Has the Time Come to
“Run for the Hills?”
From time to
time the staff receives phone calls
and emails asking, “Has the time
come to “run for the
hills?” I have no doubt that
many people would like to escape the
stresses and demands of life by
“running for the hills,”
but this article will focus on the
serious side of this question.
A growing number of Christians (and
non-Christians) are worried about the
future. Looking ahead, they see
a huge catastrophic meltdown
coming. They believe the U.S.,
in particular and the world in
general, cannot continue on its
present course much longer.
They are convinced that a series of
calamitous events will occur and the
result will be indescribable chaos,
suffering, and death. Given
this looming destiny, people are
actually considering the idea of
“running for the
hills.” For purposes of
discussion, let us identify this
coming time period as “The Great
Tribulation,” a time when
survival will be far more
difficult.
The Bible confirms a
coming global meltdown and in fact,
the books of Daniel and Revelation
reveal much about this topic.
Jesus also spoke about The Great
Tribulation when He was on
Earth. When asked about the
signs that would indicate His return
was near He said, “For
then there will be great distress,
unequaled from the beginning of the
world until now – and never to
be equaled again. If those days
had not been cut short, no one would
survive, but for the sake of the
elect those days will be
shortened. At that time if
anyone says to you, ‘Look, here
is Christ!” or, ‘There he
is!’ do not believe it.
For false Christ’s and false
prophets will appear and perform
great signs and miracles to deceive
even the elect – if that were
possible. See, I have told you
ahead of time.”
(Matthew 24: 21-25, italics mine)
When Jesus spoke these
words in A.D. 30, He indicated that
the number of days allotted for the
Great Tribulation had been cut short
(notice the past perfect tense). This
means The Great Tribulation will be
shorter than originally
planned. I believe God reduced
the number of days originally
allotted for The Great Tribulation
redundant when He devised “Plan
B” and He revealed the reduced
number 1,335 days to Daniel during
the sixth century B.C. (See Daniel
12: 11,12.) (For a discussion
on Plan A and Plan B, please see
Appendix D in Jesus’ Final
Victory which can be downloaded
from: http://www.wake-up.org/Commentary/Daniel_Revelation%20Final.pdf.) I have come
to this conclusion for several
reasons. First, Jesus
used the past perfect tense to
indicate action completed in the
past. The time allotted for The
Great Tribulation was reduced before
the meeting occurred in Matthew
24. Second, 65 years after
Jesus ascended to Heaven, Jesus met
with John on the Isle of Patmos
(about A.D. 95). The
information revealed in Revelation
contains several prophetic time
periods that harmoniously align with
the 1,335 days recorded in Daniel
12. This raises an important
question. How could Jesus say The
Great Tribulation had been shortened
in Matthew 24 and then 65 years
later, Jesus told John that the time
allotted to the Two Witnesses was
1,260 days and the time allotted for
the composite beast was 42
months? In fact, Jesus showed
John several prophetic time periods
that perfectly align with the 1,335
days in Daniel 12. This leads
me to ask was the time cut short
before the book of Daniel was written
or will time be cut short after The
Great Tribulation begins? I
conclude the number of days was
reduced before the book of Daniel was
written because (a) Jesus used the
past perfect tense in A.D. 30 to
indicate the number of days had been
reduced, (b) in A.D. 95 the prophetic
time periods given to John
harmoniously align with the 1,335
days given to Daniel, and most of
all, (c) God’s Word means what
it says. The prophetic time periods
will be fulfilled as God declares. Of
course, I would be very happy if the
Great Tribulation was reduced to 35
days or less, but I believe the Bible
says otherwise.
During the Great
Tribulation, desperation and anxiety
will overwhelm those who do not know
how to live by faith. Even
those who walk with God will
tremble! Circumstances will be
dire and extreme. Survival will
be a day to day struggle. The Bible
teaches that God will release Lucifer
(the Antichrist) and his demonic
angels from the spirit realm during
the fifth trumpet, about 890 days
into The Great Tribulation.
(For additional study on this topic,
please see Prophecy 8 in my latest
book, Jesus’ Final Victory
http://www.wake-up.org/Commentary/Commentary.htm or “The Greatest
Deception of All Time” http://www.wake-up.org/daystar/ds2006/Feb.htm).
After Lucifer and his
angels are released from the spirit
realm, they will appear physically
before the people of Earth.
Compared to mankind, they will be
giants who far exceed human
stature. They will have
physical, mental, and miracle-working
abilities that will make everyone in
their presence tremble. The
devil himself, will masquerade as
Almighty God. (Daniel 11: 36,
37; 2 Thessalonians 2:4) He
will be glorious in appearance.
(2 Corinthians 11:14) Millions
of demons (fallen angels) will attend
him. (Revelation 9: 1-11)
Acting as magnanimous benefactors,
they will perform all kinds of
“good miracles.” The
nations of the world will
enthusiastically receive them because
human beings worldwide will do
whatever it takes to survive.
The saying, “seeing is
believing” is applicable,
because Lucifer’s extravagant
displays of power and miracles will
be impossible to deny. Because
of Lucifer’s deception, Jesus
warned His followers to ignore rumors
or reports saying that Jesus has
returned and He is in this place or
that place.
This warning brings up
two points about the Second Coming
that everyone must know. First,
when Jesus returns, everyone on Earth
will see Him. “Look,
He is coming with the clouds and
every eye will see him, even those
who pierced him; all the peoples of
the earth will mourn because of
him. So shall it be!
Amen.” (Revelation 1:7,
italics mine) This text
means that if you go out to see
“Jesus” in one place or
another, you are actually going to
see a demon! Second, when Jesus
appears, He will not touch
Earth! The saints (both the
dead and the living) will meet the
Lord together in the air at the
Second Coming because they will leave
Earth and return with Jesus to live
in the New Jerusalem for 1,000
years. (John 14: 2, 3; 1
Thessalonians 4: 16,17) Lucifer
and his angels will do just the
opposite. They will descend from the
sky to Earth and people will see them
in various cities and they will
deceive billions of people with their
miracles, signs, and lies.
Lucifer will claim that he has come
to establish a thousand years of
peace and unfortunately, billions of
people will believe him.
Not So Fast!
There is no doubt The
Great Tribulation is coming, but
should we “run for the
hills” to protect ourselves and
our loved ones while we can?
Before you pack your suitcase, please
consider two things: First, it
would be foolish to relocate unless
you have prayerfully sought the
Lord’s will and you have
“providential evidence”
from Him indicating that you should
go. Remember the Christian
commitment phrase
“go-be-do?” This
little phrase sums up the attitude
and experience of a true
Christian. It means,
“Lord, I am willing to go
wherever you want me to go, do
whatever you want me to do, and be
all that you would have me to
become.” Second, remember
that true Christianity shines best
and accomplishes things that would be
otherwise impossible when
circumstances are difficult. If
the followers of Jesus “run and
hide” before The Great
Tribulation approaches, no one will
be left to support the 144,000 as
they boldly proclaim the
gospel. No one will be ready to
share their homes, food, and water
with those who receive Jesus and have
no place to go. No one will be
left to encourage and strengthen new
Christians.
When Jesus was
arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane,
all of the disciples fled, except
Peter. Peter bravely pulled out
his sword and cut off a man’s
ear, but Jesus rebuked him and a few
hours later, Peter denied that he
even knew Jesus. Peter soon
discovered that fighting for survival
or supremacy is not Christ’s
way. Peter was stunned when he
finally realized that Jesus came to
Earth to give His life “as a
ransom for many.” (1
Timothy 2:6) The “run and
hide” game is foolish.
When it comes to serving God, saving
self is ego-centric (self-centered),
whereas surrendering our life to
others is theo-centric (God
centered).
Leaving or
Loving Thy Neighbors?
Jesus said the second
greatest commandment is this: “Love
your neighbor as
yourself.”
(Matthew 22:39) Within the
context of The Great Tribulation, the
essential difference between leaving
your neighbors behind or remaining
with your community is love.
Christians should not
join a commune or a militia group to
survive “doomsday.”
(Smile) The destiny of the true
Christianity is just before us.
Again, unless you have
“providential evidence” to
relocate, this is no time to leave
your neighbors behind. A time
will come when “running for the
hills” will be appropriate, but
that day will come near the end of
The Great Tribulation.
When Jesus terminates intercession
for sinners and the door to mercy
closes (the 1,260th day of The Great
Tribulation), nothing further can be
done to save sinners. Most, if
not all, of the 144.000 will be dead
by that time and the time for sharing
the gospel will have ended.
Until the battle for souls is over,
each of us must stand fast and serve
at our post of duty. We must
remain loving, faithful, and active
for the salvation of others, even to
death. Jesus has a plan for
each of us: “If
anyone is to go into captivity, into
captivity he will go. If anyone
is to be killed with the sword, with
the sword he will be killed.
This [kind of service and
commitment] calls for patient
endurance and faithfulness on the
part of the saints.”
(Revelation 13: 10, insertion
mine)
There is a time to be
bold and there is a time to evade
those who would do us harm.
Paul was beaten three times and
stoned once for his testimony (2
Corinthians 11: 25), but he also
escaped certain death when his
followers lowered him in a basket
through an opening in the city
wall. (Acts 9:25) God
gives His faithful followers grace
and wisdom to meet the challenges of
each day. You can count on
Jesus for He promised, “And
surely I am with you always, to the
very end of the age.”
(Matthew28: 20) This is why
learning to live a life based on
faith is so important right
now. It is important to live
like Paul, even though Paul thought
his way of living was as good as it
gets. (1 Corinthians 7:7)
God does not call everyone to be a
pastor, evangelist, teacher, doctor,
or lawyer. (1 Corinthians
12) However, God has a special
work for you if you are willing to
love Him and serve Him with all your
heart, mind, and soul and love your
neighbors as yourselves. There
is enormous and endless joy when our
place in God’s will is
found.
The Greatest
Examples of Love
Jesus could have
easily played “run and
hide.” He could have
aborted His efforts to save sinners
by saving Himself. He did not
want to die, but He was willing to go
to the cross in order to save
us. Before we examine His
never-to-be-forgotten words in the
Garden of Gethsemane, consider
this: Jesus’ death should
not be equated with the death of a
man. Millions of saints have
stood firmly for their faith and with
God’s help, died a martyr’s
death, but Jesus’ experience
goes far beyond the death of a
martyr. Jesus suffered
extremely as the Father imposed the
guilt of our sins on Him. (2
Corinthians 5:21) The burden of
guilt was so heavy that it would have
killed Jesus before He was
crucified! Had it not been for
the angel who strengthened Jesus, He
would not have made it to the
cross. Later, while Jesus was
hanging on the cross, the Father did
something that crushed the life out
of Jesus. He turned His back on
Jesus (indicating His rejection of
Christ as a sinner) and this made
Jesus forcibly cry out, “’Eloi,
Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which
means, ‘My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?’”
(Mark 15:34) On the cross,
Jesus died the second death – a
death without hope of
resurrection. The Father
required Him to experience what the
wicked will experience at the end of
the 1,000 years when the penalty for
sin is imposed upon the wicked.
This is important because Jesus is
more than a man. He suffered
more than a man can suffer. He
is co-eternal member of the Godhead,
and to cease to exist forever so that
sinners could have eternal life
involves more sacrifice than we can
imagine. Divine love does not
“run and hide.”
Rather, divine love is willing to do
whatever it takes to benefit
others. Jesus prayed, “’Father,
if you are willing, take this cup
from me; yet not my will, but yours
be done.’ An angel from
Heaven appeared to him and
strengthened him. And being in
anguish, he prayed earnestly, and his
sweat was like drops of blood falling
to the ground.” (Luke
22: 42-44)
Larry
Wilson
