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of Messiah (Isa. 35: 4-6). Thus the Lord has forewarned His people, and to be
forewarned is to be forearmed.
The Lord Jesus now deals with the sign of His coming which had been requested by
the disciples (Matt. 24: 3). This tremendous event is not going to be announced from
heaven days before it takes place, for it will be sudden, like a flash of lightning (27) and
come like a thunderbolt upon an unprepared and deceived world. The apostle Paul
describes it in II Thess. 1: 7-10:
". . . . . when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful
angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our
Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the
presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power on the day He comes . . . . ."
(N.I.V.).
The Lord continues:
"Immediately after the distress of those days (the great tribulation) the sun will be
darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky and the
heavenly bodies will be shaken" (24: 29, N.I.V.).
Spiritualizers will not take these words literally. Thus the moon is the Church, which
will receive no light from Christ Who is the sun, because of her carnal desires. The stars
are the saints who then lose their influence, and so on. How much more simple and
satisfactory it is to take what the Lord said as literal guidance to the disciples regarding
the immediate future, and then end-time information for the end-time believers. How
near this was the Lord gave no indication, for Israel had to be tested again (in the Acts
period) and this could not be revealed at this moment.
That these signs in the heavens are literal is borne out by the O.T.:
"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. For the stars of heaven
and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his
going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world
for their evil . . . . ." (Isa. 13: 9-11, A.V.).
See also Joel 2: 10, 30-32 (quoted in Acts 2: 19-21) and Rev. 6: 12-17. Those
who want to spiritualize must do so with every detail here. Applying this only to some
items will not do. One should note how the book of Revelation chapter 6: gives
symbolically the same truths in the same order as Christ has stated. The first seal gives
false peace which will be replaced by war (second seal). In turn this is replaced by
famine (third seal) and by pestilence (fourth seal). All this leads to the Second Advent of
the Lord and the great day of His wrath with its catastrophic effect on mankind,
especially His enemies. Drastic disturbances in the heavens will accompany these events.
Then follows the overwhelming coming of the Lord in tremendous glory, with the
angels of heaven accompanying Him. Read the vivid description of it in Rev. 19: 11-16.
Then (tote) the tribes of the land (better than "earth") will mourn, when they see the Son