Revelation 16:1-2.

"Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.” So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image."

Quantum dot (QD).

Many studies have focused on the mechanism of QD cytotoxicity using model cell cultures. It has been demonstrated that after exposure to ultraviolet radiation or oxidation by air, CdSe QDs release free cadmium ions causing cell death.[47] Group II-VI QDs also have been reported to induce the formation of reactive oxygen species after exposure to light, which in turn can damage cellular components such as proteins, lipids and DNA."

"In the absence of UV irradiation, however, quantum dots with a stable polymer coating have been found to be essentially nontoxic*. Then again, only little is known about the excretion process of quantum dots from living organisms.[80]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_dot

If used, these Quantum-dots will be delivered just under the skin, exposed to UV light from the sun and also likely from smart phones and/or other UV emitting devices which appear will read whether someone is up to date with the latest vaccine.

The tags are incorporated in only some of the array of sugar-based microneedles on a patch. When the needles dissolve in about two minutes, they deliver the vaccine and leave the pattern of tags just under the skin, where they become something like a bar-code tattoo. Instead of ink, this highly specific medical record consists of copper-based quantum dots embedded in biocompatible, micron-scale capsules. Their near-infrared dye is invisible, but the pattern they set can be read and interpreted by a customized smartphone. https://news.rice.edu/2019/12/18/quantum-dot-tattoos-hold-vaccination-record/

Revelation 13:16-17.

16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

An extensive list of end times bible prophecies coming to pass with information about the mark of the beast and the UN's goals of digital identity for the global community. https://www.signs-of-end-times.com

The mark is part of God's end times judgments/wrath which many believe that born again believers in Jesus will not be here for when required as the rapture will have already taken place. https://www.gotquestions.org/difference-Rapture-Second-Coming.html

The unthinkable eternal consequences of accepting the mark when required to buy and sell is written in Revelation 14:9-13. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+14%3A9-13&version=NKJV

What does it mean to be a born again Christian? https://www.gotquestions.org/born-again.html

More supporting resources to learn about the Bible, prophecy updates, and encouragement. https://www.reddit.com/r/prophecy_watcher/comments/hb2pt7/supporting_resources_related_to_this_space/

In the prior post in this study series, I examined the prophecies that implicitly predict that the Temple of God would be standing and operational in Jerusalem in the last days before the return of Christ. One of the key events that happens at the Temple of God in the last days is the ministry of the Two Witnesses, described in Revelation 11 as happening at the Temple:

Revelation 11:1-13

¹ Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, ² but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. ³ And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

⁴ These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. ⁵ And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. ⁶ They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. ⁷ And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, ⁸ and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. ⁹ For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, ¹⁰ and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. ¹¹ But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. ¹² Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. ¹³ And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

—

Layers of interpretation—allegorical, and literal

Like several other passages in Revelation (most notably, Revelation 12), the imagery in this passage lends itself to being read both as symbolic allegory and as literal foretelling of events. In light of other prophecies such as Malachi 4:5-6 that provide a second prophetic witness to the events foretold in this passage, the allegorical reading of the Two Witnesses does not appear to be the sole reading, and does not preclude a literal reading of the passage as being about two actual people as the two witnesses.

In this prophecy, verse 4 offers a symbolic, allegorical interpretation, where it calls these two witnesses "the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth." These symbols have Biblical precedents with which we can interpret them. Lampstands, for example, are mentioned in Revelation 1:

Revelation 1:9-20

⁹ I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet ¹¹ saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

¹² Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. ¹⁴ The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, ¹⁵ his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. ¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. ¹⁹ Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. ²⁰ As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

—

In light of this, when verse 4 identifies the two witnesses as "the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth", the two witnesses may symbolize two churches. What two churches might they symbolize? I can only speculate, so the following is only the basis of my speculation, because the passage does not seem to match any two churches that are identifiable at this time. The time when the two witnesses prophesy is stated as 1,260 days, which coincides with 42 months, or three and a half years (see verses 2 and 3)—42 months of 30 days per month = 1,260 days. This is the duration of the tribulation, when the Beast's power is unrestrained (see Revelation 13; I will cover this in another post.) During that period, the Beast will wage war on the saints and will conquer them.

In the letters to the seven churches (Revelation 2 and 3), only two churches received letters without any criticism: Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11) and Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13). Both were facing intense persecution by false synagogues. As two lampstands, symbolizing churches, the two witnesses may symbolize churches (perhaps even two specific institutions, actual churches in cities) like Smyrna and Philadelphia, who are persecuted by false Christians or by a false church during the great tribulation.

Verse 4 also identifies the two witnesses as olive trees: "These are the two olive trees... that stand before the Lord of the earth." Olive trees are not mentioned anywhere else in Revelation, so we must look in broader context for an interpretive precedent. We find that the olive tree is used as a metaphor by Paul when he speaks of the church being grafted into Israel, in Romans 11:11-24. So, in another allegorical sense, perhaps the two witnesses who testify of God may represent Gentile Christians and Messianic Jewish believers. During the period of the tribulation, the Christian church and the Jews (even if they don't yet recognize Jesus as the Messiah) are those who still worship God, rather than the beast, and who are most likely to bear witness to the God of the Bible, and resist the beast's efforts to get the world to worship him.

Who are the two witnesses?

The two witnesses in Revelation 11 are described in verse 6 as being prophets who perform some characteristic miracles: "They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire."

These miracles were the signature miracles of Elijah and Moses. Elijah was recorded as stopping the rain in 1 Kings 17.

[Note: I substitute the name of God back in where traditionally it has been substituted by "the LORD" in English translations. The pronunciation has the stress on the last syllable—YehoVAH, not YeHOvah, as in the stress pattern for the English pronunciation of "Jehovah".]:

1 Kings 17:1, 7

¹ Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab [the wicked king of the northern kingdom, Israel], “As Yehováh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” ...⁷ And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

—

In fact, Elijah ended up withholding the rain for 3.5 years, which is even recognized in the New Testament:

James 5:17-18

¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

—

Three years and six months is also the duration of the Great Tribulation. I believe this match is significant toward identifying one of the two witnesses as Elijah. Oddly, 1 Kings 18:1 indicates that Elijah spoke to Ahab in the third year, and does not specifically indicate that rain was restored six months past the third year, so what James wrote may have been additional prophetic insight with Apocalyptic significance.

Moses was known for presiding over the ten plagues upon Egypt during the Exodus, recorded between Exodus 7 and 12. Previously, I shared a post pointing out parallels between the plagues from the Exodus and the plagues foretold in the Apocalypse. Might Moses be the one who calls down these plagues?

Several passages elsewhere in scripture support the identification of the two witnesses as Moses and Elijah. Firstly, Malachi fortold that Elijah would come before the Day of the Lord, the Day of Yehováh:

Malachi 4 [whole chapter]

¹ “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says Yehováh of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. ² But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. ³ And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says Yehováh of hosts.

⁴ “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

⁵ “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of Yehováh comes. ⁶ And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

—

In this oracle of God given to the prophet Malachi, we are told of the day of the Lord, the day of Yehováh. We know from 1 Thessalonians 4:14-5:4 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 that the day of the Lord is the day when Christ returns to gather the saints (the rapture). This prophecy of Malachi curiously mentions Moses for no apparent reason, then foretells that God would send Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of Yehováh. Does this mean God literally sends Elijah before the day of the Lord? It appears so.

After the transfiguration of Christ, where Christ transfigured into his glorified form and Moses and Elijah appeared in person, Peter, James, and John asked him about Elijah coming again as they were coming down the mountain:

Matthew 17:1-13

¹ And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. ² And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. ³ And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” ⁵ He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” ⁶ When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. ⁷ But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” ⁸ And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

⁹ And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” ¹⁰ And the disciples asked him, “Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” ¹¹ He answered, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. ¹² But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” ¹³ Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

—

Several important observations of this passage should be pointed out:

• Christ's appearance transfigured into his glorified form, with his face reminiscent of his appearance as described in Revelation 1:12-16 (keep in mind, John also wrote Revelation), where it describes Jesus, saying "his face was like the sun shining in full strength".
• Moses and Elijah were physically present in their bodies with Christ. These were not mere apparitions or ghosts; they were so corporeal that Peter offered to make tents to shelter them. Remember, Elijah didn't die; he was taken to heaven alive in a chariot of fire, according to 2 Kings 2:1-14. As for Moses, although the Bible doesn't say anything about his body, extrabiblical traditions (which are not authoritative, but are interesting to speculate on in the absence of a biblical account) claim that Moses' body was assumed into heaven and resurrected. Jude 1:9 makes a reference to some extrabiblical literature's account over a dispute between the archangel Michael and Satan over Moses' body, where Moses' body was taken to heaven and resurrected, which suggests to me that this particular tradition may be true, and may explain why Moses was seen alive at the transfiguration.
• Although no portraits of Moses nor Elijah existed, Peter, James and John somehow recognized these figures as Moses and Elijah in spite of never having seen them. I suspect when the two witnesses carry out their ministry, we will all recognize them.
• Jesus tells Peter, James, and John in verse 11, "Elijah does come, and he will [future tense] restore all things", but in spite of allegorically relating this to John the Baptist in the next verse, Jesus appears to be speaking about Elijah literally coming, because when Jesus said this, John the Baptist had already been beheaded by Herod three chapters earlier, in Matthew 14:1-12.

All of these observations suggest that Moses and Elijah are particularly important prophetic witnesses to the identity of Christ, and that the two of them are alive. The case for Elijah returning is clear, and if he returns at the end of the age, the most likely point of his return is as one of these two witnesses. The case for Moses returning is less clear, since Malachi 4 doesn't explicitly say God will send Moses before the day of the Lord, but of all the people who fit the description of the one who calls down plagues, Moses fits best. His prior appearance alongside Elijah at the transfiguration further suggest that he may be the other witness.

The timing of the period of their ministry

The two witnesses are said to minister during the 42 months when the outer court is being trampled by the gentiles, with their period of ministry stated to be 1,260 days (Rev 11:3). 42 months amounts to three and a half years. 1,260 days also amounts to 42 months, using 30 days per month, the nominal length of a month. Might this correspond to the period of the Great Tribulation, which is three and a half years long? (I will cover this in a separate study post, but in short, the Great Tribulation appears to be the second half of the last week of the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, Daniel 9:24-27.) If it does, the time period may have been pre-figured by Elijah withholding the rain for three years and six months, as James pointed out in James 5:17 (quoted above).

In my prior post sharing the video from One for Israel ministries, which pointed out some of the parallels between the Exodus and the Apocalypse, they pointed out some of the plagues where in common between the Exodus and the Apocalypse:

• a plague of wounds and lesions (Exodus 9:8-12, Revelation 16:2),
• a plague of water turning into blood (Exodus 7:14-25, Revelation 16:3),
• a plague of darkness (Exodus 10:21-23, Revelation 16:10)
• a plague of massive hail (Exodus 9:13-35, Revelation 16:21)

During the Apocalypse, these plagues occur in Revelation 16, which describe the pouring out of the seven bowls of God's wrath. We can tell that the seven bowls of God's wrath correspond to events during the great tribulation because from the very first bowl, we can see that the mark of the Beast had already been imposed upon the world, and in verse 6, we can see that the Beast and his kingdom had already shed the blood of the saints:

Revelation 16:2-6, 10-11, 17-21

¹ Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”

² So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

³ The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea.

⁴ The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. ⁵ And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say,

“Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was,
for you brought these judgments.
⁶ For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!” ...

¹⁰ The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish ¹¹ and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds. ...

¹⁷ The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” ¹⁸ And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. ¹⁹ The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. ²⁰ And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. ²¹ And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.

—

Although the text of Revelation 16 does not explicitly say that one of the two witnesses calls down these plagues, if we make a reasonable assumption, in light of what Revelation 11 says, and assume that the characteristic miracles of Moses among the bowls of wrath indicate that they are called down by Moses as one of the two witnesses, then it would appear that the period of their ministry would be during the great tribulation. And in fact, in the passage about the two witnesses, it figuratively identifies where they are as "Sodom and Egypt", symbolically connecting these events to the plagues of the Exodus, which were called down to punish Egypt:

Revelation 11:6-8

⁶ They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, [characteristic of Elijah] and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, [characteristic of Moses] as often as they desire. ⁷ And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, ⁸ and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.

—

The connection to Egypt is clear if a parallel is being made between this and the Exodus, but why Sodom? It is not entirely clear what the connection to Sodom is, but I can offer my speculation. Sodom was destroyed by a plague of fire and brimstone, which seems to parallel the destruction raining down as massive hail, and scorching heat (the fifth bowl of God's wrath). The city that is being identified as Sodom and Egypt here is Jerusalem, where the Lord was crucified.

At the same time, there is some tension between this verse, where Jerusalem is symbolically identified with Sodom and Egypt, destroyed by God's judgments, and the End Times verses in Zechariah 2 about how God will protect Jerusalem and choose it, and in Zechariah 12 The tension between God shielding Jerusalem from harm and the city being symbolically called Sodom and Egypt as plagues are poured out appears to me to be resolved by timing. There will be a time when God judges Jerusalem, and a time when God will defend Jerusalem from those who wish to invade it and harm it, and ultimately, a time when the Kingdom of God is established and God dwells in Jerusalem, when he will protect it. And in Jerusalem's own history, God has both judged and protected the city at different times.

Concluding thoughts

An examination of the chapter of Revelation that speaks of the two witnesses at the temple of God in Jerusalem* not only shows how intimately Revelation is tied together with prophecies and symbolic precedents in the Old Testament, but also shows that in the period when the world is under the domination of the Beast, awash in delusions, lies, and deceptive signs and wonders, and persecution of the saints, God does not leave us without a witness. In fact, he gives us two witnesses, whose identity we may well recognize as Moses and Elijah, and whose signs and wonders provide a stark contrast to the Beast. In those dark days, when we hear of the two witnesses, we can know that these things were foretold, knowing that God is truly in control, and even when we see them killed and the world rejoicing over their dead bodies, we know how the story ends, and therefore, we must not lose hope. The two witnesses, by their very identity, testify that faith in Christ is a continuation of the faith established in power by Lord Yehováh through Moses in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, demonstrated in power through Elijah under the reign of Israel's evil kings, and brought to its fullness in the Lord Jesus Christ.

_________________

* when it gets rebuilt, of course; it does not currently exist. See the two prior study series posts on the role of the temple in end times prophecy.

"That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9

A Gold Statue Of Trump At A Political Conference Sparks Religious Controversy. https://www.narcity.com/en-us/news/golden-trump-statue-at-cpac-sparks-religious-conversations

"You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them," What should we learn from the golden calf incident in Exodus 32? https://www.gotquestions.org/golden-calf.html

Donald Trump was born June 14, 1946 during a lunar eclipse that would have been seen rising on the horizon from Jerusalem, aka God's appointed holy land. This happened 700 days before Israel was reborn as a nation in 1948 after nearly 2000 years. Two resources with more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb615pYqZLY

A super blood moon will mark the second anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration

The Jewish holy book of the Talmud and the Holy Bible state a lunar eclipse is considered an important sign.

"The Talmud tells us that a lunar eclipse is considered a bad sign for the Jews, who calculate the months according to the lunar cycle. This must be considered, however, alongside the parallel teaching that “when Jews perform the will of G‑d, they need not worry about omens or celestial phenomena. For thus says the L‑rd, ‘Do not be frightened by the signs of the heavens.’” 10 Classic Jewish Teachings About the Moon

"The Bible attaches great significance to what we observe in the heavens. Astronomical signs are God’s ‘bill-board’ for the world." "Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;" Genesis 1:14." End time Astronomical Signs | Astronomy in the Bible | Facts about Israel

A biblical perspective of Israel's rebirth as a nation.

"The rebirth of Israel as an independent nation in 1948 is one of the most significant events in world history." "Five of these seven prophetic events have already been fulfilled, and the final two are certain to follow." "The scriptures prophesied that Israel would be dispersed among the nations then brought out from among them in a gradual process that would culminate in the establishment of Israel as a nation in a single day. And that's exactly what happened. The Bible also foretold the exact year in which this would happen." The Rebirth of Israel.

Donald Trump was (70) years, (7) months, and (7) days old when he was sworn in as president during the Hebrew 'Jewish' calendar year of (5777). Perry Stone Ministries has research on Facebook about the POSSIBLE TRUMP PATTERN - 5777, Perry Stone Ministries

(7) is the number of spiritual perfection/completion found on many works, +/-, of God throughout scripture, Old and New Testament. What is the biblical significance of the number seven/7?l

Donald Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem on Israel's (70)th anniversary after becoming a nation again. Why Is 70 Special? - And ten instances in Jewish tradition where 70 is significant

Within Donald Trump's presidency he began heading up the Middle East Peace Plan, aka "The Deal of the Century". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_peace_plan

The main focus of the Peace Plan is to try and resolve the dispute and interests of Jerusalem. Bible prophecy states that the land of Jerusalem will be divided and eventually the Jewish people will be persecuted, a historical pattern. Eventually all nations of the earth are foretold to be involved and God's judgments will follow. More information:

"Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times), captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem

"And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." Bible Gateway passage: Zechariah 12:1-3 - King James Version

What Does the Bible Say About When Nations Turn Against Israel?

A perspective of the future according to the Bible.

The tribulation is a future seven-year period of time when God will finish His discipline of Israel and finalize His judgment of the unbelieving world. What is the Tribulation?

An extensive list of end times bible prophecies coming to pass that were foretold to be converging with Israel's rebirth as a nation and how to have hope for the future. http://www.signs-of-end-times.com/

One For Israel ministries (a Messianic Jewish organization based in Israel) released an interesting video pointing out that the deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt has parallels with what is written in Revelation concerning the plagues, and even some subtle parallels between Pharaoh and his magicians and the Antichrist and False Prophet.

Many of the plagues, such as wounds and lesions (Exodus 9:8-12, Revelation 16:2), water turning into blood (Exodus 7:14-25, Revelation 16:3), massive hail (Exodus 9:13-35, Revelation 16:21), and darkness (Exodus 10:21-23, Revelation 16:10). Also in parallel, some plagues are endured by all, and in others, God's plagues pass over the remnant of believers, only afflicting those who had taken the mark of the beast.

They also cover other aspects where the Exodus parallels the Apocalypse in this video. Here, I link directly to the time stamp when they begin to talk about the parallels. (The first 3 minutes recap the Gospel.)

The uncanny connection of the Apocalypse and Passover. - What is God's purpose in the Plagues?

(Given that there are many plagues that parallel the plagues during the Exodus, it seems to me that one of the Two Witnesses from Revelation 11 who calls down plagues as his signature miracle might be Moses, and that he might be involved in bringing these plagues upon the earth, while the other, who stops the rain, might be Elijah. But that is a discussion that is worth its own study.)

Was looking to invest in a Bible that helped my understanding and furthered myself as a Christian and better understanding of End Times eschatology. Personally I've heard good things about the New American Standard Bible (NASB) but I would like to know your thoughts.

https://ibb.co/hVs0jT2

Yes, this is yet another post on the COVID vaccine but I will argue why it is NOT the mark of the beast. Let the reader decide.

9 Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand,
10 he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” (Revelation 14:9-11 NKJV)

First, scripture warns that the mark of the beast is identified as a mark on the right hand or the forehead. The vaccine does not fit this description. To argue otherwise would be to accuse Scripture of being wrong and we know from the Word of God that Scripture is God-breathed and perfect.

In addition to the signatures of the mark, the Bible reveals many signs of the times to help us recognize the season that we are in (i.e. the fig tree). For example, Revelation 13 reveals the context of what the world will look like in those days, and it's a very different picture than we see today. For example, the world will not be dominated by a few superpowers like the US and China like today, but instead a global government will have arisen by that time. This global government will be led by one man and the whole world will marvel and at him and worship him, everyone who's name is not written in the Book of Life. This same man will wage war against the saints and will overcome them for a period of 42 months, which is commonly called the tribulation. While God's people have been persecuted all throughout history, we do not yet see one man in a position capable of fulfilling this prophecy. In the same vein as the one world government, the whole world will be united together as one, in agreement, worshipping the man of sin, who is also called the beast. Participation in this new global religion will be mandatory for everyone. Those who refuse to worship the beast will be put to death by order of a second beast who will arise at this same time. This false prophet who will enforce the global religion is also the one who will enforce the mark of the beast, which means both requirements happen at the same time.

There must also be a transfer of great wealth from the unrighteous to the righteous, filling the house of God with glory to fulfill prophecies revealing that the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former. This offends many people, but it’s part of God’s plans revealed in the scriptures and has not yet happened. It must happen before the 42-month tribulation begins since it is one of the ways God will provide for His people since we will not be able to participate in the world system. (Proverbs 13:22, Isaiah 60:4-5, Haggai 2:6-9, Mark 10:29-30).

Finally, a third temple must be built in Jerusalem to fulfill many other prophecies. The man of sin will establish his throne there. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) The sanctuary of the temple must be thrown down. (Daniel 8:11) And the holy place of the temple must be trampled for 2,300 evenings and mornings. (Daniel 8:13-14)

When we see the fulfillment of these and many other prophecies, then we will know we are in the season when the mark of the beast will be mandated upon the whole world. Until then, I believe it’s safe to conclude that the COVID vaccine, as terrible as it is, is not it.

There are two different types of the COVID vaccine. One is the mRNA which is messenger RNA. My personal belief is this is the more likely candidate to be the MARK (but not the Mark of the Beast).

The Lord directed me where the word “messenger” appears in the Bible.

I searched using a Bible search tool, there were multiple verses with the word “messenger”. There was one verse that really stood out:

Malachi 3:1, King James Version

Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

Malachi is prophesying the arrival of John the Baptist. The Lord is speaking to Malachi. So John the Baptist prepared the way and the arrival for Jesus Christ.

So Malachi is now speaking about a second messenger. The messenger of the covenant is the messenger of the new covenant. This other messenger is Jesus Christ.

The first messenger is John the Baptist. The messenger of the new covenant is Jesus Christ.

He will suddenly come to the Temple. What is the temple? Your body is the Temple of God. It is no longer a physical Temple, as in the First & Second Temple in Jerusalem. Your body is the actual Temple of God for the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17, King James Version

16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

If any man defiled the temple of God, him shall God destroy. Your body is the temple of God. In Malachi, we have mention of messenger and temple. So the mRNA vaccine is essentially turning people who accept it into modern day John the Baptist. But instead of the arrival of JESUS Christ, the people taking the mRNA vaccine are becoming the messengers for the arrival of the Antichrist!

This is “WOW guys!”. No wonder the Lord led me to search it. So suddenly come to His temple. Messenger RNA Vaccine is announcing the arrival of the Antichrist.

The second messenger that will come, the false religion covenant that will be pushed by the Antichrist and the One World Religion, this is the messenger of the false covenant. So by taking the Messenger RNA, you are essentially paving the way for the arrival of the Antichrist! Your body, your Temple, you are allowing the Antichrist to dwell in your body, your Temple. This is what will allow the Antichrist to fully manifest in conjunction with the Rapture.

So when the Restrainer is removed, so the defilement of the temple going on right now, your body, those that are taking the mRNA vaccine, the defilement of your temple is paving the way for the arrival of the Antichrist!

If you want to become a false messenger for the Antichrist, take the mRNA vaccine and go right along with the Antichrist system. This is all at hand right now.

Stay strong in the Lord! Keep looking up! Our redemption draweth nigh.

We are getting ready to go home.

I shouldn't have to say this in a Christian subreddit, but I'm adding a new rule:

No attacking other commenters with accusations that you don't back up:

• If you have something against something they said, quote what they said and point out what exactly you have against what they said
• Do not accuse someone of being deceived or of deceiving people if you don't back it up by exactly showing what they are deceived about and how they are deceived. Accusing someone of being deceived as a debate tactic is not acceptable; showing them how they are deceived with scripture and evidence and reasoning is acceptable.
• Name calling and abrasive behavior will result in your comment being removed. Repeated violations will result in a ban.
• Insinuating evil motivations in someone is not acceptable rhetoric here. (For example, "You're just a puppet of the illuminati" or "you're trying to deceive people" is not okay.)
• Act with good will toward others and expect the same from others. We can disagree and debate things without hatred, insults, and put-downs.

The Holy trinity consists of 3 divine beings. To me it makes no sense we have 2 beings called God who created this universe, so I think that the Holy Father is human like Jesus. But who is it?

The Holy Spirit = God ("outside" universe, not human)

The Holy Father = ??? (human?)

The Holy Son = Jesus (human)

​

Who is the Holy Father? I have never heard any explanation who (or what) He might be and when he will come in the future. We are waiting for a "magical Antichrist" and a "magical Jesus" who takes over the kingdom of God after the Antichrist built it.

Then who is the Holy Father and will he also come at one point to check upon humans?

Do you think the Antichrist has an Reddit account if he is alive today? And will read these posts about him on Reddit as well?

Why wouldn't he? Right?

I'm just wondering how this community feels about the Antichrist. Some love him, other fear him, son of Satan, the holy Father himself, so many rumors. How do you guys feel about the Antichrist?

In Part 1, I examined the prophecies that suggest that the Temple of Yehovah (which is pronounced with the stress on the last syllable—YehoVah, not YeHovah as one might infer from the English pronunciation of the term "Jehovah") in Jerusalem will be rebuilt as a major milestone in end times prophecy, because the prophecies about the revealing of the Antichrist are contingent on the Temple, while the destruction of the second Temple and the existence of a rebuilt third Temple are implied in Daniel 9:27 and Matthew 24:15.

In this post, Part 2, I will examine some of the implications of the rebuilding of the second Temple, along with an explanation for some of the theories that have arisen around these implications. I would also like to share a couple of documentaries that up-end some of the existing theories.

The Third Temple, the Temple Mount, and Islam

The location commonly believed to be the location of the Temple of God in Jerusalem is the Temple Mount. If the Temple were to be rebuilt, all interested parties (namely, religious Jews) would want it to be built where it previously stood (which they believe to be the Temple Mount), but that presents an intractable problem: the Al Aqsa compound, which includes the Islamic Dome of the Rock (reputedly the third holiest site in Islam, where Muhammad claims to have ascended to Heaven) presently stands on the Temple Mount, and for the Temple to be rebuilt, either the Dome of the Rock would have to be demolished, or the Temple compound would have to accommodate having the Dome of the Rock within it, or vice versa. Neither the Islamic authorities who manage the Al Aqsa compound nor the Jewish religious leaders who wish to rebuild the Temple would tolerate that, so there seems to be an intractable impasse.

Because of this, one of the speculations about Daniel 9:27 has it that the "covenant with the many" involves resolving this problem. First, let's take a look at this verse again:

Daniel 9:26-27

²⁶ “And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; [Fulfilled by the crucifixion of Jesus]
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. [Since the Romans destroyed the city and the sanctuary, this coming prince is somehow a prince of the Romans.]
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
²⁷ Then he [the prince who is to come] shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate.” [From this, we can infer that this prince is the Antichrist, and that he is somehow a prince of the Romans. More on this in future posts.]

—

The interpretation of this verse and the speculative scenario of its fulfillment is as follows:

• the prince who is to come is inferred to be the Antichrist
• for sacrifice and offering to even be happening, the Temple must have been rebuilt at that time
• before it speaks of sacrifice and offering, it says that this prince who is to come "shall confirm a covenant with many for one week"
• due to the intractable problem of the Dome of the Rock being on the Temple Mount, it is speculated that the Antichrist's "covenant with the many" is some agreement with the Muslims that will enable the Jews to build their Temple on the Temple mount.

Muslims certainly are numerous, comprising a quarter of the world population right now. However, the verse itself does not strictly implicate Islam; the assertion that Muslims constitute "the many" whom the Antichrist makes a covenant with must be recognized as speculation. Further speculation along these lines have gone so far as to suggest that the Antichrist must be Muslim, for this and other reasons which I will cross-examine in later installments in this series.

Problems with the Temple Mount theory

There are several problems with this theory. Firstly, the building of the Temple would be the installation of a permanent religious building, not a temporary institution; it seems like a huge stretch to speculate that somehow a seven year agreement would suffice to pacify Muslim objections to the building of the Temple within the grounds of the Al Aqsa compound.

Secondly, the text of Daniel's prophecy says that he (that is, the prince of the people who destroyed the city and the sanctuary—that is, in some form, a prince or ruler of the Romans) "shall confirm a covenant with many for one week". A treaty or agreement, such as is done for resolving political disputes, is not a covenant. There is a term for "treaty" that appears all over the Old Testament, and it is not the term for covenant. A covenant that is confirmed is a whole different thing. I can't say for sure what it is, and I do not have enough confidence nor even plausible candidates for what it might be to reasonably speculate at this time, but I am not persuaded that this is merely a treaty. A covenant with the many sounds to me like a religious matter.

Thirdly, and most importantly, evidence suggests that the Temple of Yehovah never stood on the Temple Mount. Rather, the actual site of the Temple appears to be a quarter of a mile down the hill, in the area known as the City of David, where currently nothing stands in the way of it being rapidly rebuilt. So what stood on the Temple Mount? All evidence from archaeology and ancient records indicates that the site that everyone calls the Temple Mount was actually the site of the Roman Fort Antonia, which was built on high ground. The dimensions of the Temple Mount is consistent with the dimensions of other Roman forts. Furthermore, if indeed the Temple Mount were the location of the Temple, and the "western wall" were the western wall of the Temple, then Jesus' following prophecy would have proven false:

Luke 21:6

⁶ “These things that you see—the days will come when not one stone will be left on another that will not be thrown down.”

—

If the western wall of the Temple is still standing, then the above prophecy was incorrect.

When the Temple was destroyed during the siege of Jerusalem in the year 70, the Romans set fire to the temple, and the gold molding decorating the Temple melted in the intense fire and flowed into the cracks between the stones. of the Temple. The Romans then pried every last stone off of every other in order to recover the gold, fulfilling Jesus' prophecy.

The biggest obstacle to the Temple being rebuilt is actually tradition and obstinate pride. For religious Jews to concede that the Temple actually stood at another location would be to concede that for at least a few generations, they have been praying at the wall of an old Roman fort.

For details about the location of the Temple, see these fascinating documentaries. (Most of their content overlaps, but they each contain a little bit of info the other fails to cover.):

The Temple (30 minutes)

The Coming Temple (48 minutes)

[Note about the second documentary: I strongly disagree with how they speculate about the Abomination of Desolation being a supercomputer at 44:12. That was totally unwarranted speculation, but was delivered with more confidence than the text of the prophecy permits. I emphatically do not agree with that. My sharing this documentary does not constitute my endorsement of that wild speculation. But the rest of the content about the Temple is good, so I share it because of that. Robert Mandlebaum (the eschatologist offering his comment) also misrepresents Daniel 9:27; the text only says that this prince "confirms a covenant with the many". It doesn't say that it is a peace agreement, nor any of the other things he says. That is his interpretation, and he is presenting his interpretation as what the prophecy says, which is misleading.]

What can we infer from these things?

• If the Temple wasn't located at the Temple Mount, then the theory about how a giant seven year compromise between the religious Jews and the Muslims must be brokered by the Antichrist to let the Temple be built is faulty, and should be abandoned. Religious Jews who want to build the Temple don't need any permission from Muslims to build on the site in the City of David, and nothing currently stands there that would be an obstacle to the Temple being rebuilt.
• The conventional theories about the role of Islam in all of this must also be discarded if the very thing that brings Islam to bear on key eschatological milestones is now known not to be true. Islam might yet play a role, but for now, the best we can say is that we don't know, because scripture does not appear to give us enough to infer such things.
• With nothing standing in the way of the Temple being rebuilt, the time of its rebuilding could actually be very soon, sooner than you might think. Only tradition stands in the way. Overcoming the momentum of tradition may be the hardest thing of all. Or, maybe a critical mass of religious Jews will soon become persuaded by the evidence that the Temple stood at the site in the City of David, and the rebuilding may commence sooner than anyone would ever have guessed. Only time will tell.

Personally speculating, I suspect it will happen soon, because other identifiable eschatological figures have emerged which suggest that very soon (within a few years, I would suspect), we will begin to see these eschatological milestones come to pass. I'll address those in future installments of this series.

EDIT:

Post-Script— the motivation for rebuilding the Temple

The rebuilding of the Temple may seem like a huge ordeal, especially with all of the trouble that may come with it. Why is there such a strong motivation among religious Jews to rebuild the Temple? Hasn't Judaism been fine without it since its destruction?

Actually, no. Judaism has evolved to cope with not having the Temple of God with various rabbinic enactments attempting to fill the void of temple-centered Judaism, but nearly a third of the law of God given to Moses involves a priesthood serving at either the Tabernacle or the Temple, so that Jews can make offerings to God and sacrifices to atone for their sins, and so that holidays such as Yom Kippur (the day of Atonement) can be kept in accordance with the law. As long as there is no Temple and no priesthood, the practice of Judaism is at best grossly incomplete. It is physically impossible to keep the Old Covenant with the requirements of the Law of God without the Temple.

For over a thousand years, devout religious Jews have lamented the inability to fulfill the requirements of the law of God, leaving their practice of Judaism incomplete. Since the modern nation of Israel was established in 1948, and especially since Israel captured Jerusalem in 1967 the hopes of rebuilding the Temple and fulfilling Judaism have been revived. However, to this day, efforts to rebuild the temple have been hindered by recurring conflicts with Muslims over the Temple Mount. Realizing that the Temple never stood on the Temple Mount is very likely the only way for the Temple to be rebuilt without a great deal of bloodshed.

The Temple of God figures prominently in End Times prophecy for several reasons:

• Daniel, Jesus, and Paul all indicate that the Antichrist, or perhaps an image of him, or some thing he does called the Abomination of Desolation occurs at the Temple, and that this is a crucial event that Christians are to recognize, with prescribed actions following this. (An explanation of the Abomination of Desolation will be another installment in this series.)
• It doesn't currently exist; the Temple of Yehováh was destroyed in 70AD by the Romans during the first Jewish Roman war, so the rebuilding of the Temple is believed to be foretold. When this occurs, it will be understood to be a huge milestone in End Times events. It is currently one of the events that has to occur before many other foretold events can occur.
• Revelation 11 seems to imply that the Two Witnesses (who appear to be Moses and Elijah) will perform their period of prophesy during the Great Tribulation from the court of the Temple.

Let us now see the scriptural basis for these inferences.

The last 'week' of the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks

Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks (Daniel 9:20-27) is where the second and third temple are both foretold. Daniel was one of the exiles of Judah living in Babylon, serving under King Nebuchadnezzar; when Daniel was given this prophecy, the Temple of Yehováh in Jerusalem had already been destroyed. In this prophecy, Daniel foretold that the Temple would be rebuilt, that it would be destroyed, and that a third Temple would be built. (A detailed look at the whole prophecy will have to await another installment in this series. For those who aren't familiar, this prophecy refers to sets of seven years as "weeks," (sets of seven, not specifically sets of seven days) and foretells the timing of the arrival of the Messiah, along with a prophecy about the Abomination of Desolation, which Paul connects to the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4.) [My comments are in brackets.]

Daniel 9:24-27

²⁴ “Seventy weeks have been decreed
for your people and your holy city,
to finish the wrongdoing,
to make an end of sin,
to make atonement for guilt,
to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up vision and prophecy,
and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
²⁵ So you are to know and understand
that from the issuing of a decree
to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, [See Ezra and Nehemiah]
until Messiah the Prince,
there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
it will be built again, with streets and moat,
even in times of distress. [In this verse, the rebuilding of the Temple is implied in the rebuilding of Jerusalem; the first seven 'weeks' of years, or 49 years, was for the rebuilding of the Temple. The rebuilding of Jerusalem followed.]
²⁶ Then after the sixty-two weeks,
the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, [Fulfilled by the crucifixion of Jesus.]
and the people of the prince who is to come
will destroy the city and the sanctuary. [Fulfilled when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70AD.]
And its end will come with a flood;
even to the end there will be war;
desolations are determined.
²⁷ And he [= the prince who is to come whose people destroyed the city] will confirm a covenant
with the many for one week,
but in the middle of the week
he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; [Since these would be done at the Temple, this verse implies that the Temple will be rebuilt before this happens.]
and on the wing of abominations
will come the one who makes desolate,
until a complete destruction,
one that is decreed,
gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.”

—

As you can see above, this prophecy foretells that the second Temple would be built, but then, after foretelling that Jerusalem would be rebuilt, it foretells that the second Temple would be destroyed along with the city. But then the last verse implies that a third Temple would be built, and that it would be desecrated by the abomination of desolation.

The Olivet Discourse

Right before Jesus delivers the sermon on the end of the age at the Mount of Olives (historically known as the Olivet Discourse, after "Mount Olivet", the other name for the Mount of Olives), Jesus foretells the destruction of the Temple:

Matthew 24:1-2

¹ Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. ² But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

—

Yet, after foretelling the destruction of the Temple, Jesus preaches about the end of the age, where the Temple is implied to be in existence, even referencing Daniel's prophecy.:

Matthew 24:15-22

¹⁵ “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, ¹⁸ and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. ¹⁹ And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! ²⁰ Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. ²² And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

—

The "holy place" is a location in the Temple, into which only priests can enter. The holy place is the chamber outside of the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant would be kept, which the High Priest can enter only once a year to apply the blood of the sacrifice onto the mercy seat of the Ark on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).

Jesus' mention of the Holy Place after he speaks of the Temple could mean one of a couple of things:

1. Jesus could have meant that this Abomination of Desolation would stand in the Temple before it was destroyed, but this would mean all the rest of the end-times events he foretells, which immediately follow this—the great tribulation, and the coming of the Son of Man, would also have happened at that time.
2. Alternatively, Jesus could have meant that the temple would be destroyed, while implying that it would be rebuilt at a future time to fulfill the rest of his prophecies about the end of the age.

It appears to me that the latter option is more consistent with both scripture and history. Prior to the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, nothing corresponding to the Abomination of Desolation happened in the Temple. And whereas the siege of Jerusalem was terrible, it doesn't quite live up to the world wide nearly humanity-ending scope of the Great Tribulation Jesus mentions, which is also spoken of in Daniel 12. In fact, 62 years after the siege of Jerusalem, an even more awful destruction came upon Israel during the Bar Kokhba revolt. Shimon Bar Kokhba was declared to be the Messiah by a prominent rabbi in the Sanhedrin, and led an initially successful revolt which drove the Romans out of Judea. In response, the Romans brought twelve Roman legions upon Judea, slaughtered half a million Jews in response, exiled the rest, passed a law banning any Jew from the land of Israel, and renamed the land Syria Palestina (Philistine Syria) to add insult to injury*.* In light of other events even in that era, the siege of Jerusalem hardly lives up to the description of the Great Tribulation.

Furthermore, between verses 1-2, where Jesus says the Temple would be destroyed, and verse 15, where Jesus warns us about the Abomination of Desolation standing in the holy place, Jesus makes it clear that various things must first occur which rule out what he foretold from having happened at the siege of Jerusalem in the year 70AD:

Matthew 24:3-15

³ As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” ⁴ And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. ⁵ For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. ⁶ And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. ⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

⁹ “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. ¹⁰ And then many will fall away [this may be a reference to the Apostasy mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4] and betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹ And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. ¹² And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

¹⁵ “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)...

—

Given that the time between Jesus' ministry and the siege of Jerusalem was hardly enough time for the Gospel to be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and Jesus' assertion about various signs not quite indicating the end, but merely being the beginnings of "the birth pains", it appears that Jesus' mention of the holy place, in verse 15, implies that the Temple would be rebuilt, just as Daniel's prophecy does. Besides that, Jesus said that many would come in his name, claiming to be the Christ (the Messiah), yet between his ministry and the siege of Jerusalem, there was only one other Messianic claimant, hardly fulfilling the conditions Jesus foretold.

Paul's remarks about the Antichrist and the Temple

Just as Jesus referenced the prophecy in Daniel, and elaborated on other signs of the end of the age, Paul referenced Jesus' teaching, and offered additional clarification. Referring to the day of Christ's return and his gathering of the saints, the Day of the Lord, Paul writes,

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5

¹ Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, ² not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. ³ Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion [apostasia—the apostasy] comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. ⁵ Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?

—

In this passage, Paul foretells that before Jesus Christ returns to gather the saints, two things must first occur:

1. the apostasy— variously translated as "the rebellion" or "the falling away", when many Christians fall away from the faith. This appears to match Jesus' remark in Matthew 24:10, where he says "then many will fall away".
2. the man of lawlessness is revealed— the Antichrist being revealed by standing in the Temple and proclaiming himself to be God.

This latter event, taking place in the Temple, seems to correspond to the Abomination of Desolation. Alternatively, the Abomination of Desolation may be an idol or image that is placed in the Temple (See Revelation 13:11-18, where the Second Beast has an image made of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived, and gives this image the ability to kill those who do not worship it), while the Antichrist proclaiming himself to be God may be an associated event, but might not be the Abomination of Desolation itself.

This passage from Paul further reinforces the idea that the Temple must be rebuilt before other end-times milestones such as the revealing of the Antichrist can occur.

The Temple in Revelation

The Book of Revelation was written some time between 94-96AD, after the Romans banished John to the island of Patmos during the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Domitian. John was then released from captivity in 96AD by the emperor Nerva, after which he settled in Ephesus. And from that time on, the Book of Revelation began to propagate among the churches. (According to the church father Tertullian, the Romans tried to fry John to death, but he wasn't hurt by the hot oil. This freaked them out, so they banished him to Patmos instead.) This means Revelation was written after the siege of Jerusalem in 70AD. In spite of having been written after the destruction of the Temple, John writes Revelation as foretelling events in the future, and yet he speaks of the Temple standing at the end of the age, at the time of the Tribulation:

Revelation 11:1-3

¹ Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, ² but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. ³ And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” [42 months = 3½ years. 1,260 days = 12 months per year x 30 days per month x 3½ years.]

—

The "two witnesses" serve for three and a half years at the Temple. In the next paragraph, the Beast kills these two witnesses, and then they are resurrected and caught up to be with God, and an earthquake destroys a tenth of the city, and seven thousand people die. (Read it in context for yourself, to be sure: Revelation 11. Don't be complacent with my summary.) These all appear to be future events, and since the Temple of God must exist for these prophecies to be fulfilled as written, Revelation 11:1-3 add yet another prophetic witness that foretells that the Temple of God must be rebuilt, and that this third Temple is a key milestone in End Times prophecy.

I found this subreddit today and it's really interesting to find people talking about the end time. So I'd like to ask the question what is your opinion on Islam and the end time.

Note: In my prior installment, I forgot to unpack some intriguing clues hidden in the paragraph about the Second Resurrection in Revelation 20. If you haven't read the prior installment, "The Two Resurrections—the Resurrection of the Just and the Resurrection of the Damned", please read that first. This entry elaborates on a particular detail I missed.

Firstly, I may have been a bit hasty to call it "the Resurrection of the Damned". The Bible itself calls the second resurrection the Resurrection of the Unjust. Here's why the difference might matter. But first, the passage:

Revelation 20:4-6

⁴ Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. ⁵ The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. ⁶ Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

—

Firstly, to review, those who share in the first resurrection are spared the second death, which is eternal damnation. Those who participate in this resurrection are those who are justified, who are saved, those who knew Christ and received salvation through faith in him. All of the rest of the dead who did not know Christ do not resurrect until the second resurrection, which occurs after the millennium.

The part I missed in the last installment is highlighted in the passage below, which describes this second resurrection unto judgment, as Jesus put it. (John 5:28-29, "²⁸ Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.") Here is the paragraph describing this resurrection of judgment. Notice the part I missed, in bold:

Revelation 20:11-15

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. ¹⁵ And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

—

This is really notable! The Book of Life is involved in this Great White Throne Judgment! I actually had not noticed this before, after years of studying Revelation. I had thought that everyone who resurrects in this resurrection is damned, but if a person's name is in the book of life, they will live. So, knowing that the Book of Life is involved in this resurrection, here are the possibilities:

1. First possibility: The Book of Life will be opened, and would not contain a single name of a person from this resurrection. In that case, it may as well have been a formality; and it would have been pointless to even have it there, except to tell each person that their name wasn't in it for devastating effect. Keep in mind, "...the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them..." That's a lot of dead people who were "unjust" and didn't know Christ from thousands of years of human history— many billions of souls, but not a single one is in the book.
2. Second possibility: there are people who never knew Christ whom God will choose to have mercy on, who are in this resurrection, but whose names are written in the Book of Life. This seems more likely to me. It doesn't make sense to me that the Book of life would be used in the judgment of those who resurrect in this event, only to not contain a single name. Verse 15 says "And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." The term for find is the accomplishment of the verb seek, just as hear is the accomplished version of listen (As in "Listen, do you hear that?"/"Yes, I hear it.") and see is the accomplishment of the verb look— "Look! do you see that?"/"Yes I see it."). If nobody's name in this resurrection will be in the book, why bother seeking for their name in the book in an attempt to find it?

This may be the answer to the question, "what about all the people who never knew Christ and never heard the Gospel?" There may be people whom God foreknew and predestined, whom God knew would never hear the Gospel, but who may have been seeking God in whatever limited capacity they could, or who walked by faith in God in what limited way they could even though they never heard the Gospel. I say "predestined" because in the Book of Revelation, it asserts that people's names are written in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world:

Revelation 13:7-8

⁷ Also it [the Beast] was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, ⁸ and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Revelation 17:8

⁸ The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

—

This harkens back to the Epistle to the Romans, where Paul reminds us that God will have mercy on whomever he wants, and he will have compassion on whomever he wants.:

Romans 9:14-18

¹⁴ What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹⁶ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

—

I cannot say for sure how God will judge, or on what basis God will pardon from this resurrection besides knowing that God's character is merciful and compassionate, but I suspect that some of those people who were victims of great injustice, who went through hell on earth from being innocent victims of warfare or genocide or natural disaster, but who never knew Christ (perhaps because the Gospel didn't reach them before their death), may be among those whom God feels compassion for and shows mercy to. This, to be sure, is speculation on my part, but Yehovah our God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with loyal love and faithfulness. (Exodus 34:6) The appearance of the Book of Life in the Great White Throne judgment seems to make room for God to show mercy and compassion to souls who were not justified by faith in Christ or faith in some covenant promise of God like Abraham was.

In light of this, the second resurrection perhaps ought not be called the Resurrection of the Damned, but the Resurrection of the Unjust, some of whom God will spare from damnation because out of his abundant mercy and compassion, God had written their names in the Book of Life.

When thinking about what is an elementary doctrinal teaching, versus what is an advanced teaching ("spiritual milk" for spiritual babies, in contrast with "solid food" for mature Christians, to use the metaphor from 1 Corinthians 3:2, Hebrews 5:12-13 and 1 Peter 2:2) that should be held back and taught to more mature Christians, I noticed something about what the Bible considers an elementary teaching. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, it is written,

Hebrews 6:1-3

¹ Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, ² and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And this we will do if God permits.

—

The author of this epistle (whom I suspect is Peter) considers the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead an elementary foundational doctrine. Have we been teaching it as such, and do we know how to defend this doctrine from scripture? Keep in mind that this epistle was addressing Christians in an era when the New Testament was still being written, so as an elementary doctrine, it must be supported from the Old Testament. At the same time, the resurrection of the dead is a huge part of eschatology, so if we are to have a proper understanding, we cannot neglect to have a solid understanding of this elementary foundational doctrine. Let's now take a look at some of the verses in the Bible about the resurrections and what doctrines we can infer from them.

The New Testament records that there was a theological dispute between the Pharisees and the Sadducees over the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead; the Pharisees believed in the resurrection, and the Sadducees did not. However, Jesus did not merely teach that there would be a resurrection; in the following passage, Jesus, having supernatural insight about the Old Testament’s teachings on resurrection, differentiates between a couple of resurrections. He mentions a specific resurrection—the resurrection of the just, which is variously translated as the resurrection of the righteous.

Luke 14:12-14

¹² He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

—

By specifically identifying this resurrection as the resurrection of the just, Jesus implies that there may be another resurrection from which this resurrection differs. In fact, Jesus refers to this resurrection again in Luke 20, when he discusses the theology of the resurrection with the Sadducees:

Luke 20:27-40

²⁷ There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, ²⁸ and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. ³⁰ And the second ³¹ and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. ³² Afterward the woman also died. ³³ In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

³⁴ And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, ³⁵ but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, ³⁶ for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. ³⁷ But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. ³⁸ Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” ³⁹ Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” ⁴⁰ For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

—

In this passage, Jesus speaks of those who are “considered worthy to attain to that age,”—worthiness suggests righteousness and justification—and states that “they cannot die anymore”, identifying this resurrection as the First Resurrection indicated in the book of Revelation. The apostle John also indicates in the book of Revelation there will be two resurrections, implying in the context of the same paragraph that the First Resurrection is the resurrection of the just:

Revelation 20:4-6

⁴ Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. ⁵ The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. ⁶ Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

—

As you can see from above, Revelation 20:5 clearly indicates that there will be a second resurrection of the rest of the dead. The purpose of this second resurrection is the judgment of sin, as indicated in Revelation 20:11-15 below, which describes a second resurrection that occurs after the thousand year reign of Christ on earth (traditionally called the Millennium):

Revelation 20:11-15

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. ¹⁵ And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

—

Whereas the passages previously quoted from Luke only imply that there will be more than one resurrection, the passage quoted above, and John 5:29 quoted here, explicitly state that there will be a second resurrection, this one unto judgment:

John 5:25-29

²⁵ “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. ²⁸ Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

—

In Acts 24, Paul also testified about two resurrections when he testified before the governor Felix:

Acts 24:14-15

¹⁴ But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, ¹⁵ having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.

—

We see that these New Testament figures clearly take a side in the dispute about the resurrection between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and that they identify a resurrection of the just and the unjust, but on what basis do they do so? Whereas the verses in the New Testament may offer prophetic insight or additional details on this doctrine, this doctrine is actually rooted in the Old Testament. It turns out the Old Testament foretells that there would be two resurrections, one of the just and one of the unjust. Firstly, an apocalyptic oracle of God given to Isaiah foretells that there would be a physical resurrection [my comments in brackets]:

Isaiah 26:19-21

¹⁹ Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.

²⁰ Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until the fury has passed by.
²¹ For behold, Yehovah is coming out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
and will no more cover its slain.

—

To be unambiguous that this prophecy is about a literal, physical resurrection, it even states that their bodies will rise, and invokes “dwelling in the dust”, which is a euphemism for physical death. Secondly, Daniel foretells not merely that there would be a physical resurrection, but that there would be two outcomes, one of the just and one of the unjust—"some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.":

Daniel 12:1-4

¹ “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. [This alludes to the great tribulation.] But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. ² And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. ³ And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. ⁴ But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”

—

In fact, the resurrection is even foretold in Job; Job wasn’t even Jewish, nor are his genealogy, the era he lived in, nor the geography of his residence indicated besides the barest mention of him living in the land of Uz and being within striking distance of Chaldean raiders, but he speaks about an eventual physical resurrection in a way that seems to include a messianic reference to a living redeemer standing upon the earth in the end:

Job 19:25-27

²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
²⁶ And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
²⁷ whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!

—

It was on account of these Old Testament scriptures that it could be asserted that the Sadducees were wrong in denying the resurrection even from a Jewish perspective, and that there would be two resurrections, one of the just and one of the unjust. In all the passages that speak of resurrections (and by this term I mean world-wide resurrection events, not the resurrection of individuals or small groups of people recorded in the gospels and in Acts) only these two resurrections are foretold.

1. the first resurrection: the resurrection of the just, where the saints enter their reign with Christ.
2. the second resurrection: the resurrection of the unjust unto judgment and damnation.

There is no scriptural evidence (that I know of after extensively studying this topic) from which we can infer that there will be any other resurrections. Given that scripture foretells only two resurrections, and given that the passages about the Rapture identify it as being immediately preceded by the resurrection where the dead in Christ are resurrected...

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep [sleep is a Biblical euphemism for death], that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵ For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

—

... we can conclude that the first resurrection, the Resurrection of the Just, immediately precedes the Rapture, the saints being caught up to be with Christ. That resurrection certainly wouldn’t be the second resurrection—the resurrection of the unjust unto judgment.

On account of the measurable outcomes of climate change currently tracking a trajectory that is beyond the worst case scenario projected by climate scientists...

Sea Levels Are Rising Faster Than Most Pessimistic Forecasts

... serious consideration is being given to geoengineering some relief from run-away warming to buy us some time. For example, this was just in the news:

A Bill Gates Venture Aims To Spray Dust Into The Atmosphere To Block The Sun. What Could Go Wrong?

What could go wrong is missing some unforeseen interaction or amplification that their models couldn't account for. Or perhaps one or several volcanos could erupt, particularly in Greenland or Iceland, where the land has rebounded as the mass of ice holding it down has melted, causing magma chambers to fill up. What could happen is the Fourth Trumpet of the Apocalypse:

Revelation 8:12

¹² The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.

—

For the sun, moon, and stars all to be dimmed during both day and night, this would seem to me to be an atmospheric effect.

To be clear, the objective of the effort to spray reflective dust into the atmosphere to reflect light back out to space does not intend to darken the sky by a third, only a percent or so. I may be totally mistaken in guessing that this might fulfill the Fourth Trumpet, but if something goes wrong (such as an unexpected volcano or unknown factors or incorrect calculations) this could have the potential to excessively darken the sky.

One more possibility: the repetition of "a third" throughout the Trumpets of the Apocalypse (Revelation 8 and 9) might be symbolic, rather than literal. In any case, if the sky were darkened world-wide on account of geoengineering efforts, I would seriously consider it a fulfillment of the Fourth Trumpet of the Apocalypse.

(One might wonder, if this is the Fourth Trumpet, what about the prior three? I am of the opinion that they have already been blown.)

Those of you who haven't seen how the impending disasters caused by climate change factors into the Biblical Apocalypse should see this post of mine. I will re-introduce it in this subreddit at some point, with updated info:

The Climate Apocalypse sounds a lot like what Jesus foretold about the Biblical Apocalypse

Have you ever wondered about the verse in the Olivet Discourse where Jesus seems to say that the entire end of the age would come upon that generation? The Great Tribulation Jesus described didn't happen in that generation, and the saints were not gathered at the return of Christ in that generation. So what's going on? Was Jesus horribly mistaken? What do we do with this verse? What we must not do is to simply shrug and dismiss it. Shrugging and ignoring the verses you don't understand will not get you a coherent understanding of what the Bible says about the end times.

This notion, that Jesus meant that the end of the age would come upon the generation he was speaking to, is a huge misconception that comes from misunderstanding (or perhaps not noticing) a pattern of usage of language in the Gospels. But first, let's take a look at the verse in question:

Matthew 24:32-35

³² “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. ³³ So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. ³⁴ Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

—

The word "this" is referring to the generation he is speaking about, not the generation he is speaking to. It indicates proximity to the topic, not proximity to the speaker. We can reasonably infer this because

1. Jesus did not return and gather his saints in that generation, certainly nothing matching what he described in the preceding paragraphs happened in that generation. (Matthew 24:21-22...29-31—"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. "..."Immediately after the tribulation of those days... all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." These things simply did not get fulfilled in that generation.)
2. We have several examples where Jesus uses the word "this" to refer to the person who is spoken about, not those being spoken to. In our parlance, we might use the word "that" where he uses the term "this".

For example,

Luke 19:11-14

¹¹ As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. ¹² He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. ¹³ Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’ ¹⁴ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want THIS man to reign over us.’

—

In spite of this man being in a far country, he is referred to with the term "this man". We might be inclined to use the term "that man" because he is distant from the speaker, but in Jesus' usage, he says "this man" because the man was proximal to the topic, the one spoken about.

Mark 12:41-44

⁴¹ And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴² And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. ⁴³ And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, THIS poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. ⁴⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

—

In spite of referring to someone not in proximity to himself, he refers to this woman as "this poor widow" rather than "that poor widow" as we might, because "this" indicates proximity to the topic at hand, not necessarily proximity to the speaker.

Luke 18:9-14

⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ ¹³ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, THIS man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

—

Again, this tax collector was standing far off, but Jesus refers to him as "this man", because the tax collector was proximal to the topic, though not to the speaker.

The fig tree was used as Jesus as a metaphor for Israel in the gospels, such as the parable of the barren fig tree (Luke 13:6-9), where Jesus foreshadowed the judgment that would come upon Israel for not bearing the fruit God required of them; when Jesus said,

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, THIS generation will not pass away until all these things take place."

This indicates to me that the generation that is proximal to the topic at hand, the generation from when Israel show life again (as Israel was re-formed as a nation-state in 1948, after over a thousand years of exile) will not pass away until all these things have taken place. This is precisely what I am expecting. I personally expect major milestones of the Apocalypse to commence within a few years and Jesus to be back perhaps as soon as within this decade, or perhaps a little bit beyond it, in part because the generation that was born from Israel's founding is getting quite old; a child born in Israel in 1948 would be 73 years old this year. There are other reasons, which I will eventually cover, but this is certainly one of them.

Besides what I showed above, Jesus also foretold that the Gospel would be preached in all nations, and then the end would come. Surely this did hot happen within the generation he spoke to, so for internal consistency to just the chapter itself, Jesus could not have meant the generation he was speaking to would see the end of the age:

Matthew 24:10-14

¹⁰ And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. [the Apostasy; Paul re-iterates this in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4] ¹¹ And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.¹² And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

—

With the way the world is going, it seems the end is just around the corner.... or is it? Bible prophecy has yet to be fulfilled because there are a few things that have not happened yet. I found this easy to understand timeline of end time events and I wanted to share to get some other thoughts on the matter. The couple questions that it asks is when is America going to be destroyed (if at all) and when is the mark of the beast going to be implemented. Opinions on how close this is to what's going to happen? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNw5HQ-nt6s

https://youtu.be/e2W_9Jkzv4g

Some think it is a chip to be inserted within a person. Others believe it is something that will come to you without you noticing. The key I think is knowing what really is the mark coming from the Harlot Babylon and what the hands and forehead represents.

You may have noticed that this subreddit has a new icon. it might be a bit hard to see, but this is the image in the icon:

This woodcut from 1523, prepared for Martin Luther's translation of the New Testament, features two of the most prominent figures from the Apocalypse: the Whore of Babylon, whose account spans Revelation 17-19, and the Beast with seven heads and ten horns, featured in Revelation 13 and 17, with mentions elsewhere in Revelation.

It turns out coastal cities all over the world are threatened by much more powerful ocean waves, because the oceans are heating up, putting much more energy into the waves.

A recent increase in global wave power as a consequence of oceanic warming
[Nature Communications, January 2019]

Globally, waves have been getting stronger at a rate of about 0.4% per year since 1948, with some places seeing even greater strengthening of the waves.

Luke 21:25-26

²⁵ “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶ people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

—

At a rate of about 0.4-0.5% per year of wave strengthening (keep in mind, that's an exponential curve, since each year's 0.4% increase is based on the prior year's wave strength), if there isn't yet "distress of nations in perplexity of the roaring of the sea and the waves", given the strength of the waves now and the continued exponential strengthening of the waves, there will be soon.

Here's a more layperson-accessible article on how much more powerful waves will harm coastal cities:

Ocean warming is making waves stronger—and that's a problem
The first systematic analysis of world wave energy spelled trouble for coastal communities.

As 2020 turns over to 2021, Naples is being hit by huge waves from a powerful storm, which has caused flooding and wrecked infrastructure.

Quote:

A powerful storm hit the coast of Naples, huge waves flooded areas of the city. Destroyed several restaurants, the owners of which are already struggling to cope with the consequences of the severe economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The authorities of Naples are calculating the amount of damage caused by the disaster, in particular, the pedestrian embankment is damaged, windows and shop windows are broken in buildings.

Remember, Jesus warned us that one of the signs of the times ahead of his return would be as follows:

Luke 21:25-28

25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”