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Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. There's somebody I believe listening to me right now who needs to take seriously these words about the only way to prepare for the coming storm. Trusting in Jesus Christ as your savior is the only way to escape the coming and certain storm of God's church. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. The Book of Revelation warns of a coming time of unprecedented tribulation that will engulf the entire world.
But what exactly does Scripture reveal about this future period? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explores what Scripture says about the coming tribulation and explains why Christians can face the future with confidence. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Well, we're just getting started in our teaching series on biblical prophecy. I've called this study of Revelation Final Conquest. And in just a moment, we'll open our Bibles to Revelation chapter six, in which we'll discover the early warning signs that will precede the Great Tribulation. But first, if you're among those who get a little confused with terms like the Great Tribulation, the Second Coming, the Rapture, I've prepared a helpful booklet that I'd like to send you today. It's called Bible Prophecy Made Simple.
This illustrated booklet provides a simple timeline, along with a brief explanation of each event. And I'm going to send you this resource, Bible Prophecy Made Simple, as a gift from me when you take a few moments to request it at ptv.org. That's not all, because I've also written a complete commentary on the book of Revelation. My book is called Final Conquest. And in addition to helping you understand the complicated narrative in this final book of the Bible, I'll also help you understand the many signs and symbols in Revelation and why we should take them seriously. My book, Final Conquest, will be sent to your home when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. Now, let's open our Bibles to Daniel chapter nine.
In order to resume a study I started on Tuesday's program, I titled today's message Early Warning Signs. What is the tribulation? It is a time, certainly, for God to pour out his wrath upon the earth.
But most specifically, it is a time for God to complete his plan with Israel. And I want you to see how the tribulation is actually the completion of God's plan for Israel before he brings an end to the world as we know it. Now, I want you to turn over to Daniel chapter nine, beginning with verse 24. And I want to show you what I believe is the single most amazing prophecy in all of the Bible. For the next 10 minutes, we are going to wade into some deep theological waters.
We're going into some deep water, but if you will stay with me for these next 10 minutes, you're going to see things you've never seen before in Scripture, and most amazingly, you're going to be amazed at how accurate Scripture is and why you can trust the Bible that it really is God's word. Daniel chapter nine. Now, remember the background for Daniel.
Daniel was a young Jew who was taken captive by the Babylonians along with most of the Jews living in Israel. And Daniel and all of the people were discouraged by this. And as years turned into decades and they were in Babylon, they naturally wanted to know, is this an end of God's plan for his people? Has God's plan been thwarted? It certainly isn't completed yet. The temple's been destroyed.
We're no longer in the land. Is God finished with Israel? So Daniel began to pray to God and asked God to give him a revelation about what the future would hold for him, but for all of Israel as well. And Daniel got more than he bargained for. God sent to Daniel the angel Gabriel, and Gabriel gave Daniel a panoramic vision of God's final plan for Israel.
And you find it here in verses 24 to 27. Look at this with me. 70 weeks have been decreed for your people. Now, what does that mean? Well, that word weeks is an unfortunate translation of the Hebrew. What is put down as weeks actually means sevens. Sevens or seven days in a week. Sevens. 70 sevens.
What is 70 times seven? 490. So what Gabriel is saying is 490 years have been decreed for your people and your holy city. And in these 490 years, here's what is gonna happen to finish up God's plan for Israel. In these 490 years, first of all, to finish the transgression. That is, to put an end to Israel's rebellion. To make an end of sin. This is a reference to the eradication of the sacrificial system. No more sacrifices needed.
Why? Thirdly, to make an atonement for iniquity. Israel's sins will have been finally paid for sometime during this 490 year period. To bring in everlasting righteousness. That's a reference to the millennium, the rule of Christ on earth. To seal up vision and prophecy. That means no more prophecy needed any longer. And to anoint the most holy place.
That is, to rebuild the temple and have it be a permanent fixture on the earth. In other words, Gabriel said, Daniel, in 490 years, all of these things are gonna happen and all of these promises are going to be fulfilled. Now, if I were Daniel, I would wanna know, is that 490 years from today? When do we start counting down these 490 years?
Well, Gabriel tells us in verse 26. It doesn't start right now, Daniel, but here's when you can start counting. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven sevens and 62 sevens. 62 plus seven is what? 69. 69 weeks of years.
69 sevens. If you wanna do the math on it, that's 483 years. In other words, God has this stopwatch.
It has 490 at the top. He's gonna press that stopwatch at some point in the future. What is that future? Whenever the decree goes out to rebuild Jerusalem. Remember, Daniel was in Babylon, but he said at some future time, somebody who rules Babylon is gonna give you the go signal, Jews, to go back to the land and to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. Did you know that actually happened in history? And we know the exact year, we know the exact month, we know the exact day from secular history when that happened.
I wrote it on your outline. It is March the 14th, 445 BC. That's when the Persian ruler, Artaxerxes Longimanus, gave the decree to allow the Jews to return and to rebuild Jerusalem.
Gabriel said that's when the stopwatch begins. From the time that decree goes out until Messiah, the Prince, there will be 483 years. What does that mean until Messiah, the Prince? Who was Messiah?
Good class, very good. Okay, the Messiah was Jesus. What does that mean? From the time he appeared in Bethlehem? Is that when the 483 years stops? No, it says Messiah, the Prince. This is a reference to the time that Jesus was presented as the Son of God. Do you remember when that happened? When it became clear to the whole nation he was presented nationally? It was when he entered the city on the back of a donkey.
And the people said, Hosanna, Hosanna. That was the national presentation of Jesus as the Messiah. Now, again, we know when that happened. Great students of biblical chronology like J. Dwight Pentecost and Harold Honer who specialize in chronology of the Bible have calculated that day to be April the 2nd, 32 AD. And using the irregularities and the differences between the Jewish and the Roman calendars, they have gone to great lengths to show the time between the day that Artaxerxes Longimannus issued that decree in 445 BC to go back to Jerusalem until Jesus rode into the city on that day in 32 AD, April 2nd. It was exactly, exactly 483 years to the very date that that is what I call amazing. Remember, Daniel lived decades before that decree went out. He lived in the 6th century BC in the 500s. But he was able to look down because Gabriel allowed him to and said, this is going to happen in 445 BC.
We're going to be allowed to go back. And not only that, Messiah the Prince will be presented in AD 32, 483 years. When Israel rejected Messiah, God stopped the stopwatch. It started at 490 years, 483 years passed. But when Israel rejected Christ, boom, the stopwatch stopped. How many years would have been left? There is a seven-year period of time left for God to finish everything he's going to do with Israel. Now, that time that God stopped the stopwatch, he stopped it in 32 AD, and it's been stopped for 2,000 years. And it gets predicted right here in verse 26 that a number of things would happen after that 483 years before the final seven years.
There'd be a gap. I don't think Daniel or anybody knew it would be thousands of years, but it has been. He said, then after the 62 weeks and the seven weeks that preceded it, 483 years, then after those 483 years, Messiah will be cut off.
That's a reference to the crucifixion and have nothing. And the people who are the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Who is the prince who is to come?
Different prince. This is the antichrist. The people of the prince who is to come. The antichrist will rule over a resurrected Roman empire. And he's saying the people of this future prince, that is Romans, will destroy the city.
That happened in 70 AD when Titus entered the city and destroyed Jerusalem. And its end will come with a flood. Now, verse 27, and he, that is the prince, the antichrist, will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, seven years. That is when the final seven years begins taking off. The sign that God has restarted the stopwatch is when the antichrist will make a firm covenant with Israel for seven years. But in the middle of that seven years, after the first three and a half years, he will break that covenant. He will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering, and on the wings of abominations will come one who makes desolate. There are seven years left for God to finish his plan with Israel.
Right now, the stopwatch is stopped. Between verses 26 and 27, we are living in that gap of time we call the church age. This is the time that God has temporarily set aside Israel.
He said, I'm stopping with you right now so I can do something over here. Allow the Gentiles, non-Jews, to come to faith in Christ. And that's what Paul had in mind in Romans 11, 25, when he said, I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, that a partial hardening has come to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. When I have finished my plan with the Gentiles, I've not forsaken Israel, I've not forgotten about Israel.
I'm letting Gentiles come to faith in Christ. But when the end of that time comes, we're going to restart the stopwatch and finish the plan with Israel. That's what the church age is. And what is the end of that period of time? It's the rapture of the church. When God gathers together all believers, that will mean it is time for that final seven year period.
And I think you can see how the two coincide with one another. How will the antichrist rise to power? As we'll see next week, when he rises to power, he does so without any force. People willingly follow his leadership. Have you ever thought, what is it in America that would willingly give up our democratic system to follow a dictator who says, no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, no freedom of commerce?
Why will America, why will the entire world agree to that? It could be in part because of the chaos that ensues at the rapture. Can you imagine what it's going to be like when millions of people around the world disappear suddenly?
My friend, the late Tim LaHaye, captured that somewhat in his Left Behind novels. But I was thinking about it last night when I was flying back to Dallas. I mean, there are 2.6 million airline passengers in America in the sky in a single day. There are like 46,000 flights every day that are trying to be managed.
I mean, these planes, these little tubes flying around at 600 miles an hour. I was thinking last night, what if you had a third of all the air traffic controllers suddenly raptured away? I mean, can you imagine the chaos that would cause? Or think of other parts of our infrastructure, those who work the water treatment plants and the electrical grids. Can you imagine just the infrastructure disruption of millions of people being taken away from their job? Or imagine the economic ramifications. What if something happened as catastrophic as this?
What is the first thing people do? They want to run to the bank and get their money. I mean, we saw what happened in 2008, how little it took for our entire banking system just about to collapse. Can you imagine what would happen in this kind of worldwide catastrophe economically?
Or think socially what would happen in our country, the chaos. You know, the Bible says in Thessalonians that the Holy Spirit is the restrainer of evil in our world right now. The Holy Spirit in Christians is what is holding evil in check.
People who respect God and fear God and obey the laws because God has said to. Can you imagine if all of the Christians are suddenly taken out of this world and people are free to do whatever they want to do? You know, like Dostoevsky said, without God, everything is permissible. I mean, you can just see the chaos in the world that is going to occur after the rapture of the church. I believe it is that chaos that will make people so desperate for order that they will willingly follow anybody who says they can bring peace out of chaos. And that's why in verse 7 you see the antichrist rising to power without any opposition whatsoever. What is the purpose of the tribulation?
Let me just mention two very briefly. Why does God have to do this? Is he just a cosmic killjoy who loves punishing people? No, there are two very important reasons for the tribulation. First of all, the salvation of the elect. Even in the tribulation, you see God's love and mercy. He's giving earth one more chance to repent. This is called Daniel 70th week, the time of Jacob's distress in order that Israel especially might have one last chance to accept Jesus as their Messiah before the final judgment of God. Verse 7 of Jeremiah 30, alas, for that day is great. There is none like it, for it's the time of Jacob's distress, but he will be saved from it.
During the tribulation, you'll see many Gentiles saved, Revelation 7 verse 9, but you'll also see a multitude of Jews who will be saved. It's a redemptive purpose for the tribulation. It is a time for the salvation of the elect. And secondly, it's a time for the condemnation of the lost. A holy God cannot allow evil to go unpunished. And this is a time for God to pour out his wrath on unbelievers.
Isaiah 26 verse 21, for behold, the Lord is about to come out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer cover her stain. Let me just say this about an overview of the tribulation judgments. As we're going to see in the weeks ahead, these judgments are actually a series of three different judgments. There are the seven seals that are mentioned in Revelation 6, and then in Revelation 8 through 11, the trumpet judgments, and then finally, the bowl judgments in Revelation 16. Each of these three series of judgments increases in severity.
The first seals judgments happen in the first three and a half years. The final set of judgments, the trumpet and the bowl judgments, take place in the last three and a half years. Talking about thunderstorms, one way you could understand the increasing severity of these judgments is by the different ratings that weather forecasters use to rate thunderstorms. I would call the seven seal judgments a TS3 thunderstorm. Darkness descends with occasional lightning strikes, moderate rain and wind, pea-sized hail. The seven trumpets would be a TS4 thunderstorm, very dark, increased lightning, heavy rains, damaging winds, and golf ball to baseball-sized hail. And then that final series of judgment, the bowl judgments, would be a TS5.
Pitch black, continuous lightning strikes, flooding rains, tornadic activity, and grapefruit-sized hail. I want you to notice the way these judgments are arranged. You have the first seven seal judgments in Revelation 6, but the seventh seal judgment contains all of the trumpet judgments.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And the seventh trumpet judgment contains all of the bowl judgments as well. So really, when we talk about these series of three judgments, all of them are contained in these seven seals. And that's why that picture is so powerful that we saw last time. That is when God the Father on the throne hands that seven sealed book scroll to Jesus, the Son of God. When Jesus takes possession of that seven sealed scroll, he is holding in his hands all of the judgments against the earth that will culminate with his return to earth to reclaim that which belongs to him.
That's why that is such a dramatic, dramatic picture. How do we prepare for this coming storm, this certainty of God's judgment? I don't want you to fold up anything right now. I want you to look at me and I want you to listen to these words very carefully. It comes from the living translation of 1 Thessalonians 5, 8 through 10. And there's somebody I believe listening to me right now who needs to take seriously these words about the only way to prepare for the coming storm. But let us who live in the light be clear-headed, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation. For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us.
Christ died for us so that whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever. Trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior today is the only way to escape the coming and certain storm of God's judgment. It falls upon every believer to be prepared for the coming storm.
And to help you, we've prepared a number of exclusive resources that are available for a limited time. The first is a book I've written called Final Conquest. Lots of people are predicting the end of time.
Even politicians like Al Gore once predicted that we had until 2016 before we reached the point of no return. In my book, we'll explore the events that will culminate with the return of Jesus Christ. I'll also provide the context of Revelation. I'll explain the theme of persecution. And of course, we'll celebrate the glorious unveiling of Jesus Christ, which has yet to come. And I want you to have a copy of my book called Final Conquest.
It's yours when you give a generous and much-needed gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. Second, when you respond today, I'll also include a booklet I've written that's a primer of sorts. It's called Bible Prophecy Made Simple. This resource gives you a quick reference guide on several of the key events coming in God's timeline for the future. And finally, keep listening because David will also explain how you can receive the entire teaching series for Final Conquest on CD and DVD.
By the way, this series would make a great study for your Sunday school class or small group Bible study. In closing, let me thank our Pathway partners and all those who give generous gifts to Pathway to Victory. We couldn't possibly achieve our mission without you. Thanks so much, David.
Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. Today, when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request your copy of Final Conquest, the verse-by-verse commentary on the book of Revelation by Dr. Robert Jeffress. Plus, you'll receive the booklet called Bible Prophecy Made Simple. Just call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. Now, when you give $75 or more, we'd also like to send you the complete CD and DVD teaching sets for this month's series on the book of Revelation called Final Conquest.
It's perfect for a small group Bible study or a Sunday school class. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. Now, if you'd prefer to write, here's that mailing address, P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
I'm David J. Mullins. In recent years, we've witnessed a number of terrible tragedies around the world. But while indeed tragic, none of these disasters comes even close to the catastrophes that will befall mankind during the Great Tribulation.
Hear a message called God's Judgments Unsealed. That's Thursday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Picture yourself relaxing aboard a luxury cruise ship as you sail the Mediterranean Sea on the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. This 11-day journey will take you to unforgettable destinations in Italy, Turkey, and Greece.
Plus, you'll have the option to extend your trip with additional adventures in Rome. To book your spot on the 2025 Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise, go to ptv.org. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
