The Fable of a Great Seven Year Tribulation
Millennial dreamers, as usual, are found taking scriptures out of context and grossly misapplying them to force them into their incredulous age to come scheme. Their abuse of Matt. 24:21 and Dan. 9:26-27 are just another example of this.
They imagine the former to support a seven year tribulation period yet to come, when nothing is mentioned in the text as to seven years. Their visions are not of God, but of their own invention. They do err, not knowing the scriptures.
In Matt. 24:1 the disciples are wanting Jesus to take note of the buildings of the temple. He responds by saying, “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” The disciples later asked him three questions, the first being, “When shall these things be?” (When the buildings would be cast down). The great tribulation of Matt. 24:21 is part of His answer in reference to this first question. It pertains to the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. by the Roman army under Titus.
The renowned historian, Josephus, records the fulfillment of this great tribulation prophecy in the unparalleled wrath of God upon more than a million Jews. These Christ-rejecters were slaughtered along with the crumbling of every stone of their earthly temple (Lk. 21:23). It is amazing how Moses, in Deut. 28:49-59, expresses the extreme conditions of this time of tribulation for the Jews, just as recorded by Josephus.
Jesus also forewarned of this event in Lk. 13:35; 19:41-44; 21:20-23. The Jews who had been converted escaped this tribulation because they had heeded the prophecies of Jesus and left Jerusalem. Understanding and obeying the words of Christ can save your life!
Matt. 24:15 also deals with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. This scripture mentions the abomination of desolation as prophesied by Daniel and is referring to the Roman army entering Jerusalem and then desecrating the temple. This is history! It does not speak at all of some future Antichrist to come desecrating a temple yet to be rebuilt!
Millennialists, full of wild imaginations, dream they find their seven years from the last week of Daniel’s prophetic 70 weeks, or 490 years, to tag onto this “great tribulation” period they imagine is yet to come.
Breaking the law of Bible hermeneutics, they stop the clock after 69 consecutive weeks end, “postponing” the last week (7 years) to a future time. Dear readers, when God determined 70 weeks (Dan. 9:24), that is exactly what He meant–70 consecutive weeks, not 69, then a 2000 year or so postponement for the last week! And God certainly did not later change His mind and alter the prophecy!
The first part of both Dan. 9:26 and 27 speaks of the coming of Christ and His sacrifice at Calvary. Thus in the midst of the 70th week–after 3 ˝ years of Jesus’ public ministry–He is crucified and resurrected, providing for us a salvation that delivers from sin, hence the literal Old Testament sacrifices and oblations ceased, no longer being needed, as the type was fulfilled in Christ. Glory to God!
The latter part of verses 26 and 27 refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The people of the prince that will come to destroy the city and the sanctuary and cause an overspreading of abominations to make it desolate refers to the Roman army under Titus. These prophecies were already fulfilled! This has absolutely nothing to do with a devil-dreamed-up, nonsensical Antichrist causing “restored” temple worship (God forbid!) to cease in the middle of some future seven year period of tribulation, when he presumably arises and demands to be worshiped as God!
I agree with H.C. Heffren when he stated, “It is difficult to imagine how anyone could rob the inspired Word of God more completely of its authority or reduce prophecy to a greater degree of absurdity than to suggest that God determined seventy ‘indeterminate’ weeks.”
These fable-building millennialists would reinstate “the sacrifices which can never take away sins” as they trample under foot the Son of God whose own flesh and blood He “offered [as the] one sacrifice for sins for ever” (Hebrews 10:11, 29, 12).
By Susan Mutch
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