The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Convergence, #13

For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. (Zechariah 14:2)

In the Day of the Lord, all nations will be gathered together against Jerusalem. Then the Jews will suffer much.

Daniel revealed that Antichrist will take possession of Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul declared that Antichrist will take his seat in the Temple of God:

And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. (Daniel 11:45)

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (II Thessalonians 2:4)

The Apostle Paul was referring to the prophecies of Daniel, with which he was familiar.

The Apostle John stated that there have been antichrists in the world since the first century:

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. (I John 2:18)

We already have suggested the principle of convergence, meaning that God is working simultaneously with natural Israel and spiritual Israel with the goal in mind of bringing the two together. In the Day of Christ the two, physical Israel and spiritual Israel, will become one, resulting in the salvation of "all Israel." All of God's elect will be glorified together.

We would suggest another principle of biblical interpretation, the principle of multiple fulfillment.

It is as though the pattern of Antichrist overcoming the saints is repeated again and again until there will be a final entering of Antichrist into Jerusalem—a mature, full interpretation of the Prophets.

Jesus prophesied:

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the creation of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:15-21)

Christ will return immediately after this tribulation:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:29,30)

To be continued.