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Saturday, November 24, 2012

if those days were not shortened there would be no flesh left

if those days were not shortened there would be no flesh left

 

Matthew 24:12 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.

Mark 13:20 And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days.


We see in Revelation 12 that when the Jewish remnant flees to the wilderness, at the time of the "abomination of desolation", they will be protected from the antichrist for 1,260 days. There is no doubt that the days of protection will end on the day Jesus returns. Therefore, the Great Tribulation will last for 1,260 days and not a day less.

So what does it mean that the days will be shortened if there is an appointed day count to the Great Tribulation? Jesus doesn't tell us in what way the days will be shortened, but there are a couple ideas that might explain how they could be shortened without being less than 1,260.

The first idea is that the days themselves would shorten in length if the earth were to spin faster. This would still fulfill the day count, since a day is defined by one revolution of the earth in Genesis 1.

Genesis 1:3-5 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
The scene in Isaiah at the time of the Lord's Judgment may support this theory, as the earth's rotation appears to be off kilter:

Isaiah 24:19-21 The earth is violently broken, The earth is split open, The earth is shaken exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, And shall totter like a hut; transgression shall be heavy upon it, And it will fall, and not rise again. It shall come to pass in that day That the LORD will punish on high the host of exalted ones, And on the earth the kings of the earth.

Also, some believe that the 6th Seal Judgment describes what might happen in a polar shift or reversal, which may also affect the rotation of the earth.

Revelation 6:12-14 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
The fourth Trumpet Judgment is interpreted by some, that in addition to the heavenly bodies darkening by a third, the days themselves will also be cut by a third, or down to 18 hours:

Revelation 8:12 Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.

Another idea is that the day count itself is shorter than a full Jewish calendar for the three and a half year period because of the leap months. Depending on the year, the Jewish calendar can be anywhere from 353 to 385 days. So the thought here, is that a full three and half years on the Jewish calendar is more than 1260 days. Indeed, the count can be anywhere from 1269 to 1301 days per three and half Jewish calendar years. Some support to this is in Daniel 12:11, where we read that there is a period of 1,290 days from the abomination of desolation. So cutting the days short could simply mean that Jesus will not let the full calendar years play out before He ends the Tribulation.

Other than being within the average day count of the Jewish calendar, there is one interesting thing to note regarding the 1290 days. Thirty days after the Feast of Atonement is the day of the year that Noah was told by God to get into the ark before the flood (Genesis 7:1-11). I'm not sure what the significance would be, regarding the 1290 days after the middle of the Tribulation, but it is interesting, nonetheless.

http://www.trackingbibleprophecy.org/olivet2.php#tribulation


Matthew 24:22(NASB)
"Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
Not that there would be fewer days.  How are the days shortened, and why are they shortened.  Due to the global earthquake that tilts the world's axis.  Revelation 6:12  Isaiah 24:20  Due to the intensity of the sun heating up.  Revelation 16:9  If there were 24 hour days then nothing would be left alive.  So the days themselves will be shorter.  Likely by a third.  Thus you would have 8 hours of daylight/ 8 hours of night for a 16 hour day.
Revelation 8:12(NASB)
The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.
If God told Daniel there would be a specific number of days, He is not going to violate that time frame. 
Daniel 12:11-12(NASB)
11“From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.
12“How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days! exact length.
You will notice that there is an extra 45 days until the Millennium begins.  This is most likely for the judging of the nations.  Matthew 25:32
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” — Ephesians 6:11


Jul 30, 2012 Descending into Darkness
I have been watching as little as possible of the news coverage related to the shooting in Aurora, Colorado. I realize it is a major news story, but I'm just sick of the fact that the emotional outcry is simply a cut and paste from a long line of other mass-murder shootings. Everyone is shocked by the event, but nothing is changed by it.
The world was just a few days short of the first anniversary of the massacre in Norway. Anders Behring Breivik murdered 77 people, and a year later they are still in the process of deciding his fate. Since Breivik can only serve a maximum sentence of 21 years in Norway, with time severed, he'll be a free man in two decades.
The liberal media wasted no time trying to blame the shooting on a conservative group. ABC News' chief investigative reporter Brian Ross said, “There is a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea Party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year."
There was no effort of the part of Ross to contact the organization to verify if Jim Holmes was the shooter. The press must have some secret policy that gives any reporter the right to initially pin mass murder on any conservative of their choosing. The same thing happened last year, right after U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot. Jared Loughner was tied to the Tea Party, but in fact, he had liberal viewpoints.
Using the same standards that Brian Ross uses for reporting, one can uncover some serious charges against him. If you Google Brian Ross, you will find that he was charged with murder and "sexual-related" misdeeds.
Crime one: Chris Davis was brutally killed and murdered; he was found facedown in his pool. Brian Ross has been arrested for the killing of Chris Davis.
Crime two: Brian Ross sent explicit photos and text messages to two teenage girls: Brian Ross was arrested at 5:35 p.m. Thursday at Sierra and Merrill avenues in Fontana and booked on suspicion of contacting a minor and arranging to meet with a minor via the Internet for the purpose of having sex, jail records show. His bail is $50,000.
It would appear that James Holmes has mental issues that may be at least partly explain why he carried out the attack. He was being treated by a psychiatrist at the university where he studied. Holmes sent the psychiatrist a package containing a notebook with descriptions of a theoretical attack.
I looked at dozens of media reports on the attack, and I didn't find any mention that the movie itself could have been a factor in the massacre. Holmes told the police he was The Joker when he was arrested. He may have been trying to recreate a scene from the 2008 movie, The Dark Knight, which features a scene in which The Joker, played by Heath Ledger, wears a red wig while destroying a hospital. Holmes' apartment had all kinds Batman memorabilia.
The only thing the liberal media talked about this week was the availability of guns. They refuse to allow any debate on the reason people pull the trigger.
I did find an open letter to the makers of the Batman movie that was worth sharing. It was written by Charles Hurt, a staff writer for the Washington Times:
"When you die, your gravestones should read: Here lie men who created such horrific, meaningless violence in such realistic scenes that a sicko carried it out for real and shot 70 people, killing 12, including a 6-year-old girl.
Which brings us to Warner Brothers, those titans of decency. You bankrolled The Dark Knight Rises and so many other pointlessly violent movies that infect feeble minds and bring hatred upon America. You, it is reported, are feeling really sad about those poor saps who paid to see your wicked movies — only to have the very scenes come alive and kill them in the dark, sticky rows between seats of a movie theater.
Out of your “respect” for these people, you declared you would not announce box-office receipts from this weekend’s snuff film. Instead, you will count your $150 million in bloody money — privately".
To trace how our society has descended into moral darkness, all one needs to do is follow the history of the Batman franchise. The 1960s Batman starring Adam West and Burt Ward can be described as campy, cartoonish, and cheesy at times. The shows featured all kinds of fighting, but the main villains never got killed in these dust-ups. The Batman of today has taken on a dark, sinister, and evil tone. In these flicks, people die left and right.
I think we're truly in trouble as society when we reach the point at which morality is no longer questioned as a factor in the type of violence we see today. Until people realize that the garbage being spewed by Hollywood is corrupting the world, we are going to continue to see events similar to what transpired in Aurora, Colorado.
"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (Romans 1:21-22).
Todd

End-of-Days Violence – Part 1

The most profound foretelling in Bible prophecy is done by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Great I Am, and no prophet of the Old or New testaments speaks with greater authority. Other prophets speak with authority equal to His, the argument can be made, but only because Jesus gave them the prophetic truth to pass along to the rest of us. It is His prophecy in the first place. Despite the tremendous importance of and power manifested in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, the earliest part of that reporting of end-times matters takes second place to another area of prophecy, as far as we are concerned today, in my view. I find Christ’s words in the following passages to be the most relevant to this very hour in which this generation finds itself:
“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” (Luke 17: 26-30)
As many who read these commentaries are aware, I consider this to be the most relevant prophecy to our time because of specific factors. Jesus was prophesying here about exactly how things will be in culture and society upon the earth at the time He intervenes catastrophically into the affairs of mankind. He said in these and other similar passages that things would be pretty much normal for the times, so far as human activity is concerned, at the time of His thief in the night interjection into earth’s history. People will be eating, drinking, buying, selling, building, marrying, planting, and doing other things that seem to be normal activities at the time He breaks in and reveals himself.
As I’ve written numerous times, this cannot be referring to the Second Advent (Second Coming at Armageddon--see Revelation 19:11). The twenty-one specific judgments of the scrolls, trumpets, and vials will have decimated this planet at the time of that glorious return with ten thousand of Christ’s saints. God’s wrath, Satan’s rage, and man’s gross sin and folly will have denuded the earth of, perhaps, three-fourths of human life. The radical environmentalists will see their dream come true–that of getting the planet’s population to its bare minimum.
Rather than the utopian existence they anticipate, however, it will be hell on earth at the time Christ’s foot touches down on the Mount of Olives upon His return. Remember –Jesus said that if He didn’t come back at that time, there would be no flesh left alive on this devastated sphere (Matthew 24:21). The violence that has plagued mankind will reach its crescendo as Armageddon explodes in all of its fury in the Middle East. And, the Bible indicates, no part of the globe will escape the effects of the seven-seals scroll found in Revelation chapters 6-19.
So, we look at Jesus' Luke 17 prophecy to discover why, exactly, I say I believe it is the most relevant foretelling for our time. We first must think on the characteristics of the time of Noah and Lot’s days on earth. Again, that intervention has to be at a time when things culturally and societally are going along in a relatively normal fashion. Prophecy tells us elsewhere in the Scriptures that there will be a cry that peace and safety has arrived, when sudden destruction comes. Jesus’ break-in on the world will be like the break-in of a thief in the night, according to His own words. It will be totally unexpected by the children of the night, we are told by the apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians.
Point is, our present time frame seems to match up with another prophecy by the Lord Jesus that speaks to this business-as-usual profile. Again, we find the amazing words of Jesus himself laying out specifically how things will be. He tells these future events within the framework of the Olivet Discourse. Read carefully what He says about what those attuned to the promise of His coming can expect. Particularly, look at the last verses of this prophecy.
"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” (Matthew 24:36-44)
Jesus was talking about the “think-not" generation that would be living at the time of the Rapture of His church. I know the seminary position has most often been that Christ was talking here about the time of His Second Advent. But, we just looked at why this isn’t possible. Societal and cultural circumstances will not be business as usual at the time of Christ’s return at Armageddon. these Scriptures can refer to none other than the calling of believers into the air to be with Him forever. (Read John 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
So, we consider further the days of Noah and of Lot. What is the most common characteristic–and there is one in particular— that marked those times as unmistakably similar to our current time? I believe we witnessed this characteristic in action just this past week. Next week’s Nearing Midnight article will, I hope, provide an enlightening dissection of that characteristic.

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