jews who are hiding in the mountains are to be watching for. This is their doctrine. When you see this happening Messiah is on His way not before.

This is the same kind of supernatural darkness that occurred at the first Advent while our Lord was bearing the sins of the world.

Matt 27:45-46; "Now from the sixth hour (noon) darkness fell upon all the land (Israel) until the ninth hour (3 p.m.). And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, `Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is, `My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'" Also recorded in. Luke 23:44-45; Mark 15:33;

No one saw the agony of our Lord Jesus Christ when God the Father was judging Him for every sin in human history. People did hear the scream at the end of the three hours but in the darkness they saw nothing.

On the day of the second Advent, there will be supernatural darkness over the entire earth for twenty-four hours. No light will be able to penetrate this darkness. This darkness will immobilize the invading armies of the Armageddon campaign and shut down satan's plan to destroy Israel.

Zech 14:6; "And it will come to pass in that day that there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. For it will be a unique day which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light."

Isa 5:30; "And He shall roar over it (Jerusalem) in that day (second Advent) like the roaring of the sea. If one looks toward the land (Israel), there is darkness, distress (among the invading armies), even the light is darkened by its clouds."

This darkness protects the Jews from annihilation just like it did when they were fleeing Egypt. Exod 14:19-20;

Isa 13:9-10; "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming; cruel with fury and burning anger to make the land (Israel) a desolation. And He will exterminate its sinners from it.

v10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light. The sun will be dark when it rises; the moon will not reflect its light." Before the second Advent there will be no starlight, sunlight, or moonlight.

Isa 60:2; "Behold, darkness will cover the earth and a deep darkness the peoples (Gentiles armies invading Israel), but the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear to you (Israel)."

The only light seen on that day is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, Rev 1:7; "Behold, He is coming with clouds (the clouds that block out the light) and every eye shall see Him."

Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and He will be the only light seen by the entire world that day.

Joel 2:1-2; "Blow the trumpet of Zion and sound an alarm on My holy mountain; Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near;

v2 A day of darkness and gloom; a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains so there is a great and mighty people (the invading armies); there has never been anything like it, nor will there be anything like it for many generations."

Joel 1:10; The earth quakes before them; the sky reverberates. The sun and moon grow dark; the stars don't shine.

The Church, The Royal Family of God, is following behind Jesus Christ and accompanies Him to the earth through this supernatural darkness.

Matt 24:27; Tells us that Jesus will be the only source of visible light against this background of darkness and He will look like lightning as He circumnavigates the globe.

The deceivers won't be able to duplicate this sign so the Jews are supposed to hide out in the mountains unmoved until they see it.

Mark 13:25; The stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Net note 33

As the note says this could refer to actual stars or to the fallen angels who are described as "stars" and "powers." (Rom 8:38; Eph 1:21;) NASB who have been defeated in battle.

Actual stars would be seen as intense meteor activity where the meteors either pass near or through the outer atmosphere or are small enough so that they don't completely destroy the planet when they hit.

Angelic stars is also possible since it is likely that satan has set up a spiritual blockade in an attempt to prevent Jesus from returning to the earth like the angel who was sent to Daniel was held off for 21 days. Dan 10:13; Net note 32

When the powers who are the angels who comprise this blockade in the heavens around the earth are defeated they are thrown down to the earth.

Since angels are visible to man during the tribulation this is probably visible so it is an incredible sign of Jesus' coming. An angel being thrown down to the earth would probably look like a streak of lightning hitting the earth.

Both ideas are possible because everything that is happening is a miracle and Jesus can do whatever He wants as He holds the universe together. Col 1:17;

Mark 13:26; Then everyone will see the Son of Man arriving in the clouds with great power and glory.

This power includes the power to re-gather Israel, and power is mentioned specifically because until Christ returns no one has the ability to re-gather all of Israel into the land.

A lot of people have tried but for the most part the Israelites are going to be scattered and no matter how many nations of Israel are organized, no matter how many Zionistic movements there are, the majority of the Jews are going to remain scattered throughout the earth for their own protection until Jesus Christ comes back.

Only the Lord Jesus Christ has the power to bring them all back to the land. Satan always has the objective of trying to annihilate Israel. Satan will try to re-gather them with the objective of destroying them but he will never succeed.

Even though we do know that Israel will be in the land during the Tribulation their presence in the land is never a sign of the Tribulation because they could bee removed and restored at some future time.

Mark 13:27; Then he will send angels and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

This is the re-gathering of all of the Israelites both those who survive the Tribulation and are physically alive and those who are resurrected from the Age of Israel.

All who are physically alive will come, both believer and unbeliever but in addition all those in heaven will also come. Those gathered from heaven are those who were once living in Paradise or Abraham's bosom and then were transferred to heaven where they are now.

This verse describes the resurrection of all Israel. "He shall send his angels and gather His elect from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven

This same type of thing occurs at the Exit Resurrection or Rapture of the Church where all Church Age believers living and dead are gathered together with Christ.

This refers to the born again Jews from Abraham right down to the interruption of the Age of Israel at Pentecost, and then skipping over the Church Age to the exit resurrection to include all the Jews who were martyred during the Tribulation.

This gathering together is the resurrection. The elect are the born again Jews as in Dan 12:13; and in Isa 26:19-20; Notice is says "from the ends for the earth to the ends of heaven where the born again Jews reside presently in Jesus' presence.

This brings us to a brief review of the order of the first resurrection. The first resurrection that only involves believers occurs in four phases.

 

© Copyright 2007, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.  This document was created on 2/1/2015