ISRAEL’S RETURN, JUDGEMENT & THE MILLENNIUM

Jonathan Cahn preaches on the many end-times prophecies, starting with the rebirth of Israel and the great falling away in denominational institutional churches and ending with the coming Millennial reign of Jesus from a restructured/rebuilt Jerusalem.

Jonathan like many born-again leaders knows we are in the last days before Jesus returns and is preparing his congregation for what is ahead. My only concern is that he does not address the timing of The Rapture and the fact Christians need to prepare for the coming tribulation, even great tribulation. As Jesus and Paul told the disciples that they would see the Abomination of Desolation (Antichrist) (Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) seated in the Temple declaring himself to be God. This takes place midway through the last seven years before Jesus returns to Earth with the Saints. The Rapture timing is at the end of the sixth year, the sixth seal, and the sixth church (church of Philadelphia).

SIXTH SEAL (Celestial signs that precede Jesus coming to rapture the Saints and signals the great day of God’s wrath has come): “When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” Revelation 6:12-17

CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA: “Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name… Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.Revelation 3:8,10

Moreover, the Church of Laodicea is the church that is left behind to face the wrath of God which hopefully leads to repentance and saving faith.

CELESTIAL SIGNS WILL SIGNIFY JESUS RETURN

In Acts 2, the apostle Peter explains that a new period in redemption (i.e. the beginning of the church age) occurs at Pentecost with the Spirit’s supernatural outpouring. But a lot of interpreters miss that Peter’s citation of Joel 2, and its celestial disturbances event linked to the great and magnificent Day of the Lord, gives us a clue to the completion of the church age.

Jesus confirms the same celestial signs in the Olivet discourse (Matt. 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) signaling His return to raise believers from the dead and to rapture the remaining Saints prior to pouring out His wrath on the unrepentant with the Trumpet (Rev. 8,11) and Bowl judgments (Rev.16).

Peter’s citation:

Joel 2:31

“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’Acts 2:17-21

Jesus Olivet Discourse:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then 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. Matthew 24:29-31

Isaiah

Look, the LORD’s day of judgment is coming; it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, destroying the earth and annihilating its sinners.  Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations no longer give out their light; the sun is darkened as soon as it rises, and the moon does not shine. I will punish the world for its evil, and wicked people for their sin. I will put an end to the pride of the insolent, I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants. I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold, and people more scarce than gold from Ophir. So I will shake the heavens, and the earth will shake loose from its foundation, because of the fury of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, in the day he vents his raging anger.” Isaiah 13:6–13

In Revelation 6 we see the same celestial signs linked to the sixth seal and the announcement that the great day of their (unrepentant) wrath has come.

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earthFall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”” Revelation 6:12,16

It is at the trumpet blast of the seventh seal that the rapture occurs and John sees the Saints before the throne in their new bodies praising God the Father and Jesus.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! Revelation 7:9-10