UNDERSTANDING THE END-TIME 2
(week 08/08)
By Olubi Johnson
Last week we saw that there are 3 sections of the end-time and now we are in the 2nd section which started around 1900 and was confirmed by the re-gathering of natural Israel as a nation in Palestine in 1948, typified as the ‘budding of the fig tree’ (Matthew 24.34, Hosea 9.10, Joel 1.7).
It is vital to note here that relative to the great tribulation there are 3 orders (1 Corinthians 15.23) of the resurrection:
1. A pre-tribulation order (or rapture: catching away) in which those who are resurrected in this order escape all the terrible judgments of the tribulation summarized in the seals of revelation chapter 6 and detailed in the trumpets and vials of revelation chapters 7-19.
Luke 21:36 (KJV): Watch therefore, praying in every season that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things which shall occur, and to stand before the Son of Man.
2. A mid-tribulation order for the 144,000 of natural Israel, who under the leadership of the two witnesses experience, preach, teach and manifest the perfection of Christ to natural Israel during the 1st 31/2 years of the great tribulation:
Revelation 11:3 (KJV): And I will give power to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy a thousand, two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.
Revelation 7:3 (KJV): saying, Do not hurt the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Revelation 7:4 (KJV): And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousands, having been sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel.
Revelation 11:12(KJV): And they heard a great voice from Heaven saying to them, Come up here. And they went up to Heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.
Revelation 14:1(KJV): And I looked, and lo, the Lamb stood on Mount Zion. And with Him were a hundred and forty-four thousands, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Revelation 14:2 (KJV): And I heard a voice from Heaven, like the voice of many waters and like the voice of a great thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps.
Revelation 14:3 (KJV): And they sang as it were a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousands who were redeemed from the earth.
3. A post-tribulation order for the saints who are still alive after the great tribulation and those who were killed by the anti-Christ during the great tribulation because they did not take the mark of the beast (Revelation 7.14, 15.2, 20.4).
Matthew 24:29 (KJV): And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
Matthew 24:30 (KJV): And then the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in the heavens. And then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of the heaven with power and great glory.
Matthew 24:31 (KJV): And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
The purpose of this understanding of the end-time is to motivate us to a life of spiritual excellence and purity, by watching and praying always, so that we may be accounted worthy to partake of the pre-tribulation order of the resurrection and so escape the great-tribulation by obtaining the best order of resurrection available.
1John 3:2 (KJV): Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He shall be revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
1John 3:3 (KJV): And everyone who has this hope on him purifies himself, even as that One is pure.
Hebrews 11:35 (KJV): Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
