The Holy Bible was written to, for and about the nation of Israel. The only time the vast majority of earth’s population (biological Gentiles) are mentioned in Scripture is when they come in contact with biological Israelites, also identified as “God’s chosen people.” The Holy Scriptures contain history of the past from earth’s re-creation (Genesis chapters 1 and 2) unto the present time, as well as prophecy concerning the immediate and distant future. By immediate future I am referring to tomorrow. Watching the daily news is seeing both the Old and New Testament prophecies come to pass before my eyes. What we must understand is that much of Bible history is also prophecy concerning what is taking place on earth this moment as well as what will happen in both the immediate and distant future.

Two of God’s inspired prophecies concern two distinct, yet conjoined events projected to take place just prior to Christ’s return to earth. I have asked the Lord to allow me to live to witness His return. I trust Him to do that. I am 82 years old. The average life span of an American male is 76. Therefore I believe that we are in the period just before the beginning of the Great Tribulation–World War III. When that period begins, Christ will return 3 1/2 years later. The two prophecies–the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord–will take place during that 3 1/2 year period. Christ’s return will bring it to an end, but not before two-thirds of mankind will have died.

The two horrendous time periods–the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord–will arrive in that time order. God-inspired prophecies throughout both the Old and New Testaments speak of a time of terror, death and destruction unprecedented in the history of mankind. The beginning of the Tribulation period will mark the end of the world as we know it. The following 3 1/2 years will be pure terror for those who have not spiritually prepared for it by obeying His Law. They will suffer as human beings have never before suffered. Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:21 that human suffering will be worse than all of the suffering caused by all of mankind’s past calamities COMBINED. He had issued that same warning many generations earlier through the Prophet Daniel (12:1). The turmoil man is now creating through sin, destruction and death, along with the acts of nature that are ravaging the world’s landscape, are warnings from God that much worse is coming. Man is mocking God. God is not mocked. As a man sows, so shall he reap. Man has sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind. Read Would God Do That? Key word–Would.

Following the Great Tribulation will come what is known Biblically as the Day of the Lord, at the end of which Christ will return to earth, resurrect His Very Elect saints, take them to the Promised Land where He will create the Kingdom of God. From there God the Father, His Christ and Their obedient saints will live forever. From the kingdom’s capital (New Jerusalem–Rev. 13:12; 21:2,10) they will rule the universe forever. Read The Kingdom of God. Key word–Kingdom.

Scripture provides the student with details about what the world will be like during that time period being studied. The Scriptures also tell us why a loving God will allow the first part (the Great Tribulation) and why He Himself will personally conduct the second part, known as the “Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.” More on this period later.

The most critical knowledge about the Great Tribulation comes directly from Jesus Himself. This is known as the Olivet prophecy because He was on the Mount of Olives when He delivered it. The prophecy is recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. Let us return to that time and place.

Jesus’ disciples had asked Him to give them a sign that would tell them when He would return and the world as we know it would end. His reply was direct and graphic as He projects the disciples forward a short time to the final days of this world which began on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. Let us turn to Matthew 24 to see the signs Jesus said would be manifested in the days leading up the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord. Let us see if anything looks familiar.

In verse three the disciples asked Him for the sign of His return and the end of the world. He does so beginning in verses four and five He warns them about a false religion based on religious deception which would make the counterfeit look very much like the real. He predicted that the masses of salvation seekers would embrace the fake religion and reject God’s Biblical religion. He had earlier warned about this phenomenon in Matthew 7:13 and 14. Catholicism/Protestantism is that religion as this website has proven. This ministry and website were ordained by God to expose the counterfeit by pointing out the many differences between Biblical Christianity and the Institutional Church’s many and varied versions of it. This is what the Apostle Paul called the “perversion” of God’s Gospel in Galatians 1:6 through 9. The homepage to this website lists examples of the differences between the real Gospel and the fake. God calls the fake church’s versions of His Gospel “doctrines of devils.”

In verses six and seven Jesus warned about wars and rumors of wars. At any one time there are several wars going on around the globe. There have been two world wars and many smaller wars since 31 A.D. as nation has come against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Rumors about possible war daily fill the airways. After the last world war in which over 50 million people died, there ensued a “cold war” between former comrades in arms–the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.–that lasted 35 years. During that time war broke out in Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East. Historian Winston Churchill noted that “The history of man is the history of war.”

In verse seven Jesus warns about famines, pandemics, and earthquakes in many places. Every year millions of people starve to death on planet earth. Time after time man has seen diseases rise up and kill millions of his fellow man. COVID-19 recently wreaked havoc throughout the world. Such plagues as Polio, Influenza, AIDS, Ebola, Scarlet fever, etc. have time and again ravaged mankind, killing millions. Earthquakes, storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, droughts, floods, extreme heat and cold, etc. have taken their toll on mankind. Older people in this age have witnessed these horrific fulfillments of Christ’s Matthew 24 prophecy first hand. As if this was not bad enough, in verse 8 Jesus delivers a spiritual hammer blow when He refers to all of these things as merely “THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS.”

In verses 21 and 22 Jesus warned that when all that He had predicted in verses 4 through 20 (the beginning of sorrows) had taken place, “… THEN will come upon the world GREAT TRIBULATION such as has not been seen since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever will be. And unless those days be shortened, there will be no flesh left alive on the earth.” He warned that, during the Tribulation period man would be capable of destroying himself. Only in this nuclear age has man been capable of eradicating himself from the face of the earth. Science tells us that there is enough weaponry existing today to kill every man, woman and child on earth five times over. Man now has bombs that make those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki pale by comparison. This tells us that the end of the age and the return of Jesus Christ will take place in the near future. As China and Russia join forces and the European Union continues to grow in power, we are at the same time witnessing the moral, economic and military decay of the United States of America and Great Britain. This tells us that World War III is just over the horizon. The beginning of that global conflict, which will be triggered by “armies encompassing Jerusalem” (Lk. 21:20), will mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation. The Lord said that in the last days Jerusalem would be “a cup of trembling (Zech. 12:2) for the world. What city does the world hate in unison? JERUSALEM. Jesus said that World War III will begin in Jerusalem (Lk. 20:21). Immediately prior to that event God will take His tiny remnant of saints to their place of safety where they will live in peace and plenty for the next 3 1/2 years as the world around them explodes. L.J.