Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 1 * PART 2 * BOOK 82
TRIBULATION PROPHECY – 2
Daniel 9:25 –11:31
Okay, it’s always so good to have everybody in again this afternoon for program number 2. I guess you’ve all had your refreshments, and we can get back to work again. Go right back to Daniel chapter 9, and we’ll pick up where we left off in the last lesson.
Just in case there’s a new listener or two, we’re a simple verse-by-verse Bible study. I want people to understand that. We don’t claim to have all the answers, but we seem to keep the majority satisfied, anyway. Once in a while somebody will call or write and they think they’ve got me trapped. But you know what the problem usually is? They’ve misunderstood me. And I can show what the Book says and they see it. And I say you thought you had me, but you didn’t. So anyway, it makes it interesting.
Okay for those of you here in the studio, we’re in Daniel, once again, chapter 9. Let’s just go back where we left off after verse 26, that after those total of 483 years from Nehemiah’s decree to go back and rebuild the city, that would take us up to A.D. 29 and the time of the crucifixion.
All right, the point I just have to keep driving home—remember now what this verse says, that this man anti-Christ, the prince that shall come—he’s called various things throughout Scripture. He’s called the son of perdition, that wicked one, and so forth. He will have to come out of what at one time was the Roman Empire. And I will never deviate from that, because that’s what it says: this prince that’s coming will come out of the empire that will destroy Jerusalem and the Temple, which was the Roman Empire in A.D. 70.
Now don’t forget, Daniel is writing clear back here in 500 and some B.C. It’s still in the time of the Mede and the Persian Empire. So, it’s going to have to fall under the Greek Empire. The Greeks are going to run for a couple of hundred years before the Romans come in, but Daniel’s got it all straight already. And that’s the miracle of Scripture.
All right, now then, the prince that shall come—we’ll follow him down into verse 27. And when he makes his appearance, the first thing he will do—in fact, I maintain that this is what will open the seven-year clock. The clock will start ticking those final years when this prince that’s coming, this man anti-Christ, will make a treaty in the Middle East. All right, let’s look at it, verse 27.
Daniel 9:27a
“And he shall confirm (or bring about) the covenant (or a treaty) with many for one week (seven years):…”
Now, like so many portions of Scripture, I think God gives us credit for having a little bit of brain, that we can look at some of these things and put it together even though it doesn’t say it word-for-word. If he’s going to make a treaty with many, with our understanding now of the whole Middle East scenario, who are the many? Jews and Palestinians or Arabs. You can’t make a treaty with just one side in agreement. You have to have both sides agree.
All right, so looking at the scenario that we have in the Middle East right now as I speak, you’ve got Israel surrounded by fifty times their own number of the Arab world. It’s the bone of contention that’s got the whole world all wrapped up in it. Everybody wants to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians or the Arabs. It isn’t going to happen until this guy does it.
All right, now how will the anti-Christ bring about a peace treaty that will satisfy Israel sitting there in that little strip of land, and at the same time satisfy the fifty million Muslim Arabs? Well, it’s going to have to be a supernatural God-thing. There isn’t a man on earth that would be able to bring those two factions together. No way. Now, they can talk—what do they call it? The Pathway or whatever, and they get this one and that program and this and that, hey, listen, none of it is going to work. Even after Obama met with Netanyahu here a few weeks ago—well, you see, on the surface they like to make the world think that there’s hope. No, there isn’t. Because, number one: Israel will never, never, never agree to let those four, five, six hundred-thousand Arabs that left in 1948 come back.
See, that’s what the Arab world holds—they cannot have peace unless Israel agrees to let all these so-called displaced Arabs come back into the land of Israel. Well, Israel can’t do that. If they would let six or seven hundred-thousand Arabs come back in within their borders, then they would lose their majority. There’d be more Arabs in Israel than Jews. So, it’ll never happen. So, there isn’t a man on earth that can bring about a peace in the Middle East as we understand peace. But, when this man appears, he’s going to accomplish it. Not because he’s so great, but rather it’s a God-thing. It has to happen.
All right, when you look at verse 27 carefully, again using the common sense set of brains that God has given us, what can we determine? That in this peace treaty between little Israel and the Arab-Muslim world, the Muslims are actually going to agree to let Israel rebuild their Temple. Can you imagine even one Muslim today saying, yea, we can agree to that? Not a one. But God is going to intervene. It’s going to happen. And like you’ve heard me say for the many years you’ve been hearing me teach, if the Book says it’s going to happen, it has to happen, even though we don’t see how. All right, so now look at these words.
Daniel 9:27a
“And he shall confirm the covenant (treaty) with many for (seven years) one week: (Now, the many has to include both sides: the Muslim-Arab world and Israel. But the anti-Christ is brokering it.) and in the midst of the week (those seven years) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease….” Hold it. What do they have to have in order for animal sacrifices and worship to restart? A Temple!
Now, it doesn’t say they’re going to have a Temple, but the conditions say it has to. It has to. So now we can put two and two together. This peace treaty is going to be so supernatural, so brokered by God Himself that the Muslim world will actually agree to let those Jews build a Temple. And I’m convinced it’s going to be on the Temple Mount right north of the Dome of the Rock, because there’s a 200 square foot piece of pavement out there on which there’s nothing but just concrete. And it’s right straight up from the Golden Gate, or the Eastern Gate, the Gate through which Christ will enter Jerusalem.
All right, what more logical place to rebuild Israel’s Temple than in front of that Eastern Gate. And in front of the Eastern Gate, like I said, is a 200 square foot—200 feet this way and 200 feet that way—of nothing but concrete. My, Iris and I have walked over it a dozen times. And every time I’m up there I say, “Some day they’re going to have their Temple here.”
All right, but now the Book doesn’t say—and they’re going to rebuild the Temple. But it does say that in the middle of those seven years the anti-Christ is going to cause Temple worship and the sacrifices to stop.
Well, they can’t stop if they haven’t started. And they can’t start unless they’ve got the Temple. All of this becomes obvious by reading between the lines. Now, maybe somebody says, you don’t have a right to do that. Well, I’ve got a favorite verse of Scripture, or portion of Scripture—I do it all the time, and I don’t think the Lord is displeased. Let me go back and show you what I’m talking about. Some of you know where I’m going.
John’s Gospel and my goodness, if you don’t use a little common sense and the brains that God has given us, you can’t construct all of this. But you do, you use some common sense. John’s Gospel, where is it, chapter 12? Yea, John’s Gospel chapter 12, you’ve heard me do this before.
But this is interesting how you can construct—well, sort of like algebra. You can have one known and three or four unknowns, and if you know algebra, what can you do? We can determine what they all are. How? By mathematics.
All right, now it’s the same way here. You only get little tidbits of information, but you can build the whole scenario if you just use a little sense. All right, here we are, John’s Gospel, I’m just using this as an example of how to interpret Daniel chapter 9. John’s Gospel chapter 12, jump in at verse 20, Honey. We’re using this just as an example of how you fill in the details.
Verse 20, now it’s the Feast of Passover, and the crowds of Jews are coming in from all over the world for the Feast of Passover. But it just so happens that it’s the Passover at which Christ will be crucified. And Jesus is somewhere in the crowd. All right, now in the midst of this huge crowd of gathering Jews, verse 20.
John 12:20-21
“And there were certain Greeks (What are Greeks? Gentiles. What are these Gentiles doing at a Jewish feast day? Well, let’s read on.) among them that came up to worship at the feast: (They weren’t worshippers. They were just there for their own reason.) 21. The same (Gentiles and we don’t know how many—two, three, four, five—I would say probably two or three.) came therefore to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and (asked him, or–) desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.”
Now, I’m going to put you on the spot. Two, three, four total strangers, they don’t know one Jew in this crowd. How did they know to approach Philip? Well, now use your thinking. If you’re in a crowd of strangers and you’re looking for somebody, what do you do? You go and ask somebody. Now who were they looking for? They’re looking for Jesus. Because after all, for three years His fame, I’m sure, covered the then-known world. This Miracle Worker in Israel. Three years.
And you want to remember, the Scripture tells us that if all of His miracles had been recorded, it’s a play on words, I’m sure, but the world couldn’t hold it. Well, what does that mean? If they would have recorded all of His miracles over those three years, you’d have needed a pickup truck at the least to carry it. Now you think that didn’t scatter across the whole Middle East? Have you heard what this Guy is doing over there in Israel? Of course it did. So these Gentiles want to see this individual. Where is this Jesus, this miracle worker?
All right, so how’d they nail Philip? Well, somebody in the crowd says, there’s one of His followers. He’s with Him all the time. Go ask him where He’s at. See what they do? So they go and they ask Philip, where’s Jesus? All right, what does Philip remember? Now wait a minute, when we began all of this three years ago, He gave explicit instructions that we’re to have how much to do with Gentiles? Nothing! What are we going to do? He won’t take this fellow and talk to him. And yet maybe, maybe we’d better. Now that’s what you have to do in a place like this, just use some common sense.
All right, so Philip—not knowing what to do, but knowing there’s always safety in numbers, what does Philip do? Finds Andrew. He leaves those Gentiles, wherever they were, and he goes and finds Andrew. All right read on, verse 22.
John 12:22
“Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.” But now wait a minute, what do you suppose they did before they found Jesus? Hey, they hashed this all over. I know they did, because their instructions had been “go not into the way of a Gentile. Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 10:5-6) So, these guys knew that they were on strange ground dealing with some Gentiles. I can see the two of them yakking about this for several minutes, and they finally said, well, let’s go find Him and see what He says.
All right, read on. Now this is interesting. This is the way you sometimes have to do with Scripture. They find Jesus.
John 12:23
“And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.’” Now, is there any invitation there to bring them in or take Him to them? Nothing! Why? Well, now He gives the reason.
John 12:24
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except (unless) a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” All right, now what does your brain have to tell you to do? Picture that wheat farmer. What does he do with the wheat seed? Well, he plants it. And if you plant something, what do you do? You cover it with dirt. You bury it. What’s the result? Germination. A sprout. And in a few months a hundred fold of grain.
All right, so what is Jesus using the wheat kernel as an analogy of? His own death. His own burial. His own sprouting in new life. You got the picture? Now, what’s the big answer? He could not be the object of faith to those Gentiles until He had finished the work of the Cross. Got that? Now, it doesn’t say that in black and white. It doesn’t say that in word-by-word. You’ve got to think it through. But, there’s no other way to look at it.
Now, come back to Daniel, the same way back here. You have to have the liberty to look at some of these Scriptures and, without violating Scripture, staying with the text, you put two and two together and you get four. All right, so if this man anti-Christ is going to bring about a peace treaty that’s going to bring about a Temple at which he can stop the worship, he can include in that peace treaty the permission from the Arab world for Israel to build a Temple.
Now, it won’t be a gold and silver edifice like Solomon’s. I maintain it’s in a warehouse in Jerusalem right now, prefabbed and ready to go out and get set up and be functioning in less than a week’s time. But it’s going to happen. I can stand here and guarantee it’s going to happen, because the Book says so. And Jesus put His stamp of approval on it.
All right, now let’s see; am I ready to go to Matthew? Not quite. Come back to Daniel chapter 9 verse 27.
Daniel 9:27a
“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week (seven years): (That will take us up to the end of the 490 years prophesied by Daniel.) and in the midst of the week (at the end of three-and-a-half years) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, (Temple worship to stop from that point on, from the midpoint until the end of the seven years.) and for the overspreading of abominations (Now when the Scripture speaks of abomination, it’s that which isn’t fit to repeat. And he’s going to bring it in.) he shall make it (That is the Temple, the rebuilt Temple during the Tribulation, he’s going to make it–) desolate, (In other words, totally unusable for things of God. And it will remain desolate–) even until the consummation,…” or the seven years are completed. And now we have the promise that everything that’s been prophesied is going to happen to this man anti-Christ. He’s going to hold forth over those seven years, and then will be his doom.
All right, let’s go back. We’ve got eight minutes. Okay, let’s go back a minute to I Thessalonians chapter 4, I mean chapter 5, I’m sorry. I usually use chapter 4 and then feed in, but we’ll just jump in at chapter 5. I Thessalonians chapter 5 and we’ll start at verse 1, Honey. I Thessalonians chapter 5 and, again, you’re going to have to interpolate a little bit here. You all got it?
I Thessalonians 5:1-2
“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. (Now remember, this is Paul writing to Gentiles in the Body of Christ up in Thessalonica.) 2. For yourselves know perfectly (or completely) that the day of the Lord (these final seven years) yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord (seven years of the Tribulation) so cometh as a thief in the night.” In other words, it’s going to catch the world by surprise.
I Thessalonians 5:3a
“For when they (the world, the masses) when they shall say, Peace and safety;…” What’s that? Well, that’s what the world is looking for. And what’s the anti-Christ going to do? Promise it. He’s going to come in with flatteries, as we see in Daniel chapter 11.
We’ll be seeing that later. He’s going to come in with flattery. Well, what kind of flattery does the world like to hear today? Peace and prosperity. That’s all they care about. My, America’s proved it again. All they’re concerned about is their bank account. Nothing else matters. Peace and prosperity.
So, that’s how the Tribulation will open. Israel is going to have the Temple. Israel is going to have total protection of her borders, supposedly for seven years. And I maintain they are going to be so euphoric as a nation of people, they’ll dismantle that fabulous military machine in three weeks time. They’re going to send the guys home. They’ll park their fighter jets, and Israel is going to live it up. This is what they’ve been waiting for. This is supposed to be their peace and prosperity.
But now look to the next part of this same verse. After the peace and prosperity and safety, then cometh what?
I Thessalonians 5:3b
“…then sudden destruction cometh upon them,…” Sudden destruction and that’s what will fill, then, the rest of those seven years. Now, I personally think that this peace and safety bit will probably last about ten or eleven months. And then it’s going to be war and desolations and everything that the Tribulation is foretelling.
All right, so here is the up front scenario now—when the anti-Christ comes in and brokers this fabulous peace treaty that no one else could ever have done because it’s a God-thing. It has to happen that Israel will have permission to rebuild her Temple.
All right, now then, let’s just back up to Matthew and see how the Lord Himself treats all this in Matthew chapter 24. Now those of you that have been with me over many years know that Matthew 24 is the Lord’s description of the Tribulation period. He starts right out with the very epitome of the man anti-Christ, and he’s a deceiver. He’s going to be the greatest deceiver the world has ever seen. So the warning is in Matthew 24 verse 4.
Matthew 24:4-5
“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. (And then the next thing is false Christ’s.) 5. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and he shall deceive many.” And then in verse 6, like I’ve already alluded to, the peace and safety won’t last very long, and then here it comes.
Matthew 24:6-7
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (We’re just at the beginning.) 7. For nation shall rise against nations, and kingdom against kingdom: (And then as a result of all this war and upheaval.) and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” And then the next verse:
Matthew 24:8-9
“All these are the beginning of sorrows. (See, this is all just the beginning of these seven years of horror and tribulation. Now here comes Israel’s scenario.) 9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of (How many nations? All but one? No.) all nations for my name’s sake.” Well, the day is coming that even America, Israel’s greatest friend and ally, will turn against them and be part of their being persecuted.
Matthew 24:10-11
“And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11. And many false prophets shall rise, and deceive many.” Now again, we haven’t got time right here, but you want to remember that this man anti-Christ, who will be the political and the economical leader, he’s going to have a sidekick. And he’s going to be the leader of the what? The religious system. The false prophet and he’s going to control the masses through false religion. Well, under that false umbrella of religion, you see, this is what’s going to happen. You’ll have false prophets popping up all around the planet and they, too, will do nothing but “deceive many.”
Matthew 24:12-13
“And because iniquity shall abound, (Oh, it’s going to be beyond our human comprehension, the wickedness and the immorality that’s going to run prevalent during these final seven years.) the love of many shall wax cold. 13. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”
Now that’s not a spiritual salvation, that’s a physical. There are a few survivors coming to the end of the Tribulation, and we’ve dealt with them before. They will go into the Kingdom, if they have been believers, if they have heard the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Now here that comes in verse 14. This is what will be preached. And I had to make a point I made because I had just had a letter yesterday. What’s the message that the 144,000 Jews will be preaching during the seven years? Well, here it is, plain as day from the lips of the Lord Jesus Himself, verse 14.
Matthew 24:14
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.” That’s the end of the Tribulation. Notice it’s not the Gospel of Grace that saves them here. Now you can’t get it any plainer than that.
Now back up, those of you who are new, those of you who haven’t heard this before out in television, and you’ll see where we’re coming from. Back up a minute to Matthew 9, because we’ve got to do everything with Scripture. And again, it’s dealing with Jesus in His earthly ministry, right at the beginning of it back in chapter 9. Matthew 9 verse 35. Got to do this quickly, only got 20 seconds.
Matthew 9:35a
“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching (What?) the Gospel of the Kingdom,…”