Time line > Tribulation Timeline: When Shall These Things Be? Part 1 by Tom Stewart

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Tribulation Timeline:
When Shall These Things Be?
(Part 1)


"And as He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?"
(Matthew 24:3).


by Tom Stewart

The Seventieth Week of Daniel Outlines the Events That Are About to Unfold

1. The LORD Jesus Christ mentioned the Seventieth Week of Daniel in His discourse on the Mount of Olives. "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand)" (Matthew 24:15). This represents the New Testament connection to the Old Testament prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27.

2. Daniel's prophecy concerns the nation of Israel -- reborn as a modern nation on May 14, 1948 after it's demise at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD -- and an event Jesus called "the abomination of desolation", that demands the restoration of Temple worship on Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

a. Seventy weeks refer to seventy weeks of years (70 x 7) or 490 years. It concerns the "people" of Israel, the "holy city" of Jerusalem, Jesus' sacrifice for all mankind's "sins", the "reconciliation" that takes place with repenting Israel and the rest of the repenting Gentiles at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and the crowning of Jesus, our "everlasting righteousness", as KING of Kings and LORD of Lords. "Seventy weeks are determined upon Thy people and upon Thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy" (Daniel 9:24).

b. The beginning of the prophecy is the command to restore and build Jerusalem by Artaxerxes in 445 BC (probably Nisan 1, which Sir Robert Anderson calculates to be March 14 in his book, The Coming Prince ---New Window) as recounted in Nehemiah 2:1-8. "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times" (Daniel 9:25).

c. The "Messiah" that is "cut off, but not for himself" refers to Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross for all mankind, who was rejected by Israel, and is now being rejected by much of what is called the Christian Church. "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself." "And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" refers to the Rome's destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD. "And the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined" (Daniel 9:26). The abomination of desolation will begin in the middle and continue to the end of Daniel's Seventieth Week.

d. The Antichrist will have a career of one prophetic week of seven years. Each prophetic year stands for 360 days. His career lasts 2,520 days. The week begins when he confirms a covenant "with many for one week" -- the political foundation of Satan's New World Order, where he claims to be Christ. This displaces the historical Jesus as only another and lesser Christ. In the middle of the week -- 3 1/2 years or 1,260 days into the Tribulation Week -- is Antichrist's time to demand the worship of himself as none other than Almighty God -- a blasphemous lie! "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate" (Daniel 9:27).

First and Second "Come Up Hither"

1. The First "Come Up Hither" is the event before the Tribulation Week begins where the LORD Jesus Christ removes His watching saints, as well as (in the opinion of this writer) all the innocents (those who are not yet moral agents -- such as young children or infants).

a. The open door is a picture of the "Come Up Hither". "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter" (Revelation 4:1).

b. Enoch walked with God home to Heaven. "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him" (Genesis 5:24).

c. Enoch did not see death because his walk of faith pleased God. "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God" (Hebrews 11:5).

d. How much before the Tribulation Week begins that the First "Come Up Hither" takes place is open to conjecture. This writer believes that some type of gap must exist between the First "Come Up Hither" and Antichrist's "covenant with many" (Daniel 9:27) at the beginning of the Tribulation Week, because the removal of the watching believers along with the innocents will be probably attributed to alien abduction.

e. The number of watching believers missing may only be marginal, but the multitudes of babies missing from every part of this planet will have a unifying effect upon everyone when they understand: 'it is us versus them.' The concept of good aliens versus bad aliens would be introduced by the already complicit leaders of the governments of the world. Bad aliens are the type the entire world unites to fight in an "Independence Day" movie scenario. Good aliens are the type of New Age ascended masters -- of whom Maitreya, the Antichrist, would be the highest, and Jesus would be a lesser -- that are here to save us from the bad aliens as well as ourselves.

f. Satan is merely using Jehovah God's program of watchcare over His children, as an excuse and catalyst to bring about his rule and worship. Our God allows this deception to occur when He removes the restraining influence of His Spirit, Who abides in the saints. "And now ye know What withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now letteth will let, until He be taken out of the way" (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7). Or, to paraphrase it: And you know Who [God] restrains him [the Antichrist] now, so that in his [Antichrist's] time he [Antichrist] may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He [God] who now restrains [through the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence making us preserving salt in the earth] will do so until He [the Holy Spirit] is taken out of the way.

2. The Second "Come Up Hither" is the event that this writer calls The Rapture. "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the Word of the LORD, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the LORD shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep. For the LORD Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the LORD in the air: and so shall we ever be with the LORD. Wherefore comfort one another with these Words" (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

a. The Second "Come Up Hither," or Rapture, is the fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets -- known commonly as Rosh HaShanah by modern Jews -- on Tishri 1 of the Jewish calendar (Sept. - Oct. of the modern calendar).

b. The Jews identify Rosh HaShanah with the Last Trump. Rosh HaShanah occurs nine days prior to the Day of Atonement -- also known as Yom Kippur (Tishri 10). "For the LORD Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first" (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

c. The resurrection of all of the righteous dead will take place at this time. Wherever you find the Resurrection, you will find the Rapture. The Rapture is separated from the Resurrection by "the twinkling of an eye." "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52).

d. The Rapture follows the resurrection of the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, slain by Antichrist 11 1/2 days before the end of the Tribulation Week. In the streets of Jerusalem, their bodies will lay for 3 1/2 days before they are commanded by our God to "Come Up Hither." "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 after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from Heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to Heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them" (Revelation 11:7-8, and 11-12).

e. A great earthquake occurs during the same hour following the resurrection of the two witnesses. "And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of Heaven" (Revelation 11:13). Possibly a similar earthquake will follow the First "Come Up Hither" as well. An earthquake punctuated Jerusalem when the LORD Jesus died on the cross. "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent" (Matthew 27:51).

f. Notice that the Seventh and Last Trumpet judgment sounds only three verses after Moses and Elijah have been resurrected. Again, wherever you find the Resurrection, you will find the Rapture. "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in Heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our LORD, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 11:15).

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Read:
The Coming Prince ---New Window

by Sir Robert Anderson (1841-1918)

Complete with charts, tables, and reference footnotes.

Undoubtedly, Sir Robert Anderson intended the title of his book, "The Coming Prince", to refer to the Antichrist, who is noted as the "prince that shall come" (Daniel 9:26). In Chapter 15, also entitled "The Coming Prince", Anderson wrote:

"If the book of Daniel might be read by itself no question whatever could arise. 'The Coming Prince' is there presented as the head of the revived Roman empire of the future, and a persecutor of the saints."

On the other hand, his "Introduction" (Chapter 1) begins with a defense of the prophetic fact that the LORD Jesus Christ will most certainly return to judge the world. Anderson wrote:

"But the day is coming when 'our God shall come and shall not keep silence' [Psalm 50:3]. This is not a matter of opinion, but of faith. He who questions it has no claim whatever to the name of Christian, for it is as essentially a truth of Christianity as is the record of the life and death of the Son of God. The old Scriptures teem with it, and of all the writers of the New Testament there is not so much as one who does not expressly speak of it. It was the burden of the first prophetic utterance which Holy Writ records; ['And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the LORD cometh with ten thousands of His Saints' (Jude 1:14)] and the closing book of the sacred Canon, from the first chapter to the last, confirms and amplifies the testimony."

"The Coming Prince" is a classic interpretation of the prophecies of Daniel, especially the ninth chapter. Concerning Daniel's Seventy Weeks, Anderson wrote:

"The only inquiry, therefore, which concerns us relates to the nature of the crisis [i.e., the Judgment of the Earth] and the time of its fulfilment [i.e., the duration of the Tribulation and especially the Second Coming of the LORD Jesus Christ]. And the key to this inquiry is the Prophet Daniel's vision of the seventy weeks."

And for more about the author, read:
Sir Robert Anderson and the Seventy Weeks of Daniel ---New Window




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