NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECIES AWAITING FULFILMENT 3
NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECIES AWAITING FULFILMENT 3
Satan will be cast down to earth in the middle of the Tribulation. That is when Antichrist will break his peace treaty with Israel, and empowered by Satan, will make war on Israel. Christ will send His two witnesses to earth, who will prophesy for the remaining half of the Tribulation and then be killed. God will take them up to Heaven, and as they are being taken up a great earthquake will destroy the tenth part of Jerusalem, killing seven thousand of its inhabitants. This will cause the remaining Jews to glorify God and be saved (CP 11:1-13). Christ's two witnesses will be Enoch and Elijah, neither of whom have yet died, which they have to do to conform to scripture (CP He 9:27). They will be killed by the beast out of the bottomless pit, or abyss. It is not relevant to this study who this beast is, so we will not take it any further. The temple of God that John prophetically measures in Rev 11:1-2 does not yet exist. However, it will be rebuilt before the commencement of the seven years reign of antichrist. He will desecrate it in the middle of his reign when he will break his peace treaty with Israel and place an image of himself as God in the temple, forcing people to worship it or be killed (CP Dan 7:25; 8:9-14; 9:27; 12:7-12; Mt 24:15-21; 2Th 2:3-4; Rev 13:11-15). During the second three and a half years of the Tribulation Antichrist will make war on Israel until God purges the nation of every rebel. Altogether two thirds of Israel will perish in the Tribulation (CP Eze 20:33-38; Zech 13:8-9; Mal 3:1-6). The Gentile nations under antichrist will invade Israel and trample Jerusalem underfoot. The Jews will be led away captive into all nations, fulfilling both Old and New Testament prophecies (CP Dan 11:40-45; 12:1; Mt 24:15-22; Lu 21:20-24; Rev 11:1-2; 12:13-17).
As the seventh trumpet sounds God's seventh judgement upon the earth, synonymous with the third woe - the casting down of Satan out of Heaven to the earth - loud voices in Heaven will declare that the kingdoms of this world now belong to God and Christ, who will reign over them for ever and ever (CP Rev 11:14-19). Although God is Sovereign over the kingdoms of the world after Satan is cast out of Heaven, it will still be three and a half years before He actually takes possession of the earth because the Tribulation has to run its predetermined course first. Until then, Satan is the prince, or god of this world (CP Jn 12:31; 14:30; 2Cor 4:3-4; Eph 2:1-2). In Rev 11:16 the raptured church in Heaven prophesies how at Christ's second coming hostile nations will be overcome by God's wrath; how the prophets and saints are to be rewarded, and how the ungodly and wicked dead will be destroyed. The temple of God being opened to reveal the Ark of the Covenant in Rev 11:19 signifies God's redeeming purpose in the midst of judgement (CP Rev 11:16, 19 with Psa 21:9; Isa 26:20-21; 30:27-28; 2Th 1:7-9).
(CP Rev 12:1-5). Here we have a prophetic insight of Israel, symbolised by the woman who gives birth to a man child. Israel is depicted many times in scripture as a woman in travail giving birth (CP Isa 26:16-18; 54:1-6; 66:7-12; Hos 1:2-11; Mic 4:10; 5:2-3). The twelve stars represent the twelve tribes of Israel. The great red dragon is Satan (CP Job 41; Psa 74:14; 91:13; Isa 27:1; Rev 13:2-4; 16:13; 20:2). After he is cast out of Heaven, Satan and Antichrist together will make war on Israel in the second three and a half years of the Tribulation (CP Dan 7:7-8, 21, 24-25; 8:24-25; 2Th 2:8-9; Rev 6:4; 12:4, 7-17; 13:1-8). Having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads, symbolises Satan's domination of seven past world kingdoms and ten future world kingdoms, which he will dominate through his empowering of Antichrist. The general consensus among Bible commentators is that the man child the woman gave birth to in Rev 12:5 who will rule all nations with a "rod of iron", and who was caught up to God and His Throne is Jesus (CP Rev 12:5). This view however looks back on the past, whereas everything revealed to John, of which he prophesies from Rev 4:1 onward, is future (CP Rev 1:19; 4:1). Clearly, all the events of Revelation from ch 4 onward refer to the future, not the past. Thus the man child cannot represent Jesus in the past, but something that will be fulfilled in the future - during the Tribulation - because in accord with the prophecy, the woman will give birth during the Tribulation. The only thing caught up to God - translated to Heaven - during the Tribulation according to scripture, which the man child could possibly represent, are the hundred and forty four thousand Jews with the Seal of God in their foreheads - the first fruits out of the Tribulation of a new redeemed Israel (CP Isa 66:7-8; Jer 30:6-9; Dan 12:1; Rev 7:1-8; 14:1-5 with Ro 9:27; 11:1-5).
Those scriptures all point to the man child as representing the hundred and forty four thousand Jews - they are before the Throne of God in Rev 14:3, just as the man child was caught up unto God and His Throne in Rev 12:5. Man child in Isa 66:7 is referred to as her children in 66:8. In Jer 30 the man child - he - in V 7, is called they in V 9. Daniel prophesied in Dan 12:1 that every Jew whose name is written in the Book of Life will be delivered in the middle of the Tribulation after Satan is cast down out of Heaven to the earth. This is what happened to the man child in Rev 12:5 (CP Dan 12:1 with Rev 12:5). We know that the names of the hundred and forty four thousand are written in the Book of Life because they are sealed with the Seal of God - the name of God - in their foreheads (CP Rev 7:1-4; 14:1). When Satan is cast down out of Heaven to the earth he will cause antichrist to break his seven years peace treaty with Israel and will empower him to make war on Israel. However, Israel will be able to flee to a place of refuge which God has prepared for her to escape Satan's wrath during the last three and a half years of the Tribulation (CP Rev 12:1-17). The two wings of a great eagle in Rev 12:14 symbolises how God will sustain Israel during her three and a half years in the wilderness. This symbolism has its origin in the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt (CP Ex 19:4; De 32:11-12; Isa 63:9).
The water as a flood which the dragon casts out of his mouth after the woman refers to the armies of Antichrist. This symbolism of armies is used by both Jeremiah and Daniel in the Old Testament (CP Jer 46:7-8; 47:1-4; Dan 9:26-27; 11:21-26, 40). The remnant of the woman's seed who the dragon will make war with, are Jews who will not flee with the others into the wilderness. They obviously will get saved after the hundred and forty four thousand are raptured. The name of the place in the wilderness to which the woman will flee is Petra, or Sela, as it is also called, in Moab (CP Isa 16: 1-5). Next, we are given prophetic insight into the real nature of Antichrist. He is symbolised by a beast rising up out of the sea, combining all the evil features of other cruel oppressors of Israel (CP Rev 13:1-8). It is generally agreed among Bible scholars that the leopard typifies Greece, the bear, Medo-Persia, and the lion, Babylon. These were all violent and cruel oppressors of Israel during the Old Testament period before the Romans conquered Israel, and being depicted in the beast, means that antichrist will combine all their evil features (CP V 2).
The sea out of which Antichrist rises symbolises humanity - peoples, nations, multitudes and tongues; inhabitants of the earth (CP Dan 7:2-3; Rev 17:1, 15). Antichrist is a human being who will rise to power from among other human beings. He is not a supernatural being as so many Christians suppose, but will be empowered to do signs and wonders and work miracles, by both Satan and the one John calls the false prophet, symbolised by another beast rising up out of the earth (CP Rev 13:11-15 and 19:20). Many inhabitants of the earth at that time will think that Antichrist died of his head wound in Rev 13:3 and that God brought him back to life, thus duplicating Christ's death and resurrection, and attesting to Antichrist's deity. But the healing will be effected by Satan and the false prophet to deceive people into worshipping Antichrist's image, believing him to be God (CP Dan 8:23-24; 2Th 2:7-10; Rev 13:1-8). The false prophet is also a human being like Antichrist. (Earth in Rev 13:11, like sea in 13:1, is used symbolically of peoples. It is also the same Greek word as world in 13:3, which symbolises the inhabitants of the earth). He will enable the image of Antichrist, which will be set up in the temple - the abomination of desolation - to talk as God. He will cause people to worship the image, and will behead those who refuse (CP Rev 13:12-15 with Mt 24:15; 2Th 2:3-4 and Rev 20:4).
The false prophet will also cause people to receive the mark of Antichrist, called the mark of the beast, in order to be able to buy and sell. All who take the mark though or worship the beast, will be destroyed by God (CP Rev 13:16-17 with 14:9-13). Tribulation saints will be exhorted to persevere in faith in spite of persecution (CP Rev 13:10; 14:12-13 with 12:11). Those who are martyred for their testimony during the Tribulation will be especially blessed they will be released from all pain and suffering and go to be with Jesus (CP Rev 6:9-11; 7:9-17; 15:2; 20:4). The next part of John's prophecy that will be fulfilled during the Tribulation are the seven last plagues or the seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, by which name they are also referred (CP Rev 15:1, 6 - 16:1-12, 17-21). This will be the final outpouring of God's wrath upon the earth and its inhabitants, and bring finality to the Tribulation. The significance of no one being able to enter the temple in Rev 15:8 is that nothing can stop this outpouring of God's wrath. Note that the sixth plague in Rev 16:12 will cause the River Euphrates to dry up. God has predestined that to happen to enable the armies of the kings of the confederation of Gentile nations aligned with Antichrist to cross over on dry land to fight Christ at the battle of Armageddon (CP 16:12).