Bible Prophecy Daily

Nelson Walters discusses the mysterious number 666 from Revelation 13:18. The scripture says understanding this number requires wisdom. What the Apostle John would have explained to his disciples and students is likely the most authoritative interpretation of how modern Christians should view this mysterious number.

The disciples of John told the early Church Father Irenaeus about his views of this number, and Irenaeus wrote these instructions in his book, “About Heresies” – written 80 years after Revelation. In this study, Nelson explores what Irenaeus says about the controversy between the numbers 616 and 666, how to calculate the number and, most importantly, when to do the calculation.

Marquis Laughlin talks about how understanding the purpose of the Book of Revelation changes the way we see everything. It not only changes how we interpret it, but it changes how we see Jesus and the rest of the Bible.

God is sovereign over all creation. His plan to restore all things prevails against all that evil can try to do to thwart it. God has given us His servants everything we need to know to endure until this is accomplished.

Chris White discusses Luke 21:36, which implores us to pray to “escapes all these things.” Is this passage talking about the Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord, or both?

Dr. Alan Kurschner discussed why Matthew 24:14 disproves an 'any moment' rapture: 'then the end will come.'

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matt 24:14).

The Great Commission is also linked to another event mentioned in the Olivet Discourse: the preaching of the gospel mentioned in Matt 24:14. This link is significant for the same reason as the link with the beginning of birth pangs. It demonstrates that the church will experience the eschatological prophetic fulfillment of the preaching of the gospel to the whole world. The church will not be raptured until this prophesied event happens.

So here we have another explicit prophecy that must happen before the end: the gospel is preached “throughout the whole inhabited earth.” Since Jesus taught in the Great Commission that the church would be on earth up to the end of the age, they will witness the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy of the worldwide proclamation of the Gospel. Five words demonstrate this point: “then the end will come” (Matt 24:14). The church will not be removed until this prophecy is fulfilled. It is simply another prophetic event that undermines an any-moment return of Jesus.

On a related note, having established that the church will be present on earth up to the end of the age in verse 14, notice in verse 15 Jesus says, “Therefore [oun] when you see . . .” The interpreter should not miss that Jesus has the same audience in view after verse 14. In verse 15, Jesus begins to describe the Antichrist’s great tribulation in more detail. There is no justification to claim that the referent “you” in verse 15 and afterward is different from the “you” before verse 14. In other words, the disciples, who represent the new community of God (i.e. the church), are the consistent audience of Jesus’s entire discourse. In short, since the “you” before verse 15 represents the church, there is no reason—except for theological bias—that it represents anyone differently in verse 15 and afterward.

Dr. Alan Kurschner started with the announcement that May 1st is the deadline to sign up for the Ark Encounter & Bible Prophecy Event taking place on May 19–20. CLICK HERE for the conference registration details.

Dr. Kurschner explained why the Great Commission contradicts pretribulation 'any moment' rapture theology. In several of his end-time passages, Jesus uses expressions such as the “end” (telos) and “end of the age” (synteleias tou aiōnos). The Olivet Discourse began with the question from his disciples about the end: “As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, 'Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming (parousia) and of the end of the age?'” (Matt 24:3).

Later in the discourse, Jesus explains that his coming (parousia) brings about the end of this age. But before this happens, Jesus gives several events that must happen before the end of the age. The first cluster of events Jesus prophesies is a combination of natural and human catastrophes:

 “Jesus answered them, “Watch out that no one misleads you. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of birth pains.” (Matt 24:4–8)

Jesus emphasizes that these are not events to signal the end has occurred but that it has not occurred. In other words, the disciples ask for a sign that announces the end of the age, while Jesus immediately replies with what must happen before the sign.

The conditions that Jesus lists that must happen before his return are: False christs, wars and rumors of wars, famines, and earthquakes. These are the “beginning of birth pangs.” This metaphor indicates that they will be the start of painful experiences for God’s people that are part and parcel of eschatological events that lead up to his return. So it makes sense why Jesus would warn them not to think that the end has arrived when they witness them. In addition, they indicate that they will not be as intense as the “great tribulation” (thlipsis megalē). “For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen.” (Matt 24:21). It is noteworthy that the Greek term thlipsis (tribulation) was a common word used for painful child birthing. This would suggest that based on Jesus’ choice of terms in his discourse, there will be three stages of intensity: the beginning of birth pangs, the great tribulation (i.e. intense birth pangs), and by implication, the birth of Jesus’s arrival.

It is impossible to read Matthew 24 with Jesus’s explicit teaching of what must happen before his return and walk away thinking that Jesus can return at “any moment.” This is why many pretribulational interpreters have traditionally dismissed Jesus’ Olivet Discourse teachings altogether, relegating them away from the “church teaching” of this age and applying them to some new category of believers such as “tribulation Jewish saints.” I have responded to this erroneous pretribulation belief already.

I want to expand on this point. It is contradictory for pretribulationists to claim that Jesus’s teaching in his Olivet Discourse on the end of the age does not apply to the church. Let me explain what I mean. Pretribulationists will write off the Olivet Discourse but will affirm rightly believe that the Great Commission that Jesus gave to his same disciples a few weeks later is for the church. What is interesting is that there is a key link between these two teachings that pretribulationists fail to consider.

“Then Jesus came up and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Janet Willis presents evidence that New Jerusalem is shaped like a mountain.

God graciously gave believers a stunning picture of our future home (Rev 21:2). A whole city will come down from the sky. Nothing in the visual experience of humans quite compares to this. But can we know the overall contour of God’s city? Most assume God’s city is shaped like a cube like the Holy of Holies. But when we examine the whole of Scripture, we see many clues that the shape of New Jerusalem is more like a pyramid. Throughout the Bible, God’s dwelling place is often called “the holy mountain of God.” The case for a pyramid-shaped New Jerusalem gets even stronger when we take a close look at what occurred at Mt. Sinai in the book of Exodus. Then we’ll see how the book of Hebrews compares the mountain of Sinai with the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:18-24). We will then compare the full layout of Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek 48), including the city and compare it with the layout at Mt. Sinai. The harmony is amazing! Comparing Scripture with Scripture provides compelling evidence that the city John saw, New Jerusalem, is shaped like a mountain.

See her magazine article on this topic here.

Holly Pivec reveals seven more clues for spotting a NAR counterfeit revival.

In her previous episode, Holly identified six, of 13, clues that indicate a song, sermon, or event is promoting unbiblical NAR revival. These include practices like “fire tunnels” and “prayer declarations,” the preaching of NAR's distorted “gospel of the kingdom,” and prophecies about the “Seven Mountain Mandate.”

In this episode she shares seven more clues that a NAR counterfeit revival—in contrast to true, biblical revival—is afoot, including "24/7 prayer rooms", "revival hot spots", and shady prophets.

Michael Ufferman, from Zion’s Hope, talks about God’s “Blood and Fire” as prophesied to occur during the Day of the Lord Wrath. He shows how, if the Rapture of the Church is supposed to be “Pre-Tribulational”, the Pre-Tribulational Rapturist cannot account for the timing of this prophetic text. Mid- and Post-Tribulationists also cannot account for the timing of this prophesied occurrence. Yet it fits perfectly within the Pre-Wrath Rapture Chronology.

Ron Wallace teaches that salvation will still be available after the rapture to anyone who has not taken the mark of the beast.

There needs to be Jew and Gentile believers alive on the earth after Armageddon in order to populate the earthly Davidic kingdom. The everlasting gospel will be proclaimed by the Two Witnesses and the 144 Jewish servants of God, exhorting all to reverence God, give Him glory and worship Him who created all things.

Dr. Michael Weis helps us understand what the Bible means about various End Times words and phrases in this helpful series.

In this message, he dives into The Tribulation and Daniel's 70th Week. One is a very common phrase, and the other is not quite as known. However, what does the Bible say about them, if anything at all? Listen and find out!