Abominations Bring Tribulations, Part 1

Rev. Raymond M. Jackson

THIS IS A MESSAGE THAT GOD HAS PUT IN MY HEART. I HAD THIS EXPERIENCE, AND I AM NOT GOING TO RELATE A WHOLE LOT ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE BECAUSE IT IS ONE OF THOSE KIND THAT IS JUST VERY UNUSUAL. I AM THANKFUL THAT GOD IS A GOD THAT CAN STILL SPEAK TO A MORTAL MAN IN MANY WAYS TO CAUSE THE MAN TO UNDERSTAND HIS WORD.

This experience happened Tuesday night, actually it was into the Wednesday morning hours from 4:00 until 5:30, somewhere in there. I don’t know what it was, I am not going to try to explain it, other than, In Matthew 24, certain verses have been on my mind for several days, the way they are worded. Also Luke 21, how some of the similar scriptures are worded. I want to say at this time, I have here what they call the Dr. Scofield Bible. Dr. Scofield has stated that the statements in Luke 21 were fulfilled in the days when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans and torn down and such. But he stipulates that Matthew 24, starting in verse 15 down through 22, is reserved for our day, what he calls the great tribulation. But as I read these same scriptures, I came to the understanding that Jesus did not make these statements at different times. There could be many men around Him when Jesus spoke these things out in a complete order. It is just like Matthew 13. In Matthew 13, is the only place in any of the gospel writings that all seven parables, the way Jesus spoke them, match up to the seven church ages of Revelation. You will see these same parables spoken of, but always in a scattered way. However the more I read Matthew 24, verses 15 and on down, (I had used this scripture back several months ago. I believe I titled it, Do You See the Picture. We were dealing with tribulation.) the more convinced I am, that they all go together. A lot of these doctors of divinity have wanted to put off these things, saying they will be fulfilled in the great tribulation period which is yet ahead, because they take it from Revelation chapter 7, starting in verse 9 I believe, when John saw the great multitude in heaven. I will say to you this morning, as this experience started with me, I was asked the question, (I do not know who or what the being was, so don’t even ask me about that. I could hear a person standing in front of me, but I did not see his face. He was saying, Would you please explain Matthew 24? and he gave me the verses, and also Luke 21. When I began to explain to him how I looked at these verses of scripture, I could hear myself saying things that I had never thought about saying. The words just came floating out of my mouth. Ever once in awhile that person would say, Wonderful. That is all he would say, one word. I would keep explaining. As I kept explaining those scriptures, I would hear that same voice say, Magnificent. All this time I am hearing myself saying these words to him in explaining these two passages of scripture, and I became aware that I was saying words I had never even thought about, especially that I would ever be saying them. Well to cut that part short for now I will say this, When I did wake up to the full knowledge that I was awake, my mind was already programmed. Therefore I want to say this, God has many ways to speak to mortal man. My mind was programmed exactly, as to what to say. Now you are going to sit here and hear me relate these words; and I am going to leave it up to you, to see if it they really do make a picture to you.

READING THE SCRIPTURES RIGHT

Turn with me to Matthew 24. I am going to be doing a lot of scripture reading. I have to, to show you the continuity. Keep in mind though, Matthew was a disciple at the time Jesus spoke these things, but Luke was not. When you look at the headings of Luke’s writings, the historian that collected it and put it together, estimate the writings of Luke could have occurred somewhere in the year 63 to 67 A.D. The way Dr. Scofield and different ones have always made it, what Luke wrote was spoken by Jesus at one time, but what Matthew wrote was spoken by Jesus at another time. It was not. You might say, How do you know Bro. Jackson? It is how Jesus spoke certain words. There is where it lays, a certain word is the key to the whole thing. That is why we have titled this, Abominations, (a plural word) brings Tribulations, also a plural word. Let us now start reading; and I want you to pay attention as we do. When it comes to the 15th verse, Jesus is speaking at that time to those disciples who were alive right then. “When ye therefore shall see (Notice, Jesus is referring to something.) the abomination (Notice that word, it is not in the plural.) of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in (or existing in) the holy place, (Notice what he says.) whoso readeth, let him understand.” At the time those words were spoken, there was no history that the disciples of that hour could have gone to for any reason. How many realize that? Then He said in verse 16, “Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!” There is no way Dr. Scofield or anyone else can make this point to the book of Revelation. Those conditions were never described in the book of Revelation, as they would have been if it was to be applied there. Keep that in mind as we continue. “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, (That is not talking about the rapture.) neither on the sabbath day: (That is still not talking about the rapture. Notice verse 21, though.) For then shall be great tribulation, (That is singular.) such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days (He is not pointing to Revelation 21 or 22 nor 19.) should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” Let us now turn to Luke 21, written by a man who became a disciple many years after the beginning of what we are reading here, was spoken. If you read Luke’s introduction, he plainly tells you how he acquired the information he recorded. He conferred and talked with many of those who had been disciples, and that is exactly how he collected his information. In verse 20, notice that Luke is describing words which Matthew never described. “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, (You do not find that in Matthew’s writings. Nevertheless we must understand that Jesus said it all at the same time. It is just what the particular man has remembered, what struck his conscience as important. You may not catch the significance of it until we get further on, but you will. Notice now, how Luke records this.) then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea (Here, he has the same words that Matthew did.) flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. (Notice now, how Luke writes this.) For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, (Matthew recorded this.) and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. (That is definitely not pointing to Revelation 19.) And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: (That is not a picture at the end time.) and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” That has happened ever since the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

Destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Empire

You can see almost the same things in Mark. I am saying at this time though, What Matthew said, and what Luke has said years later, as he acquired the information he recorded, you have got to put it all together, because it was all said at one precise time. Now I want to show you something else. In Matthew Jesus said, When ye therefore shall see the abomination, Luke said when you see armies gathered around Jerusalem. What was Jesus implying, when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel? The word abomination is in the singular. That is important. When I take you back to Daniel , chapter 9 where we get this prophecy, you find here the whole context of it. Daniel was being dictated to, how to write this. The angel is telling Daniel in verse 27, “And he (meaning the man of sin) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: (That is not even mentioned in Matthew 24 or Luke 21. There is a reason.) and in the midst of the week (nothing like that is said in…) Matthew 24 or Luke 21) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, (nothing like that in either Matthew 24 or Luke 21) and for the overspreading (Now the word takes on a plural term.) of abominations (How many see that? So the word abomination is spoken of in the plural, but Jesus only spoke of it in the singular.) he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” When you go back to Luke, he said this, Verse 23, “But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, (That happened in 70 A.D.) and shall be led away captive into all nations: (I have this history.) and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” That was ended in the Six Day War of 1967. Saints, I just pray that I can bring this out the way I see the picture, as it seemed like in my experience I was describing Matthew 24 and Luke 21, how they have already been fulfilled. If you would just take what you see written in Matthew 24, and then all of what you see written in Luke 21, and write it all in a continual flow, you would have one direct message spoken by Jesus. You would get almost the same details in Mark, all spoken by Jesus, pointing to one particular era of time that was coming. In Luke’s writing, when you see Jerusalem compassed with great armies, then is when he said, he warned them in the country, on the house top and so forth. I just said to Bro. Allen and Bro. Bud the other night, Are you telling me that just because Jesus spoke that the way he did, all those disciples were to just sit there on their haunches and wait until they looked over the walls one day and there was the Roman army all around them? That is stupidity first class. Let me prove it to you. If we had known sixty some years ago, that the Japs were going to bomb Pearl Harbor, do you think if they had known that three weeks in advance, there would have been even one ship in Pearl Harbor for them to attack and sink? No sir. That is what intelligence is for. Jesus was giving the disciples a particular picture of all that was going to develop in and around Jerusalem when God does begin to show His displeasure in the Jewish nation. We have to realize then, every one of those disciples, when they begin to hear of this uprising taking place in the land, and the Romans were on their way, those disciples have already registered in their mind’s what Jesus had said. That was all in their memory, so they did not wait to see the finished picture Jesus had explained to them before they began to flee from there. When I read the history by Bloss and Josephus, the whole thing started by three Jewish men, Elizar, Simon, and John. They were all trying to create a disturbance, a revolt. They fought backward and forward with each other, seeking to divide the city politically. When this thing got out of hand for the garrison troops of the Romans that were there, they sent word to Rome, Send us something to put down this revolt. Josephus was a Jewish man, a historian and writer. He remembered the whole thing and wrote it in detail. 

WHY THE ROMAN ARMY INVADED JERUSALEM 

Emperor Vespasian. Image credit: Wikimedia Foundation
Vespasia Flavius

When Nero heard about the disturbance three men were causing in Jerusalem, he sent word to Vespasian, (who had his garrison in a certain place in Syria) Prepare to move toward Jerusalem and put down a revolt. I was reading Josephus the other day to get all this in my mind, what really did take place. Vespasian sent his son, Titus, to Egypt to bring back two garrisons that were down there. When Titus went and brought back with him those garrisons of troops, there were communications that began to infiltrate throughout the whole Jewish society. As Josephus wrote this history, Vespasian had already began his march southward, heading for Jerusalem. Some stayed and fought against his forces, others fled and went toward Jerusalem. This went on for days. When I read this, I could then see why Jesus spoke that to His disciples. I am persuaded they knew they were not to just sit there until they could see the Roman army out there before they fled. That would have been total nonsense, to think like that. When I read the finished picture of what Josephus wrote, when Vespasian and his troops finally made their entrance around Jerusalem, they immediately set up a moat. Did not Jesus say the day will come when they will cast up a moat against you? What is a moat? It is a parapet, a wall of dirt, rock, stones, and everything else they get hold of. Jesus said, and they will shut you in on every side. What is the purpose of shutting them in? So they cannot escape. Now we can see how to read what Jesus said. He did not speak that to the politicians and the rebels and unbelievers: He spoke it to those true disciples. He spoke of it in the finished sense. If our intelligence, sixty one years ago, had been up to date like they should have been, we would not have had a battleship like the Arizona sunk. Every plane would have been in the air to meet the Japanese. Our navy would have been ready to engage in combat with them. The point is this, Our navy had been brought in, and here was all our mighty battleships in a row, anchored. Destroyers were anchored. Many of the sailors were on leave in Honolulu. It was obvious that our intelligence had not prepared our military. It was different when Jesus said this to His disciples. Please do not think those disciples were sitting there looking over the wall, and saying, Well brothers, I guess we better go. Why did Jesus tell them in the first place? It is for their protection. It is for their safety. In 1968 when our guide took us on the temple grounds, he told us specifically, that the disciples that sat there and heard Jesus say those things, when they had followed Him back over to the Mt. of Olives, and had asked Him the question, When will these things be; and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.” The disciples had just said, O Master, look at this beautiful temple, Look at the beauty, the splendor. Well over on the Mt. of Olives, He sat down on a rock and the disciples began to come to Him one by one and ask, When shall these things be, and what is the sign of thy coming and the end of the world? He said, The day will come when there will not be one stone in that temple left upon another. It is a fact, according to Josephus’ writing, that when the Romans finally did gain entrance through the second and third wall, and made their way toward the temple area, the Roman soldiers were so infuriated that even though the Roman leaders had told them, We do not want to destroy their holy place, the soldiers were so angry, they began to throw torches over and hit certain areas that set the temple on fire. Then everything got out of hand. Inside this temple, you have to realize, there was a lot of cedar woodwork. That inner court area, and the inside of the walls, all this cedar wood began to catch fire. The linen curtains and all that likewise. Terrible heat began to generate. All the silver and gold decorations that beautified this temple, began to melt and drip on the stones below. To fulfill the words of Jesus, not one stone in that place would be left one upon another, here is what happened. As soon as the fire died down, the soldiers began to take their spears and battle axes and pry the stones apart and pick out the melted gold and silver. The point is, for then shall be great tribulation. It was a total destruction of Jerusalem. In that siege, when Jesus said, When ye see the abomination, He did not speak of it in the plural as Daniel 9 did, and that is the part that stands out so vividly. He only quoted part of Daniel 9:27. He never said a thing about the week, how long, or anything. Neither did He say anything about the sacrifice being taken away: He only spoke about the abomination that bringeth desolation, and He spoke of it in the singular. So when we begin to see that, it helps us to begin to realize another part of that is reserved for fulfillment in Revelation. I want you to know this, The next time, in Revelation, the city is not destroyed and neither is the temple destroyed. I just want to say this, When I read Dr. Scofield’s notes, how he wanted to take what Jesus said for the days when Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple and apply it to the book of Revelation, I knew he had missed the mark. He plainly said here in his footnotes, Matthew 24, is for the great tribulation period up ahead. You can read it. That is the way natural historians and doctors of divinity look at it. That is why the word great, great, great, has become so magnified in the minds of people, because they think the term great tribulation is only pointing to that described for the book of Revelation. There has been great tribulation for some, many times through the centuries. That is why I say, The term great tribulation is not pointing to the 70 th week of Daniel every time. Go with me to Revelation 7, where I want to show you something. 

FALSE TEACHERS 

I have in my possession, an article where some of the charismatic preachers are denying the fact that there is to be a rapture, and calling it false teaching. Here is Hal Lindsay’s teachings. He is one of the big teachers of the modern charismatics in these last days. He says the rapture is not in the Bible. Well now, if he was listening, I would have to say, Hal Lindsay, you missed it. The apostle Peter never said one thing in his writings about a rapture. Think of that. Yet he was an apostle. Neither did James say anything about the rapture. The apostle Paul was the one that described the rapture. He had a unique description of it. I say to Hal Lindsay and all that want to believe him, Hear these words, If you would separate all these people that you see in white and begin to realize not every one in white is just wearing a white robe: some (the true Bride of Christ) are arrayed in “fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints,” Revelation 19:8. John did not see the rapture, but he saw something in heaven in the 19th chapter of Revelation that let him know the bride had already made herself ready and been taken up to be there with the Lord. When you take what Paul saw, in 2nd Thessalonians, and put it with 1st Thessalonians, you have a true picture. Therefore not every person that has white on is to be raptured, just those arrayed in fine linen. They are the bride, and they are the ones that are going to be raptured, regardless of what unbelievers may teach. Now I want to prove that by the Old Testament, because, when you go to Exodus and Leviticus, and see how God described the temple, which was the tent and everything, there was a place inside called the Holy of Holies. That room was not made out of wood: It was made out of fine twined linen cloth. That is different than cotton. That Holy of Holies place, (I ask you) What was it for? When they would bring in the ark of the covenant, which was a type, in which the commandments and the Law and the word of God for that hour was kept, they took it in there and put it on a table inside this Holy of Holies. In there, is where the Shekinah glory dwelt, always over that ark of the covenant in the holy place. That lets us know when the dispensation of the Law was over and God set up a new covenant, a new dispensation, the first and foremost is to gather out of the Gentiles a people for His name, and that will make up the true Bride, the Church of the living God. They will everyone have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside them. They will have a revelation and understanding of the word of God that separates them from those that only have white robes. You just do not take fine linen and white robes and put them all in the same category. Each picture speaks specifically of what it is. That is why, in Matthew 27:52, 53, it speaks about where Jesus rose from the dead and many that were in the graves came forth and were seen of many. As I said in another service, I will say again, All of the Old Testament saints came forth from the graves at the time Jesus was resurrected, because Paul picks it up years later as he writes Ephesians, and in the 4th chapter, wrote, He that ascended is the one that descended first into the lower part of the earth. Paul did not say, And He took captivity captive. He took them all. How many understand that? That included David. That is why David had it in the Psalms, he could rest knowing thou will not leave my soul in hell. When Jesus came out of the grave and those Old Testament saints, David was in that crowd. David was in a glorified body, never to return to that grave. The Jews today, can decorate that tomb over there all they want to, but David is not there. Out of the ground, all the way from Egypt to the Euphrates, every Old Testament saint came, no matter what period of time he or she lived in, Jesus took them all out of there. That let Him be the one that conquered death. Death was the power that Satan had over the spirit and bodies of these Old Testament people. Jesus conquered death and hell where they had been in captivity, and in the grave. He took them to glory with Him. Therefore we can say this, Peter did not have it, James did not have it, but Paul did. We have to go with it by the way Paul saw it. Right here is when those white robe saints came up from the Old Testament era, (When Jesus arose). From that time on, true saints have been waiting in a heavenly paradise, until the time of their resurrection. Your Bride saints are up here, and here are the white robed saints. We come on through here, and right here, in the beginning of the seventieth week of Daniel, is where there is to be a rapture of the bride. That is when all bride saints will leave this world. That will leave in the ground, all the white robed saints right straight on through until Jesus and the Bride return.

THE 144,000 AND THE GREAT MULTITUDE

When John sees an angel flying from the east going toward Israel to seal the 144,000 servants of God, that is recorded in the 7th chapter of Revelation. When we come to where he sees them sealed and everything in order, the woman element of Jews, is seen in the 12th chapter, fleeing into the wilderness to get away from the evil forces of the antichrist, and the 144,000 servants of God are ready to go into all nations to preach the everlasting gospel. That is when John sees that great multitude, at the end of that period of time. We are going to read this, because we have to get this word great in our mind’s the right way, because of how it has been used by so many. Rev. 7:9, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, (Not in fine linen: that has to be understood. God’s word has been so constructed, that certain words carry the key to the entire picture.) and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, (They were already there at that certain time: they had already lived their life in their time down here on earth, and that includes all from here right straight on down through, and their spirits are up there in heaven.) and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell down before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, (I want to emphasize this, We know John was still alive in 96 A.D. How many realize that? Therefore when John is allowed in the spirit, to see this heavenly, panoramic scene, that is not according to how heaven looked in 96 A.D. That is how heaven looked in time factor that it represents at the end. Will you accept that? Thousands of those that would be seen there, were not even alive yet in 96 AD. They had not even been born. How many realize that? John was still alive. The scene had to be in a time when all the elders were there, and because John was one of the elders, it could not have been a scene of how it was in 96 AD. There were twenty four elders seen around that heavenly throne, twelve Old Testament patriarchs, and the twelve apostles of the New Testament. John was one of them and he had not yet died to take his position. When this scene was shown, it is shown in a completed picture. How many realize that? One of the elders answered, saying unto me…) What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? (Another elder is asking John, who was an elder of that number once he is there.) And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation.” Now let us settle this great tribulation issue. Dr. Scofield, in the footnotes of Matthew 24, refers to this, that this is the great period of tribulation that is to take place in the end time, in the last half of the 70th week of Daniel. That is not true at all, because, if you study the history of Christianity, you learn that it did not reign predominantly everywhere at the same time, speaking geographically. Do you realize that? It started in the Middle East, and it gradually made its way across the Mediterranean into Asia, which was basically Turkey. Then into Mesopotamia, and what we call the Balkan countries. Then in time, the gospel spread in preeminence further and further, going westward. By the time the old world came into the third century, Christendom was already beginning to die out, or fall away. By then it was rising in Western Europe in full preeminence. Therefore it goes to show that this term, great tribulation, is not referring to any one specific time. It is talking about the multiple tribulations that have been effective through time. You can take the first, the second, and the third, and come right on down, when we come into the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth century, the Spanish Inquisition lasted over a hundred years. Thousands of Jews, and thousands of Christians that refused to bow to the dictates of the Vatican, were tortured, mutilated and torn to pieces. It was all people that had not been allowed time enough to live their lives down here and develop them into a fruit bearing lives. As I say these things, you can ask, Well Bro. Jackson, what about a person that got saved two weeks ago, they just received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, what if they were to die? Where are they? Why don’t you just let God take care of that? I have to say though, if you insist that they have to be in the Bride, then when we do come to the point of what the Bride is, how are you going to judge them for the talents they had? How many are listening to me? I hope you understand what I am talking about. Some of these people did not get to live long enough to even know how to let the talents and things of God develop in their lives. The sad part of it is, you and I want to be their judge. It is you and I that want to put everybody there in the bride. Why don’t we just let God do a few things? No matter what we think, it is all going to be fulfilled precisely the way the scriptures are bringing it out. I am not standing here telling you, Well everybody has to live so long with the Holy Ghost before they will be in the Bride. I did not say that. I will say this though, When you start reading the anti-Nicene fathers, and you read some of the terrible ordeals saints suffered back then, it is shocking to see how families were torn asunder by that devilish system. I was reading in one particular book, on the Spanish Inquisition, and when I read that I thought, How could a system called the church of the living God be so devilish, to cause thousands of people to be tortured, mutilated, abused and put to death? They took little children and fed them to animals. Do not allow yourselves to think, that because our histories of today do not go into detail with it all, that those things did not happen. Our educators do not allow our younger generations to know all the past, but what I am describing went on just the same.

WHO ARE THESE THAT ARE ARRAYED IN WHITE ROBES? WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?

We are living in an age of time like never before, a time when the younger generations of our time really have no idea as to what has taken place in early Christianity. Some of what we teach is hard for them to really understand, because they have had the truth withheld from them. Well God means for believers to know the truth, and to understand. That is why, we try to go into detail when we look at this scripture here in Rev. 7, starting with verse 9, John saw that great multitude up there, before the throne. They were all clothed in white robes, were they not? When John was asked, Who are these, where did they come from? His answer was, Sir thou knowest. The elder then said to him,” These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Not just in the week of Daniel, but right on down through time. Let me say this to you, No matter how this period is going to wind up over here, how could it be any more brutal than it was back in the 1940’s when six million Jews were killed? Did you ever read anything about them? I have. Big semi trucks with an exhaust line going up into the trailer of the semi they were being hauled in, transported them to the burying place. They would take Jews out of the prison places and put them in this trailer as tight as they could pack them. From there, to where they were going to bury them, the carbon monoxide from the gas of the truck put them to death. The military had already dug a huge trench for them to be dumped into. These doctors of divinity that want to assign every mention of great tribulation to the last week of Daniel, are spiritually blind. Matthew 24:21, in no way points to the great tribulation in the week of Daniel. The words great tribulation, fit into a picture that began from the time the Grace Age started, and comes all through here right on to the great tribulation at the end time. It has been the devil’s doings all along. Sure, they are going to kill foolish virgins and they are going kill Jewish people, but by whatever means they kill them, it will not be any meaner than what others have suffered through time. Those that John saw in that great multitude did not all die at once. We have to read this Bible right, and read the history of the past two thousand years, in order to get this entire thing straight in our minds. I am not telling you that every one of you have to do that, but some do have to; and others learn from them. Think about this, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” It is not talking about fine linen at all, is it? That is why, when John did see the Bride, which is described in the 19th chapter of Revelation, He did not see how the bride got there, he just looked and there she was, coming from heaven with the King of kings, to rule and reign with Him on earth. She was clothed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. I have to say, During all these former periods, starting in the first age of Christianity, where martyrdom started, there were Bride saints martyred at the same time others were that fit into this line on our chart. The two lines have run along together all down through time. It is God that gives us these pictures we have as a finished product. As for the word great, pertaining to tribulation, let us stop taking every mention of it and bringing it to apply over here, putting it all over here in the 70th week of Daniel. The Bible does not even read that way. I just want to say, When Jesus said what He did, back here in Matthew 24, (I want to turn to it, in the 15th verse, because it says, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand.” Now every one of you look at me! The disciples He spoke this to, were not even there to see it take place. I hope you are reading the scriptures right. No way, could these disciples have stayed there until the Romans came and fulfilled all this. Otherwise Jesus would not have said it in the first place. “Then let him which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house.” In other words, get out of here! Pray that your flight be not on the sabbath, neither in the winter. All these were His own personal warnings to the disciples. But when we go over to Luke 21, there we can see how Luke said, when you see Jerusalem compassed. That is why I have to say, Take Luke 21, and compare it and line it up with Matthew 24, because Matthew was the disciple that heard the words spoken expressly by Jesus, not Luke. If you catch the two and say one is for 70 A.D. and the other is for Revelation, you are wrong. It is not. It was all fulfilled specifically just the way Jesus spoke it. That is why I have to tell you, the word abomination comes in again. I will show you exactly, by the scriptures. Did you know, the time has come, that every word, how it is arranged, what it carries, whether it is plural or singular, because that many times is where people go wild. When you go to Daniel 12, you see the angel in linen, that is none other than Jesus in angelic form, like you see in Revelation 10, verses 1 through 3. He is the arch angel. He is clothed in fine linen. In Daniel 12 He is standing on the river, which is symbolic of Jordan. Daniel is asking these other angels, what is the meaning of all this, what are all these wonders? Are these signs going to be fulfilled? Then he that is on the water lifts up his hand, both hands, and swares by Him that liveth forever and ever, that it shall be for time, times, and the dividing of times. Then you see what he said. Now he brings in the word abomination. It is in the singular. So that goes to show, in Daniel 9:27 it is in the plural, and in Daniel 12, in those verses, it is singular. In 9:27, it speaks of the covenant and how he broke the covenant in the middle of the week, for the overspreading of abominations. I have to say again, Abomination takes on a different setting. That is the way we have to look at it. You do not have exactly the same type of picture. In the original though, it means excessive hatred, wherein they would seek to deprive the land of inhabitants. I can read right here, but you would get bored if I did, during those days in which that siege lasted, not one New Testament disciple was even in the city, nor near it. They did not even see what happened. It took men like Josephus to write about it, and that eventually became written in histories. I just say to you today, it is time we begin to read our Bible for the end time, and how God causes His little Bride to begin to put the picture together exactly the way we are to see it for the end time, because that makes the difference. Let me read something here. I looked up the word in the dictionary and it does not mean there is something standing there. When you read it in Matthew, it sounds like something standing there. Notice, that it says, When you see it in the holy place, but the disciples were not even there when it took place. Well who or what is this that is seen in the holy place? By the time they could possibly return, the temple was in ruins and Jerusalem nothing but a shambles. It was in the year of August of 70 A.D. on the 10th day that the city finally gave in to its complete fall. The Romans had taken over, completely conquered it then. I read a comparison to Josephus, the historian, and here is the way he recorded it. Exactly on the same day, five hundred and some years prior to that, Nebuchadnezzar had completed his final conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. Think of it, precisely on the same day. Now then, let us see how bad a desolation this was. As we read here, Titus says, “The God of the Jews has fought against them. To Him we owe our victory. The numbers who perished amount to one million.” No wonder Luke said, Then shall be great tribulation. As Matthew said, such as there never was before, nor never shall be again hereafter. He is talking about what happens in Jerusalem will never be repeated again. Yet you have a lot of people say, But Bro. Jackson, if there is going to be a covenant made, so and so. I say to you, and I hope I can bring it out the way I saw myself doing so in this experience. The temple must be built first, before the man of sin can even make a covenant. I have heard doctors of divinity say, Well the pope (antichrist) is going to make an agreement with Israel to build the temple. That is not true. That is just a bunch of tradition. God is going to allow the Jews to take that land one of these days and they will immediately start putting up a temple. As you read in Isaiah 60, the whole world is going to get involved in that. The temple will be rebuilt, and it will be rebuilt just exactly the way it is to be for the Millennium. Jerusalem is going to be in the process. But when it returns again to be abominated, when you read Revelation 11, the man of sin comes in there, he kills those two prophets, for the overspreading of abomination, and he will set himself up in that temple, as Paul said in 2nd Thessalonians, also out of Daniel 11, to show the whole world he is God. He will deny the Jews any occupancy and control of Jerusalem, because Jerusalem will be trodden down of the Gentiles. Read it in Revelation. They will take control of the city for forty and two months. What does that tell you? The Jews will be denied occupancy, control of the temple. So again it is an abomination, but it is abomination of a different nature. How many realize that? It is not ten million Jews killed in the streets of Jerusalem. That is why the woman, which is the spiritual Jews, flees to somewhere that God has already designated as a place for her to be fed and protected. Neither will the 144,000 servants of God be there to experience the abomination, because they will be scattered throughout the nations preaching the everlasting gospel. Who will be there? Only the political Jews. That is what we have to see. Never again, will there be the same kind of desolation, and abomination fulfilled in the Jerusalem area, as you had in 70 A.D. The word abomination, has various applications. In Daniel 9:27 it is spoken of in the plural, abominations that bring desolation. When Jesus spoke of it in Matthew 24, He said, When you see the abomination, singular, existing in the holy place, whosoever readeth, let him understand. Therefore I have to say, We have history, and we have the Bible to read, so let us read all of it the right way. Just because Jesus only quoted part of Daniel 9:27, that causes doctors of divinity to take Luke, and say, That is for 70 A.D. and Matthew 24, is for the future. I cannot stress it enough, They were both fulfilled in 70 A. D. It was all spoken at the same time, but the two men only wrote what seemed to them to stand out. Matthew 24: 15-21, was fulfilled in 70 A.D. Then verse 23, picks up an end time picture, so the rest is spoken for our day.

THE RAPTURE OF THE BRIDE

Let me now deal with something concerning the rapture of the Bride Church. I do not want to bore you with a lot of reading, but I have to say, The title of this article is, “What is Troubling Hal?” Meaning Hal Lindsay. “He frankly admits God has a lot of good men who don’t agree with him and his views. If what I am receiving in the mail is any indication, he has a right to be troubled. A vigorous percentage of Christians around the world insist Dr. Scofield’s rapture theory is biblically weak and originates from a disturbing source.” I have to say as I read this, It was not time for this type of preacher to give the Bride a revelation, that there is no rapture. Let us look at it in that way. The Charismatic world is never going to have one iota of truth by revelation of the Spirit of God. They are going to have tradition, presumptuous ideas, theocratic understanding, and they are going to be in the same shape that the Judaistic elders were, in the days of Christ. They teach for commandments the doctrines of men, the traditions of men, but the truth of the Bible itself, they do not have. So I am saying this, When he goes into detail here, and tries to tell who is wrong and how it is going to be, not one time does he mention anything about those in white robes that are of fine linen, it is just all a white robe. I have to say to my brothers and sisters, Do not tell me John was just hallucinating when he looked and saw the Bride in heaven. What does he say about it? She hath, past tense, made herself ready. Where? Down here. I have to say that the rapture is going to be just as sure as you and I are sitting here. Going back to Matthew 24, Jesus also says, notice now, Then two women shall be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and the other left. Two men will be sleeping in a bed, one will be taken and the other left. Matthew 24 only records two of those things, but when you go to Luke, he records all three. Now tell me, how do we take the two, and how do we take the three and make it correlate? I have to say, What Luke recorded, whoever told him this order, that meant that much to him. Then shall be two women grinding at the mill, one will be taken and the other left. Two men shall be sleeping in a bed, one shall be taken and the other left. Two will be working in the field, one will be taken and the other left. I have to say, Jesus spoke all three of them. But we can see, not necessarily did every disciple record everything in detail, just in the same order. So here we have come down through the centuries of time, down to this hour. We are not going to be able to look back in obscurity, Well Dr. Scofield said this. We are going to have to have an understanding of what the Bible really says. Therefore I hope you everyone understand this, Matthew 24 and Luke 21, were all spoken at the same time, precisely. It is just the way men have recorded it through centuries of time. When we come down here to the end time, here is where we go to Daniel 12, and here is where we go to Paul’s writing in 2nd Thessalonians. It makes all the scriptures line right up for the end time. Because again, it puts the covenant here in the end time, not back there in Matthew. How many realize that? This little experience I had, begins to let me know there is not one verse of scripture in the Bible that we have had any little misgivings about, that somewhere in the process of time, we are going to know exactly what it means, and how it is related to our time. Let us turn back to Matthew 24. Certain words, the way they are expressed, has caused theologians to jump to conclusions. Jesus, as He was speaking, He was speaking to a living generation of disciples at that hour. As I said earlier, Do not think He said this in Matthew, at one time, then what is written in Luke 21, at another time. It was all said at the same time. It is just that it was recorded by different men, in different periods of time. They do not contradict each other, it is just a case where Luke was writing what he heard from others, and Matthew was writing what impressed him when he heard Jesus speak that day. As you read the two accounts, in Matthew where Jesus is talking about where the carcase is, there the eagles will be gathered together, Luke records the same thing by saying, Wherever the body is there the eagles will be gathered together. Does that mean that Jesus said it different? No. It is just the way men have heard it and how time elapse will cause certain things to be said in a different way. First off, what Jesus says here in Matthew 24, He gives us a complete chronological layout of time from right then to the end time. The only thing is, when He comes to a certain spot, He is dealing specifically with that generation of the Jewish nation and the disciples. The reason I say this, if Jesus knew that God loved those disciples enough that He gave them an indicator, what was that for? It was so they would not be there to taste of that wrath of God. Now if God thought enough about the disciples then to give them a chance to escape and not be there when His wrath is poured out upon that Jewish nation for rejecting Jesus and crucifying Him, does He not have the same love now for His disciples, which are universal, when it comes to the Bride of Christ? That is why He spoke of it in Matthew and Luke. Then shall two be lying in the bed, one will be taken. A lot of people will look upon that and think, Oh that is nothing important. Yes it is. The point of it is, when one will be taken and the other left, what is going on in the world that causes that? I have to say there is a rapture taking place. The rapture is not some universal, dynamic event, here they all come. It is a secret event. That is why Paul spoke of it in 1st Thessalonians exactly like he did. When we do read in Revelation about that great multitude, then we read in Revelation the 15th chapter, those seen upon the sea of glass in heaven: that is those tribulation saints that have been killed through that tribulation period of time; and then, there they stand upon the sea of glass. Those are the first ones that will come out of the ground when He does cause a resurrection to come. You might say, Well why do you say that? Simply because those that have lived through this period of time, and been subjected to all this hell, and then killed by the beast, they are the ones that are going to be raised first, and they are witnesses of the living element of the mortal flesh and the beast and everything that has treated them that way. That is why Jesus said in another scripture, The last shall be first and the first shall be last. That does not mean He has a preference. Keep in mind though, There is nobody from the first age that died, that is going to be resurrected to judge those here in the end time. How many realize that? Each man in his generation will stand in his capacity of judgment. That is the way we have to look at it. A lot of people just want to make it anonymous, but that is not the way God rules and does things. He has a specific reason. As we go back to Matthew 24 verse 15, He is telling the disciples then, and this has no application to you and me whatsoever. That is what the theologians have all wanted to use down through the centuries. They have twisted this thing backward and forward, having no revelation on any of it. I am going to read the footnotes of Dr. Scofield, how he refers to these. “When ye therefore shall see the abomination (Now notice, Jesus never said a thing about a covenant being made. Did He? He never said a thing about the covenant being broken. Did He? And He never said a thing about in the midst of the week, the sacrifice will cease. Did He? That much of Daniel 9:27 was left completely out. When He comes to the part about the abomination. Daniel 27 refers to it as abominations, plural, but Jesus only put it in the singular.) of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand.” Now He comes on down through here and talks about those that lived in that generation of time, both in the land and so forth. Verse 20, “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.” This is not talking about the rapture at the end time. This is talking about all those Jews fleeing and leaving that land as Titus and his army approached. As I said earlier, when we begin to look back into the history, those disciples that had remembered those words of Jesus and had passed them on, a lot of those disciples that stood there and heard this were already dead when the event took place. Some had already been martyred. When it came to 70 A.D. there was still a Church there. There were disciples there, that had believed what had been passed on down to them. Therefore I have to believe they did not just stand around looking over the walls, wondering, When is this going to be fulfilled? They had already got the signs in their mind, and when they began to develop, they got themselves out of there. When we begin to read the history of how this all began to build, it lets us know that when they began to hear in the north, that Vespasian was on the move, those disciples that remembered the words of Jesus, knew that the day was coming soon when Jerusalem would be compassed by great armies. Why wait until that day comes? According to Josephus, the Romans shut them in immediately, all that were still there, so that nobody could escape. That is why I say, When we read God’s Word, we have got to read it right. It has to fit somewhere, but not just anywhere. Do you understand my point? Do you see how people will use words? Verse 21, “For then shall be great (Here we come with that word great.) tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Theologians automatically jump to the end time, because there, is where they feel they have to put it. That is not an end time setting at all. Nevertheless that is the way it has been used. That is tradition. We are not denying the fact that the tribulation period is going to have a very sad end; we are just saying we have to keep each tribulation in its proper place. It is not going to have the same affect at the end, as it did back in 70 A.D. We could put a mark right here on our chart, because that is where this part of Matthew 24, Luke 21, belong. Now the fact is, that Jesus made all these statements at one time, yet when Luke records it, he has a few of the statements in the 17th chapter, and the rest in the 21st chapter. Does that mean Jesus made these at different times? It does not mean that at all. It is just the way the recorders have remembered to record certain things. I hope you understand what I am looking at. When Jesus spoke this in Matthew 24, that is when He said everything that you read about in Mark 14 or Luke 21. It is all the same time. It is not all preached by Jesus in different scattered elements of time. In verse 22, Jesus said, “And except those days be shortened, (That is not looking down at the end, and yet they have done that in tradition.) there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” Now I want to show you by reading what Jesus was looking at, and as I refer to the history, I am going to ask Bro. Bud to read to you what God, in the wilderness, had told the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 28. When He brings you into the land and the day comes that you turn your back on me and you will no longer keep my word, my laws, and my statutes, just as I took pleasure in blessing you, I will take pleasure in cursing you. Then in that 28th chapter, He begins to bring in what He will do to them. I have asked my brother to read Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse 57 and 58. “And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, (talking about a young woman that has just bore a child) and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege (In the siege, that is the point, in the siege. Jerusalem is not going to be in a siege over here (in the week of Daniel). Not in that type of siege. It will be abomination, but that is when the antichrist comes in and breaks the covenant. All you have to do is read it. For the overspreading of abomination, again, a time of excessive hatred. But it is when he sets himself in the temple, denying the Jews the right there, takes their sacrifice away. Then he asks his international troops to step in and Jerusalem will be trodden under foot of the Gentiles for three and a half years, denying the Jews to have habitation or anything. That is the second abomination. But it is not the abomination like we read about here.) and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD.” Now that is why, when you turn to Luke, he records it like this, for these be the days of vengeance, referring to the same period of time, that all things that are written may be fulfilled. I am bringing this out to show you how traditional doctors of divinity, historians and so forth, want to divide the accounts. Some may think we should not spend so much time on this, but if we are going to have a true revelation, we need to get it straight. Otherwise it is not a revelation at all. We just have to realize, when Jesus gave this discourse we see in Matthew 24, it was one long discourse that covered the whole period of time straight to the end. All the other writers who were not disciples at the time, only referred to these things Jesus had said, and they set about to write the things that were told to them, making it appear that Jesus said these various things at different times. It was all spoken at one and the selfsame time, but remember it all started with a question. They are leaving the temple area, the disciples and Jesus, and they just get outside and the disciples are looking at that magnificent building. They are adoring it, talking about its beauty. Then Jesus said, I say unto you, the day will come when there will not be one stone left upon another. No matter how you read Luke or Mark, He said that all on the same day. He goes over to the Mt. of Olives, He sits down on a rock. Then one by one the disciples began to come to Him, tell us when shall these things be? And what is the sign of thy coming? And the end of the world? He starts the long discourse. Notice now, what His next thought went to. Verse 23, this does not pick up the next day, it picks up for your time and mine. “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.” That is future tense back then. That is why, when He started this discourse, He said, Take heed that no man deceive you, and He began to give the indicators that many will rise saying I am Christ. False prophets of course. All of this has been going on down through time. When He leaves this, He took the siege of Jerusalem that was accomplished in 70 A.D. Bro. Bud read the prophecy, what God said He would do. But when you take it to Josephus and another history that I have, you learn that food became so scarce, they even took shoe leather and boiled it to make it soft enough to eat. The point is, These be the days of vengeance, not future. That was because God had an anger against that Jewish nation. He knew they had rejected their Messiah, and they are going to suffer for it. He is going to put them in a siege. He is not putting them in a siege again at the end of the age. The Bible speaks of when he has accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, there is quite a difference. How many realize that? That is the way we have got to start reading this Bible and stop reading from a traditional standpoint. Let me show you how traditionists are. I am down here in the footnotes of Dr. Scofield. He has this heading Number 1, “The passage in Luke refers in express terms to a destruction of Jerusalem, which was fulfilled by Titus A.D. 70, (That is what Dr. Scofield says.) the passage in Matthew to a future crisis in Jerusalem as a manifestation of the abomination.” That is not so, that is just the way he uses Matthew 24. When Jesus actually spoke, When you see the abomination that maketh desolate spoken of by Daniel the prophet, He is only using one small part of Daniel 9:27. How many realize that? He spoke of abomination in the singular, not in the plural. Nothing is said about a week of seven years, nor of the middle of the week, taking away the sacrifice, or anything like that. We are going back to Daniel, down in Scofield’s footnotes, because he is referring to the beast and everything, he refers to Matthew 24:25. The expression occurs three times in Daniel. In Dan. 9:27 and Daniel 12:11 the reference is to the beast, the man of sin; 2 Thess. 2:3-4 and is identical with Matthew 24:15. It is not! That is what Dr. Scofield says. Because what took place in Matthew 24 verses 15 down through 22 was fulfilled in 70 A.D. The man of sin was not on the scene. How many realize that? But it was an abomination. It was a total, or complete destruction of Jerusalem, a killing of a million Jews, even to the point they fulfilled Deuteronomy 28:57 and ate their young children. Nowhere else in history does it point to that being repeated again? That is the part I am looking at tonight. We have got to start looking at, and reading this Bible from the standpoint of how these verses of scripture line up, what kind of picture they give. When I think through all this discourse, as Jesus is bringing these things on down toward the end, it says no man knoweth the day nor the hour. Five times He repeats this in Matthew 24 and once in Matthew 25. There must have been an importance for Him to mention that five times. Why did He not say, No man knows the years? He puts it down to the day and the hour. So I have to say those statements have been hanging there in scriptures and they have just been looked over. That was because it was not time for them to be understood, because the living generation of people that is going to see exactly what they mean, was not on earth in former times. Then, when that hour and day does come, I have to say, It will be a wonderful event. This unbelieving church world that don’t believe in the rapture, when we know the shout has already been heard, is pitiful. They do not even know what the shout is. If you preach the shout to them, they will tell you, Go home, you crazy man. Go talk to them about the seals of Revelation 6 and see how they respond. They will think you are a nut case. It all lets me know, a lot of this Bible, the way it is written, is not for the religious people of the world to understand. The prophetic details especially, they just shove it into the background. They will say it is not relevant, it is not that important just as long as you believe in Jesus. The ancient Jews believed some of those things written in the scriptures. They believed in the commandments. They believed in the Law. They thought they were going to be justified by that. When the hour came that the Messiah came on the scene, which was a fulfillment of those things they claimed to believe, they looked at Him and treated Him like He was a devil.

SCRIPTURAL ADMONITION

When we begin to live and walk with God, and understand these scriptures, how they are related to our time frame, we do not read one and look back, then read the other and look forward, we have to know what was back then, so we will know what is still ahead. By the revelation given us by the Spirit of God, we know some of the scriptures we have been dealing with, have nothing whatsoever to do with the second advent of Christ. When it comes time for the rapture, do you think there is going to be some preacher come on the scene to awaken the church world? Was there any kind of event that awakened the Judaistic believers when it was time for Christ to come the first time? No. But an angel of the Lord came to Zacharias one day in the temple and told him his wife would conceive. Was this announced to the whole Judaistic world? It was not. Then one day when this baby had grown into manhood, out of the wilderness he came; and appeared along the public highway of life where the main road crossed the Jordan River. There stood this strangely dressed character, preaching, and warning, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Why did he not go to Jerusalem? Because the church world of that hour had no insight or revelation whatsoever. No sooner had this man appeared, it began to create a shaking within the social structure of the Judaistic society. As people began to repent and be baptized, they would go to Jerusalem and begin to noise this about. The scribes, the Pharisees, the elders, all had the big head. They did want to go down there and be seen with that crowd, they were all too full of pride. What did they do? They got hold of some of lesser importance and said to them, Go down there and ask that character who he is. You know what the scripture says: John looked out over the heads of some of that crowd and saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees that had come to his baptism and said to them, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” When he asked that, Who told you to flee from the wrath to come? He knew exactly why they were there. He just answered them, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make His paths straight. I can say this, We are living in an hour of time when the Bride Church knows how to put many of the prophecies together to see a picture of what is ahead, but does this charismatic church world know how to link them together? They absolutely do not, and they never will: They will just keep on with their tradition. We are not sitting in here, looking back to tradition and thinking that is going to be our ticket out of here. It is not. God is going to let every one of these scriptures come into a proper time frame for the Bride Church. Any mixed thoughts that are lingering because of the way certain men, later, recorded certain portions of the words of Jesus, will be cleared up by proper teaching. Certain traditionalists have given certain things different interpretations, but the little Bride will get it all straightened out before Jesus comes. Go with me to 2nd Thessalonians. Paul describes the rapture. When we see this rapture in the 4th chapter of 1st Thessalonians, he simply says, For the Lord shall descend from heaven first with a shout. Here is the chronological order, first a shout. Well that is a message. Did Bro. William Branham’s message wake up the church world? No. It only got the attention of individuals that began to hear something different and came out of those systems of religion. As time passed the hour came to a time when he brought forth the revelation of six seals. This put him in the category of that wise scribe, according to the seventh parable of Matthew 13. Then we know by seeing the revelation of the seven seals, the seventh one was not broken. He pointed ahead, but when it is broken, he said it has something to do with the sounding of those thunders. When you go to Revelation 10:1-4, it shows you the time has come that the seventh seal has been broken in heaven and now the thunders have got to be seven men on earth that are already spiritually in place. The Lord can speak to and through them. They are going to give the Bride of Christ, which is a universal group of people, those last details of what the Bride Church is to know before the rapture. They (the seven thunders) will all have the same prophetic insight. I will say this, those thunders are going to acquaint the Bride with a time frame. That does not give you a day or hour, or anything like that. It does give you a future time frame and there is no doubt it will acquaint the Bride of that hour with something to watch, in political and monetary conditions, that will let them know the time is right here. That will get those chosen people so they are beginning to walk very carefully. Not running off here and there, thinking, Well I still have time to go do this, I have time to do that. You are going to be so interested in being in the right place at the right time for the rapture, all else will take a lesser place in our attention. The voice of the arch angel is heard. Who is that? There it is in Revelation 10, you see Christ, He is off the mercy seat. It is not Him in his corporal body, it is Him on earth in angelic form. He is dressed in fine linen and a rainbow about His head. He cries with a loud voice and He has an open scroll in His hand. The seventh seal is broken. He cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when He had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. What did He cry out? NOW! When He did, Immediately seven voices thundered. That gives the Bride the last prophetic insight just before she is raptured and taken away from here. Then the next thing, I have to say is this, If Jesus was concerned enough about the living disciples then, to tell them what signs, naturally, to watch for, so that they would not be in Jerusalem when destruction and judgment did come, then you hear what Paul says in the later part of Thessalonian letter, Wherefore comfort ye one another with these words, for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He wants us to have victory. Then when we go to 2nd Thessalonians, the 2nd chapter, here is the revelation Paul has. He has gotten word that the Thessalonian church had begun to say Oh, the resurrection can happen tomorrow. They were so excited, they were beginning to plan, manipulate and work things out. That is why Jesus emphatically said, No man knows the day or hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. That does not mean He is not going to tell the Bride something at a crucial time, when it is important for her to know it. Let us see what Paul says here in the 1st verse of the 2nd chapter. “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him.” What is he actually saying? Let us transpose it into this end time, when time is running out. Brothers, let’s stop saying the Lord could come tonight or tomorrow. I have heard that for the last sixty years since WW2 closed. That is all speculation and assumption, it has no reality to it at all. Paul speaks specifically here, by our gathering together unto Him. What is he talking about? The rapture. All the theologians say, The word rapture does not appear in the Bible. Well they are right, but it does not have to, it is the catching away of the Bride, that we refer to as the rapture, because that is what it means. What Paul says concerning the coming of the Lord and our gathering unto Him, is referring to the rapture, the translation, or the catching away. “That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, (Stop the calculating, stop the propagating, stop the assuming.) neither be spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” He gives us here a specific insight as to how to look at that day. “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (What day? The day when we meet the Lord in the air.) shall not come, (under no circumstances) except there come a falling away first.” The old traditionalists say that is just apostasy setting in. Well that has been going on for the last sixty years. But the real translation in the Hebrew is, There will come an open rebellion. When people of the world get to the place where they say, Don’t talk to me about religion, that is quite a different thing than what Paul is writing about. In the apostate, religious world, they can still talk about Jesus, they can sing about Jesus and tears run down their face. They have no more revelation and insight about the coming of the Lord than a hound dog. On the other hand, look at America from the political standpoint. You are not allowed to mention prayer in the public places any more. There is now in the world, a very aggressive effort to take the knowledge of God completely out of the human race. What kind of picture do you see then in Revelation 19? You do not see a religious empire beast assembled to meet the coming of the Lord. No. You see a beast that wants to challenge His coming. It is quite a different picture, is it not? It is an open rebellion against the concept of God. I have to say, it is a shame when the world we live in, which at one time was a nation of godly people, now forbids our schools to even mention God or religion, at least the God we know. It is alright though, to let any other kind of hell bound religion come in. We were born in and live in a nation that at one time started out with founders who believed there was a God, a Creator, and they defended that belief. Now we have a society that welcomes any kind of a god, and the devil has a good time with it all. If you say anything against it, Oh that is hate mongering. My Bible tells me there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, except the name Jesus Christ. there is no salvation given among men through any other name. Not Hindu, Shintu, Buddha, Allah, but by Jesus Christ. We are living in the hour of the falling away. Not apostate religion, but they are falling away from the complete concept that there is a God, and that the world must get ready to meet the coming Lord. This kind of condition had to be present to give you and me a real scriptural background of the fact that we are living just before the second coming of Jesus Christ. As Paul speaks here, “and that man of sin (that is the antichrist, the false prophet, the beast man) be revealed, (He is also referred to as…) the son of perdition.” I have to say, We are not waiting for Hal Lindsay and his kind to tell the world who he is: we already know it is none other than the Roman Catholic pope. No need to think that is far fetched, because that devilish Catholic religion has put people to death through prior centuries of time. When God allowed the Reformation to come, it was started by Napoleon, and was followed swiftly by the different nations of Europe that embraced the Reformation. That is what wounded that papal head.

WOUNDED HEAD REVIVED

That papal head that was wounded as unto death by the Reformation move stayed wounded as unto death until time advanced to the period of WW2. When WW2 was fought, out of obscurity, here came the pope pushing himself forward. Right now there is an old pope over there, that has built a platform for the future pope that will fulfill these end time prophecies. I want you to know this, In the light of the hour we live in, intellectually, politically, and otherwise, all the signs are rising upon the scene. Remember this though, When that man comes upon the scene, it is going to be timed precisely when there are two Jewish prophets in Israel, anointed to fulfill their ministry in Israel for three and a half years. Those two Jewish prophets, as they minister for three and one half years throughout the first half of that week of years, are going to demonstrate the power of God in the land of Israel. The plagues that they call for, the judgment that is brought about by their ministry, is all designed to show this religious world there is a God that is very alive. Don’t forget, there will have been a war fought, prior to the time that week opens, that will have put that Muslim world in its place. It is going to cause that whole Arab element of Muslims to suddenly align with Israel. As those two prophets come on the scene and begin to demonstrate the power of God for three and one half years, especially the judgment power of God, don’t tell me that old pope is not going to sit over there in Rome watching TV News and get violently jealous enough to kill them. When he sees what God can do, he will know for sure that he himself has no power. As he witnesses the power of God, the spirit of Satan is going to rise within him in such a jealously, antagonistic way, that the only thought he can have, is how to silence those prophets. We are living in a time when the devil has set himself up in all places of human society, governments as well as the business world. This is the day of materialism. Oh we have to send our children to school to get a better education. Why? So we can have more college girls raped, and their bodies left frozen up, in a river somewhere . Hardly a year has passed, that we did not have some beautiful teenage girl disappear like that. Look at this senator out west, that they accused, and they later find the girl’s body in pieces, in a certain park. Never has America lived in a time like this. When did it all start? In the last fifty years. I can remember when Charles Lindbergh made the transatlantic flight. It made him a public figure. Then they had a little baby that was kidnaped. That was an international news item. For many years though, that was the only kidnaping we heard about. Look how it is today, crime, kidnaping, children abused, parents taking their car to the river bank with three children strapped in it and let it fall into the river and those children drown. I ask you, Are we living in a better world today, now that we have an educated society? Not at all. We are living in a nation that has been taken over by the devil; and it is like being in hell. We became worshipers of materialism, the god of wealth, the god of gold and silver. In our institutions of education we learn more of how to live like the devil than anything else. Now we have to separate religion from the state, so they can turn our children into something like a bunch of devils. You are not even allowed to talk about religion to them. It was all a trick of the devil in the first place, getting God out of the picture, to give him total freedom. Every night somewhere, there is a mother crying, a daddy crying, a broken home, a broken relationship, and little children neglected and crying. Now we are hearing, Oh, please adopt one of them and give them a good home. What kind of nation have we become? An European came over here one time and then wrote a book. He said America was a great nation and a good nation because our homes were godly. They are not allowed to teach this in a public place anymore. I really hate what our nation has been turned into. When my wife and I were married, I had it in my heart to raise our children in a way that I believed was right, feed them, and do my best to put clothes on their back and food in their stomachs. I have paid my part of taxes all these years and always believed I should. For sixty years our country has been sending aide everywhere, but at the same time, we have old native born Americans that have worked and paid taxes, and now they cannot even afford health care. America is slipping and sliding, far from where it used to be. In just a short time God is going to shake this nation. God bless the day He shakes it, from the White House, to the uttermost. Do you understand why I said that? That leaves nothing out, gets it all to where He can deal with it for His purpose. We have people coming in here from foreign countries, (I am not a racist.) And getting benefits our needy citizens cannot get. Something has gone wrong in America. Forty years ago the government started building low income houses for low income people, Americas. Now we are overrun with people who cannot even speak English, getting those benefits and many of our legal citizens are refused. They sneak across the border and claim benefits our citizens ought to be receiving. It is not right, but you cannot tell the politicians that. If they get sick, they can go to a hospital and receive free care. I know there are those who do not like to hear me talking like this, but I am tired of seeing our elderly citizens neglected and allowed to die somewhere, waiting to be operated on or just to see a doctor. It is hard to think of America as a great nation anymore. Our greatness has been sacrificed. When they showed these little children they want to put up for adoption, I feel sorry for the little ones. I really do, but those who brought the little ones into the world just walk away freehanded. God forbid that this world continue on another fifty years like it is going. Half of those that come here from other countries anymore, do not even want to work. They just want to get every easy dollar they can get. I am not angry at anyone except the devil, and those who allow him such liberty. I know, that scripturally it had to come to this, but it is hurtful to see what is taking place.

THE LAST ROUNDUP

When the apostle Paul wrote here in the Thessalonian letter, that when this man of sin comes on the scene, “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, (Notice, that does not even sound like the pope, but it is.) or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” We are now going to see an abomination of desolation of a different nature. You could ask, Where did Paul get this revelation? Let us go back to Daniel 11. We will start with verse 36, because it introduces this man of sin. “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, (I know this does not sound like the pope of today, but whichever one is in there when the time comes, will fulfill this exactly.) and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. (In other words, that is when the last abomination that maketh desolate, is set in place.) Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. (That is why Paul said it like he did.) But in his estate (or office) shall he honour the God of forces: (materialism, wealth, That is his power) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (political, present day, twentieth century high governments that collaborate, and he can win them into his clutches) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.” This brings you right down to the latter part, the 45th verse. “And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace (his headquarters) between the seas in the glorious holy mountains; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” That is describing the human side of the man, how he will act, how he will govern. Let us take this to the last time the abomination of desolation comes on the scene. When you go to Revelation 10, Jesus has broken the seventh seal, and He is on earth in angelic form. The scroll in His hand is open. He has one foot on the land and one on the sea, which is a universal picture of sovereign authority. This is when seven thunders utter their voices. When will that be? Somewhere right in this era of time prior to the rapture. I say that because of Paul, according to his teachings, the rapture will not come until first the man of sin comes on the scene. I have been hearing rapture ever since WW2 was over in 1945 that the coming of the Lord could be at just any time. That is apostasy, scriptural ignorance. There is no spiritual insight whatsoever, in that kind of talk. It has not established anybody with any revelation. When God had certain prophetic scriptures recorded, they were not written to have three or four different meanings. They have one specific meaning, and one precise time to be fulfilled. We know we are living in the end time: we recognize the signs of the times, but we cannot pin it down to our pleasing. As we go to Daniel, to finish, remember when Jesus is seen in Revelation 10, with a foot on the land and one on the sea, that is a universal picture for His Church. He has come for the Bride. When those thunders are sounded, please remember this, His position on behalf of Gentiles is over. The Bride is ready to leave. Where does He go? He goes to Israel. He is pictured over here. Let us read it. We are in the 12th chapter of Daniel. Daniel sees this and he has been asking this angel, What means this? Tell me what this means. We are in the 5th verse, “Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, (No longer one foot on the land and one on the sea. Now He is standing on a river of water, that is Jordan. That is Israel’s identifying border.) and the other on that side of the bank of the river. (Two angels standing, one on each side.) And one said to the man clothed in linen, (Where was the man that was clothed in linen? He is on the water.) which was upon the waters of the river, (they asked Him) How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? (Or we could say, these prophetic events.) And I heard the man clothed in linen (That is the arch angel, it is not Jesus in His flesh, but it is Him in angelic form, the way it is being portrayed here.) which was upon the waters of the river, (Notice now, in Revelation 10, when He stood with one foot on the land and one on the sea, and He lifted up a hand and cried, NOW! When He did, seven thunders immediately utter their voices, then He says, Let there be time no longer. Gentiles, you are on your way out. How many catch the point? That is Revelation 10.) when He held up His right hand and His left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever (That is the Eternal Spirit) that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; (Notice now, I want us to notice how this is worded. This is an abomination spoken of for this day, it is another abomination, but it is not the same kind that was fulfilled back here. How many realize that? This one shall be for a time, times, and an half. In other words, He is announcing, it is to begin right here, in the middle of that week, which is the last three and one half years.) and when he shall have accomplished (Listen to this) to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.” What does that tell you? That man of sin, when you read in Revelation 11, it plainly tells you, that for three and one half years the two prophets that come on the scene will prophesy for three and one half years, and awaken that spiritual element of Jews to the reality of the Messiah, the 144,00 and the woman element. The rest of those Jews will sell out to the antichrist. In Revelation, Chapter 12, you see the woman fleeing into the wilderness, where God has already prepared a place for them to be cared for, to get them away from that abominable antichrist and his forces. The 144,000 that are sealed under the ministry of the two prophets, will flee from Jerusalem at the same time the woman element flees, but they will flee into the nations of the world to preach the everlasting gospel for the benefit of all that will take heed. But here in Daniel 12, that angel is on the river, saying that this condition will exist for a time, times, and half a time, when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power, the presence, the occupation of the Jews back in their homeland. They are to get out of there, because the devil, for three and one half years, is not going to allow the Jewish people to even be recognized. I am not talking about the political Jews. The unbelieving, educated Jews will just go along and consent to anything the man of sin orders, while those spiritual Jews, those people that have cried, travailed, and waited for centuries for this time of refreshing, this man of sin, for one little point of time, is going to be allowed to scatter them, run them off and kill many of them in a three and a half years period of time. Why is he doing that? His thought will be, This will be my land. Then he will set himself in the temple of God, breaking the Jewish sacrifice, allowing no more priests on the grounds. You link that up with Revelation 11, because when that man of sin leaves Rome and comes over to Israel, he is going to enter Jerusalem. The first thing he is going to do, is kill those two prophets that have been making life so miserable for him for 3 ½ years. You know it from Revelation 11. This ushers in this period of excessive hatred, not as it was in prior times, but as it is related to the end time, because the devil has every intention of showing the world who God really is. Let us read it like it says it here. When he shall have accomplished to scatter, or disperse, the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. Daniel heard these words, but he was still troubled. Notice, “And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And He said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; (Saints, listen to what I am about to read.) but the wise shall understand.” Who are these wise? Are they sitting in Washington D.C.? No sir. Are they sitting in the Vatican? No sir. They are sitting in little groups in small places throughout the world, because they have a revelation and an understanding of the time we are living in and of the coming of the Lord, because God has been dealing with them inside, by His Spirit. They have a picture of how this thing is going to go together, to get them ready to meet the Lord. Notice now, the angel is finishing describing this. The wise shall understand. When He says that, we know it means there is going to be some wise Christians in the end time, that are going to understand every little detail that is important for the Bride of Christ. They do not get it from a theological seminary. Neither do they get it from the colleges they attend. They get it by the Spirit of God. “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, (He breaks that covenant in the middle of the week, after it has already been going on for three and one half years, because he is the one that confirmed the covenant in the first place. Over here, when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, but why did he, for what reason does he break that covenant? It is for the overspreading of abomination. Not like is was back here in the former instances, but nevertheless it is abomination, just in a different way. From that time the daily sacrifice shall be taken away…) and the abomination .”Which means excessive hatred, but it is not the Jewish people hating: they have fled. That man of sin is thinking, I will show the world who God really is. Then that temple that has been dedicated, which was built for the coming of their Messiah to rule in, for three and one half years, this antichrist takes over that temple. That is why it said back in the 11th chapter, and he will plant his tabernacle between the seas in the holy mountain, yet he will come to his end and none shall help him. Well here it is. This is another abomination, but please, it is written in the singular. Just as Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24, which was in the singular. This fulfills the end of it, because the word abomination, does not mean he builds a building there. It is a period of excessive hatred. In former times, God brought judgment, chastisement upon the Jewish people, and the city they trusted in, and the temple they glorified. He took it all away from them and scattered them throughout the world. That was a great tribulation, but not THE great tribulation so many refer to. The second time this abomination comes into focus, is not in the same way as before. It is when this man of sin hates the Jewish nation completely and for three and one half years He deprives them of the right to be identified in their land. That is why it said, when he has accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people What in the world does the word scatter mean? In that period over there, they did not scatter them, they killed them. How many realize that? They were killed by the millions, but here they are scattered, because the devil is determined, You will not exist in this land any more. “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination (singular) that maketh desolate (Desolate of what? The right of Jews to be identified in their land.) set up, (The fact that he is a Gentile false prophet, setting himself in the temple, it is pollution. If people only realized, any Gentile that would set themselves up in that Jewish temple, it pollutes it, it is an abomination. It is debauchery in the eyes of God.) there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” Well Bro. Jackson, that is thirty days longer than the tribulation period. I know it. But what do you think is going to go on. Let us turn to Matthew 24:29. What did Jesus say would happen at the end of the tribulation period, Immediately after the tribulation of those days? Does that mean six weeks, or six months longer? No sir. It literally means immediately after that tribulation period has fulfilled itself to the day, immediately the heavens shall be darkened and the moon shall withdraw its light and so forth. Then will appear the sign of Jesus’ coming, according to what we read in Revelation 19. Now if you would read Revelation 19, you would see what all goes on, Armageddon has already been fought back before that. The beast, still being the conqueror, stands ready to take on Jesus and His heavenly army, which proves that atheism and Satanism has now engulfed the whole social structure of the human race. It tells you in the 19th chapter, and the beast and the kings of the earth were gathered together somewhere, not to fight Armageddon, it is already over. They are gathered to fight against the coming of the Lord. Jesus is being revealed coming from heaven with His bride, all dressed in fine linen, riding white horses. Hallelujah! We are coming in power to rule and reign. This bunch of educated characters today, call that fanaticism when they hear it. To me it is reality. It is the only hope that this world is ever going to have. Jesus is coming, so do not forget, a thousand two hundred and threescore days or forty two months, ends right there. But remember to read Revelation 19. Immediately after the end of tribulation, Jesus comes, and out of His mouth goes a sharp sword. Isn’t that what it says? And the more this ungodly beastly system tries to defy His coming, with that sword that proceeds out of His mouth, He shall slay the wicked. No matter how you want to look at the thirty days and the forty five days more, that is going to cover that seventy some days that God’s wrath is going to be poured out upon this planet, and there is going to be signs in the heavens. For days and weeks there is going to be some mortal element of humanity living on this earth, trying to hide. Somehow or other there is going to be a small element of the mortal race of humanity escape all this chaotic judgment and wrath God turns loose. Nevertheless that is what will be happening during those seventy five days following the coming of the Lord. It starts from the time God begins to execute wrath and runs until it is all over. That includes all that has to take place before the Millennium starts. There has to be a settling down from all that judgment. We will finish reading this 12th verse. “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.” That is seventy five days beyond the three and half year tribulation period. It should not be a big problem for anyone. God’s wrath, God’s judgment, God’s shaking this world to destroy everything that the devil and evil humanity has propagated and manifested on this earth, is going to take a period of time to bring it all to an end. I have no problem seeing these seventy five days. I intend to be in that army with my Lord. Those that are on the winning side of all that, are not going to go through life wavering, Well, I just don’t understand, I am in something, but I don’t know where it is taking me. If you go through life like that, you will not be riding a white horse in the army of the Lord when He turns loose judgment upon this old world. He does not want us to be in spiritual ignorance. When that sixth seal is poured out, that actually reveals Christ coming from heaven with His righteous army. You take that to the 19th chapter of Revelation and you are going to see how it comes about. When the heavens open, Jesus is sitting on that white horse and an army of righteous, godly, saintly people, coming to earth to rule and reign with Him. Can you not see what mortal mankind of the earth begins to do? Armies of the world, with all their scientific, modern weaponry, are going to try to compete with Jesus and His army, but He just takes a look, waves that hand of authority through the universe, and dead bodies begin to fall. He will slay the wicked with the sword that proceedeth, not out of His hand, but out of His mouth. He is not slaying at random. He knows exactly who He is slaying and who He is not slaying. There is going to be an element of mortal flesh preserved through all this, that will live on. That is why the everlasting gospel has got to be preached, so that when it is over, there will be an element of this present generation that has escaped judgment, by the grace of God. God preserves them for the purpose of repopulating the earth during that thousand years we refer to as the Millennium. I hope this will help believers to understand a little bit more of why Jesus split the consequences of Daniel 9:27 into two separate times like that. The first part was fulfilled in 70 A.D. It was catastrophic. It was executed against the city. It was executed against the temple. Because the people that loved it had forgotten all about God and how to live for Him. So God took it away from them and chastised them and millions of them were slain. He fulfilled Deuteronomy 28:57-58 and those scriptures through there. No wonder Jesus said, For then shall be great tribulation, such as there never was before nor never shall be hereafter. All tribulations have been great, but that is what confuses people. They always want to take great and put it way down here at the end. Tribulation in the last half of the 70th week of Daniel will be no greater than what it has been back through other periods of bloodshed and torture. Each period had its own story. I just want to say one more time, Never again, will there be the same kind of desolation, and abomination fulfilled in the Jerusalem area, as you had in 70 A.D. The word abomination, has various applications. In Daniel 9:27 it is spoken of in the plural, abominations that bring desolation. When Jesus spoke of it in Matthew 24, He said, When you see the abomination, singular, existing in the holy place, whosoever readeth, let him understand. God meant for the wise believers to understand these things.