Four Blood Moons (6 page)

—M
ATTHEW
23:37

The spinal column is the articulated series of thirty-three vertebrae in the human body from the base of the skull to the tailbone. This is the support pillar of our divinely crafted physical body. Let one vertebra become dislocated, and the body immediately begins to suffer. Let two become dislocated and the
body becomes incapacitated and surgery is required. In many ways the spine determines the health of the whole body.

That's the reason I have titled this seminal chapter “The Spine of Prophecy.” As long as each prophetic vertebra is in place, it produces peace and confidence concerning our future and the future of the world. Let one element (vertebra) of prophecy get distorted and you begin to suffer spiritually. Let more than one element get dislocated and your theology is skewed needing a scriptural adjustment to correct.

Before we can fully grasp the significance of the coming Four Blood Moons, we must know and understand the spine of biblical prophecy concerning the end of the world as we know it. We will look closer at the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew to reveal the blueprint of things to come.

The Author of Matthew 24 is the only Master Teacher of Prophecy who ever lived—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of David, our King, and our Redeemer. Let's join Jesus, the Rabbi, and the twelve disciples at His Prophecy Conference on the Mount of Olives.

In the theater of your mind, go back with me two thousand years as Jesus of Nazareth is leading His twelve disciples out of the majestic Temple of Jerusalem toward the Mount of Olives.

They cross the Kidron Valley and start to climb the rocky slopes of the Mount, which is studded with ancient olive trees
that have witnessed biblical prophecy unfold through the ages. As they climb toward a clearing of trees, the mood is somber for the disciples are beginning to feel that their future is uncertain.

Jesus sits on a large boulder under the shade of a massive tree as a cool spring breeze blows His hair away from His face. The Master is sitting on the very place where the prophet Zechariah had predicted that the Messiah would stand when He came to establish His eternal kingdom (14:4).

The disciples gather closely; this is the moment Jesus has chosen to share the future with them—the very Spine of Prophecy.

The Twelve were filled with gut-twisting anxiety because Jesus had clearly told them that He was going to die (Matthew 16:21; 17:23; 20:18–19). The disciples had been certain that Jesus would establish an eternal kingdom
now
and that they were going to sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel
now
(Matthew 19:28–29)!

What did Jesus' foreboding declaration mean?

The disciples were so certain the glorious kingdom was going to come about in
their
lifetime that two of them had their mother lobby Jesus for preferment so that one could sit on His right hand (the position of power) and the other on His left.

When Jesus informed the determined mother that He was going to die, the rabid enthusiasm among His ambitious
disciples immediately diminished to an all-time low. They were looking for diadems—not death!

To make the mood even worse, Jesus had recently blistered the Jewish leaders by publicly calling them “hypocrites” (Matthew 23:13). Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees that their converts were “twice as much a son of hell as yourselves” (v. 15). He accused them of being “fools and blind” (vv. 17, 19) and “blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” (v. 24).

This scorching sermon directed at Israel's elite established religious order continued with Jesus pointing His forefinger in their ashen faces and saying, “You cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence” (v. 25). He called them “whitewashed tombs . . . full of dead men's bones (v. 27), guilty of “shedding the blood of the prophets” like their forefathers (v. 30–31
NASB
). Jesus said to them, “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (v. 33). Obviously Jesus didn't read the book
How to Win Friends and Influence People
.

There was no organ playing “Just as I Am” in the background, and Jesus wasn't asking for hands to be raised for those convicted of sin. No one was taking photos for His monthly miracle magazine. Jesus was not wearing a six-inch diamond-studded cross around His neck and a pinkie ring on his finger. There was no limo lurking in the shadows to speed Him away from His adoring audience.

The truth is . . . Jesus was so common in His appearance that Judas had to kiss Him to identify Him to the Roman soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane. The scribes and the Pharisees were flooded with rage at this rogue Rabbi from Nazareth who dared to question their holiness and condemn their unlimited pomposity and offend their endless religious pride.

This same religious pride continues today as the sermons of many twenty-first-century clergy have become more a mixture of pop psychology and psychobabble than the pure preaching of the gospel. Their purpose is to make the hearers
feel good
instead of challenging them to
do good
. These modern day messengers are more concerned about their reputation than winning souls; they need to catch the spirit of Jesus recorded in the book of Matthew.

“From pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice, and from all want of charity, Good Lord, deliver us.”
¹

Pride is Satan's snare!

The spirit that caused Adam and Eve to sin against God was pride; they would rather point fingers at one another than repent of their disobedience. The spirit that caused Cain to murder Abel was pride. The spirit that caused Israel to follow other gods was pride. And the spirit that sent Jesus to the cross . . . that lurked in the heart of every Pharisee . . . was the spirit of self-righteous pride.

That same demonic spirit is destroying America; it deceives us in believing that we know how to run our lives and lead our nation better than God can. America is going the wrong way, and in our vainglorious pride we have refused to change direction.

Pride goes before destruction,

And a haughty spirit before a fall.

(P
ROVERBS
16:18)

Pride is the swelling in a heart filled with self-importance. Pride lifts
me
up so I can look down on
you
. Pride is a spiritual cancer that devours families, destroys marriages, divides churches, and corrupts governments. Pride is what makes half of our country's leadership look in the mirror every morning and sing “Hail to the Chief”!

Pride is rooted in idolatry—you worship yourself. You don't need your wife, your husband, or your children. You don't even need God . . . because in your world
you
are God!

Pride is a poisonous weed that grows in all soils without need of water or care. It consumes and kills everything it touches.

But for pride, the angels who are in hell would be in heaven.

But for pride, Nebuchadnezzar, who ate grass in the forest with cows, could have been in his royal palace.

But for pride, the Pharisees would have received Jesus Christ as freely as His disciples—but the piercing words of the Nazarene cut the pompous religious leaders to the bone, and they began to plot the murder of the Son of God! Don't ever forget: Jesus was murdered by the pride of the self-righteous religious leaders of the recognized church in Jerusalem.

Pride is a cancer that kills everything and everyone it touches. Is it in your church? Is it in your family? Is it in you? Get it out now! Your very spiritual survival is at stake.

America is ensnared in self-indulgence and its future hangs in the balance. Our moral and spiritual foundations are rapidly being destroyed. Our arrogance is producing a socialist state that is becoming our god. The entitlement
state
of mind has created a nation that looks to the government for the answer to our problems, when the only answer is, “Our Father which art in heaven.”

The majority of Americans are
voting
for a living rather than
working
for a living. Work is God's idea! God worked six days in creation and, in the Ten Commandments, commanded all men to work six days. In our arrogant pride we are telling Almighty God, “We don't need You.”

Wake up, America, we are going in the wrong direction!

As Jesus continued His Prophecy Conference He pointed toward the magnificent Temple, and said: “Do you not see
all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, ‘not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down' ” (Matthew 24:2).

This one statement from the Master was a dream killer for the Twelve. If this glorious Temple that took forty-six years to build was going to be torn down stone by massive stone by an invading army, there was no glorious kingdom in their future.

I have traveled to Israel thirty-five times and each time I have seen the only surviving wall of the Roman siege—the Western Wall of the Temple. The stones in that wall, according to our guides, weigh as much as four hundred tons; these stones are impressive indeed.

Exactly as Jesus had prophesied, the Temple was destroyed when the Romans seized Jerusalem just four years after it was completed. The invasion of the Roman army destroyed more than the Temple; according to the historian Josephus, approximately one million Jews were killed or died from starvation during that Roman massacre.
²
The Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem that survived this vicious siege fled and dispersed to the nations of the world, which began what history calls the Diaspora.

As the disciples gazed at this massive structure, they found Jesus' words about its destruction impossible to believe. But on the 9th of Av, a date that proved over and over to be infamous in the history of the Jewish people, the Temple was no more.

Av
is the fifth month of the Jewish year.
³
The 9th of Av
is a day of infamy for the Jewish people for many tragedies have befallen them on this doomful day. It proves beyond any reasonable doubt that history
does
repeat itself. Let us review some of the significant Jewish tragedies that occurred on the 9th of Av:

• The children of Israel refused to enter the Promised Land, causing that generation to die in the wilderness (Numbers 14).

• The Temple was destroyed for the first time (423 BC).

• The Temple was destroyed a second time (AD 69).

• Pope Urban II declared the first Crusade (1095 CE).

• The Jewish people were expelled from England (AD 1290).

• The Jewish people were expelled from Spain (1492).

• The gas chambers of Treblinka began to operate in Poland (1942).

Is this concidental, or will history repeat itself?

—M
ATTHEW
24:3

The twelve disciples are now getting the picture—Jesus is going to be killed, just as He said. There would be no glorious kingdom in their lifetime where they would rule from twelve thrones. The Temple would be destroyed, and the nation of Israel scattered.

So what was to come?

The disciples asked three questions to clarify the future of Israel and the Jewish people:

1.    “Tell us, when will these things be?”

2.    “What will be the sign of Your coming?”

3.    “[What are the signs] of the end of the age?”

The “end of the age” is the second coming of Christ—not the rapture of the church. Many are now asking what signs must be fulfilled before the church can be raptured from the earth. The answer is
zero
! The Rapture of the church of Jesus Christ is imminent; it could happen before you finish reading this page.

The theological opinions about Matthew 24 are as numerous as the stars in the sky. I am presenting Matthew 24 from the position of a premillennialist, which means I believe Jesus Christ will come for His church in an event called the
Rapture
before the seven years of the Great Tribulation, led by the Antichrist.

Following the Great Tribulation will be the second coming of Christ according to Revelation 19:11–16. Christ will return to this earth followed by the armies that are in heaven. He will destroy the enemies of Israel that have come against them in the Battle of Armageddon. He will return to the Mount of Olives, then cross the Kidron Valley and enter the Eastern Gate of the city of Jerusalem, where He will set up His eternal kingdom on
the Temple Mount, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.

Jesus was giving the Spine of Prophecy primarily to the Jewish people. I am presenting Matthew 24:1–14 as general signs of His return; remember, this is a
Jewish
rabbi speaking to twelve
Jewish
disciples about the future of the
Jewish
people. Matthew 24:15 and the verses following record specific signs of His second coming.