(tm)The seventh trumpet
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The seventh trumpet is the last trumpet. When the last trumpet sounds the Lord’s saints, His witnesses of all ages, will be changed from mortality to immortality.
But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound [is about to sound], the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. (Revelation 10:7)
The "mystery of God" is the forming of Christ in the members of His Body. The sealed remnant will be made perfect during the tribulation, and the great multitude of the redeemed will wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Revelation, Chapter 11 tells of two witnesses who will prophesy as the seventh angel is about to sound. We understand the two witnesses to be Christ—Head and Body. The two witnesses will prophesy during one "week" of years.
The tribulation period, as we understand it, will occur during the second half of the prophetic week of years. During the first half of the week (three and one-half years; 42 months) the true saints will be empowered to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom in all the world for a witness to every nation under the heaven, in accordance with Matthew 24:14 (see Daniel 9:27).
During the "latter-rain" witness, which will take place during the first half of the "week," as we understand it, the saints will cause judgment to fall on the peoples of the earth. They will have authority to shut the heaven so it does not rain during the time of their prophecy.
They will have authority over waters to turn them to blood, and to bring all plagues on the earth as often as they choose—no doubt in both spiritual and physical fulfillment. Those who oppose them will be slain by the Word of Divine judgment that comes from their mouth (Revelation 11:5,6).
The number two, which is associated with the end-time witness (the two witnesses; the two olive trees; the two lampstands) refers to the double power of the Holy Spirit—the Elisha anointing. Christ (the one Lampstand) and His Body (the second Lampstand) will be filled with a double portion of the Holy Spirit to bear witness on the earth of the soon coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth.
At the end of the first half of the week God will permit the witness to be overcome and driven from the cities of the earth. The Christian witness will be overcome by violence and by deception. It is impossible to overcome Jesus and it is impossible to overcome the saint who abides in Jesus. But many saints do not abide in Jesus to the extent they should, and it appears that the testimony of many of them will be overcome after God lifts the powerful anointing of the last days. The witness must be overcome so the spiritual power that hinders Antichrist may be removed from his path (II Thessalonians 2:7).
During the second half of the week the fullness of the abomination that Antichrist is will be revealed. Antichrist will be, we believe, a Christian. We say this because Judas, who was in the inner circle of Jesus’ apostles, was referred to by the Lord as "the son of perdition" (John 17:12). The same term is applied to the Antichrist (II Thessalonians 2:3; note also I John 2:18,19).
Because of the number of people who have been converted through the ministry of the two witnesses, Antichrist will find it possible to rise to extraordinary political power by gaining the confidence of the new believers and then of the adherents of many of the other religions of the earth.
Antichrist may be a deceived Christian. It is not a large step from the desire of Christians to obtain power from the Lord for their personal material advancement, to the willingness of a Christian finally to yield completely to the concept that God wants to give uncrucified man all authority and power.
Since the first edition of The End-time Judgments the next step toward Antichrist has been taken. We are referring to Dominion Theology, or Reconstructionism. This new form of postmillennialism appears, at first glance, to be positive, faith-filled Christianity. In actuality it is the expression of believers with spiritual gifts who are walking after the counsel of their own uncrucified minds, seeking to build the Kingdom of God apart from the personal intervention and will of the Lord Jesus.
Dominion Theology is gaining many adherents among zealous believers because they are not praying and are not following Jesus in patient, cross-carrying obedience. They are being deceived.
Antichrist will begin by attempting, perhaps in all sincerity, to use Christian principles to solve the problems of the world, as the ministry is attempting today to use Christian principles to solve the problems of people. But Satan will manage to deceive this supremely skillful administrator, this perfect combination of Christianity and humanism, to the point he begins to consider himself to be God. Now Satan has what he is looking for—a human being who, because of his own self-centeredness, has become a Satan-filled imitation of Christ.
Israel, by this time one of the strongest nations of the earth, will resist the efforts of Antichrist to achieve a one-world government. Antichrist will gather together the nations of the earth and go up to battle against Jerusalem. Jerusalem will fall.
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. (Zechariah 14:2)
Antichrist will enter the Holy Land. He will sit in the rebuilt Temple proclaiming himself to be the God of Israel, the God of the whole earth. This is the abomination that produces desolation. Now will fierce tribulation fill the earth as the Lord reacts to man making himself God.
The Christian saints and the devout Jews will flee into the wilderness where God will keep them from the hand of Antichrist. The godly remnant of Christians and Jews will be reconciled and will wait for the revealing of Christ in the clouds of the heaven. Some of the Jews may remain in the land of Israel and finally come to accept the claims of Antichrist.
Antichrist will remove from the cities of the earth, by violence and by deception, the testimony of the holy people of the Lord, that is, of the Jews and the Christians. He will "wear out" all but the most fervent and committed of the Christians and Jews by untiring, skillful diplomacy and relentless persecution. God will give them into his hand until the appointed hour has come (Daniel 7:25).
The nominal Christians and Jews, those who accept his worldwide economic scheme, his one-world government, will be subsidized by him. He will invite Christian leaders to participate in his government. He will destroy the spiritual life of the Laodicean church by befriending it.
. . . it shall be for a time, times, and an half [the second half of Daniel’s seventieth week]; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. (Daniel 12:7)
Peace and safety will fill the earth. Suddenly the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Antichrist will summon the armies of the earth to Jerusalem because he will understand from the Scriptures that Jesus will return to Jerusalem.
The power of Christ will descend before Him and fill the bodies of the sleeping and the living saints, the eternal witnesses of God. They will rise from the dead in the splendor of Divine radiance. The living will be changed from mortality into immortality. The entire light-filled multitude will be caught up to meet the Commander in Chief in the air.
Now the Head and Body of Christ are One and are standing on the spiritual Mount Zion.
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. (Revelation 14:1)
Antichrist and the kings of the earth will witness the ascension into the air of the radiant army of Christ.
And after three days and an half [the second half of the week] the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. (Revelation 11:11)
Antichrist and the kings of the earth then will prepare themselves to fight against the Lord Jesus and His saints.
And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. (Revelation 19:19)
At this point there will be a massive earthquake.
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 the heaven. (Revelation 11:13)
Notice the expression, "the city." The city mentioned here may be Babylon the great—the world headquarters of the "Christian" religion located on the River Euphrates, the ancient site of the Tower of Babel.
And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. (Revelation 17:18)
The blowing of the seventh trumpet, the last trumpet, marks the termination of the Church Age. The Lord’s servants from every era of history will be raised from the dead, and then be caught up to meet the returning Lord in the air. The Kingdom of God now is at hand and soon will invade the earth.
And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in the 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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