November 29, 2005

Do You Not See All These Things? (Christian Scoffers)

The title of today's commentary came from Jesus Himself. Jesus asks His disciples this question in Matthew 24. I am asking it to all of the scoffers out there right now. Some are Christian and some aren't. I can understand the scoffers that are not Christian because they don't know enough about the Bible to know any better, but the scoffers that proclaim Jesus as their Lord and Savior sadden me. What saddens me so much about Christians who proclaim that the pre-trib rapture is false or that Jesus isn't coming back THAT soon, is that instead of these Christians basing their beliefs on what The Word of God says; they turn to other books or statistics. God gave us the Bible for a reason. The Bible is supposed to give us all the answers we need. We shouldn't have to go to other books written by other humans that are fallible. If we have a question about a certain Scripture, more than likely another Scripture will answer our question.

This brings us to the real purpose of this commentary. It seems that there are a LOT of sites and books out there that want to disprove or "poke holes" in the "Left Behind" view of Daniel's Seventy-Week Prophecy. Well, let us start out by looking at Daniel 9:24-27. Many scoffers are claiming these verses are talking about the time up until Jesus' death and that the last week has NOTHING to do with the End Times and/or The Tribulation. However, nobody seems to want to take on the last half of verse 27, where it talks about the Temple being desolated by a he. The he in this verse is not capitalized however. So the he who makes a covenant cannot be the Messiah otherwise the he would be capitalized. Now for further proof, let us take a look at Matthew 24:15-31. Notice what Jesus Himself talks about. He not only talks about the abomination of desolation, but He also speaks of the Tribulation and The Glorious Return.

Some claim that Daniel 9:27 is speaking of Jesus because He put an end to sacrafices with His death on the cross. Well, if that's the case, I would like someone to try to explain Daniel 11:29-39 with that interpretation. Now let us go back to Daniel 9:26-27. Verse 26 does mention that the Messiah will be cut off and the death of Jesus on the cross does seem to fit this. However, let us now think about the pre-trib rapture view. After the Jews rejected Jesus, the Gentiles were grafted into the vine. As of today, the Jewish religion still rejects the fact that Jesus was their Messiah. Hence, the true Messiah has been cut off from the Jews. Those that believe the Temple will be rebuilt and that there will be a Tribulation tend to agree that once the antichrist desolates the Temple, the Jews will realize that Jesus was in fact their Messiah. Hence, the true Messiah will no longer be cut off from the Jews. That is the main reason that the pre-trib rapture belief has a big gap between the 69th and 70th weeks. Also, if the he that makes the covenant is in fact Jesus, why would it say that the covenant only lasts for one week (aka 7 years)? Jesus' covenant to us is everlasting, as long as we accept it.

There are some HUGE discrepencies in the interpretation of those that want to disprove the pre-trib rapture. Daniel and later Jesus Himself don't even agree with the scoffers' interpretations. So let us go on to some more Scripture that clearly shows that there will be a Tribulation period before Jesus returns for the final time. Start out by reading the entire book of Revelation. There's been no time in history in which it was a requirement to receive a mark so that people could buy or sell items. Also check out Isaiah 17. No time in history has Damascus not been a city. Now let me get to one final but very important point.