by Nadine Drayton-Keen

Created on: August 03, 2008   Last Updated: August 05, 2008

Are We Close to the Battle of Armageddon?

The Spirit of prophecy (or the Light of Divine Revelation), which refers to the Holy Spirit's illuminations about the evil conditions in the world that prompt God's judgment (Tribulation Period) upon the Earth, declares that believers are living in the time when the end of the CHURCH AGE soon will happen. What is the proof of this opening statement? Jesus the Christ's famous teaching known as the Olivet Discourse provides the evidence that confirms for believers that they NOW are living when the promised Rapture will take place. The primary passage and the parallel passages of Jesus the Christ's Olivet Discourse are found in Matthew 24:1 through 25:46, Mark 13:1-37, and Luke 21:5-36.

In His Olivet Discourse, Jesus the Christ catalogues for His disciples the various signs that will indicate the prevailing evil conditions that will be in the world just prior to His Second Coming. Jesus the Christ specifically makes it clear that although these signs of the times will begin before the Tribulation Period starts, the ultimate fulfillment of every one of these signs will take place during the actual Tribulation Period! Moreover, Jesus the Christ makes it clear that these signs ("beginning of sorrows") are primarily for alerting His genuine believers about getting prepared for the CHURCH's Rapture, because following the Rapture God's wrath will pour out upon the Earth, and His wrath will not stop until all of Jesus the Christ's enemies are defeated at the Battle of Armageddon.

Yes, in the Olivet Discourse, Jesus the Christ does describe the Rapture to His original disciples, but because no Hebrew prior to this point in time was aware of God's mystery concerning any church other than the Jewish Temple, and because no Hebrew was aware of God's mystery concerning Jesus the Christ living inside believers, there are those who believe and teach today that the completion of God's program for His CHURCH (the Rapture) is not found in the Olivet Discourse, but instead is found in John 14:1-4, 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. There also are those who believe and teach that the Olivet Discourse just describes the 70 A.D. events that fulfilled the prophecy concerning the captivity of Israel, and those who believe and teach that Matthew 24:40-41 and the parallel passage in Luke 17:34-36 are about the end of the Tribulation Period, when all of the survivors who have taken the mark of the Beast are cast off the Earth while

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