I find three (3) future divine interventions where Jesus direct presence intervenes with man:
1) Seal Six, Rev6:16 hide us from the FACE of HIM that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb
2) Vial Seven, Rev16:15-17 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done... Rev19:21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
3) At end of millennium: Rev20:7-11 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are , and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
This 1st intervention is termed the Rapture. About this Paul speaks to the believers in 1Cor15:51/52 NOT ALL shall die or sleep, ... but WE ALL shall be transformed at the last trumpet. 1Thess4:16-17 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Jesus also spoke of this in the parable of the 5 wise virgins, who GO OUT TO MEET the bridegroom. In this context, the 5 foolish are those who hear the gospel but become saved after the rapture but before the 2nd physical Coming. Most, if not all suffer beheading under antichrist.
In Revelations, After seal 6 most aptly start the Trumpet judgments of wrath, Rev6:17. Then after the great wrath of the trumpets and vials comes the great and Terrible Day when Christ comes with His Army of Saints.
Joel 2:1, 11, 30-31, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; ... And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executes his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the dreadful terrible day of the Lord come.
Isa 13:6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Isa 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
Jer 46:10 For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the RIVER EUPHRATES. (The Muslim nation associates in & around Syria & is explained meaning of NORTH COUNTRY)
Lam 2:22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
Ezek 30:3 For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.
Amos 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
Obad 1:15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.
Malachi 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful terrible day of the Lord
Zephaniah 1:8, 14-17 the day of the LORD'S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel... The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hastens greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord : the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord : and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. ( a description of tribulation years, that some say are decades away but that I think are upon us now in greater and greater measures)
2:3 Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger.
Zechariah 14:1-4 Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, …
Rev19:13-20 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS .
And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. (These events happen just before the 1000 year peace. For next is described events near, during, and after the 1000 years.)
This is what Jesus referred to in Matt17:11-13
11 And Jesus answering said to them, `Elijah doth indeed come first, and shall restore all things, (this sentence is purely future tense, followed by past tense statements)
AND I say to you -- Elijah did already come, and they did not know him, but did with him whatever they would, so also the Son of Man is about to suffer by them.' Then understood the disciples that concerning John the Baptist he spake to them.
This chapter in Matthew described the appearance of Moses and Elijah to Jesus and 3 disciplines. It is interesting for this event to happens after the death of John the Baptizer. Yet Jesus affirms that Malachi 4:5 is an event reserved for His physical return unto the Mount of Olives.
In one sense we could say the Church represents Elijah and Israel represent Moses. In the literal Jesus was speaking of a restore. That restore, is the end of the age of the "times of the gentiles". When it is ended, then the administration of the Kingdom of God will once again revert to Jewish hands. The 144,000 sealed from the 12 tribes of Israel, who are charged to preach during the tribulation, until Christ Physical return unto the Mount of Olives.
When Jesus returns physically, are we not told of saints coming with Him?
Zechariah 14:4-5 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
Daniel 7:21-22 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.
Daniel 7:25-27 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
Psalm 149:6-9 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord .
< if it ALL HIS SAINTS, then do we not expect those beheaded by antichrist to also be resurrected at Christ physical return? >
Jude 1:14-15 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
< if the saints come with Christ in His physical return, then must they not have been previously resurrected ? >
Revelation 20:4-5 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
{.once I think this means only those beheaded were resurrected to reign with Christ. Another view: those raptured prior to tribulation who had meet Christ in air need not a second resurrection. They who are of the first resurrection being the saints who come with Christ upon His physical return. Then when Christ returns at end of tribulation to slay antichrist, the faithful slain during antichrist reign are also resurrected. The are the first borne. Possibly, The next resurrection is of those who are judged by their works. This judgment of works is spoken of in Romans, Corinthians, and also in Revelation. }
The 3rd and final intervention comes after the thousand years. It is talked of in terms of Gog Magog.
Rev20:8-9 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. [9] And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
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