Equipped Saints

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

11/19/2013 God's promises being fulfilled

God is forever faithful to His word. My surgery went extremely well and recovery is moving along as God plans, which is better than I could ever ask for.

God has made many promises to us and the fact that He cannot lie makes every promise true. Watch around you and see how He is answering His promises in your life. He is answering prayers quicker than ever before. You will notice how you used to have to wait on the Lord, and He will answer in His time. Well, His time is much quicker now.

Christ's time is close. Think about it ...

Back in the days of the Old Testament, there were 100 prophecies that told of Jesus, the Messiah, coming to earth. They waited and waited and hoped and hoped. Then one day, the prophecy was fulfilled. Jesus Christ had arrived and the New Testament came into effect.

The same thing is happening now. There are over 1000 prophecies telling of Jesus Christ's return back to earth. We watch and watch and pray and pray.

Now the time has come. The prophecies are coming to pass. They are in the final stages of being fulfilled before our eyes.

Don't miss it! So many people missed the first coming, the birth of Jesus Christ. Now the second coming is so close we can almost taste it. Don't be among the many who will miss it!

Thing is ...

No one will miss Christ's second coming. But many won't believe He is coming and will not accept Him as their personal Savior. Because of that, many will perish in Hell because they refused to accept the truth.

Don't be among those who perish. It's time to get serious about your salvation. We are racing the Rapture! Are you ready?

God revealed many future prophecies to His prophet, Daniel. Many of these prophecies match up with the prophecies revealed to John in the book of Revelation. At the time of Daniel's writings, Daniel did not understand what God was telling him. Daniel 12:8-9 says:

"And I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, O my lord, what shall be the issue and final end of these things?

And he [the angel] said, Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end."

We are in that time right now. We are the people of the “time of the end” and these prophecies that are in the Bible are now being revealed to us so that we can have an understanding.

Many people, in fact most, do not understand the meanings of the book of Revelation. There are secrets within it's teachings that are being revealed now that people of other generations were not able to understand.

This is a very exciting time. As we unfold the meanings over the next days and weeks you will realize we are now living in the end times. What that really means is that there is not much time left for those who have not accepted Salvation to make their decision before Jesus Christ's return. Our job as believers is to go out into all the world and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. His wish is that none perish, no, not one.

If you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, I encourage you to not wait a minute longer. Come with me, if you will, and take a personal journey down the Romans Road:

Admit you are a sinner.

Understand that as a sinner, you deserve death.

Believe Jesus Christ died on the cross to save you from sin and death.

Repent by turning from your old life of sin to a new life in Christ.

Receive, through faith in Jesus Christ, his free gift of salvation.

Walk along the Romans Road to Salvation ...

1. Everyone needs salvation because we have all sinned.

Romans 3:10-12, and 23
As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” ... For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (NLT)

2. The price (or consequence) of sin is death.

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (NLT)

3. Jesus Christ died for our sins. He paid the price for our death.

Romans 5:8
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (NLT)

4. We receive salvation and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

Romans 10:9-10, and 13
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved ... For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (NLT)

5. Salvation through Jesus Christ brings us into a relationship of peace with God.

Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. (NLT)

Romans 8:1
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. (NLT)

Romans 8:38-39
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NLT)

Responding to the Romans Road

Dear Lord,
I admit that I am a sinner. I have done many things that don’t please you. I have lived my life for myself. I am sorry and I repent. I ask you to forgive me. I believe that you died on the cross for me, to save me. You did what I could not do for myself. I come to you now and ask you to take control of my life, I give it to you. Help me to live every day in a way that pleases you. I love you, Lord, and I thank you that I will spend all eternity with you.

Amen.

Welcome to the Family of God!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Short Absence

I am on a short leave of absence and should return by November 11, 2013

God's blessings to each of you. See you soon. ~ Darcel

The Roman's Road to Salvation

We are racing the Rapture! Are you ready?

"And I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, O my lord, what shall be the issue and final end of these things?

And he [the angel] said, Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end."

We are in that time right now. We are the people of the “time of the end” and these prophecies that are in the Bible are now being revealed to us so that we can have an understanding.

If you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, I encourage you to not wait a minute longer. Come with me, if you will, and take a personal journey down the Romans Road:

Admit you are a sinner.

Understand that as a sinner, you deserve death.

Believe Jesus Christ died on the cross to save you from sin and death.

Repent by turning from your old life of sin to a new life in Christ.

Receive, through faith in Jesus Christ, his free gift of salvation.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Part V ~ Lesson 6 of 6 – The Timeline of the End

The Sequence of Endtime Events

Equipping God's Saints (Followers of Christ) through the prophecies of the End Times …

The last thing we are going to take a look at will be to incorporate the timeline of the two witnesses. We know that the two witnesses die at the end of the tribulation and we know that the Wrath of God begins at the end of the tribulation. The account of the two witnesses from the time of their death gives us an indication of what's going to happen during the Wrath of God. That timeline looks like this:

*End of Tribula-tion*	*5^th Vial Dark-ness*	*Powers of heaven shake*	*Rapture*	*Mar-riage Supper*	*Second Coming*	*Israel repents, saved*	*Arma-geddon*
*3 ½ days* *<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>*							*Great earth-quake, Babylon judged, Islands mtns, great hail*
			*Rapture of the Two Witness-es*

The passage of Revelation 11:3-12 takes this last element and places it into our timeline. Starting with Revelation 11:3, it says:

“And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred three-score days, clothed in sackcloth.”

Now skipping down, Revelation 11:7-9 says:

“And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.”

We know that these two witnesses, these two prophets, will prophesy for 1,260 days. This is obviously all during the Great Tribulation that they will be prophesying. Their prophecy will end at the end of the Great Tribulation. Once we see how this meshes together, it helps us to understand exactly what's going to happen here.

Then they are going to be killed. When they are killed, they are going to be dead for 3 ½ days, lying in the streets of Jerusalem.

Then they are Raptured 3 ½ days after the Great Tribulation ~ after they are killed. The Spirit of the Life of God enters into them, they stand on their feet and great fear falls upon the people that are watching this. They hear a great voice from heaven saying, “Come up hither.” And they ascend up to heaven in a cloud.

This sure looks like the Rapture of the Church, as well. When they go up, it appears we go up because it's part of the first resurrection. No matter if we can say exactly where, or not, that our Rapture takes place, we know we're right there.

We then proceed from the Rapture to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, Israel repents and is saved, and then the Battle of Armageddon where Babylon is judged and all of those terrible things happen to the people on the earth.

No man knows the day or the hour. I'm sitting here saying, “Here is the day and the hour.” How do we bring this together?

First of all, we haven't been able to say, exactly. But you shouldn't be startled that we are saying the coming of the Lord will not happen tonight because the Bible says it will happen later. This should not alarm you because the Apostle Paul did the same thing. They were teaching in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2 that the day of the Lord, that His coming, is imminent. Paul wrote to them and said in 2 Thessalonians 2:2-3:

“That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;”

Paul layed it out there, so we shouldn't be shocked when we are bold enough to say the scriptures teach that the coming of the Lord is after the Tribulation. Remember what the scripture says in Matthew 24:29:

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:”

When Jesus said the passage in Matthew 24, of course no one knew. There were a lot of things they did not know back in those times. We are not claiming to know, even right now … HOWEVER …

Then in Matthew 24:33-34, Jesus also said:

“So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”

Another thing to consider is, did His statement about no one knowing the day or the hour pertain to us that are living in the endtime?

Just before Jesus was caught up, Acts 1:6-7 tells us:

“When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.”

He said that to them, but is that true to us now? Absolutely not. He was speaking to those specific people that were with Him at that moment. Consequently, we can't say for certain that we won't know pretty close to where we are in this time. But if you're ready … What does it matter?

Dear Ones, don't try to sin until the last minute and then jump on board for a fire escape. The Lord can come anytime for you, personally. We are talking about the Lord coming for humanity, but you are not guaranteed your next breath. The Lord gives you your next breath.

A lot of people say, “I am just going to go and do what I want to do until that time comes.” That's because you really don't love the Lord. You fall in love with the Lord and you won't feel that way because you will always want to please Him.

It's so critical that as we are trying to bring all these ends together now, we need to realize that God has a plan. That plan is moving right now. God has a timeclock. The timeclock is ticking.

We are in the endtime. I'm not telling you the endtime is coming. I am telling you we have entered the endtime. I don't know how close we are, but I think we are very, very close to the final 7 years and we are moving into the most critical time in the history of the human race. Whatever you do, don't be nonchalant about your salvation. Don't take these things lightly.

Furthermore, the Bible tells us that they that understand among the people will instruct many. If you understand what I've taught you here in this series of lessons, then I ask you to explain them to your family, your friends and neighbors. What we need to do to welcome Jesus Christ back to earth is we need to have a surging, powerful revival.

Even while the Antichrist is making his play to do his will, I want you to know Jesus Christ is not sitting idle. The Bible says of this time, “The wicked will be corrupted by flatteries; by the Antichrist.” But it also says of this time, “But the people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many.”

This is a prophecy about YOU and me. We have a job to do. You and I are the generation on whom the end of the world has come. The Bible says we can know the generation. We are the generation that is getting ready to welcome Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, back to this earth.

If you are not ready, you MUST get ready. You MUST be born again or you cannot see the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus Christ comes back, He will reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords forever! ~ Amen.

Resources: The anointing of the Holy Spirit and God Almighty, of whom I am accountable to. I have prayed diligently and am led to follow and support the teachings of Pastor Irvin Baxter from Endtime Ministries and his teachings of Understanding the End Times. I encourage you to visit his website at endtime.com.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Part V ~ Lesson 5 of 6 – The Timeline of the End

The Sequence of Endtime Events

Equipping God's Saints (Followers of Christ) through the prophecies of the End Times …

One of the most exciting, thrilling and moving things happens before the Battle of Armageddon …

We know that something is going to happen concerning the Nation of Israel.

As a whole, Israel has rejected Jesus as being the Messiah. There are many that have not come to this realization. However, the ones who survive the Great Tribulation and the Wrath of God, when Jesus Christ comes back, they are going to recognize Him. Zechariah 14:3-4 says:

“Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.”

Jesus is going to actually come to the Mount of Olives. There are people right now moving to Jerusalem. They are actually taking up residence on the Mount of Olives because they hope to be there when He comes. (I would much rather come with Him than be there when He comes because if you are with Him, you will be there.)

In Israel, the most expensive place to be buried is the Mount of Olives. The Jewish people are expecting their Messiah, from this passage. They don't believe it's Jesus, yet, but they are expecting their Messiah to come to the Mount of Olives.

When He comes to the Mount of Olives, the Jewish people will realize their Messiah has come to save them. Now remember, they are in the throws of the Battle of Armageddon at this point and they are losing the war. Consequently, they may even be crying, “Messiah, you've got to come. You've got to help us. We are getting ready to be annihilated.” They know that Israel is the only place they have. They still have the fresh memory of the Holocaust back in the backs of their minds. They've all lost loved ones to the horrible gas chambers of Nazi Germany. They have no place else to go for safety. So when they are losing this war, they apparently are going to lift their eyes to the skies and they are going to say, “Messiah, if you are ever going to come, You have to come right now!”

Here He comes! He's going to place his feet on the Mount of Olives. The Jewish people, expecting their Messiah to come there, are going to rush out to meet Him. They are going to be able to see Him. A tremendous account is given in Zechariah 13:6. This is the account of what happens when Jesus touches down on the Mount of Olives:

“And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”

When they rush out to meet Jesus at the Mount of Olives, they will, of course, bow to worship Him. They are going to proclaim their love to Him as the Messiah who has come to save them. And then some observing Jewish person is going to notice ugly scars in His feet. And when He reaches out in love to them, they will notice ugly scars in His hands. As the Bible says in the passage we just read, they will say, “What are these wounds in thine hands?” Then he shall answer, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” And they will say, “You are Jesus?” He will say, “Yes, I am Jesus.” What a scene that is going to be.

They will fall on their faces crying how sorry they are. Here they were so stubborn and crucified Him; rejected Him. “But in spite of that, You have come to save us, anyway.” This is when the Jewish people will repent.

What does Jesus do when anyone, including you, asks Him to forgive them? He forgives them.

In Romans 11, the Bible tells us what is going to happen next. Many people wonder, “What about Israel? What about the Church? Is Israel ever going to be turned to again by God? Has the Church replaced Israel?” Romans 11:25-32 says:

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

Israel is only blinded for a while. They are only blinded in part. This is a very good thing because not all of Jewish people are blind to Jesus being the Messiah, but some are. The wonderful news is all if Israel shall be saved.

A lot of people think God hates Israel. That is the furthest thing from the truth. And none of us should hate Israel. The Apostle Paul pointed out that everyone of the 12 Apostles were Jewish. Every person that God used to write our Bible was Jewish. We have no reason at all to have any animosity against the Jewish people. You have to realize that it was through their blindness that we were given a chance as Gentiles. Now, through our faith, the fact that many of us have received Jesus, then that opportunity is going to come back to the Jewish people.

How should Jewish people perceive or look at the fact that the persecution through the centuries upon centuries have come from people who call themselves Christians? That conflicts with everything we just said.

It's been a real problem that some people who call themselves Christians have actually persecuted the Jewish people, thinking they have done God a service. They have actually said, “We are going to take vengeance on the Jewish people because they crucified Jesus Christ.” In the Name of Christ there have been millions of Jews massacred. All I can do is apologize for that because this was done by people who are not true Christians. True Christians love the Jewish race.

That is totally wrong. Jesus Christ never commissioned us to do that at all. No true Christian would ever do that. Only false Christians have done that. As a matter of fact, true Christians would do evil to nobody. We are not called to be violent. We are called to peace.

Continuing on, let's look at Zechariah 12:9-11. This was written before the crucifixion. All the prophecies are so accurate. They are just mind boggling. This passage is speaking of Armageddon and says:

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Migiddon.”

This is such an incredible prophecy. It plainly says here that they are going to look upon Him that they have pierced. They are going to be so sorry when they realize the mistake that was made.

We know that the people who meet Him at the Mount of Olives were not actually a part of the people 2,000 years ago that crucified Jesus. The Bible doesn't teach that you crucified Jesus if you're Jewish or if you're European or American. It teaches that whoever rejects the Lordship of Jesus in their life are guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ.

These people are going to realize they rejected Him and the Bible says, “...They will look upon Him whom they have pierced.” This is before the crucifixion. This was before Jesus was ever crucified and yet here it is in Zechariah 12, “...They will look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn.” Talk about a wail of repentance.

And we who have believed and followed Christ will be back here behind Jesus on our white horses. This is all going to be an incredible experience you won't want to miss! All of Israel shall be saved.

Part V ~ Lesson 4 of 6 – The Timeline of the End

The Sequence of Endtime Events

Equipping God's Saints (Followers of Christ) through the prophecies of the End Times …

If we're not convinced enough that the saints come back and return with Jesus at His Second Coming, let's look at Revelation 19:7-9, 14:

“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

…..

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.”

This passage tells us the saints are going to follow Jesus on white horses as He returns. Revelation 17:14 really helps us to clarify this:

“These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”

In order to be in this group of saints that return with Jesus, we have to be called, chosen and faithful.

1 Thessalonians 3:13 says it like this:

“To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.”

The scriptures leave no room for doubt or error at all. We are coming with Him. In order to be with Him, we have to be caught up prior to this time.

Jesus said that we are not caught up until immediately after the tribulation ~ the sun goes dark; the moon does not give her light; then shall the Son of Man appear. We can't put it right on the day, but we have now narrowed this down that we are right before or even at the beginning of the Battle of Armageddon.

What will it be like to be immortal and be with Jesus at the Battle of Armageddon? We have an account of this in Joel Chapter 2 where it has us fighting side by side with Jesus Christ against the Antichrist and his armies. Joel 2:7-11 says:

“They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:

And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?”

The timeline for this scripture is established ~ The Day of the Lord.

So here we are, with the Lord. We are now immortal. As we move toward the ranks of the Antichrist … the Antichrist still doesn't realize what's going on here. All of a sudden we face a frontal attack. The Bible says that the ten kings that join together to support the Antichrist will make war with Him that sits on the horse, speaking of Jesus Christ. There, we will be with Him. They are going to blast away at us with machine guns and we are going to keep advancing toward them. They will not harm us.

This all sounds like fantasy, but this is what the Bible says is going to happen. We have to come to terms with these scriptures. We are going to be fighting and we are going to be immortal.

There is actually not going to be much of a fight, though. The Bible says Jesus Christ will smite them by the sword of His mouth. If God can say, “Let there be light,” and there was; if He can say seperate the ligh from the darkness; if He can say seperate the ocean from the land … you just don't want to fight with that.

That's why we want to be on the side of Jesus Christ. Matthew 24:44 says:

“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

If you are looking for a purpose in your life and you don't really know why you are on this earth, let me tell you …

You have been put on this earth for a very short segment of time. The Bible says your life is but a vapor … it's here … it's gone. You're not put here to be here. You are put here to prepare you for where you are going to be … forever. If being prepared for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is somewhere down on your list, move it to the top. Make it your highest priority. If you miss this, you have missed the purpose of there even being human beings. You have missed the purpose for you existance.

Whatever you do, if you are not really serious about your salvation now, change that. Get right. Do what you need to do and make sure you are ready for the time when Jesus Christ returns.

The soul purpose of this life is to get ready for the life to come. We are put here to see if we will choose Satan or God; whether we will choose good or evil; light or darkness.

The huge amount of information we have about the endtimes is not put in the Bible by accident or by happenstance. It is designed by God so that we can be prepared.

This is God's dream. This is His whole plan for the human race. This is what He wants to do, so we don't want to miss this.

We mentioned that we have the Rapture of the Church, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and then the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. But before Armageddon happens, something else happens.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Part V ~ Lesson 3 of 6 – The Timeline of the End

The Sequence of Endtime Events

Equipping God's Saints (Followers of Christ) through the prophecies of the End Times …

We are now going to look at the first timeline of the Wrath of God. To do that, we will review Revelation 16. We have a chronological sequence of events for the timeline of the Vials. The Vials occur when the 7^th Trumpet sounds ~ after the Great Tribulation ~ after the Two Witnesses are killed:

*End of Tribula-tion*	*1^st* *Vial*	*2^nd Vial*	*3^rd Vial*	*4^th Vial*	*5^th Vial*	*6^th Vial*	*Rev. 16:15*	*Rev. 16:16*	*7^th Vial*
*Two Witnes-ses killed*	*Sores*	*Seas to blood*	*Rivers to blood*	*Sun scorch men*	*Dark-ness*	*Euph-rates dries up*	*Last minute warn-ing*	*Gather-ed to Arma-geddon*	*Voice, thunders, lightnings, earthquake, Babylon, islands, mtns, hail*

All this happens very rapidly. We are only talking a few days. This is the Day of the Lord. The Day of His Wrath has come.

The Wrath of God is explained in different parts of the Bible, in different ways. Now we are going to look at a condensed timeline of this timeline. We are going to look at fewer events because we are going to compare this timeline of the Wrath of God with another timeline of the Wrath of God.

We are now going to look at a different version of the 7 Vials because we are going to compare it to Matthew 24.

				*7^th Vial* *<<<<Armageddon >>>>*
*End of Tribula-tion*	*Vials 1-4 Sores, bloods sun scorches*	*5^nd Vial Darkness*	*6^rd Vial* *Euphrates warning, gathered*	*Voices, thunders, lightnings*	*Great Earthquake*
					*Babylon judged, islands, mtns,* *great hail*

Earlier, we read Jesus's teachings of the prophecies in Matthew 24:21, 29-31. It starts out by saying, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the following things happen ...” It went on to refer to the Sun being darkened, Moon shall not give her light, Stars will fall from heaven … This is giving us a timeline of the Wrath of God.

End of Tribulation

Sun darkened, moon not give light, stars fall

Powers of heaven shaken

Rapture

Matthew 24:21, 29-31

Immediately after Great Tribulation
Sun, moon dark, stars fall
Heavens shake, great trumpet
Rapture

Son of man coming

Coming in the clouds

Angels do the gathering

Putting what we have learned from the Scriptures of Matthew 24:21, 29-31 and combining it with the 7 Vials, our timeline looks like this:

				*7^th Vial* *<<<<<< Armageddon >>>>>>*
*End of Tribulation*	*Vials 1-4 Sores, bloods sun scorches*	*5^nd Vial Darkness*	*6^rd Vial* *Euphrates warning, gathered*	*Voices, thunders, lightnings*		*Great Earthquake*
						*Babylon judged, islands, mtns,* *great hail*
*End of Tribulation*		*Sun darkened, moon not give light, stars fall*		*Powers of heaven shaken*	*Rapture*

At the Battle of Armageddon, the Voices, thunders and lightnings correlates directly to Jesus's description of powers of heaven shaken. Then Jesus tells us that the Rapture happens.

Now the question arises, “Why do we know the Rapture occurs before the Great earthquake; before Babylon is judged; before islands and mountains are moved out of their places; before the great hail?” We know this because at the Battle of Armageddon, the Saints (that's us who follow Christ) will be with Jesus.

The Bible says that we will come with Him to the Mount of Olives. There are several passages we will look at that show us we will come with Jesus to the Battle of Armageddon. We will know that the Rapture takes place between the Voices, thunders and lightnings and the rest of the events of the Battle of Armageddon.

What we will do now is take a look at a timeline that combines the timelines of Revelation 16 and Matthew 24, compressing them together so we can progress to our next level:

End of Tribula-tion

5^nd Vial Darkness

Powers of heaven shake

Rapture

Marriage Supper

Second Coming

Israel repents, saved

Armageddon

Everyone is very interested in exactly where the Rapture happens. How can the Rapture happen at the time of Armageddon and us still get back to the Battle of Armageddon and be with Jesus at that time? The Bible tells us we will meet the Lord in the air. We will go with him and we will have the Marriage Supper in the sky. Then, as 1 Thessalonians 4 teaches us, we will go with him to the Battle of Armageddon.

When we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, we are changed to immortality and time is not a factor. Our bodies will be like Jesus's body was when He rose from the dead. We are no longer constrained with the physical constraints that we live in right now.

The first scripture we want to look at that verifies how we are going to go with Jesus to fight the Battle of Armageddon is Zechariah 14:4-5, which says:

“And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, …

... and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.”

This passage is telling of Jesus returning ~ the Second Coming of the Lord. And He comes with His saints.

The next scripture we want to look at is Jude 14-15:

“... Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

To execute judgment upon all ...”

Jesus will be coming to judge the great whore; the blood that the people on earth inflicted upon His saints. This is the Day of the Lord. The Bible says when the nations of the earth close in on Jerusalem, that God's fury is going to come up in His face because God chose Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is a point of great controversy right now. Everybody is arguing over whether the Palestinians get Jerusalem or whether Israel gets Jerusalem. Should the UN just take it for herself and put the world headquarters there? That controversy is going to continue to rage until it's going to throw us right into the Battle of Armageddon. The negotiations in the Middle East right now are in progress trying to solve the Jerusalem problem. They are not going to successfully solve it. They may put a bandaid on it for a while, but they aren't going to solve it.

All these things are leading straight toward the time when the world is going to move in on Jerusalem and try to take it from Israel. That is when God is going to get angry and the Bible says when the nations come against Jerusalem, God's fury is going to come up in His face and He's going to come down to execute judgment.

So we are on a really important time right now. Has the world been dealing with the Jerusalem problem for the last 2,000 years? Almost not. But when Israel captured it in 1967, the pressure's been building. It will continue to build until it blows up in the Battle of Armageddon.

What a day to live in!