WE HAVE ENTERED INTO THE LAST DAYS, PRECEDING THE DAY OF THE LORD

 

09-30-18 This message may be viewed live streaming video at www.tabernacleofmoses.org commencing today Sunday at 11:00 am, and repeated 24/7 for one week; thereafter, the video, audio, and study notes are archived.

The brightness of our revelations depends upon the correctness of our doctrines, our building blocks. God is Thought, God is Love, God is the eternal Spirit from which all things were created. You are a part of His Spirit (Eccl 12:7); you are either an eternal Spirit, or an eternal spirit.

 

CHAOS WILL PREVAIL (EXPECT IT)

(Mat 12:25)  And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, “Every kingdom [nation] divided against itself is brought to desolation [Gk: laid waste: come to naught]; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand[Gk: continue]: [ref: Mark 3:24, 25; Luke 11:17]

1.     Commentary: Rather than offering probabilities that we may be entering into the “great tribulation,” as I have done in the past, I now know that we are in the great tribulation.” This great nation is undeniably in great trouble, and this great nation clearly symbolizes, by extension, this whole world. The Bible describes the times that we have now entered into, and are very disturbingly experiencing, as “great tribulation [Gk: pressure: affliction, trouble] (Mat 24:21; Rev 2:22; Rev 7:14). Prophetically, these are “the last days” that shall precede the imminent second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But in that regard, please meditate upon a perplexing statement uttered by Jesus Christ:

a.      (Mat 24:22)  And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. [i.e., a warning: get ready, prepare yourself]

2.     (Dan 7:25)  And he [the Antichrist, the beast, the wicked one (all possessed by Satan)] shall speak great words [great words have great power] against the most High, and shall wear out [Heb: (used only in a mental sense); affliction] [syn: tribulation] the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they [the saints] shall be given [Heb: delivered] into his hand [i.e., dominion] until a time and times and the dividing of time [symbolically 3 ½ years].

a.      Commentary: meaning either until thattimebegins, or until that “time” ends. Your choice. I choose the latter interpretation, and the “time” being shortened, i.e., any day henceforward.

3.     (Rev 13:7)  And it was given unto him [the Antichrist, the beast, the wicked one] to make war with the saints, and to overcome [Gk: to subdue: prevail, get the victory] them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

 

  SIGNS OF THE LAST DAYS OF GREAT TRIBULATION

(APPLY TO YOUR PRESENT DAILY LIFE EXPERIENCES AND PERCEPTIONS)

(2 Tim 3:1-4)  This know also, that in the last days perilous [Gk: dangerous, or furious: fierce] times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves [Gk: selfish], covetous [Gk: fond of money], boasters, proud, blasphemers [Gk: impious against God], disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy [Gk: wicked], Without natural affection [Gk: hard-hearted], trucebreakers, false accusers [Gk: false accusers, slanderers], incontinent [Gk: without self-control], fierce [Gk: savage], despisers of those that are good [Gk: hostile to virtue], Traitors, heady [Gk: rash], highminded [Gk: inflated with self-conceit: lifted up with pride], lovers of pleasures [of this world] more than lovers of God;

1.     virtue = Dict: 1. general moral excellence; right action and thinking; goodness or morality. 2. a specific moral quality regarded as good or meritorious.

 

A LAST MINUTE APPEAL TO YOUR UNDERSTANDING

(2 Peter 3:1,2)  This second epistle [Gk: letter], beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:

1.     pure = Gk: (the sun’s ray); judged by sunlight, tested as genuine: sincere.

2.     minds = Gk: deep thought, by implication its exercise: understanding.

3.     mindful = Gk: (through the idea of fixture in the mind or of mental grasp); to bear in mind, recollect.

 

(2 Peter 3:3-7)  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers [Gk: false teachers: mockers], walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were [(incorrect)] from the beginning of the creation [i.e., the latter phrase of this sentence is an incorrect statement]. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was [the past], being overflowed with water, perished [Gk: (was) fully destroyed]: But the heavens and the earth, which are now [the present], by the same word [of God] are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition [Gk: ruin or loss: damnation, waste] of ungodly men.

 

(2 Peter 3:8,9)  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack [Gk: delaying] concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering [Gk: forbearing or patient: to bear (suffer) long] to us-ward, not willing that any should perish [Gk: (be) fully destroyed], but that all should come to repentance [Gk: to think differently, reconsider].

 

THE DAY OF THE LORD

(2 Peter 3:10-12)  But the day of the Lord [His second coming] will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise [(explosions)], and the elements [earthly things] shall melt [Gk: dissolve] with fervent heat [the firestorm of nuclear bombs attain 15 million degrees Fahrenheit], the earth also and the works [by man] that are therein shall be burned up [Gk: consumed wholly]. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved [Gk: melted], what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation [Gk: behavior] and godliness, Looking for [Gk: anticipating] and hasting [Gk: to speed on, urge on (diligently or earnestly); await eagerly] unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements [earthly things] shall melt with fervent heat [Gk: to set on fire]?

1.     (Zech 14:12)  And this shall be the plague [Heb: slaughter] wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem [i.e., rejected God]; Their flesh shall consume away [Heb: melt] while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away [Heb: melt] in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away [Heb: melt] in their mouth.

2.     (Isa 51:6)  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment [desiccate, but instantly], and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

 

NEVERTHELESS, ACCORDING TO HIS PROMISE

(2 Peter 3:13,14)  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness [i.e., because Satan shall no longer be “the god of this world” 2 Cor 4:4]. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent [Gk: use speed, make an effort, be earnest: labour, study] that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

1.     (2 Tim 2:15)  Study [Gk: be diligent] to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

a.      rightly dividing = Gk: to make a straight cut, to dissect (expound) correctly /// (as if by a single stroke rather than repeated blows like hacking); more keen: sharper.

 

(2 Peter 3:15,16)  And account [Gk: consider: judge] that the longsuffering [Gk: forbearance, patience] of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles [Gk: letters], speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned [Gk: ignorant] [i.e., without knowledge] and unstable [Gk: unfixed, vacillating] wrest [Gk: wrench, torture, pervert], as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction [Gk: ruin or loss: damnation, waste].

 

(2 Peter 3:17,18)  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know [now have correct knowledge of] these things before [they happen], beware lest ye also, being led away with the error [Gk: delusion] [i.e., “strong delusion” 2 Thess 2:11] of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness [Gk: stability]. But grow [Gk: enlarge: grow up, increase] in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever.

 

Amen.