PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 278

June 2, 2006

But Before All These – As Ye See the Day Approaching – Part 3 (First Page Same as Part 1)

Luke 21:12 – But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.

This Scripture began to be fulfilled in the lives of the first New Testament Church members who heard it directly from the lips of Jesus as he spoke it to them, and continued to be fulfilled right up the time of the fall of Jerusalem, and in the days of the early churches into the third century. But the last phrase in the following verse has yet to be fulfilled.

Hebrews 10:25 – Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

The things in Luke 21:9 were, and still are, occurring!

Luke 21:9 – But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.

There were many wars and commotions around and within the vast boundaries of the great Roman Empire, and one of them was the fall of Jerusalem to Titus in 70 A.D. But Jesus indicated the end of the age was a long way off by his comment “but the end is not by and by.”

The following verses began to be fulfilled in 1948 when Israel became a nation.

Luke 21:10,11 – Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: [11] And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

In Part I, an exposition of Matthew 24:1-6, Mark 13:7, and Luke 21:9 was given. In Part 2, a thorough exposition of Luke 21:10 was given as it related to its disassociation from 21:9, because by the use of “tote elegen” for “then said he,” it indicated that a new subject was being introduced, so that the “wars” of verse 9 are not related to “nation shall rise against nation” in verse 10.

Luke 21:9,10 – But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. [10] Then said he (tote elegen) unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:

In Part 2, a case was made to show the root word “egeiro,” translated as “rise” in verse 10, means to “come to life, to rise from sleep, or to come into existence.” And I showed numerous Scriptures where it was used in order to make that point. A case was also made to show that the word “against” is “epi,” and that its basic meaning is “on” or “upon.” So the claim was made that “Nation shall rise (egeiro) against (epi) does not in any way refer to war, but rather the ever increasing number of nations that have come to life in the last 53 years, rising one upon another from the 51 charter members of the United Nations in 1945 to 160 by 1989, and a standing membership of 191 in 2006. Nothing like this has ever happened in history. But I promised, at the close of part 2, to provide additional proof that “Nation shall rise against nation” does not refer to increasing wars, but rather to an increasing rise in the number of new nations every coming to life, and raising one upon another. And I will proceed to present additional proof at this time.

Immediately after Matthew and Mark list the signs that give the answer to the second question they asked him, which was, “And what shall be the sign of thy coming,” Jesus gives the general name for the four things he has listed in the expression, “All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

Matthew 24:7,8 – For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of SORROWS (ODIN).

The God-Breathed word for SORROWS is ODIN. You may look in any Greek Lexicon from any time period, and you will always find this listed centrally as the definition for ODIN – “The pains a woman suffers in the travail of childbirth, a woman’s birth pains.” The disciples knew quite well what ODIN meant. When the Olivet Discourse was written, they had no hospitals, no painkillers, and midwives delivered the babies. If a baby was lodged sideways in the womb, no one knew how to remove the baby through the stomach, and the mother and child died. The pain of normal childbirth is painful enough, but these men had listened to the shrill dying cries of women that traveled for great distances. They knew what ODIN meant. When true labor pains begin, the first pain hurts, but the next hurts a little more, the next more and closer to its precedent, and harder and closer, and harder and closer, and harder and closer, until finally the baby arrives. This is the manner the occurrence of the four things he listed as SORROWS would follow as signs his second coming was drawing near.

The four things he associated with the “sorrows” that are to be signs that his coming is drawing near are: (1) Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, (2) Earthquakes, (3) Pestilences, and (4) Famines.

Luke 21:10,11 - Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: [11] And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Luke did not refer to them as the “beginning of sorrows” because he added “fearful sights and great signs,” which are not a part of the time of sorrows, but rather a part of Christ’s answer to the third question. They will mark the end of the world (the Gentile age), and are associated with the 2nd Advent of Christ at Armageddon. I will be showing why this is the case in future expositions of the Olivet Discourse.

The number of new nations coming to life, and rising one upon another, started to increase like a woman’s birth pains at the end of World War II. Earthquakes started to follow the birth pains pattern in 1967. The pestilences began to follow the pattern in 1980. Famines began to follow the pattern in the early eighties, and dramatically increased after 1993. I will deal with each one of these separately, Lord willing, in future parts of the Olivet Discourse, but Part 4 will deal with Luke 21:12 to 17, and I promise you will find it interesting.