The American Wisdom Series

Presents
Matthew #2560

And contrary to popular tradition, the tribulation of Satan as the false Christ, is a time of peace and prosperity when much of the world will believe that the messiah has come.

One of the questions the disciples asked Jesus Christ when they went to Him in private while He was on the Mount of Olives was "what shall be the sign of your coming"? Do you know the sign of Christ's return, in other words, not just what happens in the period leading up to it, but what exactly happens when the true Messiah returns to this earth at the sound of the 7th Trump? Well, if you do then by default you will know what hasn't taken place when someone who claims to the be the Messiah shows up on the scene "doing great wonders" and "performing miracles in the sight of men".

In our last study we learned that Satan and his dirty birds, those angelic, sweet, and soft spoken religious vultures who will prey on anything that is spiritually dead or dying, are coming like a swarm of locusts to devour and seduce all those who have not the seal of God in their foreheads (Rev. 9:4) and gather them to "Jesus"... only the Jesus they gather them to will be the abominable one, the spurious messiah who makes desolate the hearts and minds of our people while standing in the holy place and sitting the temple of God claiming to be God.

Yes, the whole world with the exception of God's elect will believe that Jesus Christ has returned because the Instead-of-Christ shall come and heal the big crisis, the deadly wound (Rev. 13:12) to the confederacy, i.e. to the New World Order, and cause peace and prosperity and religious revival to abound. Quite frankly, if you have not been foretold and forewarned that this spiritually abominable false messiah comes first and you are not able to "tell the difference between the holy and the profane and discern between the clean and the unclean", then you will love this guy and the good times he and ministers appearing as angels of light bring with them.

So let's read and understand what Jesus Christ has to tell us about what happens immediately after Satan and his vultures, who appear pretending to be Jesus and His angels, gather their crowd together in the land of Judea. Remember we are still on the Mount of Olives receiving personal and private instruction from the Word of God.

Note: There is a figure of speech used in the following verse known as a polysyndeton which is simply the repetition of the word "and" at the beginning of successive clauses, each independent, important, and emphatic, with no climax at the end. In other words, great emphasis and importance is given in the following verse concerning how it shall be immediately AFTER the tribulation we just learned about, i.e. the tribulation of the spurious messiah who COMES FIRST with his wicked angels (vultures) to prey on the spiritually dead and cause them to come to his wedding feast. But make no mistake about it and do not be deceived into following after Satan's crowd, because no matter how spectacular Satan as the spurious messiah may appear, when the true messiah comes the following happens... else He has not come!

Matthew 24:29
Immediately after the tribulation of those days...
"Immediately after" is immediately after the tribulation of Satan, i.e. after the abominable one who makes desolate the souls of men comes standing in the holy place claiming to be God.
shall the sun be darkened,

and the moon shall not give her light,

and the stars shall fall from heaven,

and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

The word "shaken" means to topple or (by implication) destroy.
shaken, saleuo, sal-yoo'-o, Greek 4531; from Greek 4535 (salos); to waver, i.e. agitate, rock, topple or (by implication) destroy; figurative to disturb, incite :- move, shake (together), which can [-not] be shaken, stir up.
So let's keep this real simple, even on the first level without going into symbology, and understand that when Jesus Christ returns to this earth, the flesh age is over and all powers and principalities and rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12) are going to be shaken and toppled to the ground, i.e. put down, destroyed!

At that moment in time we will be in the spiritual dimension that flesh and blood cannot enter (1 Cor. 15:50). In other words, we will no longer walk in the flesh under the sun because at the sound of the 7th Trump all who are alive and remain unto the "coming of the Lord" shall be instantly, in the twinkling of an eye, changed from their flesh bodies into their spiritual bodies (1 Cor. 15:51-52). If you therefore look up and the sun and the moon and the stars still give their light, that means Jesus Christ has not returned because, you "see", the brightness of His coming (2 Thes. 2:8) will far outshine them all! Remember in our last study we read a description of how the true Messiah returns. Let's review that verse:

Matthew 24:27
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Luke gives us a little different perspective of this total brightness!
Luke 17:24
For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
That my friend is such brilliance as will cause the sun to be darkened and the moon to no longer give her reflection. In other words, Jesus Christ will appear with such a brilliance that the sun itself will not be visible. (Note: The deeper student will know that this is but an analogy because we are not really comparing apples to apples when we compare the physical to the spiritual dimension.  In other words, Christ's brilliance far exceeds even the brightness of the sun itself for such spiritual brilliance cannot be measured by the fire and light we see with our flesh eyes and measure in degrees and lumens.)

Furthermore, we read in verse 29 not only of the brilliance of Jesus Christ when He comes, but that He comes with "power and great glory", as King of kings and Lord of lords to exercise all power in both heaven and earth which has been given to Him. Matthew 24:30 "...and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

Matthew 28:18
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
And so it is written that at that day "every knee shall bow to the name (power and authority) of Jesus Christ. Philip. 2:10 "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth."

Students of God's Word know that these things pertaining to the day of the Lord are all contained in the Old Testament as well as the New. When Jesus said in Matthew 24:25 "Behold, I have told you before", He meant not just before they happen but also aforetime, i.e. of old.To that end, He quotes from both the Law (Deut. 4) and the Prophets (Isa. 13, Dan. 7, Zech. 12) to let us know that these things are already written for those who have been to school in the Old Testament. For instance, in Mat. 24:29 that we just read Christ is quoting from the great Book of Isaiah in chapter 13 concerning the Day of the Lord:

Isaiah 13:6-10
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
This is tribulation for the disobedient children and a day of vengeance for the enemies of the Almighty. This is NOT tribulation for God's elect whom He shall gather from the four winds to reign and rule with Him for a thousand years.
[7] Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:
[8] And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

[9] Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

All that is wicked, as in all the "elements" (which doesn't mean the physical elements but rather the "evil rudiments") shall be consumed by the brightness of His coming as Paul puts in 2 Thes. 2:8 or shall melt away by His fervent heat as Peter puts it 2 Pet. 3:10. The analogy is really one and the same which one can "see" by taking a magnifying glass on a sunny day and holding it above some dead dry grass or stubble and watch it burst into flames as the intensity of the light produces heat to the degree of combustion. The more technically oriented can hold a piece of paper or a cigarette close to the powerful ray of a laser beam and watch the same result. Nevertheless, the power and brightness of Christ's coming will leave no doubt whatsoever that the true Messiah has returned. This next verse in Isaiah is what we read in Mat. 24:29.
[10] For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
Again, Satan will most assuredly make a big impression when he comes "doing great wonders" and "performing miracles in the sight of men", like snapping his fingers and calling fire (lightning) down out of heaven. That is going to impress a lot of Biblically illiterate people who will see these great wonders and spectacular feats as credentials to his claim that he is Jesus Christ who has come to rapture them away!Don't let these miracles deceive you! Look up and if you still see the sun and moon and stars give their light in the sky and you are still in your flesh body, then the heavens haven't parted and the brightness hasn't come... which means Jesus Christ hasn't returned! Here is further documentation as to the deceptive spectacle Satan will put on when he comes.
Rev. 13:13-14
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
[14] And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
When Christ returns and crushes all power and authority and Babylon the Great falls down flatter than a pancake, it will be a glorious day for the children of God but a day of great mourning and anguish for those who were taken FIRST by the false-christ and seduced into believing he was God. Then too, those who are deceived by the spurious messiah will be taken by complete and sudden surprise when the true Christ comes... because they will believe He is already here.

Let us continue with the sign of Christ's coming which we now know happens AFTER the false-Christ has gathered his crowd in Judea, the "place of the gathering", which is called Armageddon in Hebrew.

Matthew 24:30
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:

and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn,

and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

This does not say that only those who have a "rapture ticket" are going to see Jesus Christ coming. It says that ALL the tribes of the earth shall mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. John tells us this exact same thing in the Book of Revelation, the book of the unsealing for His servants in this final generation:
Rev. 1:7
   Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.
Again, this happens at the sound of the 7th Trump, the last trump, the one that comes after the 6th Trump when the son of perdition and his vultures come and deceive the whole world. Even so, "so be it" and "that's that" which is what "Amen" means. In other words, that's the chronological order of the events and that is exactly the way it is going down (6 comes before 7) no matter what any man might tell you to the contrary, such as you are going to be taken up in some rapture at any moment! Do not be deceived! Listen to the words of Christ and believe Him instead of believing nice men and women who promise you blue sky instead of reality. Check out what you hear men say with that which is written in the Word of God to see if it aligns with what Christ told you. He is the authority and not man... no matter how many degrees a man might have or how much alphabet soup follows his name!

We also read of Christ's coming in the Book of Daniel.

Daniel 7:13-14
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

[14] And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

Will you be part of the king's dominion because you have remained true and faithful to Him, or will you be among those spiritual adulteresses who jumped in bed with the first messiah and became spiritually impregnated with his lies and deception into believing he was the true bridegroom? They shall be separated from the true Bridegroom at His wedding feast and shall join in the great wailing and mourning and gnashing of teeth we just read of in Mat. 24:30! We can also read of that great "mourning" of all the tribes of the earth in Zech. 12:11-14.
Zech. 12:11-14
In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
There shall be a "great mourning" where the nations are gathered in Jerusalem, so great that the comparison is made here to the unprecedented national mourning that took place in Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo when king Josiah died. You can read concerning the magnitude of the people's lamentations in 2 Chron. 35:22-25.
[12] And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
The Hebrew word "bad" translated "apart" in these verses means by implication "a part of the body" or "branch of a tree", i.e. every family tree or branch of the family. These family members are those who are separated (apart) from those who are gathered to Christ at His coming. Notice that it is "their wives apart" that shall be mourning. The word "wives" as it is used here means "adulteress" which is used in analogy throughout the scriptures to characterize "idolatry". In other words, all the family branches of idolatrous worshippers of the great false shepherd, Satan, shall be mourning when they discover who it is they have been seduced by and taken for their husband. (We shall learn in the next chapter why it is those foolish and unwise folks did not make it and endure through the dark hour of the reign of the spurious messiah unto the coming of the Lord.)
Matthew 24:31
And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
When Jesus Christ came at His first advent, He humbly rode into Jerusalem on a lowly ass and was later delivered up and beaten and crucified in order to pay the price to bring salvation to whosoever will. This time when He comes at His second advent it will be with all power and authority to gather His elect and establish His rule upon the earth.

That great sound of a trumpet in verse 31 is the 7th Trumpet, the last trumpet, for there are only seven! By this time the four winds will have been released upon the earth and all those who do not have the seal of God ( See phamplet #1081)  in their foreheads will have been taken by storm and swept away in the flood of lies and deception and gathered unto the false messiah. You can read about the four winds which bring about the final events and the return of Jesus Christ in both Daniel 7 and Rev. 7.

So there you have it. Just as there are two Jesus Christs, the false messiah and the true Messiah, there are two tribulations caused by their respective advents to this earth. And contrary to popular tradition, the tribulation of Satan when he comes posing as Christ is a time of peace and prosperity when the world will believe that the messiah has come. The picture book analogies of locusts devouring men, etc., that scare people into believing they are going to be tortured, etc., are symbolic of spiritual warfare where the hearts and minds (not the flesh) of our people are made desolate by the spiritual onslaught of the abominable one, the king of Babylon of these last days, i.e. Satan posing as Christ.

You "see", it is because we are in flesh bodies that we cannot "see" things that are spiritual. For example, we cannot take an "attitude" and place it under a microscope and observe it. Nor can we measure "love" using the three dimensions of L x W x H. We can however see the physical sword of the king of Babylon slice through a man's heart, but we cannot see Satan's spiritual sword slice through the heart of a man's soul. So Father has given us pictures and types and analogies to enable us to conceptualize the spiritual warfare and the spiritual desolation that takes place in these last days. For example, if we tell someone that God's Word declares that the majority of our people are near death at this time because of the great famine and drought we are experiencing in the land, people would immediately think of a famine for food and a thirst for water and because they look out across the land do not see that taking place, they would wonder what in the world we are talking about. However, that is exactly the spiritual condition of our people, even at this time.

Remember Amos told us what the famine of these last days is: Amos 8:11-13 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

If one does not eat bread (physical food) he or she will starve to death, right?  Well, if one does not eat the bread of life (spiritual food from the Word of God) he or she will also starve to death (spiritually).

And our people are starving to death for there are few churches in the land that teach His Word chapter by chapter and verse by verse thereby feeding the bread of life to the people. Most preachers would rather follow the easy traditions of men and just teach the milk of salvation and baptism and get on with conducting praise and worship services where the basket of the people's sacrifice can be passed.

[12] And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
The result of the "famine" will cause Christians who are to remain virgins unto the coming of the Lord, to stumble and fall before the false messiah. That's spiritual death my friend, because Satan is death (Heb. 2:4). And so if one has eyes to see and ears to hear, he or she can look out across the land and "see" a valley of dry bones caused by the spiritual famine and dearth. Yes, the people are alive in the flesh and walking about, but spiritually they are deader than a dry bone! The only thing that can bring those dead bones back to life is the Spirit and Truth from the bread of life and the living fountain, i.e. the Word of God breathed into their minds through hearing the words of the LORD, the words that give life.
[13] In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
God's elect shall not faint but rather endure and take a stand against the false messiah during his defacto reign on earth. They therefore will not suffer the tribulation of God which occurs at the sound of the 7th Trump when He pours out the cup of His wrath upon all those who have the mark of the beast, i.e. who worship Satan as God

In our next study we will conclude this great 24th chapter of Matthew and learn as per the instructions of Christ how to tell with certitude when the final generation that will see all these things come to pass began!

... to be continued.
To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals.
We pray that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you accomplish both.


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