Dr. Stephen Phinney
GET READY FOR MARTYRDOM
When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6:9-10)
OVERVIEW
Have you thought much about the martyrs held under the throne of God – waiting for their Savior to take revenge upon those who martyred them?
God takes persecution of His children seriously. Many Bible readers interpret this passage to include all believers who suffered persecution. I am not one of them. I believe these martyrs are the 144,000 pure bloodline Jews who became indwelt by Christ during the Tribulation. Each of these believers will be killed under the most horrid forms of persecution of all history. They will most likely be slaughtered for their faith under the worst conditions – through the period of Satan’s most relentless acts of revenge, the Great Tribulation.
THE INTRODUCTION
All outspoken believers suffer persecution in one form or another. These souls are a special breed of Jews. So much so that each will have a DNA that connects them to the twelve tribes of Israel. After the Rapture, God will shift His focus to Israel. Before the Rapture, His focus was on the age of Grace or what the Old Testament calls the age of the Gentiles, which has been in play since Daniel’s vision. After the Rapture, the age of Grace is closed, completed. This shift is for God to surface the remaining bloodline Jews who are authentic tribal descendants of the twelve tribes. Since Satan’s primary goal during the Tribulation is to eradicate the authentic Jews, thus God’s focus will be to redeem the remaining pure Jews, which happens to be perfect numerically – 144,000, 12,000 from each tribe. Not one short or more will be saved during this time. If you are one of those believers who thinks God doesn’t care about DNA, you are in for a God-sized surprise. You are what Biblical Paul calls “blind.”
For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening (blindness) has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB." (Romans 11:25-26)
Folks, that fullness of the Gentiles is completed on the moment of the Rapture, or the great gathering of the Saints. Once this moment has passed, all of Israel, the remaining 144,000, is saved. As soon as God has rescued this group, Satan takes the seat in the Holy of Holies in the final temple. Not long after this bold move by Satan, Jesus is compelled to come back in His Second Coming. However, this time without Grace. He will be in warrior mode, full of revenge and packed with a punch. As most intent Bible readers know, it activates a war that ends all wars. It’s not pretty.
As a method of rescuing the martyred 144,000, sad to say, it is accomplished through Satan, through the Antichrist, slaughtering these Jews. So much so that their “spilled blood will flow like a river.”
If I were you, I would have a question. If all the believers are raptured out, who will evangelize these Jews? The answer is difficult for most to understand. God doesn’t send Billy Graham or any other evangelist back to the earth; he sends two Old Testament prophets. Not only does God refocus on the Law, He fully knows He has fulfilled the Age of Grace. It is all about the Law during the Tribulation, both on Satan’s part and God's. These two prophets will lead the Jews to Christ through the fulfilled Law of Christ through the prophets. Not only that, as the bloodline Jews get converted, these Israelis evangelize other pure bloodlines until all 144,000 are born again in the authentic Jesus Christ (Rev. 7:4). When completed, each is sealed with the mark of God – 777.
IMPORTANT SCRIPTURES
"Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. "So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. "Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:24-26)
MARTYRDOM WILL BE A DAILY OCCURRENCE
When the Tribulation begins, so will martyrdom. When the Antichrist runs across any who defy his leadership, death by torture will result. While his first three and a half years will be advertised as “peace,” it will be a fake peace. The madness method is simple. If any resistors surface to the “kind” of peace presented by the Antichrist, a hidden motive of death by disbelief will ensue. This leader's “kind” of peace is to follow the ways of the Antichrist to remain under his peace, or rumors of death will become their reality. Satan is given only seven years to shift humanity to hate the Hebrew God and worship him. Overall, temporarily, his mission is successful, that is, until he encounters the pure bloodline Jews and those who are loyal to Judaism. This sends Satan into a rage. It is also why the second half of his Tribulation is titled, The Great Tribulation.
As Daniel’s vision reveals, the False Prophet will build a golden image of the Antichrist. The proof of loyalty to the converts of Satan is to either bow to the global leader's image or be cast into a furnace of fire. In this, all practicing Jews refuse to do so. These Jews refuse to worship any other God than the God of the Hebrews. Zechariah said that two-thirds of all practicing Jews on earth would be slaughtered in the Tribulation period.
Furthermore, he states, “I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested” (Zech 13:8-9). Honestly, this is when Satan’s wrath turns into spilling the blood of these Jews into the streets like a river running through it. Who are the “one-third?” The 144,000 pure-bloodline Jews. Does this mean that they won’t die by the hand of Satan? No, it does not. It means they survived in their loyalty to the born-again message being presented by the two prophets. Meaning, one-third of the remaining Jews became indwelt by the Life of Christ during this time, while two-thirds remained loyal to their Old Testament beliefs in Judaism. Did the two-thirds end up in Heaven? Probably not.
When we shift to the book of Revelation, we discover the Tribulation period as a time when every faithful Jew must face martyrdom as an expected action of their enemy. Meaning that they must embrace that death is inevitable if they remain loyal to the God of the Hebrews. There are no exceptions to this rule.
THE SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL
Daniel speaks about the “Seventy Weeks” of prophecy. His prophecy speaks of a total of 490 years since each week represents seven years. As per God’s norm, everything is done in a seven-year cycle. The first 69 weeks began when Nehemiah was called to rebuild Jerusalem and ended when Jesus entered Jerusalem and presented Himself as the Messiah for the Jewish people. However, the seventieth week will start at the beginning of Satan’s Tribulation and will end when Jesus comes in His Second Coming.
"Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.” (Daniel 9:24)
The first sixty-nine weeks took place between 445 B.C. and 32 A.D. This included the empires of the Greeks and Romans. The final week begins when the “new” Rome surfaces through the European Union. Also known as the Tribulation. It is evidenced when the authentic believers within the Seven Churches are Raptured off the earth. At that time, the ten-horned beast, stated in Daniel 7, would restore the Roman empire – appointing a leader that could rule the world. During this time, the following prophecies are fulfilled as stated in Revelation’s book. In this order:
The first Six Seals are opened – conqueror, no peace, famine, pestilence, martyrs, great earthquake, and sun blacken. (Rev. 6-8)
Four angels, four corners of the earth, four winds released upon the earth (Rev. 7:1)
The 144,000 Jews are persecuted and redeemed (Rev. 7:5-8)
The Seven Trumpets sound – hail fire & blood, mountains into the sea, stars fall, third of the sun/moon/stars darkened, demon locust from the Abyss, demonic riders from the Euphrates, and earthly kingdoms become the Kingdom of Jesus. (Rev. 8-11)
The Seven Thunders sound – judgment is coming. (Rev. 10:3-4)
The two witnesses/prophets arrive (Rev. 11:1-14)
In three and a half days – two prophets die and publicly are resurrected (Rev. 11:7-14)
The mark of the Beast, six-six-six (Rev. 13:11-18)
The Three Angels – come from Heaven to make a final announcement (Rev. 14:6-12)
The Seven Bowls of judgment – sores, sea to blood, freshwater turned to blood, scorched by the sun, darkness, and pain, Euphrates dries up, and the great earthquake with one hundred pound hailstones. (Rev. 16)
Seven heads, seven mountains, and seven kings destroyed – Rome, the six fallen Roman emperors, AND the Antichrist. (Rev. 17:7,9)
The Seven Visions – Heaven opens, great supper of God, beast, and kings ready for war, the thousand-year millennium of Christ, judgment and Satan’s doom, the judgment of the dead, and vision of new Heaven and earth. (Rev. 19:11-22:5)
So there you have it. As you can see, much will happen in the final week of Daniel’s Seventy Week prophecy. The best way to view this is to calculate all the events in the first sixty-nine weeks, magnify them, put them on steroids, and hand them to the Antichrist in the final week of Daniel’s prophecy.
"And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate." (Daniel 9:27)
Who is this “he?” What is this “covenant,” and who are the “many?”
The “he” is the Antichrist. The “covenant” is a fake peace agreement he makes with Israel. The “many” could be other countries outside of Israel. However, his main focus is to deceive Israel into placing their Holyland under the rule of the Antichrist. In the middle of this week/seven-year reign, Israel catches on to his manipulative ways and ends the agreement, thus, instigating mayhem in Israel. He, the Antichrist, will slaughter one-third of all the Jews. He will destroy Israel as we know it.
IN CONCLUSION
Daniel’s prophecies remind us of God’s faithfulness to warn the believers and the urgency of sharing the Gospel with others before the seventieth-week kicks in. Sad to say, most modern Christians will do a “blow-by” regarding this mission. Since statistics reveal that most Bible readers avoid studying the prophecies, many will be caught off guard, minimally confessing their selfish interests in protecting number one.
As we study prophecy, we all should be motivated to share the Good News of the indwelling Life of Jesus with family, friends, and strangers. This is the leading proof of salvation – sharing with others so that they, too, will be saved from “the wrath to come” and join all indwelt Christians in our Heavenly home for all eternity worshipping God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However, since the road is narrow and few are on it, the largest percentage of “Christians” will “blow” this warning to the earth's four winds. Hum, maybe this is proof they are not authentic.
To wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10)
Forward these blogs to your sphere of influence. The Rapture is soon upon us.
President & Founder
Dr. Stephen Phinney
Authentic Salvation Prayer | HERE
IOM America | Identity Matters Worldview Institute
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