The Tribulation: The Half-time Show

The Tribulation:

a Revival of Religion?

The rapture [that promised appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ to take his church to His Father’s house without having to die] has just occurred. There will be commercial confusion, there will be political confusion, and there will be moral con-fusion.

Enter the Anti-Christ: whose agenda will include moral and ethical corrective mea-sures to offset the moral confusion. This will amount to a new world-wide religion.

On what does religion rest?

¼ all religions¼ if we search for the ele-ments of their hold on men’s minds¼ it will be found to reside in two things, which¼ we may call [i] naturalism, that is the conclu-sions of natural conscience and reason¼ and [ii] super-naturalism, that is the pres-ence of revelations from superior powers, and held to be divine and binding. On one or the other of these, or on both combined, all religions do rest.

Joseph A. Seiss, The Apocalypse, ©1865, Henderson & Company, Toronto, Canada, 1901, Vol II, p426

On what does salvation rest?

Man reaching to God is religion.

God reaching to man is salvation

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be-lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 KJV

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. ¼ Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bond-age.Hebrews 2: 9, 14-15 KJV

Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:5 KJV

Worship of

The Image of Gold

King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, 90 feet high and 9 feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon So every-one assembled for the dedication of the image. ¼ Then the herald loudly proclaim-ed, "This is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations and men of every language: As soon as you hear the sound of all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immed-iately be thrown into a blazing furnace."

–Daniel 3:1- 6 NIV

Worship of Man?

· Alexander¼ claimed and received divine honors as a god. He thought of himself as the son of Jupiter¼ his priests exhorted all to render to their victorious king the honors of a deity. · Herod¼ was hailed as a god.

· Julius Cæsar was honored as a god and many temples were raised for his worship.

· Augustus Cæsar- statues, temples, altars and trophies were consecrated to him.

· Trajan - his statue was cut in ivory, cast in gold, and the choicest victims were sacrificed to this divinity. · Caligula claimed to be a god, clothed himself with names of deity, accepted temples, prayers, offerings and sacrifices. · Nero- The King of Parthia, kneeling before him said, "You are my god, and I am come to adore you." Whereupon Nero replied, "I make you King of Armenia, that the whole world may know it belongs to me to give or to take away crowns."

· Domitian required that all letters written in his name should always begin, "Our Lord and God Domitian commands¼ "

And so common, universal and stoutly demanded was this worship of the succes-sors of the Cæsars, that the chief reason for the martyrdom of the Christians was that they would not sacrifice to the emperor as God.

Worship of

The Image of The Beast

Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth [The False Prophet, imitator of the Holy Spirit]¼ And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men.¼ He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast [Anti-christ] who was wound-ed¼ yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast [Anti-christ], so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.

Revelation 13:11-15 Excerpts NIV

Worship of Anti-christ

He will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place.–Daniel 11:36 NIV

He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worship-ed, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. ¼ and you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time ¼ The coming lawless one will be¼ the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil –2 Thess. 2:4, 9 NIV

In Jesus We See God

There is a powerful God at the center of creation who is worthy of our trust and praise. At the heart of understanding this God is Jesus, our Savior and Lord. God’s glorious splendor blinds us, so that we can’t break through and fully grasp who He is. But in Jesus, the Lamb, we see all of God we need to see. From Jesus we learn all of God we need to know.