388 Is it possible survive Tribulation

Is it possible to survive the coming Great Tribulation?

Terrifying events are soon to occur on the earth. Scriptures predict times of worldwide sorrow, trouble and disaster, soon to occur, but also informs us that there is a way to escape all these troubles, if we are willing to heed its warnings. Very few people today realize that Elohim has already spoken to mankind and that there is no way that He will communicate with any one of us on a face to face basis, until after Messiah returns one day, as is suitably recorded in Hebrews 1: 1-2 & 2: 1, in this way: ‘Elohim, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, (2) in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. (2: 1) For this reason we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.’ Not only did Elohim speak to humanity, but His words have also been recorded in the Scriptures by His faithful servants. We need to understand that when we read and study the Scriptures and its teachings and prophecies, we are actually listening to the inspired words spoken by Elohim; the way in which we respect and pay attention to what the Scriptures have to say, shows exactly how we would regard the words of Elohim the Almighty – if He were to speak to us on a personal basis.

The book of Revelation is full of warnings of horrifying events soon to take place throughout the world. In the last chapter of this most misunderstood book, the Revelator Yahshua the Messiah concluded in saying in verse 7:“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. ”Yet most do not fully understand the urgency of heeding the staggering prophetic warnings in the Scriptures. The prophecies in the Scriptures are not to be taken lightly, since the future of mankind is at stake! If we pay attention to these warnings that Elohim recorded for us in His Word, He promises a way to escape so that we need not suffer the dangerous times ahead of us, as there is a way of escape revealed in the Scriptures. The sufferings which will overwhelm this planet and all nations upon it need not happen to us. Elohim made His warnings known to mankind in His word for thousands of years. But, because Elohim seemed so unreal to most people, they do not have regard for the word of Elohim and do not accept that the prophecies given in the Scriptures to be applicable to them any longer. It is for this reason that millions today, plod on like ignorant sheep, heedless, careless, calloused and skeptical. They are as if sleep-walking, totally unaware of the grave danger ahead.

The world does not have long to wait before shocking, earth-shattering events will begin to occur at breathtaking speed, like it happened in Europe immediately prior to World War II. Rav Kepha wrote about the attitude of people in the world today in 2 Peter 3: 3 & 4, saying: ‘Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, (4) and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” Rav Shaul aptly described the people of today in Romans 1: 28, in this way: ‘And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge Elohim any longer, Elohim gave them over to a depraved mind, to do these things which are not proper.’ Very few today, believe that Elohim is going to intervene in human affairs. But, surprising as it may sound, there is ample evidence that the miracles and historical events recorded in Scriptures actually happened. And if we can prove that they did occur, then we can be absolutely certain that the events prophesied for our day and age will also happen in due course. Let’s therefore turn to the books recorded in the Scriptures to see how Elohim intervened in world affairs in the past. The nations were terrified, when they saw and began to recognize the power of our Creator. Afterwards, we will study Elohim’s end time warning message for us, and how we can prepare to escape the terrible holocaust this world is bringing upon itself.

We see from Jude 14 & 15, how Elohim warned what would befall rebellious mankind at the return of Messiah, while Adam was still alive, saying: ‘And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, YHVH came with many thousands of His holy ones, (15) to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”’We see from Genesis 5: 22 that Enoch walked with Elohim. It is therefore clear that the Eternal Creator YHVH, the Elohim of the Tanach who personally dealt with mankind; the Word of Elohim who became Yahshua of the Renewed Covenant, told Enoch He would one day come with power to execute justice, and to convict wicked sinners for all their sins. But similarly, throughout the ages, there were also other prophets who delivered similar warnings to mankind, as we read from Act 3: 18 – 24, in this way: “But the things which Elohim announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Messiah should suffer, He has thus fulfilled. (19) “Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of YHVH; (20) and that He may send Yahshua, the Messiah appointed for you, (21) whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which Elohim spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. (22) “Moses said, ‘YHVH ELOHIM SHALL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED in everything He says to you. (23) And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ (24) And likewise all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days.”

Rav Kepha tells us in 2 Peter 2: 5 that YHVH used Noah to warn the people of a worldwide catastrophe just prior to the Flood, as follows: ‘And did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.’ We see the reason why YHVH spared Noah and his family from Genesis 6: 8, 9 and 7: 1, in this way: ‘But Noah found favor in the eyes of YHVH. (9) These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with Elohim. (7: 1) Then YHVH said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household; for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.”’ When Elohim warned Noah about the destruction to come, he followed Elohim’s instructions given in Genesis 13 – 18, to make an ark for him and his household, to escape the flood that He was preparing to destroy all mankind. Noah obeyed, as recorded in verse 22 of Genesis 6, as follows: ‘Thus Noah did; according to all that Elohim had commanded him, so he did.’ We also see from Matthew 24: 38 & 39 that the world around Noah remained heedless, in this way: “For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, (39) and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”

Later, during Abraham’s time serious sins filled the city of Sodom, as witnessed in Genesis 13: 13, as follows: ‘Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against YHVH.’ We see further from Genesis 14: 17 - 22 that at that time Melchizedek the king of Salem who was a Priest of the Most High met with Abram and the king of Sodom. It was during this meeting that Abram paid a tithe to Melchizedek and considering the time of the meeting, Melchizedek must have warned the Sodomites to repent of their evil deeds, or one day suffer the consequences for their sins. Judging from this contact, there must have been previous occasions during which the king of Sodom and Melchizedek, the Messiah of the Renewed Covenant, met and conversed. And since Elohim does not change in the basic way He thinks and does things (as per Hebrews 13: 8), Melchizedek must have warned the Sodomites to repent of their evil ways, or one day suffer these predictable consequences of sin, namely death! But, Sodom’s sins eventually became so bad that Elohim finally ordered that the entire population of the city be destroyed by fire and brimstone as punishment, just as the entire earth’s inhabitants were destroyed during the flood, except for Noah and his household. As recorded in 2 Peter 2: 6 – 9 Lot was the only righteous man living in Sodom, when Elohim destroyed Sodom, in this way: ‘And If He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; (7) and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (8) (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds), (9) then YHVH knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.’

The messengers of Elohim warned Lot of the destruction He was going to rain upon Sodom as punishment for their sin, as recorded in Genesis 19: 1, 12 & 13 as follows: ‘Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. (12) Then the men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place; (13) for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before YHVH that YHVH has sent us to destroy it.”We see from verse 14 that Lot also warned his sons-in-law to leave the city, but they like the people of today, thought he was joking and made fun of him. We see from verses 24 & 25 how Elohim destroyed these communities, in this way: ‘Then YHVH rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from YHVH out of heaven.’ The proponents of the two YHVH doctrine usually use this verse to try and prove their theory, but we see (YHVH)’s own answer to this in Deuteronomy 4: 39, where He says: “Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that YHVH, He is Elohim in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.” Most people today are not in the least concerned with warnings such as thesein the Scriptures.Most would continue to enjoy the excesses and illegal materialistic pleasure of the world. They ridicule any mention of Elohim’s warnings of looming disaster and could not care less simply because they do not believe that Elohim exists.

But, because Elohim is an Elohim of mercy and He warned ancient Israel of the punishments He would bring upon them if they sinned. The book of Leviticus 26contain blessings from verse 1 to 13, if they obey Elohim; but also curses from verses 14 – 46, for not obeying His teachings. However, we see that faithless Israel sin regardless of these warnings, as recorded in 2 Kings 17: 13 – 15 as follows: ‘Yet YHVH warned Israel and Judah, through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the Law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.” (14) However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in YHVH their Elohim. (15) And they rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which YHVH had commanded them not to do like them.’ We see from verse 20 that YHVH then punished them, as He warned, in this way: ‘And YHVH rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.’

We see from the book of Jonah in Jonah 1: 1 – 2 and 3: 1 – 4 that Elohim was also merciful to Gentiles and warned them of impending destruction because of their sins, as follows: ‘The word of YHVH came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, (2) “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” (3: 1) Now the word of YHVH came to Jonah the second time saying, (2) Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.” (3) So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of YHVH. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days walk. (4) Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”’ In the case of Nineveh the entire city believed Elohim’s message and repented as recorded in verse 5, and we see from verse 10, that when Elohim saw that they turned from their wicked ways, He relented concerning the calamity He was about to bring upon them. But we see from the book of Nahum Chapters 1: 1 and 3: 1 – 3 that the repentance of the people of Nineveh did not last very long, when YHVH again warned them, in this way: ‘The oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. (3: 1) Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; her prey never departs. (2) The noise of the rattling of the wheel, galloping horses, and bounding chariots! (3) Horsemen charging, swords flashing, spears gleaming. Many slain, a mass of corpses, and countless dead bodies— they stumble over the dead bodies!’The punishment Elohim meted out to these Gentile people are recoded in verses 4 – 7, as follows: ‘All because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the charming one, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations by her harlotries, and families by her sorceries. (5) Behold, I am against you,” declares YHVH of hosts; “and I will lift up your skirts over your face, and show to the nations your nakedness and to the kingdoms your disgrace. (6) I will throw filth on you and make you vile, and set you up as a spectacle. (7) And it will come about that all who see you will shrink from you and say, ‘Nineveh is devastated! Who will grieve for her? Where will I seek comforters for you?” The Assyrians of Nineveh returned to their old ways of sin soon after the threatened catastrophe did not occur and about a hundred and fifty years later, Elohim pronounced Nineveh’s final doom through the prophet Nahum.

Elohim has always given people throughout the Scriptures ample opportunity to repent, before sending punishment for breaking His laws of happy, abundant living. He has sent His prophets throughout the ages to warn the nations of His punishments for their careless disobedience. Elohim also inspired His prophets to write His warnings and made sure they were preserved for us today. However, His warnings have fallen on deaf ears in nearly every case. The scriptural warnings of Yahshua’s Olivet prophecy recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, have taken on real meaning in our time. The world has been experiencing the conditions Messiah foretold it would before the occurrence of great catastrophic events. In this world spiritually deceived through the efforts of Satan and his false ministers, preaching a false Messiah and replacing a false gospel in place of the Gospel about the coming Kingdom of Elohim, we are in the second break between stages of world war. The first two world wars have occurred and in the short interlude, regional wars are continuing and rumors of wars continue in our daily newspapers. Very soon now the earth will be struck with great famines, disease epidemics, earthquakes and finally World War III. All these conditions are going to develop in severity until hundreds of millions of the inhabitants of the world will suffer from their effects. But, as Yahshua said in Matthew 24: 8 these events are only the ‘beginning of sorrows’. The ‘beginning of sorrows’ is also described as ‘four horsemen’ in Revelation 6.

Yahshua explained the fifth seal or fifth world-shaking event in Matthew 24: 9 – 13, saying: “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name. (10) And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another. (11) And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. (12) And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love (for Elohim) will grow cold. (13) But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.” Unless we remain in close contact with YHVH our Elohim, we will become lukewarm, and as a result will turn against those who remain faithful, and will as a result not be counted worthy to escape the great tribulation, as Yahshua warned in Luke 21: 36, saying: “But keep on alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” We see from Luke 21: 12 – 15 that the coming persecution will lead to an opportunity to give your testimony, as Yahshua detailed in verses 14 & 15, saying: “So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; (15) for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.” We need to understand that the principle of duality applies throughout most prophecies – in that there is a former and then a latter fulfillment of these prophecies. The persecution spoken about in Matthew 24: 9 already happened in the nation of Judah around 70 CE.

However, Luke 21: 20 – 24 describe what will happen to Judah and Jerusalem in the near future, as follows: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is at hand. (21) Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are in the country enter the city; (22) because these are days of vengeance, in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled. (23) Woe to those who are with child and those who nurse babes in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land, and wrath to this people, (24) and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. ”We see in Matthew 24: 21 & 22 that these things never happened to quite this intensity before, in this way: “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. (22) And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short.” The great tribulation is described in Revelation 6: 9 – 11, as follows: ‘And when He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of Elohim, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; (10) and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O YHVH, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (11) And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed also.’

This fifth seal is a picture of the martyrdom of believers, who even though they are converted, became lukewarm. There are two martyrdoms portrayed here. The first martyrs died during the religious persecutions which occurred before to the end of the Middles Ages. In these verses the martyrs of that time are told to wait until another martyrdom of believers has occurred. This future martyrdom will occur during the coming great tribulation, before the Day of YHVH will occur. These martyrs are in their graves, having been in a sense sacrificed on the altar beneath which was collected, the blood in which had resided their lives – or ‘souls’. But they are pictured in a vision as if crying out from under the altar and are told that Messiah will not come to take vengeance on their behalf until another great persecution and martyrdom of believers will have taken place. Most people do not believe that such terrible things are possible in the supposedly enlightened age in which we live. The memories of most are too short to even remember as far back as World War II, during which millions of Jewish and other people were simply destroyed for what they believe. The concentration camps stand speechless, but are shouting witnesses to what human minds are capable, when they reject Elohim. At this time we as Nazarene Israelites (and likeminded believers) called out of the religions of the world, together with our Jewish Brothers are the only two witnesses to Elohim’s soon coming Kingdom where Messiah will come and rule the world from Jerusalem for a thousand years.

But, we see from Revelation 11: 3 – 10 that the future martyrdom spoken about in Revelation 6: 11 will even be our lot, as follows: ‘And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. (4)These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before YHVH of the earth. (5)And if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies; and if anyone would desire to harm them, in this manner he must be killed. (6)These have the power to shut up the sky in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. (7)And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them. (8)And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Master was crucified. (9)And those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. (10)And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.’ We see from verse 7that Satan and his agents will be responsible for this martyrdom. We see further from Revelation 17: 4 - 6 & 18 that Satan will use His agent the great false ‘church’ to help him martyr the congregation of Elohim and the two witnesses, as follows: ‘And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, (5) and upon her forehead a name written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH,” (6) And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Yahshua. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly. (18) “And the woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”’

Yes, Satan and His agents will be responsible for the end time religious persecution and will become extremely active, as we are getting closer to the end of this age, as recorded in Revelation 12: 9, 12, 13 & 17, in this way: ‘And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (12) “For this reason rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.” (13) And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child (this woman represents the congregation of Elohim). (14) And the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, in order that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. (15) And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. (16) And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. (17)And the dragon was enraged with the woman. And went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keeps the commandments of Elohim and hold to the testimony of Yahshua.’From verse 17, it is clear that a lukewarm remnant will not be accounted worthy to escape Satan’s persecution during the great tribulation.

After this the sixth seal will be broken, and as witnessed in Revelation 6: 12 – 13 this will really be a time when the sun will be darkened and the moon will become like blood, as follows: ‘And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; (13) and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.’ The sixth seal consists of spectacular heavenly signs – the sun and moon becoming dark, and the ‘stars’ falling. Incredible meteor showers will make the heavens appear to be crashing down to earth. Some claim this has already happened, but the episodes that they describe were all local events, seen by only a small section of the world’s population, and are/were at most merely small forerunners and warnings of the far more spectacular events yet to occur in the foreseeable future. Continuing in verse 14 – 16 of Revelation 6 we see described the heavenly signs that will follow immediately after this event, as follows: ‘And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. (15) And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves among the rocks of the mountains; (16) and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne; and from the wrath of the lamb.”’ The prophet Joel also prophesied about what YHVH will do at this time in Joel 2: 30& 31, saying: “And I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire and columns of smoke. (31) The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of YHVH comes.”

We see the reason for the punishment YHVH is about to unleash upon the earth in Isaiah 24: 3 – 6, in this way: ‘The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for YHVH has spoken this word. (4) The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. (5) The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. (6) Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.’ Elohim says He will bring this distress upon defiant and sinful men who hate the truth and peace, and love evil. Even so, Elohim’s punishment will be a manifestation of His great love for mankind, as is recorded in Hebrew 12: 5 – 7, as follows: ‘And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF YHVH, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; (6) FOR THOSE WHOM YHVH LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” Elohim’s punishment is directed at those that He wants now to repent from their evil deeds as Rav Kepha wrote in 2 Peter 3: 9, saying: ‘YHVH is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.’ There are people who believe that the plagues Elohim brought upon ancient Egypt, and will again bring upon the whole world in the future, is the one great exception to the statement in first John 4: 8, namely: ‘Elohim is LOVE.’. A popular myth is that Elohim is about to close ‘probation’ and that the time of salvation will soon be over. Then, according to this belief, a ‘resentful Elohim’ will soon bring down His rage by pouring out unbearable torture upon defenseless human beings. This is totally a pagan idea of a god capable of all the base passions of degraded men, and is totally untrue of the one and only true Elohim.

For the past almost 6,000 years Elohim has sent His loving messages to mankind. He revealed His Torah way of life that would lead to everything good and desirable to Adam and Eve. After they rejected Elohim’s way, He sent His prophets with His message of peace, revealing to mankind the way to peace and happiness. These men of Elohim have pleaded with this rebellious world in love. Elohim has pleaded through them with this stiff-necked, rebellious world for 6,000 years, but mankind has rejected the message, and killed the prophets. Rebellious mankind put Elohim’s Son who brought the good news of the Kingdom of Elohim – which is the world to come, to death. They martyred Messiah’s apostles who went out into the world with the message of Elohim’s way of life, and Elohim’s benevolent rule over our lives. In love and tender mercy, Elohim has given this stubborn, misguided human race every chance to turn from their evil ways. But men would not heed. Similarly today they still will not heed. Elohim will and indeed cannot, without defeating His purpose for mankind, remove the right of free moral agency from man. But, except for a very few people, mankind has proved that they will not respond voluntarily as long as Elohim’s pleading is limited to words. So Elohim is about to step in and speak to this rebellious and hell-bent world with more than words.

Like any wise and loving father punishes his children for their own good, when they refuse to respond to kind and loving verbal admonition, so will an all-loving, all-wise Elohim finally plead with rebellious humanity in the only language they will be able to understand. Yes, Elohim is going to punish this world with righteous judgment, including plagues so terrible that many will at last recognize Elohim is dealing with them. Many will then listen and turn from their wicked ways to seek Elohim and His ways that lead to peace and everything good. And that coming period of punishment, described in more than 30 different prophecies scattered throughout both the Tanach and the Renewed Covenant as the ‘day of YHVH’, shall lead directly into the second coming of Messiah and world peace! After the awesome signs in the heavens and earth occur, and immediately before the seventh seal are opened, further disruptions will be stopped for a brief period of time, as described in Revelation 7: 1 – 4, in this way: “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind should blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. (2) And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living Elohim, and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, (3) saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the bond-servants of Elohim on their foreheads.” (4) And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.” The ‘four winds’ are symbols of the four trumpet plagues, but they are restrained from blowing until the ‘servants of Elohim’ are sealed on their foreheads. First of those to be sealed are the 144,000;12,000 from each of the 12 literal tribes of Israel.

But what is this ‘seal’ with which they are sealed? We see the answer given in among other Ephesians 1: 13& 14, as follows: ‘In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, (14) who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of Elohim’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.’ The 144, 000 are sealed ‘on their foreheads’ or symbolic of their minds by receiving the Set-apart Spirit of Elohim, which is Elohim’s name or authority written there. Yahshua’s final prayer for His congregation of called our believers was that they would be kept in the Father’s name (as may be read John 17: 11). This sealing, or receiving of Elohim’s Spirit, is a result of personal repentance of past sins and total surrender to Elohim’s righteous ways, and by which we are kept in the Father’s name. After the 144,000 are sealed, a great number of others will also be sealed, as we see from Revelation 7: 9, in this way: ‘After these things I looked and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands.’ But, who are these people from all nations? We find the answer in verse 13 & 14 of Revelation 7, as follows: ‘And one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘These who are clothed in white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?” (14) And I said to him, “My Master, you know.” And he said to me "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” ’They are seen clothed in white robes, symbolizing purity and righteousness – obedience to Elohim’s laws – unspotted by the ways and customs of the world. As they see Elohim’s intervening through terrible supernatural signs in the heavens and on earth, this great multitude of all nations will surrender themselves completely to Elohim; ask Him to cleanse them from all their past sins by the blood of Yahshua Messiah, and be brought under divine protection, so that just as Elohim protected the children of Israel when He poured out the plagues on ancient Egypt, so shall all these be protected from the plagues to come. Then, just as those protected from those ancient plagues were taken under Moses and Joshua to the Promised Land, so shall those saved from the coming plagues be taken by Messiah, the second Joshua, into the Kingdom of Elohim – to be set up on earth with headquarters in Jerusalem! Halleluyah!