Tribulation Recognizability part 1

After watching the video I posted earlier a couple times, it hit me that they are also using Matthew 24, but the verse they use is 27. This made me go back and look at the chapter again.

God is sending us a warning, and I dont think we are truly getting it. When I read verses 6-8, I see things that are happening now, or the "birth pains".

Verses 6 through 8 say: "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains." (emphasis added)

We are in the birth pain stage right now. I do not need to give the examples, just turn on your TV. So this part of scripture has already come true... what comes next is a new paragraph. This tells me that once the first part has started, we move on to "bigger things".

Verse 9 states "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me."

So the next step in this time line is Christian persecution, or a pre-tribulation resurrection. Either or, thats all it can be. Either Christ is going to come and get us, or we will be faced with persecution and death. Are Christians being persecuted today?

Verse 10-14: "At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."

Persecution will cause many to flee from their faith. God will sort out the true believers from the rest. If this is a pre-trib scenario, then I imagine it will be the family members of a Christian that recognizes what happened. If it is a post-trib scenario, it will seperate true believers from Sunday Christians.

The thing that really sticks out to me is the recognizable act of love. As soon as I read it I heard the song by Jars of Clay, "They will know we are Christians by our love." (if you have not heard this, you need to. It carries the eeriness that comes with the rapture.)

Verse 15 carries a telling sign: "So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—" (emphasis added)

"the abomination that causes desolation" or that abominable thing, which threatened and brought desolation upon the city, temple, and nation. Referring to Luke 21:10 runs parallel saying: "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near." Matthew 24:15 has a note to look at Daniel 9:27.

Part 2 will start with Daniel 9.