Part IV ~ Lesson 3 of 4 – Wrath of God

The Sequence of Endtime Events

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

Continuing with our comparison of our 9 scriptures, we see that 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 also uses these terms interchangeably. This is one of the great passages for people who are wanting to understand endtime events, in particular, the events surrounding the coming of the Lord.

There was a real controversy in the Thessolonican Church at that time. The Apostle Paul wrote to them because some of them were debating about when the coming of the Lord would happen. He actually wrote this to straighten out a controversy that had infilltrated the church. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 says:

“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

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's break this passage down a little. In this passage, we see:

• Coming of our Lord
• Gathering together unto Him
• Day of Christ

You will notice that these two verses are one full sentence and one thought. He is equating all three terms. We see here that the Coming of our Lord and the Gathering together unto Him is the same event.

Understand, there were people at that time that were teaching that the Coming of the Lord was at hand, that it was imminant. The Apostle Paul knew this was not true, so he was backing them down. He's saying don't be troubled, don't be shaken in mind because there are some things that will happen before the Coming of the Lord happens. The Coming of our Lord is coming, yes, but it's not at hand, yet.

The last passage we are going to discuss begins with Matthew 24:21, which identifies the Great Tribulation. Then we will jump to Matthew 24:29-31.

Matthew 24:21 says:

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

Continuing at Matthew 24:29-31, we read:

“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:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Matthew 24 is the very best, that I know of, line by line expression of the sequence of endtime events. Jesus is giving us a chronological account of events. First this will happen, then that will happen, then this will happen, etc.

Verse 15 says that when you see the Abomination of Desolation then let those in Judea flee for... (Verse 21) there will be great tribulation as never has been before... (Verse 29) immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon shall not give her light. (We have already shown this is what happens under the Wrath of God.)

This passage of Matthew 24:21, 29-31 shows us the sequence of endtime events:

• Immediately after Great Tribulation
• Sun, moon dark, stars fall
• Heavens shake, great trumpet
• Son of man coming
• Coming in the clouds
• Angels do the gathering

This passage deals with elements of the Wrath of God, however, for the understanding of our terms and 9 passages, we will only show the two terms that relate to our chart.

As we apply these 9 passages with the 4 terms on a chart, you will see total consistency. All of these terms are interchangeable. This makes it obvious that all of these terms are the same.

	God's Wrath	Day of Lord	Coming as a thief	Coming of Lord
Rev 11:15-19	X
Zeph 1:14-16	X	X
Joel 2:10-11, 31	X	X
2 Pet 3:10	X	X	X
1 Thes 5:2		X	X
Matt 24:42-43			X	X
1 Cor 1:6-8		X		X
2 Thes 2:1-2		X		X
Matt 24:29-31	X			X

To put this all into perspective, let's go back and see what we have learned so far.

First, we have established that the 6^th Seal, 7^th Trumpet and 7^th Vial are all one in the same. We also add Matthew 24:29 and Ezekiel 38:18-22 to show this is all the same event.

Next, we created charts that show what happens during the time of the 6^th Seal, 7^th Trumpet and 7^th Vial:

Earthquake; Sun black; Moon blood; Stars fall; Mountains & islands moved; God's Wrath; Great voices; Great hail; Lightnings, voices, thunderings. We focused on the fact that all of these events make up the Wrath of God.

We also established that not only the 7^th Vial is the Wrath of God, but that all the Vials are contained in the 7^th Trumpet, so all the Vials are the Wrath of God.

This brings us to today's lesson where we established the terms God's Wrath; Day of the Lord; Coming of the Lord; Coming as a thief; is one in the same event.

You need to understand that the Book of Revelation is not in chronological order from front to back because there are many false teachings out there to confuse you. People take the Book of Revelation and teach it in chronological order from front to back. Because the Rapture is mentioned several times, there is a teaching called 7 Subsequent Raptures where they teach there are 7 Raptures. If you believe it is in chronological order, you will wind up with a Rapture in Chapter 6, Chapter 8, Chapter 11, Chapter 14, Chapter 16, etc. You have to come up with a doctrine to fit the theory.

The problem is that it's not the Bible that is confused, it's we who are sometimes confused.

Jesus told us in John 5:39:

“Searh the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”

Our comparison of scriptures and our charts help us to nail things down. We are proving scriptures with scriptures.

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.