Re: The False Prophet by Ellis Skolfield
Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 10:35 pm
Hey again Steve7150,
There’s one very glaring problem with Scolfield identifying the great tribulation period with the ENTIRE church age. In Matthew 24:21, Jesus said that this greatest of tribulation periods would never again be equaled or surpassed at any time in history AFTER that great tribulation (which would “IMMEDIATELY be followed by Christ’s return). This necessitates that history on this earth would continue to trudge along after that great tribulation and Christ’s return, with regular bouts of tribulation for Gods people in this world continuing to occur, but with none ever duplicating that former “great tribulation” period.
What made those “days of vengeance” so horrible to pass through was not the number of casualties, nor the stress of the war conditions, nor the persecution from Nero or the Jews hostile to the faith. These paled in comparison to the prophecy Jesus gave about the complete, 7-fold presence of the most wicked of unclean spirits returning to torment that wicked generation in its “last state” (Matt. 12:43-45). No other civilization or city in the past, or at any time future to AD 70, would have this demonic plague in full force descend on a single city to torment its inhabitants. Rev. 18:2 says that “Babylon the great” / Jerusalem during its fall had become the “habitation of devils, and the hold (phulake - a prison) of *EVERY* UNCLEAN SPIRIT...”
Just how were all these unclean spirits “imprisoned” within the walls of Jerusalem? By the people whom they were possessing being imprisoned within Jerusalem, first by the warring Zealot factions, and finally by the Romans laying siege to the city. If the demoniac of the Gadarenes could have been tormented by a legion of devils within, just imagine how many devils could have been present in a city that held captive anywhere from 2-3 million people within its walls. Unimaginable torment would have abounded.
Isaiah 24:21-23 also predicted this same imprisonment of evil angels in AD 70 era Jerusalem that would simultaneously punish the “host of high ones that are on high” as well as the “kings of the earth” (the high priests of Israel). Both groups would be gathered together and “shut up in the prison”, and after many days they would be “found wanting” - meaning they would be GONE. With this combined eradication of the high priesthood and the entire demonic realm and its kingdom powers, the Lord of hosts would then reign gloriously in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem.
Never again after that time would this demonic realm be around to torment a city or nation as Jerusalem had once suffered during their “last state” in the AD 70 era. This is why that period was called the “great tribulation” that was like no other tribulation either before or after it.
There’s one very glaring problem with Scolfield identifying the great tribulation period with the ENTIRE church age. In Matthew 24:21, Jesus said that this greatest of tribulation periods would never again be equaled or surpassed at any time in history AFTER that great tribulation (which would “IMMEDIATELY be followed by Christ’s return). This necessitates that history on this earth would continue to trudge along after that great tribulation and Christ’s return, with regular bouts of tribulation for Gods people in this world continuing to occur, but with none ever duplicating that former “great tribulation” period.
What made those “days of vengeance” so horrible to pass through was not the number of casualties, nor the stress of the war conditions, nor the persecution from Nero or the Jews hostile to the faith. These paled in comparison to the prophecy Jesus gave about the complete, 7-fold presence of the most wicked of unclean spirits returning to torment that wicked generation in its “last state” (Matt. 12:43-45). No other civilization or city in the past, or at any time future to AD 70, would have this demonic plague in full force descend on a single city to torment its inhabitants. Rev. 18:2 says that “Babylon the great” / Jerusalem during its fall had become the “habitation of devils, and the hold (phulake - a prison) of *EVERY* UNCLEAN SPIRIT...”
Just how were all these unclean spirits “imprisoned” within the walls of Jerusalem? By the people whom they were possessing being imprisoned within Jerusalem, first by the warring Zealot factions, and finally by the Romans laying siege to the city. If the demoniac of the Gadarenes could have been tormented by a legion of devils within, just imagine how many devils could have been present in a city that held captive anywhere from 2-3 million people within its walls. Unimaginable torment would have abounded.
Isaiah 24:21-23 also predicted this same imprisonment of evil angels in AD 70 era Jerusalem that would simultaneously punish the “host of high ones that are on high” as well as the “kings of the earth” (the high priests of Israel). Both groups would be gathered together and “shut up in the prison”, and after many days they would be “found wanting” - meaning they would be GONE. With this combined eradication of the high priesthood and the entire demonic realm and its kingdom powers, the Lord of hosts would then reign gloriously in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem.
Never again after that time would this demonic realm be around to torment a city or nation as Jerusalem had once suffered during their “last state” in the AD 70 era. This is why that period was called the “great tribulation” that was like no other tribulation either before or after it.