The Time of Jacob's Trouble
From Tribulation to Restoration
WORK IN PROGRESS.
Not yet published. Early chapters in slide format available on YOUTUBE and PDF download at the ONLINE STORE
Preface
Since writing my first little booklet, No Man Knows the Day or the Hour: The Return of the Messiah Hidden in Plain Sight, I’ve had it in my mind to write a sequel about the so-called Great Tribulation. It seemed to be the logical next step. Perhaps it should even be called the prequel, given the conclusion drawn in the first booklet; that the Tribulation precedes the Messiah’s return. Although I intended to pen this book within a short space of time, God had other plans, taking me on a journey down a side-road of preparation for that which was to come. A voyage that required exploration into better health, a different career path, and to 2020 when life as we know it would unexpectedly change for the foreseeable future.
Yet, amidst the stormy changes around us, the constant burden for penning this opus burns intensely in my heart. Each time I read a news report or consider a tweet or Facebook post, I find myself wanting to explore the information in the light of God’s Word, particularly as it relates to the end of days.
What I never anticipated was just how much research would be involved in writing this book, nor how many rabbit holes I’d have to dive into, to do the job. Five years in the writing, and I’m still at it!
There are many resources available for the enquiring mind about prophecy and the end-times. I do not presume to have all the answers, but only to share with the reader that which I have searched out from the Scriptures and have gleaned from other scholars more learned than I. Many of those scholars and teachers I hold in high esteem have learned something of great import from them. Likewise, I have found that by reviewing each of the teacher’s views against the Scriptures, I have gleaned an understanding that might differ from that person’s opinion. Notably, the topic of this book is a case in point.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.1 Corinthians 13:12 (WEB)
The majority view, I concede, is definitely in the camp of the so-called pre-tribulation rapture. For many years, I was in that camp also. It was what I had been taught. However, as I have been tested, I challenge the reader to consider that we might have the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture all wrong. There is nothing I’d like more than to be wrong on this one. And if I am wrong, no harm, no foul; we’ll be taken up in glory and escape with our LORD. If, on the other hand, I’m right or even close to right, it has a direct bearing on how we live our lives in the coming days.
If the pre-tribulation rapture lulls us into a sense of security that the time of the Great Tribulation does not apply to us, then we might find ourselves in the great falling away boat. Indeed, according to prophecy, falling away from faith is precisely what will happen:
“Then they will deliver you up to oppression and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name’s sake. Then many will stumble, and will deliver up one another, and will hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will lead many astray. Because iniquity will be multiplied, the love of many will grow cold.Matthew 24:9–12 (WEB)
The argument I have oft heard is that the Church (more correctly, the Assembly or congregation) will not endure tribulation (the Time of Jacob’s Trouble), but instead that it’s a time set aside for the Jews; and that the 144,000 mentioned in the book of Revelation applies only to Jews. What I’ve learned over the past months, even years, of diving deep into the Scriptures and reviewing the teachings of scholars such as Doug Hamp, Monte Judah, Jim Staley, and others,, , , , , ,, is that nothing could be further from the truth.
It comes down to an elementary but profound misunderstanding of who (or indeed what) Jacob and Israel are. This, in turn, has led to some dubious doctrines such as dispensationalism, replacement theology, and even ‘hyper’ grace theology. Subsequently, this has led believers down a rabbit hole of not understanding its role and place of the Assembly in God’s higher plan for salvation. And it has led me to ask myself the question, who is Jacob? A question I will examine in greater detail in the next chapter.
The point of confusion arises out of the obvious—but erroneous—assumption that the modern-day country of Israel and the Israel of the Bible are the same thing. But they are different. Profoundly different. Biblical Israel refers to one of two things:
- The name that God assigned to Jacob after he had wrestled with the angel. Israel means the one who prevailed with God.
He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”Genesis 32:28 (WEB)
- The House of Israel, which occupied the northern kingdom after the House of Jacob was divided following King Solomon’s reign.
Conversely, the House of Judah (modern-day Jews and the present-day land of Israel) occupied the southern kingdom of Judea.
When I explored the history, genealogy, and references to Jacob, Israel, and all the tribes throughout the Scriptures, I had come to a very different conclusion than my initial understanding of the Jews and the Church (the Assembly). I don’t know how I’d missed it all these years. Believers are grafted into the House of Israel, exiled to Assyria, embracing gentile culture instead of their Hebrew heritage. Paul plainly tells us this. It is an exquisite mystery that has been hidden in plain sight within the Biblical text for millennia. A mystery being unravelled in these, the end of days.
We know from the eleventh chapter of Jeremiah that the green olive tree is the whole House of Jacob. What then is the wild olive tree, to which Paul is referring? To understand Romans 11, we need to understand Jeremiah 11; the clues are hidden there.
Yahweh called your name [Jacob], “A green olive tree,beautiful with goodly fruit.”With the noise of a great roar he has kindled fire on it,and its branches are broken .Jeremiah 11:16 (WEB)
There it is. Jeremiah tells us that the broken branches come from House of Jacob, the olive tree. The house has been rent in two and the House of Israel is been pruned and cast off into exile, on the whole never to return.
You will say then, “Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.” True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don’t be conceited, but fear; for if God didn’t spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off. They also, if they don’t continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?Romans 11:21–24 (WEB)
Branches are broken; how did this happen? God Himself broke them off. Paul was the most learned of Pharisees. Jesus picked him for a reason! His road to Damascus experience was the catalyst to understanding all the scriptures he had so diligently studied. We need to read his writings through his understanding of well-studied Scriptures; our Old Testament. He understood the wild olive tree because he was well acquainted with the book of Zechariah. Paul understood that God had issued a marriage contract at Sinai. He understood that on account of David, God upheld that contract with the House of Judah (so named because Judah was the largest tribe in the southern kingdom).
However Yahweh would not destroy Judah, for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give to him a lamp for his children always.2 Kings 8:19 (WEB)
He also well knew that God had issued a writ of divorce to the northern kingdom, House of Israel. They broke the covenants made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, and finally Moses, which resulted in their captivity and exile to Assyria.
I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.Jeremiah 3:8 (WEB)
The prophet Hosea gets the last word to the House of Israel (also known euphemistically as Ephraim, which was the largest clan in the northern kingdom) just before they are taken captive and warns them they will be cut off from God’s people and then scattered far and wide among the nations. They will integrate with the gentiles, the Goyim.
Contend with your mother!Contend, for she is not my wife,neither am I her husband;and let her put away her prostitution from her face,and her adulteries from between her breasts;Hosea 2:2 (WEB)
Israel is swallowed up.Now they are among the nations like a worthless thing.Hosea 8:8 (WEB)
And he well knew that God could not break His own commandments and remarry the House of Israel unless the Bridegroom died, leaving the House of Israel free to remarry her Groom without committing adultery. The Groom had to both die and be resurrected for this to happen. A conundrum, a quandary, a paradox! The human mind could not conceive of such a plot. How would it even be possible to kill the Almighty God (אֵל שַׁדַּי El Shaddai), the Great I Am (הָיָה HaYaH), the eternal Existing One, (יְהֹוָה Yehōvâh)? He had to come in human form, as an infant and lay down His life willingly.
No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.John 10:18
But we get ahead of ourselves! First, let’s take a step back and recap what we learned in the first book, No Man Knows the Day or the Hour:
The ‘Return of the Messiah’ Revisited
If you haven’t read No Man Knows the Day or Hour [available at Amazon], I recommend that you obtain a copy because it is the background to this publication. In that book, we established that the hour is late, and we’re waiting for the return of Messiah. Let’s recap what we learned:
But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore comfort one another with these words.1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 (WEB)
Paul is talking about the return of the Messiah and the resurrection of the saints. Let’s extract the key points Paul set’s out for us:
- Don’t be uninformed.
- Jesus will bring those who have previously died with Him when He returns.
- The Lord will descend from heaven with a shout.
- The voice of the archangel heralds his descent.
- The trumpet is sounded.
- The dead in Christ will rise first.
- Those who are alive do not precede those who have previously died.
- Then we who are alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air.
In other words, the resurrection of those believers who have died happens first at Messiah’s return, and then the rapture occurs.Jesus was crucified on the Feast of Passover. He was buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He rose on the Feast of First Fruits, ascending to heaven forty days later, and He sent the Holy Spirit to believers on the Feast of Pentecost. He will return at the blowing of the trumpets, on Yom Teruah (Rosh Hashana), the Feast of Trumpets!