Birth Pangs and Fig Trees, Part 25

The birth pangs are over, and the baby has been born. The fig blossoms have become fruit. Sorrow and great tribulation have become joy and peace. That is if you have trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. At this point it is important that we distinguish between certain groups of people. We can begin with those who have trusted Christ (the saved) and those who have rejected Christ (the lost). Within each of those two groups are those who have already died at the time of the Rapture (followed by the Day of the Lord) and those who are still alive at that time. When the signs described by the following Scriptures appear, Jesus will return. Those who have died believing in Him will be resurrected and will be given new, incorruptible resurrection bodies. Immediately after that, those who are alive and are trusting in Him will have their old bodies changed in "the twinkling of an eye" into those same incorruptible resurrection bodies.

"For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. Immediately after the distress of those days, 'the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' [Joel 2:10, 31] At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And He will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, [1 Thessalonians 4:16] and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other." (Matthew 24:27-31) Notice how this compares with the revelation given to John. "I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black, like sack-cloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain was removed from its place.....For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:12-14, 17)

So the day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb, a/k/a "The Day of the Lord" has come, ushered in by the Rapture. Some well respected scholars mistakenly label the entire 70th Week of Daniel as "The Day of the Lord." The Day of the Lord is confined to a relatively short portion of the latter part of the seven year period. Since no man knows the day or the hour of Christ's return, no man knows the day or the hour that "The Day of the Lord" begins or exactly how long it will last. For those who have to endure it (those who have rejected Christ and who are alive at the time of his return) every hour will be filled with agony and terror. We do know that this period will not commence until some time into the last 3-1/2 years of Daniel's 70th week. We know that the Rapture does not happen until after the Antichrist is revealed. There has to be a period of time when believers are tested by the Antichrist and his policies (see Revelation 13:7-10, 15). We also know that "The Day of the Lord" has to last a minimum of five months, because that is the length of the fifth trumpet judgment (Revelation 9:10).

Now the stage is set for us to view from the vantage point of heaven what is taking place on the earth during "The Day of the Lord." Revelation 8 begins with the opening of the seventh seal, followed by thirty minutes of silence, because what is about to happen on the earth is so momentous. The seventh seal contains all of the trumpet judgments, and the seventh trumpet judgment contains all of the bowl judgments. So this is it; with the opening of the seventh seal there is no turning back. The wrath of god is about to be unleashed on planet earth. The events will unfold in trip-hammer fashion. Those who have been removed from earth will truly be grateful for this promise: "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11).