The Beginning of Sorrows: Matthew 24:4–8
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilencesGet More Articles—Subscribe Today!
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Question:
Hello, I am a Pretribulation believer and a serious student of the Bible, especially the prophecies of God. I was studying the identity of the Man-Child of Revelation. This man-child is birthed “during” her time of travailing, whereas Isaiah 66 speaks of Jesus as the man child who was birthed “before” the time of travail of the woman. Doesn’t this put the man child (which I thought represented the church), as being birthed “during” the time of travail (which seems to be “during” the seven year period?). Can you please help my confusion? Thank you & god bless
I believe we as the body of Christ will be raptured out before the last week 7 year period of Daniel. Keep in mind who Jesus is speaking to in Matt. 24, it is not the body of Christ but his disciples and the nation of Israel. The only body of Christ here at this time is Jesus himself and his body of flesh. Jesus has not yet revealed the mystery (Eph. 3) through the apostle Paul which is “believers being the body of Christ” who is our head. Paul is the one to reveal to us that “believers would be caught up” or raptured as we call it today. Peter stood up in Acts 2:14-20 declaring the time as the last days…the 7 year tribulation…the last week of Daniel…but it didn’t happen because God stopped the last week of Daniel and brought in the church age…the body of Christ. When the body of Christ is caught up and taken out then the last week of Daniel will resume. Christ was crucified once for all Romans 6:10 and since the church is his body it will not be subject again to God’s judgment. Moses struck the Rock the first time for water giving us a picture of Christ and the cross and the second time he was told to speak to the Rock for water but he struck it again and God punished Moses for striking the Rock a second time showing us Christ’s body will not be struck a second time. Those in Matt. 24:13 are told they must endure to the end to be saved but the body of Christ is never told to endure to the end to be saved because we are sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption Eph. 1:13-14 when we accept Christ as our savior…no enduring to the end but by God’s grace we are saved Eph. 2:8-9. We see once again in the book of Rev. about overcoming and enduring to the end in order to be saved…this is not our message today but will be the message for salvation once the body of Christ is taken out prior to God’s judgment coming to the earth starting with the seals and getting progressively worse until Christ’s return.
The first seal is open! The crown given to conquer is corona, the first rider is holding a bow and the greek word for bow is toxon, and he doesnt have arrows because he conquering peacefully like they are now with pandemic laws and vaccine mandates. You will never find a better crown given to conquer than corona or covid 19! The tribulation has begun!
Mark, thanks for the well written article on Mt. 24. I have been a follower of FOI for many years. I was in the pastorate for 25 years, a college professor for 8 more years and have usually taught what you have stated here. But, (there is always a but) I am wondered for some time if the “Beginnings of Sorrows” in Mt. 24:8 might not refer to the time period immediately prior to the start of the Trib. period. It seems logical to me that there would be a steady (slow or rapid) development of world shaking events (covid-19 for example) that would upset things quite dramatically preceding the opening of the 1st seal which brings the anti-Christ into view and the signing of the peace treaty which would signal the beginning of the Trib. period.
I know that the general pre-trib view is that all of Mt. 24 is in the Tribulation, and Gabeleins comments are pertinent as he says “if this is the correct interpretation.” The older I get the more I wonder about some of the views I was taught in seminary mainly because world events change so often and this verse has bothered me for some time. If for example the covid-19 problem continues and brings a world wide depression and halt to world economies, I can see it as the last door opening for the rest of many more and very troubling times that will lead to the tribulation and the need for a world leader claiming to have answers for the world problems which could include all the things that Jesus mentions in Mt. 24:4-7.
Although many want to point to WWI and WWII as proof of wars and rumors spoken of those verses as evidence for the last days, and the claim by several in the 70’s as being the return of Messiah, I wonder if the Lord had over 100+ years in mind as the time frame for those last days. It seems to me that way Matthew 24 was written seems to point to a sudden deterioration of world events which lead to the Great Tribulation in Mt. 24.
Anyway thanks for the article.
Yes, many in the church want to look at WWs 1 & 2 as the beginning of the birth pains, I was taught that way myself too. But one of the things I have learned as a dispensationalist is that context is the key and that Scripture must be compared to Scripture. Israel wasn’t back in the land until several years after WW 2, in fact, not until 1948 was Israel a nation. Jesus’ audience in the Olivet discourse was Israel and Matthew penned his gospel to Israel. The audience in view in either case wasn’t the church nor even Gentiles. So the view this article presents is absolutely the correct view. One could saay that covid 19 is a preview of what will happen in those days to come but it is not the “beginning of birth pangs” or the “days of sorrows.”
ALL the signs of the times are here, we are most definitely in the “time of sorrows!”
We have the technology for Satan to set up the mark of the beast,they have begun to install tech so people can now pay with their palm,and it’s one thing after another…hyper inflation,they torched all of our food processing plants in the United States, earthquakes,sink holes and unnatural weather displacing people out of their homes from tornadoes to flooding to mudslides! Now we have Chinese balloons floating through our skies with nobody saying or doing anything about it! Israel has 5 red heifers to choose from,and there’s a man in Israel right now who the Jews look to be believing is their Messiah,what do you think is happening if we aren’t in the time of sorrows?