Four Blood Moons (7 page)

Jesus looked into the bewildered faces of His disciples and warned them that in the immediate future an invading army would surround and destroy the sacred city of Jerusalem.

So when you see standing in the holy place “the abomination that causes desolation,” spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

(M
ATTHEW
24:15–16
NIV
)

The disciples thought on the words of the prophet Daniel who prophesied about Jerusalem's coming desolation (9:27). He also foretold of Jerusalem's attack by four world empires: the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Greeks under Alexander the Great and, lastly, the Romans (Daniel 2:31–45).

I can only imagine what this horrific news meant to the disciples. These men were looking at a thriving city where the
Temple was the focal point of their society. How could this beautiful city be destroyed?

However unbelievable; Jerusalem's destruction came to pass.

Josephus was a priest, a soldier, and a historical scholar who was born in Jerusalem in 37 CE, a few years after the time of Jesus and during the time of the Roman occupation of the Jewish homeland. Josephus, a witness to the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, chronicled the events of the war.

In his writings Josephus recorded horrific scenes such as mothers eating their infant children who had died of starvation. The list below notes some of the entries made in Josephus' account of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem from March through September AD 70:

• After the Roman siege began, Jewish citizens sold their possessions for gold and then swallowed the gold coins to hide them as they escaped the Romans. The rumor spread that all deserters were filled with gold. Arabs and Syrians cut open all who escaped the city. “In one night no less than two thousand were ripped up.”

• The Romans captured escapees from the city, as many as 500 a day. Prisoners were tortured, crucified, and
killed to intimidate the populace. Titus is quoted as saying, “So great was their number, that space could not be found for the crosses nor crosses for the bodies.”

• Titus blockaded the city to prevent food supplies from entering. With all hope of escape cut off, the famine within the city intensified. Burials were neglected and the bodies piled up.

• Prisoner Mannaeus ben Lazarus was assigned by the Romans to watch a city gate. He counted 115,880 bodies carried through the gate during the siege. Reports from within the city gave the total dead among the lower classes at 600,000.

• The victims of famine were dying in countless numbers. Starving men like mad dogs staggered from house to house searching for food. Shoe leather and grass was gnawed on.

• Josephus provided an eyewitness account of the destruction, the fire, and the noise. “You would indeed have thought that the Temple-hill was boiling over from its base, being everywhere one mass of flame, yet the stream of blood was more copious than the flames.” He observed that this was on the very day and month that the First Temple had been burnt by the Babylonians; it was the 9th of Av.

• Romans carried standards (symbols of their gods) into the Temple and made sacrifices unto them.

• The Romans commanded the whole city, planted standards on the walls, and looted the city. All Jerusalem was in flames.

• Titus ordered the whole city and Temple to be razed to the ground, leaving only the tallest towers and a small portion of the wall on the west.

This horror was prophesied by Jesus as He carried His cross through the streets of Jerusalem and saw the Jewish mothers weeping over His crucifixion.

Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, “Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!”

(L
UKE
23:28–29)

Jesus saw the future! He saw the Roman legions surrounding Jerusalem to destroy the Holy City and the Temple. He saw the unspeakable horror and mind-bending tragedy inflicted by General Titus and the Roman Tenth Legion in AD 70.

When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the first part of the Olivet Discourse was fulfilled.

Jerusalem is not like any other city on earth; the world revolves around Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the city of God! “The L
ORD
has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place” (Psalm 132:13).

Great is the L
ORD
, and greatly to be praised

In the city of our God,

In His holy mountain.

Beautiful in elevation,

The joy of the whole earth

Is Mount Zion . . .

The city of our God:

God will establish it
forever
.

(P
SALM
48:1–2, 8)

Jerusalem
is
where Abraham placed Isaac on an altar to sacrifice him, proving Abraham's love and loyalty to God Almighty. Centuries later on this same mountain, Jesus Christ was bound to the cross by the will of God His Father, and He sacrificed His life for our redemption. This was the absolute fulfillment of Abraham's words—“Jehovah Jireh”—meaning “The L
ORD
will provide” (Genesis 22:12–14).

Jerusalem is where Jeremiah and Isaiah penned the principles of righteousness, which became the moral and spiritual foundations of Western civilization.

Jerusalem was conquered by King David three thousand years ago as he and his mighty men of valor drove out the occultic Jebusites. Jerusalem is once again the eternal and undivided capital of the nation of Israel, and may it ever be.

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

Let my right hand forget its skill!

If I do not remember you,

Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth—

If I do not exalt Jerusalem

Above my chief joy.

(P
SALM
137:5–6)

In these versse, David is attempting to describe his complete devotion to the City of God. David was willing to sacrifice his life as a psalmist if he forgot to praise his beloved city, for at that point, life for him would have no meaning.

Jerusalem was the city where Jesus was circumcised in the Temple on the eighth day and where He celebrated His bar mitzvah on His thirteenth birthday. It is where He celebrated His last Passover with the Twelve in the upper room, and where He was betrayed by Judas.

Jerusalem was the city where He was arrested, tried, and convicted as the result of a Roman conspiracy between the Pharisees and the High Priest.

Jerusalem was where He was beaten with thirty-nine
stripes and was crowned with thorns while Roman spittle dripped off His holy face onto the purple robe of mockery placed upon His blood-soaked back.

Just outside the walls of Jerusalem was where Jesus Christ was crucified with thieves for our redemption. Jerusalem was where Jesus died for our sins.

Jerusalem was where He rose from a borrowed grave and became the firstfruits of the resurrection. Because He lives we shall also live. Hallelujah!

As we will see in the coming chapters, Jerusalem will be attacked by the Antichrist (Zechariah 14:1–2). But this time the Lion of the tribe of Judah will triumph over all of Jerusalem's enemies.

Most importantly, Jerusalem is the city where Jesus will return. He will rule from Jerusalem. When Messiah, the Son of David, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Lamb of God, sits on His holy throne, the nations of the world, including
you and I
, will go to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (Zechariah 14:16–18).

The moon will be dismayed,

the sun ashamed;

for the L
ORD
Almighty will reign

on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

and before its elders—with great glory.

(I
SAIAH
24:23
NIV
)

Jerusalem will remain the center of the universe for the future of the world!

—1 T
HESSALONIANS
4:16–17

Jesus warned His disciples that deception would prevail before His return. His disciples were grappling with the reality that there was no glorious kingdom coming in their lifetimes and that this miracle-working Nazarene was going to die like any ordinary man. Rome was all powerful
after all
!

Satan is the master of deception. He presents himself as an angel of light, when in fact he is the prince of darkness. A prince is one who has limited authority in a specific kingdom. There are only two kingdoms: the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. You are in one of these kingdoms right now.

Satan has authority in the kingdom of darkness, and his mission is “to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” you and those you love (John 10:10). The only way out of the kingdom of darkness is to accept Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, as your Savior and Lord.

The authority of the kingdom of darkness is broken by the spoken Word of God, which is a divine proclamation based on Scripture. The Bible says, “And they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony [proclamation]” (Revelation 12:11).

Satan, the master of deception, comes as a wolf in sheep's clothing. He and his messengers present themselves as meek and humble, but their end objective is your destruction. Satan is a deadly serpent who is the master of disguise. He can lie in the brush unseen and unnoticed, totally and perfectly camouflaged, appearing completely harmless until his razor-sharp fangs are embedded deep into your flesh and his deadly venom is surging through your veins.

Satan's deception is rampant in this twenty-first century. We are the generation that must have a lawyer in one hand
and an accountant in the other to “trust but verify.” Who believes the promises of a politician when he is speaking? The generation where every man's word was his bond is dead.

Jesus gave this warning to His disciples because when the Antichrist appears during the Tribulation period it will be a day of deception. The Antichrist will come as a prince of peace, yet he will bathe the world in blood. He will make treaties he has no intention of keeping. He will present himself as an economic czar and prove to be a global dictator.

Peter warns the church in 2 Peter 2:1:

There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

There are false prophets today who have abandoned traditional values for the message of political correctness. Their message and motive is to make people feel good without being good, to master the ritual without achieving righteousness, and to conform to their sin without confessing their sin.

They have forgotten the mandate from the apostle Paul to “preach the Word” (2 Timothy 4:2). They have forgotten these immortal words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor whose passion for truth drove him to confront Adolf Hitler and Germany:

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
¹

America is filled with false prophets. Any person presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ who does not teach or preach the literal Word of God is a false prophet. I encourage you to “recognize those who labor among you” (1 Thessalonians 5:12) and refuse to follow, in any manner, those wolves in sheep's clothing who are masters of deception in our generation.

Some of these false prophets are now teaching there will be no Rapture of the church! What does God's Word say? Why is it extremely important for you to know the truth about this doctrine?

Jesus told His disciples on the Mount of Olives:

Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.

(L
UKE
21:36)

The point is very clear: if you are not watching for His coming, you will not be counted “worthy to escape all the things that will come to pass” during the Great Tribulation. If
you're not watching for
Him
, He's not coming for
you
!

If you are deceived into believing there is no Rapture, prepare to stand in line to get your personal tattoo from the Antichrist. If you refuse his marking, he will cut off your head! Are you interested in hearing about the Rapture now?

The apostle Paul makes it unmistakably clear that if you're not looking for Jesus, you're not going with Him in the Rapture. He writes:

To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time.

(H
EBREWS
9:28)

If Jesus is coming back, why now? The Bible says:

Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?' For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.

(2 P
ETER
3:3–4)

The fact that men do not believe Christ is coming back is living proof and biblical evidence that the Rapture of the church is imminent. If you listen closely you can hear the footsteps of Messiah . . . tiptoeing through the clouds of heaven.