The third Jewish temple has been in the planning stage for three decades. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem has completed all its furnishings with the exception of the Ark of the Covenant for which they claim to know the location of the original one.
As we slide further into the time of the end, and the bright sunny days continue to be spiritually dark, it is common for us to look around for an indicator of how long it will be until Jesus Christ returns. We might scan the horizon for any clue to how and when the end-time prophecies will be fulfilled and Christ will return. We watch events as the world continues to churn seemingly out of control. We see many key prophecies being fulfilled and those on the verge of fulfillment.
After two years of global turmoil, people are starting to realize we aren’t going to “return to normal.” We’ve endured a global pandemic, widespread social unrest, vaccine passports, and compounding global supply chain issues.
The Lord God gave us definite signs of when the beginning of the Tribulation would start, and although I would agree that we are bumping right up to the time the Bible calls Jacob’s trouble, we have not crossed that red line that says we in the Tribulation. Why do I say that?
Jesus has just come from the temple mount and prophesied that the temple would be torn down, “not leaving one stone upon another.” This disturbed the disciples, as the temple was the center of their world, the world of the nation of Israel.
The Bible clearly teaches that the Antichrist and False Prophet will be active on earth at the same time (during the Tribulation Period).
You may wonder why I am again writing in defense of the pretribulation Rapture, the belief that Jesus will come for His church before the start of the seven-year tribulation. I am doing so because we live in a time when many inside and outside the church ridicule our hope in Jesus’ imminent appearing. How do we answer those who mock the hope we hold so dear?
Verse 3 tells us this mighty angel stands before the heavenly golden altar of incense, which is before the Throne of the Almighty God. The prayers of all the believers are mingled with heavenly incense and offered up to God. These prayers contain the martyrs’ and the suffering saints’ cries for relief and justice. The answer to these prayers is the Seven Trumpets and Seven Golden Vials.
From the Book of Romans to Philemon the Tribulation is not mentioned even once. It would seem that something so important as seven years of hell on earth would be part of Paul’s teachings to the church if it was to pass through this time