There has never been a more critical time in the history of mankind for people to walk with the Lord and have Him fulfill a purpose in their lives. He died to bring forth this hour of triumph in which the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ (Revelation 11:15). We are living right on the verge of it. Before long, even the Christians who have not had revelation will begin to see many things. The foolish virgins will begin to scurry for oil (Matthew 25:8, 9). What should we store up in order to survive in the days ahead? It is very necessary that we have oil in our vessel and oil in our lamp!
I am not minimizing the need to put forth every effort to prepare for survival, but above everything else we must have the spiritual preparation. The remnant will not survive by the grain and silver they have stored, for theirs will be a miracle survival from beginning to end. God will teach us how to survive, how to come through, how to walk led by the Spirit of the Lord. We must be very much aware that we are facing some extremely difficult days upon the earth. But we can be assured too that God has already created an instrument to avert the course from utter disaster (a disaster which Jesus warned could result in no flesh being saved alive on the face of the earth). These days will be shortened for the elect’s sake—the elect who will be used of God. We have been called by God; this is our purpose.
“But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” Mark 13:32. The day or the hour no one knows! The angels do not know it. The Son of God Himself does not know it. Only the Father knows.
Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, all give similar accounts of the end-time events and conditions. These chapters contain prophecies about the fall of Jerusalem and about the end time, all of which are mixed together and must be sorted out. Jesus spoke about the fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, the abomination of desolation (referring to the destruction of the holy place of the sanctuary, since which time the Jews have had no temple in which to worship), the days of tribulation, the gospel being preached in all the world for a witness, and the false Christs. Some of these events occurred within a generation (approximately thirty-five years) of the day that Jesus prophesied them. Other events prophesied in these chapters have not been fulfilled up to this time and will be fulfilled in this generation. How do we sort them out to determine which of them were fulfilled almost immediately and which are having their fulfillment now? We will have to let the Holy Spirit sort them.
Did not Jesus know how to order the future events? He said He did not know the day nor the hour. He did not have any concept of the time of fulfillment. The angels do not know the day nor the hour; neither does any man know. Some of those prophecies were fulfilled, and some of them loom up in this generation for fulfillment. Let us try to sort them out as we read Mark 13:5–37.
And Jesus began to say to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He!’ and will mislead many. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end.
“For nation will arise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. But be on your guard; for they will deliver you up to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.” Even that has not been done completely; perhaps it will be in this generation. The end is imminent.
“And when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.” Even a prophetic answer will be given. Some Christians do not accept the fact that there are gifts of the Holy Spirit, but those gifts will be very necessary in the days ahead.
“And brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.
“But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. And let him who is on the housetop not go down, or enter in, to get anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days!” As you sort out the events, you realize this happened in 70 A.D. when Titus and the Roman armies besieged Jerusalem. When the siege was lifted for a short time, the Christians who realized what was happening fled and were saved. The siege was immediately renewed, and Jerusalem fell with a terrible slaughter. A full account of this is found in The Antiquity of the Jews, written by Josephus, a Jewish historian working for the Roman army. “But pray that it may not happen in the winter. For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created, until now, and never shall. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved” (notice how fast He is moving); “but for the sake of the elect whom He chose, He shortened the days.
“And then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ’; or, ‘Behold, He is there’; do not believe him; for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order, if possible, to lead the elect astray.” There again is the emphasis on the great power of deception, the deceiving spirits in the earth.
“But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance. But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.” These catastrophies have not yet occurred. This is the same prophecy as the one in Joel 2:30, 31, which speaks about the sun being darkened in the days of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is quoted also in the second chapter of Acts.
“And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth, to the farthest end of heaven.” It does not look as if the elect are to be raptured at all. They keep on living right through the tribulation. Then the angels provide a special escort, gathering them from the four corners of the earth.
“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that the summer is near. Even so you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say unto you, this generation” (or race) “will not pass away until all these things take place.” We usually interpret “generation” as referring to a certain period of time (about thirty-five years), but we must expand that to the true meaning of the word. It is not speaking about a chosen generation or age of people, but a chosen race. It is not only limited to a certain period of time, but to a holy people that God has begotten and brought forth. They will not pass away; they will not die. Within that generation of time, many people in the world will die; but this generation of God’s people, this race, this holy, spiritual priesthood which God has raised up will not pass away.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” The day and the hour, the date, the time element are missing. Now is your salvation nearer than when you believed (Romans 13:11).
“Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time is. It is like a man, away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. Therefore, be on the alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, at cockcrowing, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’ ”
Above all else God is teaching us that we will be battled right down to the gates of hell, but the gates of hell will not prevail against us (Matthew 16:18). We will have to learn to live with the assault of the enemy coming against us viciously and relentlessly. We must learn to walk cheerfully, without any fear, without any dread, without any of the fear of man. We cannot even be moved by the spirit of betrayal, the spirits of deception, of oppression, of persecution, or any of the things which will come against the elect of God. We must gear our thinking to be prepared for the enemy working against the people of the Lord, doing everything he can to be the accuser of the brethren, to bring us under self-condemnation, to take away our confidence. Here we are, the little flock, yet it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom (Luke 12:32).
We will miss the victories of the Lord unless we listen to this warning: there is no need to pray for more power and more words from the Lord. We have already had great words and authority and commission committed to us. We are displeasing the Lord when we do not move out more boldly to bind the enemy when he comes against us and to proclaim the victories of the Lord.
This day that God has raised us up to walk in is a day which will never be without clouds until the Son of righteousness makes His appearance. Even His presence will be so veiled that only by faith will we enter into the Parousia, the presence of the Lord. The day of the Lord will dawn as a day of heaviness, with thick clouds, like a curse from the Almighty (Joel 2:2). Only a remnant will know the blessing of the Lord. The judgments of the Lord will fill all the earth, falling upon the Christians as well as the heathen. With some it will be very corrective, and with others it will be punitive. God is altogether righteous in what He is doing.