The Great Tribulation (The Global Reign of the Anti-Christ)
The Great Tribulation (the Global Reign of the Anti-Christ)
We should first note that the rapture which will take God’s prepared away will first usher in a period of intense regret and wailing among Christians who because of sin will be left behind. Some of those left behind plus unbelievers who had a fair knowledge about the rapture but never took it serious, will try to have some form of ‘godliness’ though the grace to live and stand for God will be no more.
The rapture precedes the Great Tribulation because God will not allow His saved in Christ to suffer it. He always has a plan to shield His people from His wrath: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast” (Isaiah 26:20).
It is called the Great Tribulation mainly because of the agony Israel will go through at the time; thus, it is also called “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7), and Israel will be the focus. It will happen in a span of SEVEN YEARS.
Jesus says: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt. 24:21), and in Daniel’s prophecy, the period falls within the 70th week, coming after the 69th week ( which is from Jerusalem’s re-building in Nehemiah’s time to the cutting off -crucifixion- of the Messiah), together with the intervening era of the Church Age (the period of the Gentiles, our time, the period of grace).
The global economic breakdown which will come after the rapture, will turn the world’s economies upside down, and in the midst of the chaos, there will rise a global economic icon (the Anti-Christ, a man) with very fantastic economic measures which the world will fall for.
He, as a charismatic global economic savior, called the Beast, will be given tremendous power (spiritual, economic and physical) by Satan and will have the solid backing of the that False Prophet, the leader of the apostate church. As cunning as he will be, everything about him will be anti-God, anti-Israel.
His system will be marked by a global coding of inhabitants of the world which will be the only means a person can access anything: the mark of the Beast (666). “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:16-17).
We should note that this mark could be in the form of a nano-chip or a micro-chip inserted in the forehead or the back of the right palm, a biometric form of identification, since there are already technologies for that, and may not necessarily be an actual tattooing of the forehead or the back of the palm.
At the time, many who used to be Christians or who had some knowledge about these biblical things will try to resist the mark, and they will suffer severe torture or will be severely frustrated till they succumb to it while some will also pay with their blood and those people will get to heaven (Rev. 7:13-14). There will be no grace and strength from the Spirit of God at that time; that is why believers must take advantage of this era and stand to qualify for the rapture. Jeremiah advises: “ If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?” (Jer. 12:5a).
Note, again, that during the Great Tribulation on earth, the Christians who made it at rapture will be partaking in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb as well as will be receiving their crowns for their toil here on earth, and each will be given that stone bearing their unique names. It will all be a glorious time in heaven! (Rev. 2:17; 19:6-9)
At the start of his reign, the Anti-Christ will sign a peace agreement with Israel because Israel will be deceived by his power and charisma, taking him for their Messiah, but in the middle of his seven-year reign (after three and a half years), he will break the agreement and declare himself God, sitting in the temple in Jerusalem, asking to be worshipped. It is at that point Israel will realise it has been trapped as they will then see his true nature. (Daniel 11:36; Dan. 12:7,11)
As a result, from the second half of his reign, international military forces from across the globe will besiege Israel, and the war will be fiercer than any war Israel has fought in its history.
In the midst of the fierce ‘world vs Israel’ war, Israelis will cry to God to save them, and that is the time Lord Jesus will descend, riding on a horse, with the saints from heaven to quench the raging enemies of Israel (this is the actual 2nd Coming of Christ, when “all eyes shall see Him” in His magnificent glory).
He will establish His thousand-year kingdom on earth, ruling from Jerusalem, sitting on the throne of David (the Millennial Reign of Christ on earth), a time when Satan will be bound and be put in “the bottomless pit” for thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3). A thousand years of righteous reign by the Son of David!
IF YOU ARE A BELIEVER, THROW AWAY EVERYTHING THAT COULD DRAW YOU BACK AND COULD BAR YOU FROM MAKING IT TO HEAVEN SO THAT YOU WILL NOT WITNESS THIS TIME.