Please turn to John 16. We have been looking at John 16 for the last three weeks. Today, I just want to read a few of the verses, beginning in verse 12. We read in John 16:12-14:
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.
Then we read in John 16:24-25:
Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time [hour] cometh…
In the English of the King James Version, it says “the time cometh” but this is a word that is better translated as “hour,” as in “the hour cometh.”
…but the [hour] cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.
I will stop reading there.
What “hour” is this that will come? This is referring to “the hour of his judgment” that Revelation 14:7 speaks of. This is referring to the time in which we are now living. It is this period of Great Tribulation that we are now in, this 23-year period that God refers to as an “hour.” It is the hour of judgment that begins at the house of God, which is the day in which we are living when all of the churches and congregations in the whole world have come under the wrath of God.
In case someone is not familiar with the difference between EBible Fellowship and our fellowship, this is Delco Bible Fellowship. We meet as a fellowship group called Delco Bible Fellowship. EBible Fellowship is an Internet Christian ministry that is separate from Delco Bible Fellowship. A lot of our material gets posted onto the EBible Fellowship website, but there is a distinction between these two groups. Delco Bible Fellowship is not EBible Fellowship. We meet here together at this time as a group of individuals. This is because the Lord is dealing with individuals. He is dealing with people on a one-on-one basis. God is no longer working through institutions or corporations or organizations, like the churches and congregations were or like Old Testament Israel was. God has actually finished with the churches and congregations. He has left them. He came out of the midst. He abandoned the church and turned over the whole church world into the hands of Satan who is the “man of sin.” Satan is the “abomination of desolation” who is standing “in the holy place.” This is the language that the Bible uses. So we are definitely not a church and would never want to be ever again, because God is judging the churches.
So in John 16:12, God is telling us that He has many things to say:
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
This is because He has a plan to reveal these “many things” at the time of the end. The Word was “closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” Now that we are there, the Lord is opening up the Scriptures and revealing a lot of information that was hidden in the Bible.
This is not coming from any other source. There is no new book. There is no additional revelation that should be added to the Bible. It is just the Bible. It is the first covenant, the second covenant, or the Old and New Testaments, yet there was “fault with them.” God found fault in the sense that they were too mysterious, too veiled, too cryptic, too much in parabolic form that no one could properly understand what the Bible was saying until we got to this time period. At this time, the Lord just removes the veil, which is what He intended to do at the time of the end.
It is just like when you set an alarm clock. When you go to bed at night, you set the alarm. You have to get up early, so you set it for 5:00 A.M. or 6:00 A.M., or for whatever time. All night long, it is quiet while you are sleeping; however, that alarm clock was set to go off at a particular time.
This is exactly what God has done with the Bible. He gave the Word—it is all right there—but then He sealed it up until a particular point in time. At that point, it rings. The alarm is sounded. The trumpet is blown. This is the language that the Bible uses. As watchmen, we are to man our posts, even though we should always have been there. But now we are to start proclaiming that the sword is coming upon the land, because we are at that point.
It is interesting when people see these tracts that say “May 21, 2011 Judgment Day!” because they do not end with a question mark; they end with an exclamation point. People also see these T-shirts with this information and vans that are wrapped in this information, and they are taking note. They are noticing these things.
We had a neighbor a couple of months back come over because he did not like the message that was on one of those vans. So people are noticing. They are seeing these things.
So here we are at this time and the Lord has given us this information to share. When we do, people often say, “That is crazy!” People who are in the world and who do not have any association with the church will say, “That is just nuts! You are a lunatic!” But those who are in the churches will say, “No man knows the day or hour.”
Without fail, those who are in the churches all speak with one voice and say, “No man knows the day or hour.” The fact that all the churches speak with one voice—the Catholics, the Episcopalians, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Independents, the Congregationalists, on and on—is interesting, because they otherwise do not agree on anything. They do not agree on anything except, “No man knows the day or hour.”
Since there is such a perfect unity coming from the churches on this—while they disagree on just about everything else—this should not comfort the soul. This should scare us. We are living at that time when the churches and congregations are stumbling over truth because they are unable to see it. They have women in the pulpit, when God says, “I suffer not a woman to teach.” They have divorced men in the pulpits, when God says that a deacon or an elder should be “the husband of one wife” who raises his children well. They have single men or men without children in the pulpits, on and on and on. Not only that, but salvation is a complete mess in the churches. They say, “Here is how you get saved.” They will tell you exactly what you have to do, “These are the steps you take.” However, that is not the salvation of the Bible.
Again and again on point after point of doctrine that the churches proclaim, there is total disagreement amongst themselves and they are full of errors. Yet they now want us to believe that they have all finally come to “the unity of the faith” on one teaching, the teaching of “No man knows the day or hour.”
Well I am sorry, since the churches are unable to see the truth, which is obvious, why should anyone now believe that they know this truth, that they are 100% right concerning this?
It does not give me any comfort and it should not give anyone any comfort that the churches are so unified and speak with one voice over this issue when they are not unified over anything else.
But anyway, the interesting thing is that when people who are out in the world hear that May 21, 2011 is Judgment Day, nobody says, “No, that cannot be! Look at how the world is coming together! Look at how we are doing so much better than we used to do! Look at the morality of the world! Look at how we are improving! God cannot judge us!”
Nobody says this because they would realize that it would be absurd and completely ridiculous to make such a statement. The average person in the world today is aware that the world is more wicked today than it has ever been in the history of this earth. Therefore, nobody dares to say, “God cannot judge us because we are starting to get our act together.” Instead, they just dismiss this, even though what is actually taking place in this world is that we are ripe for judgment due to the multiplication of sin in this world with men’s hearts growing cold. Therefore, they know that it is not going to work for them to say, “Well, God cannot judge this world because we are finally learning to live in peace with one another.” They realize that this is not even a valid argument, so they just write you off as someone who just does not know what they are saying.
It is the same thing in the church. Those in the churches will say, “No man knows the day or the hour,” but they will not say, “Well, God will not bring this judgment because look how faithful we are. Look at how consistent we are at telling the truth about what the Bible says. Look at how we are proclaiming the truths of the Scriptures. How is God going to judge us?”
Have you heard anybody say this in the churches? They do not dare try to say this because they know that this is a time of great apostasy, a time of falling away from truth. Therefore, they superficially go to the Bible and pull out, “No man knows the day or hour,” which does not take much effort or much work at all, and this is the sad condition of the church of our day. The church of our day is not digging into the Scriptures to study them, and so they say, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, and that is all there is to it!” Then they say, “I am not going to listen. I am going to tune you out. I am not even going to try to follow what you are saying.”
Well, that is anyone’s privilege to do. They can do that. They can side with the church. They can take the side of those same individuals who are bringing forth erroneous teaching with just about every doctrine. They can take their place side-by-side with them if they would like to, but I think that the safest place is to side with God, to side with the Bible.
We know that God is now opening up the Scriptures. He has opened up the Biblical calendar of history, which is very important. In this Biblical calendar, we have learned three key dates at this time. May 21, 1988 was the end of the church age. 2300 days later on September 7th, 1994 was the outpouring of the latter rain when God began to evangelize the world once again by sending His Gospel into the world and blessing His Word outside of the churches and congregations because His judgment came on the church. This is why Jeremiah speaks of them receiving “no latter rain.” There is no latter rain falling in the church. However, there is out in the world, out in the society of the world. We have those two dates and then we have the third date, May 21, 2011, which is Judgment Day.
So God has confirmed these dates through other methods, through other ways of confirmation. For instance, the 23-year period of Great Tribulation began on May 21, 1988, and 1988 is the 13,000th year of the earth’s history. The Great Tribulation goes a full 23 years to May 21, 2011, which is exactly 8400 days. The number 84 is very important when it comes to the Great Tribulation because the types that God uses to point to the Great Tribulation normally involve the number 84. An example of this is a 70-year period in Israel’s history, from 609 B.C. when Josiah was slain to 539 B.C., and 70 years x 12 months to a year = 840 months. With the famine in Joseph’s day, we see the number 7, and 7 years x 12 months = 84 months. Or with the 3½ days that the two witnesses were lying dead in the street in Revelation 11, and 3½ days = 84 hours.
God worked this all out. How did God work these things out? From May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011 is a perfect 8400 days. Leap years are involved, other things are involved, our calendar and its quirks and so forth, and yet God worked it out so that it is a perfect 8400 days. Not only that, but that 8400th day is the 17th day of the 2nd month of the Hebrew calendar in 2011, which happens to be the day that God shut the door of the ark. This is the day that Noah and his family were locked into the ark, and this is the same day that the flood came. He secured Noah, his three sons, Noah’s wife, and his son’s wives, eight people. They found refuge and safety and deliverance from the flood, while everyone else was locked out.
This is why we are saying that May 21, 2011 is the day that God shuts the door on salvation. This is because it is exactly 7,000 years from that flood in 4990 B.C. to 2011 A.D., and so God has given us this equivalent date of May 21, 2011.
This is not a coincidence. From the year 2000 to the year 2020—2001, 2002, etc., all the way up to 2020—there is only one year when May 21 is the 17th day of the 2nd month. In all of the other years, May 21 is not the 17th day of the 2nd month. It is only on that particular day and in that particular year that this matches up to where God could give us this equivalent date to when the door was shut.
So this is one way in which God has confirmed this, and this means that May 21, 1988 is the start of the Great Tribulation for 23 years. It is also the 13,000th year of the earth’s history, which reminds us of the 13 times around Jericho when the wall came tumbling down. 13,000 years from the creation date of 11,013 B.C. to 1988 and then the church wall, the wall of salvation, came tumbling down. God is now finished using the churches and congregations.
A second confirmation has to do with the number of days from April 1, 33 A.D. until May 21, 2011, which is in Family Radio’s new tract, “God Gives Another Infallible Proof that Assures the Rapture Will Occur May 21, 2011.” This new tract has to do with confirmations concerning these truths. The number of days from April 1, when Christ went to the cross, until May 21, 2011 is 722,500 days. This number breaks down into (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17). The number 5 has to do with the atonement—Jesus was on the cross demonstrating the atonement; 10 has to do with completeness—His atoning work for His people will find its completeness on May 21; and 17 has to do with Heaven—He will take all of His people up to Heaven on that day. These are the numbers involved with 722,500 days, which is from April 1, 33 A.D. to May 21, 2011, and then it is doubled. It is (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17).
The Lord told us through Joseph as He spoke to Pharaoh when he was interpreting his dreams, “And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.” This is what God has done with His timeline of history. These things are confirming our understanding of the Biblical calendar as being correct. It is right. There are no errors. There are no mistakes.
We have also recently heard that on May 14th or 15th (depending on how you look at it) in 1948 when Israel became a nation until May 21, 2011 is 23,017 days. 23,000 points to God’s judgment and the number 17 points to the day of the Rapture. The 153 fish of John 21 also point to being gathered and brought to Christ in Heaven. And so, too, during that five months, God’s people will be in Heaven enjoying the great blessings of God and not experiencing the terrible ordeal for everyone who is left behind on this earth.
So God has given these dates. He has confirmed May 21, 1988 as being the end of the church age, September 7, 1994 as being the end of the 2300-day period and the beginning of the latter rain, and May 21, 2011 as being Judgment Day. From there, we learned about the five-month period.
Is there anything in the Bible that will help to support us in knowing that these dates are correct? Yes, there is. There is information in the Bible where God gives three dates and it is during a time of great tribulation. Amazingly, He gives us three dates, three separate dates that are all involved with a period of time that God refers to as “great tribulation,” and they are very much like our three dates.
However, before we look at this, let us go to 1 Corinthians 13. This is the “love” chapter. Towards the end of this chapter, God actually gets into some very important information in addition to the great importance of love, which is His plan to seal up the Bible. We read in 1 Corinthians 13:9:
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
When did we know “in part”? Throughout the church age, we had imperfect understanding. We knew “in part” and so, therefore, God’s people prophesied or declared what they knew “in part.” It was not the full picture; it was pieces.
If you tell someone that you have a story and you give them a section of the story, a part of the story, they can learn a little bit about the story. However, if you are holding back all the main ingredients, all the main subjects of the story, how much are they really going to be able to decipher? Not very much. This is how it was with the Bible throughout history, especially during the church age.
Then we read in 1 Corinthians 13:10:
But when that which is perfect is come…
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” In John 16, it says that the Holy Spirit comes and that in that hour, “He will guide you into all truth.”
It says in Habakkuk 2:2-3:
…Write the vision, and make it plain…
In John 16, Jesus said that there would come a time when He would no more speak in proverbs but make it plain.
…make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end [he] shall speak, and not lie: though [he] tarry, wait for [him]; because [he] will surely come, [he] will not tarry.
I substituted the pronoun “he” for “it” because that is what we should do.
So He will come. First, He sealed up the Word until the time of the end. At the time of the end, knowledge increases because He is revealing these things. I think that it is very obvious that this has been God’s plan and that what we are seeing is the fulfillment of God’s plan to more perfectly teach His people truths that have always been closed up in the Bible.
If we return back to 1 Corinthians 13, we read in 1 Corinthians 13:11:
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
This is referring to our past understanding of the Gospel. This is what we learned in the churches and congregations. However, some people find it very difficult to put away “childish things,” but God is correcting. All Scripture is profitable for correction and He is now correcting us. He is correcting us on our past understanding of hell and on what Judgment Day and the nature of His coming is, as well as many other things. God’s people will grow up spiritually and become a man and submit to what God has said in His Word. They will not arrogantly refuse to put away their toys like when a child says, “I am not going to put my toy away.”
It is very dangerous to argue with God when He is telling us that He takes full responsibility for the information that He is opening up at this time. This is His doing. Mark 13:11 tells us this. The Holy Ghost teaches “in that hour,” and He is now teaching.
How is He teaching? Has anybody heard a voice? Has anybody had a dream or a vision? How is He teaching? “The Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual,” as we read in 1 Corinthians 2.
This is why we were to watch and why we are to keep watching, to keep looking in the Bible. It was because there would come a time when we would come to truth, as God was saying in those verses, “watch therefore.” God was showing us “here a little, and there a little.” If our methodology was correct as we compared this verse with that verse, which is the proper method for coming to truth, at the set time, at the appointed time, it would pay off. God would show us this information, which is what is going on now.
Continuing in 1 Corinthians 13, we read in 1 Corinthians 13:12:
For now we see through a glass, darkly…
Again, this is referring to the church age. If you do not believe this, try to find two churches that agree on baptism. What is the proper mode of baptism? Are you supposed to sprinkle or immerse? They have had arguments for centuries about the correct way to baptize. But what does water baptism accomplish? “Oh, it saves you,” they say. They will not actually say this in the Reformed community, but they believe that at some point in your life, water baptism practically guarantees that you will become saved.
But, no, it does not. Baptism is only a sign that God gave pointing to the washing away of sin of the sinner, which is only done through the Word of God because His Word must cleanse us.
They saw “through a glass, darkly” as to how to get saved. “Oh, you have to muster up the faith. You have to believe,” and these were Calvinists who would say these kinds of things when pushed. They would finally say, “God gives you that faith and then you have to exercise that faith.”
But no; we have now learned that it is all of God. Salvation is of the Lord. It is all Christ’s faith by which we are justified. We have also learned that faith itself is a work and the Bible says that we are not justified by works, and so being justified by our faith is an impossibility.
Again, we can go down the line with these basic doctrines—salvation, baptism, and so on—and there was a cloud. It was like looking through a dirty glass. If you have children, you might find some in your sink. If you pick one up after someone has been drinking a nice glass of chocolate milk and try to look through it, you might be able to see some things but you will not be able to see clearly.
This is what God is saying:
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then…
When? The Bible tells us elsewhere that this will be “in that hour.”
…but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
We knew “in part” during the whole church age. We knew in part then. We did not really know the Bible, which is very humbling. It has been very humbling for many people at this time to learn that we did not even know what was going on at the cross, that it was all a tableau and that Jesus actually died and made payment for sin from the foundation of the world.
Who knew this? Who knew this before the last couple of years or even last year? Nobody knew this. We thought we knew; but even something as seemingly basic and simple as Christ going to the cross, we had to be corrected on. We had to learn these truths. It does not say that Jesus died as a lamb “in principle” from the foundation of the world. It is a matter-of-fact statement. He died as a lamb and then He rose. He was even resurrected from the foundation of the world to be declared the Son of God. We just did not know many things at all.
So God is humbling us. If anyone still has a proud heart, that stony heart of unbelief that is covered over by a lot of outward trappings of belief, then these doctrines that He is opening up are designed to penetrate that heart and to humble it.
The problem is that man does not like to be humbled. If he is still in his sin, he is still proud and arrogant, and so these doctrines are big problems. They get upset and angry, “I am never going to listen to Family Radio again!” Then they hang up, but they are only opposing themselves. They are their own worst enemies.
God is saving through His Word, and we know that Family Radio is being used of God. There is no way that they are not being used by God when we consider that they have been on the air for 50 years without advertising and when we consider how Family Radio has been supported the way in which it has, especially when we consider that the teaching that is coming forth from Family Radio is designed by God to offend. Consider how many listeners are offended by what they hear coming from Family Radio, and yet it keeps on going. It keeps on going. God keeps supporting it and using it throughout the whole world at this time.
Well, let us look at this phrase “face-to-face” that we read in 1 Corinthians 12. Turn to Exodus 33. We read in Exodus 33:9-11:
And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and JEHOVAH talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. And JEHOVAH spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend…
We read here that Jehovah spoke with Moses and gave him divine revelation face-to-face.
We had always assumed that “for we know in part” was relating to life in this world, and we had always assumed that “but then shall I know even as also I am known” was relating to Heaven. Of course, in Heaven there will be a great increase in our understanding and knowledge since we will be in the very presence of God where we will continue to learn who knows what into all eternity. I do not think that we are ever going to draw out all the water of that well because God is an infinite God. He gave us one little Book in comparison to whom He actually is. If you remember, there is a statement in John to this effect, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”
So God is just giving us what is important for us to know in this life for this world. But as far as God Himself, we cannot reach the depth of His knowledge and understanding; therefore, we will continue to learn into eternity. And when He is telling us that He is going to speak face-to-face, this relates to receiving revelation.
If we go to 2 John, it says in 2 John 1:12:
Having many things to write unto you…
2 John 1:1 starts out:
The elder unto the elect lady…
Of course, God is Ancient of Days and we can see how John is a figure of God, the Elder. There is no one older than Him.
Again, it says in 2 John 1:12:
Having many things to write unto you…
Now this fits in with what Jesus said in John 16:12:
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
And we read in 2 John 1:12:
Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink…
If God had planned on writing these many things with paper and ink, we would have to put them in the Bible. We would have to add to the book of Revelation. However, Revelation tells us that we cannot do this. Revelation 22:18-19 tells us that we are not to add or to subtract from the words of the Bible. Yet John tells us that He has many more things to say, and John is speaking under the inspiration of God. This is just as Jesus said, “I have many more things to say, but you can not bear them. You cannot carry that information from the first century A.D. all through the many centuries of the church age knowing that 2011 would be the end of the world. You cannot carry this because it is too much. You have your task. You are to go into the world and you are to bring the Gospel. Of that day or hour knoweth no man, so do not you worry about it. Do not be concerned with this. I will take care of it in its proper time.”
So the Lord moved John to write that He had many things to say but that they were not to be written down:
…but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.
What is joy dealing with in the Bible? Joy has to do with salvation. There is great joy in Heaven “over one sinner that repenteth.” The Bible speaks of the “fulness of joy,” and what does the fullness of joy have to do with? The fullness of joy is dealing with the great multitude coming in as God intends to save all these people during this little season of the Great Tribulation.
So here the Lord is writing through John and saying:
…I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face…
And the result of this will be:
…our joy may be full.
Now look at 3 John. It starts out in 3 John 1:1:
The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius…
“Wellbeloved” is another term for God’s elect.
Then we read in 3 John 1:13-14:
I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee…
There is a slight difference here with this phrase, “face-to-face.” This is not the word for “face.” It is actually the word for “mouth,” stoma. This is a different word than what we find in 1 Corinthians 13. God is saying here, “I will speak mouth-to-mouth.”
This is exactly the same thing as if I were to say that I am going to speak to someone face-to-face or mouth-to-mouth. It means that we are communicating in person, directly. This is why Jesus said in John 16:25:
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs…
This is the whole Bible.
…but the [hour] cometh…
That is now.
…when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.
This is referring to the time that is “in that hour.”
The whole Bible is a parable: “without a parable spake he not unto them.” But God has no intention of adding to the words of the Bible with ink or pen. There is not going to be anything new written. But “in that hour,” the Holy Spirit will come and do what the Holy Spirit does. He will guide us into “all truth.” He will open up our understanding to what the Bible is actually saying so that we can know the truths that God has sealed up. This will also be the completion of the covenant. As He teaches us these things, He will finish the covenant, as it says in Hebrews 8.
Let us turn to Numbers 12, which is a short little chapter that is telling us about the time when Aaron and Miriam also tried to exert their authority. They had felt that they were just as holy as Moses. This angered the Lord and He came down. Then we read in Numbers 12:6-8:
And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I JEHOVAH will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently…
“Even apparently” means “plainly.”
…and not in dark speeches…
If you want to look this word up, you could go to a couple of the Psalms that use this word that was translated as “dark speeches,” but this means “parables.” God is saying, “With Moses I will speak mouth-to-mouth plainly and not in parables,” which is exactly what God is telling us in John 16:25:
…the [hour] cometh when…
“In that hour,” He will speak plainly:
…I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs…
So this is what is going on and this is why it is so spiritually dangerous for anyone to just quickly say, “You are a date setter and a heretic. You are this or you are that.”
When handing out tracts or talking to people about these truths, we have heard it all. You will hear it, too, and 99% of it is coming from the church, the church that is not understanding “time and judgment.” However, God says of His people in Ecclesiastes 8:5:
…a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.
But He also says of His people in Jeremiah 8:7:
…but my people know not the judgment of JEHOVAH.
This is because in the first instance, He is referring to His elect who are in the world, the true Israel of God, those will know and understand these things. In the second instance, He is referring to the corporate body or the church.
Let us now go to Genesis 45, which will be where we stop for today. I started out by saying that we have three dates: May 21, 1988, September 7, 1994, and May 21, 2011. I also said that God has confirmed these dates, which He has through some of the numbers that He has given to us.
But before going to Genesis, let me first ask some questions. Who does Joseph represent? Joseph represents Christ. There was a famine at the time that Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream. There were seven years of plenty that were followed by seven years of famine. What did that famine represent? It represented the Great Tribulation. How can we say that this represents the Great Tribulation? Do we say this just because we like to say it?
No, God tells us in Amos 8:11:
…I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of JEHOVAH:
This does fit, but how can we be sure that this is referring to the Great Tribulation? Can you think of a verse that applies to this?
Let us go to Acts 7:11 where we read:
Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction…
The two English words here that have been translated as “great affliction” are an interpretation of the two Greek words megas thlipsis, which are translated as “great tribulation” in Matthew 24. These two words are found together four times. They are found here in Acts 7. They are also found in Matthew 24 where it deals with the Great Tribulation and the end of the world. They are found as well in Revelation 2 where God speaks of “that woman Jezebel” and those who support her and the church. He tells us in Revelation 2:21-22:
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation…
And they are found in Revelation 7 where it speaks of that “great multitude, which no man could number” who “came out of great tribulation.” In saying this, God identifies that “great multitude” with the “great tribulation,” just as the 3,000 are identified in Acts 2 with Pentecost. This is why we know and why we keep saying, “Thank God that He is saving a great multitude.” It is because this was His plan.
God uses these words together four times, and He was not wasting any of them. They are all pointing to the 23-year period that we are presently in and that we have about 18 months and some days left to go until that 23rd year or the 8400th day on May 21 in 2011.
So it is important to know that Joseph is a type of Christ and that the famine is a picture of the Great Tribulation, and we read in Genesis 45:1:
Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
Christ made Himself known to His people during the Great Tribulation, just as Joseph who had been hiding his face, hiding himself, saw his brothers and knew them. Joseph knew who they were, just as we read in 1 Corinthians 13:12:
…but then shall I know even as also I am known.
Joseph knew them. He saw them and he knew that they were the ones who had wickedly thrown him into a pit and had sold him to the Ishmeelites. From there he became a slave in Egypt, and we know the rest of that history. However, Joseph did not reveal himself, which is the same as God hiding truth in the Word and not revealing it.
Joseph had been refraining himself because his brother Benjamin was there and Joseph’s bowels yearned for his brother. He wanted to wrap his arms around him and kiss him. This was his brother from his own mother. At an earlier time, this was so troubling to Joseph that he had to run out of the room and weep; then he composed himself and returned.
In this God is telling us that He also has compassion as He hid Himself and as He hid His Word for a great period of time until the time of the end when He opened it up. And notice that Joseph tells all of his Egyptian servants and guards to leave as he reveals himself to his brethren.
We are going to tell the whole world, but who is actually going to listen? Only God’s people, His brethren, will listen. All the rest of the people of the world will hear about this; however, they are not going to be intimately informed; there is no way that this could take place.
Then we read in Genesis 45:2-3:
And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.
Would you not be troubled, too, if you had done this to your brother? They are especially troubled given the fact that they did not find Joseph as a servant of Potiphar. They did not find Joseph in prison. They found him at the right hand of Pharaoh where he was ruling over all of Egypt, someone who had the power of life and death in his hands. Even if he had decided to withhold corn from them, they would have perished. They were very troubled and must have been thinking, “How in the world is this even in the realm of possibility?” I guess they had not thought of what God could do and the great works that He is able to perform; therefore, they were very troubled.
Then we read in Genesis 45:4:
And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near…
This is also important language. When Isaac had blessed Jacob, he had wanted him to “come near.” When Jacob later blesses Joseph’s two sons, he also wanted them “near unto him.” This language of coming near has to do with bestowing a blessing.
So God is really saying to His people, “Come closer.” We are to get out that magnifying glass and look at that verse again. Does that verse really say that? Is that verse really saying that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”? Then does it really tie in with Genesis 7:4 where we read, “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth”? Absolutely it does!
When we look a little closer, we find that God has confirmed these things again and again and again. So if you are not thinking May 21, 2011 is the end, then you are thinking wrongly. You are thinking foolishly and you are not thinking the way in which God would have you to think, because He has confirmed these things and they are going to happen.
Continuing on in Genesis 45:4, it says:
…I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
I forgot to mention something from Genesis 45:3 where we read:
…for they were troubled at his presence.
This word that is translated as “presence” is the same word that is translated as “face” in the Hebrew. So when Joseph is saying, “Come near,” he is actually saying, “Look at my face,” just as God says that He will speak face-to-face and mouth-to-mouth “in that hour” when the Holy Spirit is teaching. You are an individual person before God. You are on a one-to-one basis with Him and He is telling you, “Come near and see that these things are true. Come take a look.”
Continuing on in Genesis 45:5-6, we read:
Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
So what does this famine represent? It represents the Great Tribulation, megas thlipsis, which we find four times in the New Testament. Joseph is a picture of Christ. Joseph is telling his brethren, those who represent God’s true believers, to come and look in his face. As they do so, Joseph gives them the timeline of the famine. He tells them when it began. He tells them that it has been two years in the land. We know that this is 1877 B.C., the year that Jacob comes with his family and enters into Egypt a little later on. The famine began in 1879 B.C. This is 1877 B.C., and so it is going to be lasting for five more years until 1872 B.C.
Joseph gave them a lot of information. He then made himself known to them. Not only that, but he knew all about the famine. He knew all about it because God had given him the ability to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, which was doubled unto Pharaoh because it was established by God and He would shortly bring it to pass. We find that Joseph is a picture of Christ as he is speaking to his brethren, who are a type of the elect. He is giving them precise information about a timeline for the famine that God refers to as “great tribulation.”
We now know that May 21, 1988 was the starting point of the Great Tribulation. They knew that 1879 B.C. was the beginning point of that famine. We know that 2011 is the end of this 23-year period. They knew that 1872 was the end of the famine that typified the Great Tribulation. And then something happening two years after the beginning of the Great Tribulation. It is not exactly in the middle, but there is a dividing point. They were in Canaan, the Promised Land, just as God’s people were in churches and congregations. And the Lord teaching as we see Joseph saying to his family, “Come to Egypt and I will take care of you. I will nourish you. I will feed you with this huge storehouse of grain that I have saved up for this period of time. I am going to nourish you for the next five years.”
In 1877 B.C., his brethren return to their father and convince him, whose spirit revives amazingly, just like when the two witnesses stood on their feet. Jacob comes with all of his family into Egypt, and then it is a beautiful and happy ending. (Well, if you do not go on to the book of Exodus.) However for that period, this was the picture that God was dealing with. There were three dates: 1879, 1877, which is a dividing point, and 1872, which is the end of that great tribulation.
So we also have three dates. But who was smart enough to work all of these things out like this? Who was it who was able to arrange all of these coincidences?
Actually, at this point when Joseph is speaking to his brethren, he is 39 years old. He was 30 when he was brought in front of Pharaoh. There were seven years of plenty. Then two years of famine. Now he is 39, which is 3 x 13. And Joseph is exactly 39 at the same time that his father is 130 years of age. God arranged for Pharaoh, of all people, to ask Jacob how old he was in order to document this. Jacob told him that he was 130, which is 10 x 13.
It is interesting that we find in the world a fear of the numbers 3 and 10. It is referred to as “triskaidekaphobia.” There is the fear of Friday the 13th. Many elevators do not have a floor 13. Airlines do not have rows 13. What is it with this number?
If the Mayan calendar was ever to reach its conclusion date of December 21, 2012, it would turn to 13.0.0.0.0. Why? Why is that? The Mayan calendar is not written as our years are written. This would be their 13th B’ak’tun, which would be 13 times 144,000 days or 5,125 years. This is when that time period elapses, which would be the end of the Great Cycle. The end of the Great Cycle is when it supposedly cycles about again.
So we have the number 13. 1988 was the 13,000th year of earth’s history, which is followed by a little period of time of 23 years, and then comes the end. That will be it.
Jacob enters Egypt at 130 years of age. How long did Jacob live in Egypt? He died at the age of 147, and so he lived there 17 years. He came out of Canaan when he was 130, which is when he stood before Pharaoh. He survived another 17 years, which was probably a great blessing to him. He even said that it was not only a blessing to see Joseph but that it was also a blessing that he got to see Joseph’s children and was able to bless them. So this was 17 years from the dividing point of 1877. This is when we can know that Jacob died, which was in the year 1860 B.C.
But God is teaching us something else because 1877 is identifying with the latter rain period that began on September 7th in 1994. How long will the latter rain period last? It will last 17 years. This is not exact because it does not go from September to September. It goes from September 7th of 1994 to May 21st of 2011, but we can definitely see the number 17 involved with September 1994 to 2011. It is in there.
So 17 years and then Jacob dies. In Acts 7, the Lord speaks of carrying Jacob after his death over to the burial site that they had for him in the land of Canaan. The word “carried over” that we find there is also found in Hebrews 11:5 two times where it speaks of Enoch’s translation. Enoch’s translation was when he was lifted up, which is a type and a figure of the Rapture. And we read that Jacob, after 17 years, was carried over into the Promised Land.
How much proof do we need? How much do we really need? How much do you need and how much do I need to not only believe this up here in our heads but to understand this in our hearts? We can understand these things up here, but true understanding is to “depart from evil,” which is what it says in Job 28:28. We can have all of the knowledge in the world, but if we are still involved with our sins then we do not understand. We do not understand.
The Ninevites understood. They got the message, “Forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” They understood that they would be destroyed. They did not just say, “Well, that is good information; thanks for telling us.” No, they were moved to action as God moved in them “to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Therefore, they did repent as the Lord gave them repentance. It is also important to note that they only had a single sentence. That was it. And it came from a complete stranger, from a foreigner. They had one sentence laid at their feet and yet they believed God.
We could lay a lot of information at people’s feet and yet the information itself is not going to do it. It really takes the mercy of God to save a person. Okay, let us stop here and have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your Gospel. We thank You for Your grace, for Your mercy, and for Your compassion, as You are these things. We thank You that as we go to the throne of grace, You are the same Lord and the same Christ who received sinners and publicans. You are the same One who people would come to and make their requests known, and yet we do not find a record of You refusing anyone. Of course, we know that we cannot get ourselves saved and that we cannot think that crying for mercy will guarantee anything, but may we be moved like the Ninevites and cry mightily to You, because who can tell if You might grant us Your salvation. Father, we pray that You have mercy on our families and on our friends and our neighbors. We ask that You help us in these coming days, as time is counting down. We do ask that You would bless us and help us to serve You in a way that is our duty to do and our reasonable service. We pray these things in Christ’s Name. Amen.
1st Question: When Joseph’s brothers came to Joseph, they did not know who he was, right?
Chris: That is right. God goes into this for a few chapters. They came to Egypt for corn because Jacob had heard that there was corn in Egypt. There was a famine in that entire area of the world. It was an awful famine and so they went to Egypt to buy corn, as their father had told them.
Right from the very beginning, Joseph recognized them but they did not recognize him. Keep in mind that Joseph was 17 when he was sold as a slave into Egypt. At the point that they came into Egypt for corn, Joseph was 39, which is 22 years or 23 years inclusively—and we see that number 23 again that identifies with the Great Tribulation. Joseph lived to be 110.
We change a lot from the time that we are a teenager into middle age, and so Joseph would have changed in several ways. He also would have been dressed like an Egyptian lord. He may have even developed a darker skin due to the Egyptian sun. He also would have been speaking Egyptian. On top of all of this, the last thing in the world that they would have ever considered was to find Joseph as lord over Egypt.
From time-to-time as they thought about Joseph, I am sure that they must have wondered, “Whatever happened to our little brother?” These men were experiencing guilt and shame over this. Even as things began to go badly for these men because Joseph was orchestrating events and working against them in order to bring his little brother Benjamin to Egypt, these men had a conversation where they immediately thought that all of this trouble was happening because of what they had done to Joseph. This was what was in their minds, and so they did not recognize Joseph at all.
2nd Question: Can you discuss 1877 B.C. again.
Chris: We know that 1877 is the year that they entered into Egypt. 430 years later would have been 1447, which is the date of the Exodus. You can check this out in the book Adam When? from Family Radio, which is the book on the Biblical calendar of history.
We know the exact date. Jacob was 130 at the point that he came into Egypt because he had been born in the year 2007 B.C. Joseph was 39 at this point. So the age difference was 91 years, which is 7 x 13.
I do not see how God could stress this any more. Joseph was 39, which is 3 x 13. Jacob was 130, which is 10 x 13. The age difference between them was 91 years, which is the age at which Jacob had Joseph, and that is 7 x 13. Again and again and again, God is confirming that this period of Great Tribulation will happen after 13,000 years of history. And God is the One who identifies this in Acts 7.
3rd Question: You mentioned that all churches are under judgment and you brought up Ecclesiastes 8:5.
I was speaking to a man recently who brought up the verse that says, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” I told him that this is referring to the “son of perdition,” which is Satan. Satan fits with the reference to “neither the son,” does he not?
Chris: It would be a good idea to print out some of the “No Man Knows the Day or the Hour?” tracts from Family Radio. Keep a few of these in your back pocket. When you are handing out tracts, you can give one of these to them and say, “Here you go; you might want to look this over.” Then you can continue handing out the tracts.
3rd Question (continued): I gave him one of those tracts, but he did not want to take it.
Chris: Well, there is a reason for this, and this is why. Like you said, we read in Ecclesiastes 8:5:
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth…
Which means “to understand.”
…both time and judgment.
But look at this verse in Proverbs 28:5:
Evil men understand not judgment…
Who are these “evil men”? Is God referring to murderers, to the inhabitants of death row, to terrorists? No. Actually, an evil man is someone who has broken the Law of God. We have all have done this. We are all sinners; therefore, we all qualify as “evil” in God’s sight. Sin is definitely evil and we sin.
So it says in Proverbs 28:5:
Evil men understand not judgment…
And Daniel 12:10 speaks of:
…none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
From Romans 3:10, we could add:
…no, not one.
None of the wicked are going to understand these things. This is because true Biblical understanding is spiritually discerned. They do not have the Spirit of Christ within them, which is wisdom; therefore, they just cannot understand this.
As I mentioned earlier, God makes this point in Jeremiah 8:7:
Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of JEHOVAH.
This is referring to those in the churches and congregations.
3rd Question (continued): Does this tie in with Christ coming as a thief in the night?
Chris: Yes, exactly. This is because of what we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4:
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness…
Now, this is what the Bible teaches. I do not know if it is necessary to continue to try to go in-depth with every single person that we speak to about these things. Without question, the Bible teaches that God’s people will know. They are going to know; however, the flood came upon the world of the ungodly. It took them by surprise. They heard about it, but they did not “know.” Just like people of our day hear about this and yet they do not know. They have heard it, but they are continuing on with their lives. If they dismiss this, if they ignore this, if they write this off in whatever way they can, they are certain to be destroyed.
3rd Question (continued): Would this have anything to do with “no man knows the day or hour”?
Chris: Well, yes.
4th Question: I was looking at something on Paltalk a few weeks ago. I found that you were talking about the same thing. There was a great deal of criticism about the 430 years that Israel was in Egypt, whether it was including Canaan or not. One of the criticisms came about because of the Septuagint. I was looking at the Wikipedia Encyclopedia to try to understand what authority the Septuagint would have. It is a Greek translation. Does it include the Apocrypha?
Chris: I do not know whether or not it includes the Apocrypha. But this controversy developed because some well-renowned theologians came to a conclusion based on Bishop Ussher’s erroneous calendar. Ussher has the flood taking place between 2500 and 2600 BC. This forced them to conclude that Israel was not in Egypt for an exact 430 years.
They begin marking the 430 years when Abram came out of Ur of the Chaldees. Then they say that 215 years was spent sojourning in Canaan and that the Israelites spent another 215 years in Egypt. This is how they explain the 430 years.
They quote the Septuagint because in Exodus 12:41 where it says that they came out “the selfsame day,” 430 years later, it adds something in the verse before it that is not in the original.
4th Question (continued): My question really goes to the fact that the King James translation is more faithful to the original text than the Septuagint.
Chris: Yes, it is. Exodus 12:40 says:
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
The Septuagint adds:
“The sojourning of the children of Israel, which they sojourned in Egypt and in the land of Canaan, was 430 years.”
They changed this quote from the Old Testament to include “and in the land of Canaan,” which was not in the original. So basically they made a theological statement and they are trying to pass it off as the Word of God.
4th Question (continued): The real point for people who are reading and trying to understand this argument is that they need to understand that the Septuagint is a Greek translation of the original text and that there is no authority in a translation like that.
Chris: Yes, it is like the King James in that way. The King James is a translation and translations are not perfect.
4th Question (continued): Where is the best reliable source for the original text today?
Chris: Jay Green’s Interlinear Bible is a good book to get. It has the Hebrew, the Greek, and the English. It also provides the literal translation in the side columns.
5th Question: The chapter in Genesis when Joseph told his brethren to leave their dwelling place to come where he was so that he could take care of them, was that, in a sense, God telling his true believers to leave their churches and to rely alone upon the Bible where they can find salvation?
Chris: Yes. We can understand that what was included in the meaning was: “Why would you want to go back to the land of Canaan and starve? Why would you want to go back there and starve?” Joseph was telling them, “Look, I rule. I rule all of Egypt. Pharaoh will give you the best of the land, which is the land of Goshen.” They would not only have food but they would have everything they could want.
This is exactly what God is telling people today as He issues the command from Revelation 18:4, “Come out of her, my people” and from several Gospel accounts, “Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains.” Why would anyone want to stay in the church where there is a famine of hearing, which means that there is no salvation? This also means that if you bring your children to the church, they are not going to be saved.
This does not make any sense, and yet people just stubbornly hold on to a faint hope that in some cases there is a faithful church and that God is still working in the church. But we just have to trust the Lord as we obey Him and come out. If this means that I have to sit alone with my Bible, then so be it. We just trust Him. However, normally it does not work out that way because God blesses and is able to give us great fellowship with Him through His Word, and He is able to do much more.
6th Question: As we examine the Scriptures, we read in the book of John that it says, “My sheep hear my voice.” So as God commands His people to leave their churches and congregations and come to Him, the only people who will understand this and leave will be the true believers, correct?
Chris: Yes. Jesus says this in John 10 and He also says this in John 8:47:
He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
This really summarizes the whole story. Why did the Ninevites believe? Were they fools, gullible, naïve, or stupid? What was their problem? How could they believe that crazy foreigner who came with just a one-sentence statement, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown”? He even left the city after that, so why would they believe him? There is only one reason, “He that is of God heareth God’s words.” God’s people are given ears to hear that particular voice of Christ Himself. On the other hand, we can compile all of this information that could be as much as a phonebook, such as Time Has an End, We Are Almost There!, the tracts, etc., all of this information, all of these statements that are being made and show how these things are taught in the Bible. We can give this information to whomever we want to, but if they are not one of God’s people, they will not believe this. We can not convince them. We can not make them see. They just do not get it.
Okay, let us stop here and close once more with a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You once again for the Bible. We thank You that we have this in our homes and that we can read it. This is a day when we cannot trust anyone, so we have to check these things out and read them in order understand this for ourselves. Father, if we are doubting, we pray that You would move in us to check these things out to see if they are so. We thank You for everything that You have done for Your people and all of the great blessings that You give us. In Christ’s Name. Amen.