Bible Prophecy and Inspiration

Please read yesterday’s blog and part 1 if you haven’t.  As a reminder we are speaking on the first part of Matthew and Jesus talking to the disciples.

Matthew 24:3-8 – ³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

 ⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.

We begin today with the third horse in Revelation 6 and how it is a horse of famine.

Revelation 6:5-6 – ⁵ When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. ⁶ Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

The last part of those verses makes point that many will have to work all day just to feed the family, but the ritzy part of life such signified by oil and wine will still be very important to others even though there is famine in much of the world. 

Verse 7 in Matthew 24 speaks of this famine.  Verse 7 also speaks of earthquakes.  That takes us to Ravelation 6:12.

Revelation 6:12- ¹² I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,  

Sounds like this earthquake is so powerful it is accompanied by some volcanic activity that we know today are pretty linked together concerning the plates that shift under the earth.

Matthew 24:3-8 and Revelation Chapter 6 share a lot of common ground.  Where is the church in all of this?  I believe they are gone already in the rapture.  Jesus states in Matthew 24 a few things that make it clear he is talking to the Jews.

Matthew 24:15 – ¹⁵ “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 

The abomination of desolation is the antichrist going into the temple to exalt himself in the holy of holies as God.  This is completely a Jewish thing as the temple is the Holy place.  Right now the holy of holies is the Holy Spirit dwelling in believers.  We are the temple of God.  That’s why it is important that we act like it.

Matthew 24:16 – ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

This is an actual place referring to the Jews and how they need to act.

Matthew 24:20- ²⁰ Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath also is very Jewish.  So Jesus is talking to the Jewish people in these verses of Matthew 24.

Many of the birth pains are in place and slowly happening, but those are future posts.  Pray for the brothers and sisters in Japan we have in Christ and that others come to know the Lord.

Jesus used the analogy of His return like that of a woman going into labor.  When the birth pains come on they start out noticeable and far apart.  As they get closer they become more intense and closer together.

Matthew 24:3-8 – ³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

 ⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.

 One thing fascinating about this portion of scripture is how it parallels Revelation 6.

Revelation 6:1-2 – ¹ I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” ² I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

A bow but no arrows and bent on conquest, appears to be the one world ruler that is to come along and try to accomplish this with peace.  Such as a peace treaty with Israel for seven years we read about in Daniel 9:27.  What Jesus doing?  He is warning the Jews to be careful and watch out because many will come along and try to say they are the Messiah.  That is what the Jews will believe that the antichrist or one world ruler is and why they enter in the peace agreement.

In Matthew 24 verse 6 and 7 we read of wars and rumors of wars along with nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

The second horse is a horse of war.

Revelation 6:3-4 –  ³ When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” ⁴ Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.

It doesn’t appear that the peace will last very long from the first white horse.  Tomorrow we will continue on with the similarities of first part of Matthew 24 and Revelation 6.

There are a few scriptures that indicate about what percentage of mankind will perish in the last days.  I also believe this is before Jesus comes back with His armies and puts many more to the sword that have chosen to take up arms against Him.

Revelation 6:7-8 – ⁷ When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” ⁸ I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

I just put down verses seven and eight, but the previous two horses before the fourth one are a part of the equation that kill by sword and famine.  This one is plague and I’ve heard a theory that the wild beasts could mean actual beasts that lose their fear of men, or the pestilences in the form of viruses etc, which kind of goes along with plague.  Never-the-less the first horse is supposedly the antichrist riding in on a horse with a bow and no arrows, signifying peace and shortly right after the other three horses of death and destruction follow.

I believe the church is gone before all of this as I am a pre-tribulation guy.  If you want to know why I am a pre-tribulation guy I have many posts in the rapture category explaining why.  So 25 percent or so will be killed in Revelation 6.

Revelation 9:13-19- ¹³ The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. ¹⁴ It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵ And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶ The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.

 ¹⁷ The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. ¹⁸ A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. ¹⁹ The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

Sounds like missiles or warheads to me.  Just think this is John almost two thousand years ago trying to explain what he was seeing in his vision. 

So where is our math equation right now?  Let’s start with a 100% and take off 25% for the fourth of mankind killed in Revelation 6.  Now we have 75% left and a third of mankind is killed in Revelation 9.  One third of 75% is 25%.  So just from those two things spoken in Revelation we have half of mankind being killed from just these things alone.

Now there is one more interesting thing that Jesus says in Matthew 24.

Matthew 24:38-41 – ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

Notice in verse 39 the ones being taken away are the ones that perish.  Then Jesus continues on the next verse and says that is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  Two men will be in the field and One taken.  That’s how much?  That’s fifty percent.  Two women and one will be taken the other left.  Once again fifty percent.

Over half of those on earth will die during the tribulation at least, probably more.  It truly will be hell on earth.  Even when this all is happening though, many still will not repent.

Revelation 9:20-21 – ²⁰ The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹ Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

I see the hardness in many today. 

Open your hearts to the Lord and may your spirit grow in God’s love.