Many modern-day believers neither know what to expect as End Time nears nor how to test the “spirits” before and during the Tribulation. We will discuss a few of these topics today. Bear it in mind that with 400,000 plus churches in America, why is the truth of simultaneous culture and Bible history not being taught? History without including the actuality of the Bible and Christianity is selective for a reason. Satan loves religion but does not want Christianity.
Today from Matthew 23 we pick it up from where we left off in our previous blog…verses 30 through 39. Verse 30 is a conclusion of verse 29… The Scribes and Pharisees issue in this chapter concludes similarly as does American politics. They can say bitter things about a politician of opposing political views, but upon one or the other’s death, their comments sound like the deceased was a treasured political leader. Jesus is saying the same about the scribes and Pharisees as they regard the prophets of old. They opposed them when living but whitewash their views at the tombs of murdered prophets or deceased politicians.
Today we would call the response of false and fervent religious leader teachings a gaff. Jesus told these religious leaders “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.” How are these religious hypocrites identified by Jesus as caught in a major gaff? They have just admitted their fathers, the former religious leaders of the Temple and Israel, as being what Jesus identifies as hypocrites. Then he points out that these sons of hypocrites have the same practice. Jesus says that this will be their continued practice…right up and into the End Time Tribulation. Therefore, what will be so brutal to Israelis during the Tribulation, is an “it must happen” situation. Nothing else has or will shake them (Israelis) from their customs and disregard for our and THEIR Messiah.
What about believers? This is a tough thing to write as in admit.
Customary “worship” services end up with pulpit and bible study classes being little more than rehashes of the Bible stories instead of the HIS-tory surrounding Bible content and explaining how the two elements are concurrent. Secular and biblical histories are not exclusive of one another. They are simultaneous events.
Going back to our opening sentences, a primary question is, how does one know the difference between guiding spirits? People have been duped into thinking there is no such thing. This is Satan at work. If he can convince people there is no such thing, then in one’s mind, there is no such thing. This shuts out the Holy Spirit. The question to be asked of anyone suggesting a contrary religious view: “is Jesus Christ the only begotten son of God?” If a spirit leads one to think Jesus is a religion, not a real thing, it is Satan or his minions.
At end-time as is true today many will believe in spirits, but not the Holy Spirit. Many will see, in End Times, these spirits as something to be worshiped. This is PRECISELY Satan’s goal since day one. In End Time Tribulation, Satan (Dragon #1) will cause through his antichrist (Dragon #2), false prophet, and man-made idol to command that all must worship Satan or be killed. This is a proxy command meaning it comes from Satan but through another one’s voice i.e., a third party, a proxy. This is addressed in chapter 24 of Matthew. This too has been referred to in a previous ahabiblemoment article. It will be the midpoint of the Tribulation of Israel when Satan declares himself as a god to be worshiped at the expense of one’s life. This is not JUST believers or Israelis. It is ANYONE who does not bow a head to him or take the *mark of the beast.
*Revelation 16:2 and 19:20 cite the “Mark of the Beast” as a sign that identifies those who worship the beast out of the sea ( Revelation 13:1 )
Matthew 23:34,35 explains that Jesus is not only talking about those religious leaders who had already murdered prophets but that those he will send, such as the disciples will be murdered. Their rejection is not of the prophets but of Jesus as the Messiah. When will all this end? When Israel is backed into a corner from which there is no escape other than the intervention of the same Messiah they will continue to reject up to and into most of the 7-year Tribulation of End Time. Zechariah is the one to whom Jesus refers in Matthew 23:35.
*Zechariah son of [his father] Berekiah, the son of Iddo [his grandfather].
Matthew 23:36 needs explanation. It reads in the NKJV: “Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” Who is: “this generation?” For an answer go to verse 39. “for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘BLESSED is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” When will God’s elect (Israel) say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord? At the end of the Tribulation. This is Jesus. This is the generation upon which End Time consequences of a history that continually rejects Christ will be completed.
Matthew 23:37 is often read without knowledge that its content IS ITS CONTEXT. “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem…” Why the redundancy of the name Jerusalem? The word or name is not analogous or a stand-in for including the church of gentile and Israeli believers. People so often confuse the name Jewish as indistinguishable to a denomination called Judaism…a religion. It means those who descend from the twelve tribes of Israel/Jacob. Therefore, to whom this passage identifies as Jerusalem is those who were given Jerusalem by the edict of God…Israelis. Those who descended from the twelve Tribes of Israel. Note this does not include the church. They are already in the rapture either before or at the midpoint in the 7-year Tribulation. Jacob’s Trouble begins at the 3 ½ year mid-point of the Tribulation when the antichrist sets himself to be worshiped in the rebuilt Temple.
Verse 39 is powerful per end time because it is THE END TIME event. Israel will be in such dire circumstances that it will take the direct intervention of God/Jesus to keep them from total elimination. This has been and continues to be Satan’s goal. We know this from the passage found way back in Genesis 3:15. Satan we know as the snake and the one crushing the head of the snake is birthed through Israel (Jesus). Note the gender change in Genesis 3:15. Jesus is birthed through the Tribe of Judah. Jesus is the offspring that will crush the head of the serpent Satan.
Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The woman is not a reference to Eve who was being deceived by Satan in the Garden of Eden. It is a reference to a future Israel. Satan despises their existence. They are God’s elect as in the chosen. He is not! They are not the exclusive light on a hillside to the world or exclusive to a salvation that is theirs and theirs alone. They are God’s chosen who failed to be as God commanded…the light on a hillside to the world.
When will Israel finally say in earnest “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” It will be at the end of the Tribulation period when massive forces from all nations surround Israel with no escape.
New American Standard Bible: For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be taken, the houses plundered, the women raped, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be eliminated from the city (Zechariah 14:2).
Rev Dr. Jstark
2022
AHA Bible Moments 