The Nature of the End of the Age
Daniel was specifically told by the angel
Gabriel that:
‘Seventy weeks have been determined for
your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of
sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to
seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.'’ (Daniel 9:24)
Sixty-nine of these weeks are history and have
been accomplished under the Old Covenant economy. Therefore, it is most likely that the remaining
Seventieth Week of Daniel will also be accomplished in like manner, but first,
Daniel’s people, the Jews, must once again become a people. This miraculous
event occurred over six decades ago when Israel became a nation by surviving
the vicious Arabic onslaught in 1948.
Secondly, in 1967, Israel’s supernatural
victory over the Arabic coalition in the Six Day War gave it possession of
Daniel’s ‘Holy city’, the city of Jerusalem, putting in place these two
prophesied prerequisites necessary for the beginning of the Seventieth Week of
Daniel. The world stage is carefully and methodically being set for the end of
the age. While many are looking for the emergence of the Antichrist in world
politics as the next prophetic event, the Lord Jesus Christ tells us: ‘Elijah is coming and will restore all
things’ (Matthew 17:11). As the parallel passage attests: ‘Elijah does first come and restore
everything’ (Mark 9:12) both harmonizing with the last prophecy of the Old
Testament: ‘Behold, I am going to send
you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the
Lord. And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the
hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a
curse.’ (Malachi 4:5, 6)
His ministry of restoration will include
the spiritual restoration of Gods people as indicated by Malachi, and the
physical restoration of everything necessary to the Old Covenant, ‘holy covenant’ economy (Daniel
11:28-32; Mark 9:12; Matthew 17:11). The temple in Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15; II
Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 11:2) will once again be built and sacrifices
will be offered as Daniel records in (Daniel 8:11-14, 9:27,11:31, 1211). The
Lord Jesus Christ mentions ‘the holy
place’ (Matthew 24:15),‘Judea’ (Matthew 24:16), and ‘Sabbath’ (Matthew 24:20)
in His powerful discourse on the end of the age showing that the Old Covenant
economy will be active during, the Seventieth Week of Daniel.
Although John the Baptist was the first
Elijah-like prophet sent to the Jews (Matthew 11:11-15; Mark 9:11-13) the Lord
will send another Elijah-like prophet ‘Before
the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord’ as spoken by Malachi
and affirmed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, God will once again send prophets
into the earth for He will also send two prophets of judgment (Revelation
11:3-13). In addition He will cause
signs of judgment in the heavens (Matthew 24:29; Revelation 6:12,13), and
utilize His angels to administer His devastating day of the Lord judgment upon
the earth (Revelation 8-19). The eschatological day of the Lord is the most
prophesied event in the Old Testament and is believed by the majority of
prophecy scholars to be the time when God pours out His day of the Lord wrath
upon an unbelieving world as outlined in the judgments of Revelation 8-19.
The chronology of the end of the age given
by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 24 indicates the day of the Lord will begin
after the Great Tribulation is shortened by the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ to rapture the saints: ‘Immediately
after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will
not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the
heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the
sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son
of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will
send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather His elect from
the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.’ (Matthew 24:29-31)
This sequence is also revealed in
Revelation 6:12-17 with the sign of the day of the Lord [The darkening of the
heavens] providing the keynote event:
‘And I looked when He broke the sixth
seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth
made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky
fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great
wind...for the great day of their wrath [day of the Lord] has come; and who is
able to stand?’.
Joel, whose prophecy
focuses upon the day of the Lord, points to the fact that the darkening of the
heavens will precede the day of the Lord and therefore it is properly called
the precursor or sign of the day of the Lord: ‘The sun will be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day
of the Lord comes.’ (Joel 2:31)
The Lord is carefully preparing the world
for this last week or seven years which will accelerate His ongoing program of
redemption for mankind. During these last seven years He will redeem and seal
the 144 Thousand Jews (Revelation 7:1-8), He will fully redeem the saints by
rapture at His Second Coming (Matthew 24:29-31; Mark 13:24-27; Luke 21:25-28; I
Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 7:9-17), and finally He will redeem ‘all Israel’ at the end of the
Seventieth Week of Daniel (Romans 11:26; Isaiah 59:20,21; Zechariah 13:8,9;
Revelation 14:1).
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