“ Intervening Events"
The
theory of an imminent ‘at any moment’ Second Coming of Christ will be discussed
in the following message. First of all, the promise of the re-gathering of the
people of God, the Jews, is found to be necessary before the Lord returns. As
we all know the miraculous formulation and duration of the nation of Israel is fact
and a clear Bible certainty. As early as the book of Deuteronomy in Moses’
final sermon to the people before he went to be with the LORD, this prophecy
was uttered:
‘And the LORD
thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou
shalt possess it, and multiply thee above thy fathers. [Gathering of the People of
God in the Land]. And the LORD
thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the
LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou may live. [At the End of the 70th
Week of Daniel]. And the
LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that
hate thee, which persecuted thee. [Day of the LORD Punishment of the
Wicked]. And thou shalt return and obey the voice of
the LORD and do all His commandments which I command thee this day. And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine
hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the
fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for
good, as He rejoiced over thy fathers’ [Physical Millennial Kingdom
Blessings] (Deuteronomy 30:5-9)
Ezekiel
also prophesied concerning these necessary intervening event:
‘For I will
take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will
bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye
shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols, will I
cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put
within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will
give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you
to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them. And ye
shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people,
and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:24-28)
"Behold I will take the
children of Israel form among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will
gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land, And I will make
them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one King shall be
King to them all: and they shall be no
more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at
all.'
(Ezekiel 37:21, 22)
The
emphasis Ezekiel makes, here, is the supernatural gathering of the Jews, out of
all countries, into their own land, in one nation, under one King! All of these
must occur, and three of the four have already happened…we are now waiting for
the King to come, Amen? But, there are more events that must occur before the
King will come! By the way, prior to 1948 the first three had not occurred,
therefore the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory must be a false teaching.
The
second intervening event is found in the book of Daniel:
‘After this I
saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and
strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in
pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from
all the beasts that were before it: and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up AMONG THEM
another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up
by the roots: and , behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and
a mouth speaking great things’ (Daniel 7:7,8)
Thus he said, the fourth beast
shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be diverse from all
kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break
it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall
arise: and another shall rise AFTER THEM: and he shall be diverse from the
first [ten] and he shall subdue three kings.’ (Daniel 7:23, 24)
The great
horn [Alexander the Great] was broken; and for it came up four notable ones
[Divisions of Alexander’s kingdom] toward the four winds of heaven. And OUT OF
ONE OF THEM came forth a little horn [Antichrist] which waxed exceeding great,
toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land [Israel]
(Daniel 8:8,9)
The
emergence of the Antichrist or the ‘Little horn’ is the focus here with the
capitalized words showing WHERE he comes from and WHEN he will rise, with the
‘Ten horns/kings’ believed to be the revival of the fourth beast/ten
nations/kings during the end of the age. The majority of prophecy students
agree with this interpretation, but the emphasis that must be seen here, is the
fact that the ten nations must be present BEFORE the Antichrist emerges on the
world scene.
He will ‘Subdue [conquer] three kings’
during his rise to world power but will not have the necessary political clout
to ‘Confirm the covenant’ (Daniel 9:27) with Israel until these ‘Intervening
events’ take place. The confirming of the covenant is the event that begins
Daniel’s Seventieth Week, and the PTRT says that this is when the rapture will
occur! So, the emergence of the Antichrist will
not be hidden nor done in a corner, but it is an event that will be obvious and
will occur after the ten nations are formulated, and three of them are subdued,
before the beginning of Daniel’s Seventieth Week, before the Rapture occurs.
Daniel
chapter nine also reveals another event that must take place: ‘Seventy Weeks are determined upon thy
people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression…’ (Daniel 9:24)
Here the prophet is told that not only must his people be a people, which
assumes they will be gathered as a nation, but the ‘Holy city’ Jerusalem must be the Jews
possession at the time this prophecy occurs. This possession of Jerusalem did not occur until 1967 when the nation of Israel won the
Six Day War against the Arabs, and so, another piece of the miraculous puzzle of
God falls into place.
The New
Testament reveals more necessary events beginning with the Lord’s prophecy to
Peter, James, John and Andrew as they viewed the buildings of the temple: ‘There shall not be left here one stone upon
another, that shall not be thrown down’ (Matthew 24:2). The destruction of
the temple had to take place before the Lord returned and so the disciples were
not expecting the Lord to come back ‘at any moment’ before this intervening
event took place.
Another intervening event was the Lord’s
promise to Peter:
‘Verily, verily I say unto thee, When thou was young, thou girded
thyself, and walked whither thou would: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt
stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee…’(John 21:18)
Here, the Lord told Peter that he would
live to be an old man and therefore Peter knew that he had to grow old and die
before the Lord would return. He definitely was not a believer in the imminent
‘at any moment’ return of Christ.The Lord commanded those present at his ascension
to:
‘Go ye
therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things,
whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo I am with you even unto the end of the
world. Amen.’(Matthew 28:19, 20)
They
certainly knew they had a great task to accomplish, a task that still is not
complete, and therefore, they were not expecting the ‘at any moment’ return of
Christ! The Apostle Paul was told that he would bear Jesus’ name ‘before the Gentiles, and kings, and the
children of Israel:
For I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake.’ (Acts
9:15,16) Paul, too, knew that he had to accomplish much for Christ and
therefore was not expecting Him to return ‘at any moment’.
His
ministry was long and productive as the Lord promised: ‘Thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem,
so must thou bear witness also at Rome.’
Again, Paul did not look for the Lord to return ‘at any moment’ because he
had to go to Rome
and witness for the Lord just as the Lord promised.
This same
thing happened often in the ministry of Paul as the Lord told him of his call
to Macedonia, his stays in Corinth and Ephesus,
yes, the Apostle Paul had strong confidence in what the Lord was doing with him
even up to his death. He was told by God of many future events that would take
place in his life and he therefore never preached or taught that the Lord could
return ‘at any moment’.
Although,
these New Testament ‘intervening events’ have now taken place in the lives of
the New Testament saints, the fact remains that they were not believers in, nor
were they preaching or teaching, the ‘at any moment’ imminent return of Christ!
All of
the above events, with the exception of the rise of the Antichrist, have now
occurred. The Jews are re-gathered in their promised land, they have become a
people, they now are in possession of their holy city Jerusalem and the Lord is continuing to
prepare the earth and its inhabitants for His Second Coming.
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