Four Blood Moons (9 page)

The
last trump
is recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:52, when the church is raptured:

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

The
great trump
is blown at the second coming of Jesus Christ, as recorded in Matthew 24:30–31:

Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.
And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

We are commanded to “watch,” which means we must know the Spine of Prophecy and diligently look for God's announcements in the heavens through signs such as the Four Blood Moons. The Bible is clear that only those who “watch” will be counted worthy to escape those things that are coming on the earth.

Exactly what are we going to escape?

Those that are “taken up” in the Rapture will escape the wrath of the Antichrist. The Tribulation begins with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse appearing in Revelation 6. The first rider is the Antichrist, riding a white horse and coming to conquer the nations of the world.

He will make a seven-year peace treaty with Israel and break it after only three and a half years; he will cause every person on earth to receive his mark on their right hand or forehead, and without it you cannot buy or sell. Those who reject his mark will have their heads cut off (Revelation 13:16).

The monster on the white horse will put together a world government, a New World Order that will have ten kingdoms, which he will initially rule. The Antichrist will receive his power directly from Satan; he is the “son of perdition” (John 17:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:3), which means the chief son of Satan.

He will conquer three of these ten kingdoms, and the final form of the New World Order will be a kingdom with seven heads and ten crowns described by the prophet Daniel.

In addition to the Antichrist (the Beast of Revelation), the Tribulation will bring global wars that will bathe the earth in blood (Matthew 24:6), earthquakes that will reshape the earth as mountains are reduced to rubble (v. 7) and the islands of the sea will disappear beneath the water (Psalm 46:2).

The sun will become so hot that the vegetation of the earth will be burned up; the oceans will be turned to blood and the waters of earth will be as bitter as wormwood, bringing death to those who drink it (Revelation 8:11).

Locusts the size of a horse will be released from the bottomless pit for five months and will be given power to sting men with venom that causes excruciating pain (Revelation 9:5).

In Revelation 9:15, four angels are released by God Almighty to destroy one-third of mankind in one day. In America that is the equivalent to one hundred million people in one twenty-four-hour period. In the world that would mean two
billion people. It's absolutely mind-boggling.

Just how bad will it get? John, the Revelator pulls back the curtain of time and allows us to look into the abyss of unspeakable suffering:

The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

(R
EVELATION
6:15–18)

I ask those of you who are of sound mind, do you want to escape these horrors that John the Revelator so graphically described? I do! I really do! I am going to escape, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump!

I'll literally rise into the heavens with millions of believers, to meet the real Jesus. I will walk on literal streets of gold and live in very real mansions of splendor with the bride of Christ . . . and so shall we ever be with the Lord!

You will either bow before the Antichrist or bow before Jesus Christ. It's not a matter of
if
you will bow; it's just a matter of
when
you will bow.

The deception that Jesus warned us about in Matthew 24 is spreading in our generation like a contagious theological virus with lies such as Jesus has already returned and the rapture of the church is a thing of the past. Not so! In fact, Paul writes about those “who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some” (2 Timothy 2:18).

Peter declares:

We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were
eyewitnesses
of His majesty.

(2 P
ETER
1:16)

The question is: when did Simon Peter see the power and coming of Jesus Christ? Peter makes it clear he is referring to the transfiguration of Christ. He continues:

He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on
the holy mountain
.

(
vv
. 17–18)

When Peter speaks of “the holy mountain,” he is referring to the Mount of Transfiguration. What did Jesus mean in Matthew 16:28 when He spoke to Peter, James, and John?

Assuredly I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.

Many believers get confused while interpreting the meaning of certain scriptures because they fail to recognize that while every word of the Bible is divinely inspired of the Holy Spirit, chapter divisions are not!

Chapter divisions were inserted by the hands of mere mortal men centuries ago. The fact is, Matthew 16 and 17 are related in concept, and to fully understand the meaning of Matthew 16:28 we must connect the last verse of Matthew 16 to Matthew 17:1–2.

Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

The Lord Jesus Christ was glorified before His death and
resurrection and this is the picture given here. Understand this truth: what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration recorded in Matthew 16 and 17 was an abbreviated portrait of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God was reflected by the presence of Moses, who represented the law, and Elijah, who represented the prophets of the Old Testament. They were discussing the forthcoming death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (Luke 9:30–31
NIV
).

Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.

Moses and Elijah represented the dead saints of the Old Testament, and Peter, James, and John represented the living saints. The church was not yet in existence; Peter, James, and John would soon represent the body of the New Testament believers, which
is
the church.
⁴

The transfiguration of Christ occurred before He died on the cross; the church did not yet exist. If it did not exist, it could not have been raptured.

Paul writes the following to the believers in Thessalonica:

Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for
it will not come
unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? (2 Thessalonians 2:1–5
NASB
)

The “day of the Lord” in this verse has nothing to do with the church; it has to do with a “day” of God's judgment on the earth that occurs after the rapture—beginning with the Great Tribulation and going through the Millennium.

Apparently someone in the first-century church had fabricated a “letter from us” (meaning Paul, Timothy, or Silas) and was deceiving the Christians in Thessalonica, leading them to believe they were
in
the Great Tribulation. Because of the persecution the church was experiencing at the time, it was a distortion of the truth that was easily believed.

Paul writes his letter to the believers in the church of
Thessalonica that the counterfeit letter and its message were false.
⁵

As I have stated before, Joel describes the actual coming of the “day of the Lord”:

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 coming of the great and awesome day of

the L
ORD
.

(J
OEL
2:30–31)

These two verses describe the occurrence of Blood Moons. As you will soon learn, God is speaking to us in the heavens, through the Blood Moons. His message will be on display for the world to see. But to recognize His heavenly announcement, we first need to understand how these Blood Moons relate to the Jewish people and the end times.

The following chapter is biblical evidence of the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people, which has never been broken and is binding to this day.

It makes no difference what Washington, DC, thinks . . . what Iran wants . . . what Russia demands . . . or what the European Union hopes for—it only matters what God Almighty has declared! He has all power in heaven and on earth!

—G
ENESIS
13:17

The real estate contract between God Almighty and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is recorded repeatedly in the Word of God. The borders and boundaries are clearly stated in the title policy registered in Scripture.

Yet no piece of real estate on planet earth has been more contested than the land of Israel even though God clearly gave it to the Jewish people forever.

There are those who state that the Palestinians have a claim
to the land through Ishmael. The Scripture clearly states that God eliminated Ishmael from all consideration to the land of Israel.

Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” Then God said, “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.”

(G
ENESIS
17:18–19)

Even though God did
not
give the land to Ishmael, He
did
bless him by declaring that he would produce twelve princes that would become a mighty nation (v. 20). Those nations are now known as OPEC. Isaac, the son of covenant, got the land promised to Abraham, and that land is known as Israel today.

Some say that the issue of inheritance between Ishmael and Isaac was only directly referred to in the Old Testament. However, when Paul wrote to the Galatians he used the sons of Hagar and Sarah as an allegory to teach about law and grace. In doing so, he quoted the prophet Isaiah (54:1) and the book of Genesis (21:10) to reiterate the true heir to the land.

Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the
other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written:

“Be glad, barren woman,

you who never bore a child;

shout for joy and cry aloud,

you who were never in labor;

because more are the children of the desolate woman

than of her who has a husband” [Isaiah 54:1].

Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.
But what does Scripture say
? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son
will never share
in the inheritance with the free woman's son” [Genesis 21:10]. Therefore, brothers
and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

(G
ALATIANS
4:21–31
NIV
)

Paul was as direct as only he can be when he answers the question, “What does Scripture say?” about who owns the “land, leaving no doubt” as to who inherited the Promised Land; it was Isaac not Ishmael.