Signs of the Times (23)

 

In our discussion of the signs of Christ’s coming as Christ describes them in Matthew 24, we are up to and have begun to discuss the sign of persecution. The text in which this sign is described in Matthew 24:21-22 reads: “For then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world till this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

 

The word that is used here for the final persecution that shall come on the church is “tribulation.” The Bible uses two words to define persecution: one word means “to be chased, to be harassed, to be hunted:” -- as a wolf hunts its prey. The word Jesus uses here is a word which means, “to be squeezed into too small a place.” It brings up in our minds a picture of a room in which one finds himself, but in the room, the floor, the ceiling and the walls are slowing moving inward making one’s place small and smaller until at last the one inside is crushed when all the boundaries of the room come together.

 

The figure is powerful. Satan’s purpose is to take over God’s creation so completely so that it is his kingdom in which all men worship him. But God puts the church in the middle of that kingdom, and God commands the church to shout as loudly as it can, “Not Satan, but Christ is King; and this creation is part of Christ’s kingdom.” The church is also commanded to marry and produce other citizens of the kingdom who are charged with saying the same thing.

 

It is evident that Satan cannot tolerate the presence of that church in the world. The church is always small and one would think that it could not be so bothersome to Satan. But it is. It is a thorn in his side. It is always a fist blow in his face. It is like the king of a country like Singapore who has a group in his country that wants the premier of China to be Singapore’s king, and this group does everything it can to put Singapore under China’s rule. The government of Singapore could not tolerate that for long.

 

The whole history of the world is really a history of Satan’s attempt to make his kingdom universal. In the old dispensation, he did all he could to keep the King from being born. When the King was born, he tried to kill Him – when Herod sent soldiers to kill all the babies in Bethlehem. Finally the devil thought he had succeeded when the King hung on the cross and died. But He rose and seemingly slipped out of Satan’s claws. He went to heaven and now rules over everything. But the King has His citizens in “enemy” territory who will not keep still and who keep saying, “Christ is King!”

 

There was tribulation from the ascension of Christ on, and it still is present today. I read a while ago that 200,000 Christians are killed every year. The devil persecutes God’s people here and there, wherever he has a chance. But there is so much else he has to do to keep wicked nations and people in line and serving his purpose that he does not have time to concentrate his forces on the church. Today there is persecution in Muslim countries, in places in the Orient, in South America, and elsewhere. But much of the church has little or no persecution.

 

But when Antichrist sits on the throne, then Satan has made the whole world his kingdom and has achieved his purpose – except for that pesky church. It is not most of what calls itself “church” that bothers him, for most of the church joins with Antichrist. But there is that remnant according to the election of grace; those “stubborn” people who will not worship the image of the beast. And Satan will concentrate his full attention on them. Get them out of the world – and, “Ahhhh; it’s all mine! God is defeated and Christ is banished from His creation.” And Satan smirks.

 

And so gradually with the passing of the years, the place for the faithful people of God gets smaller and smaller as the walls and ceiling of this creation push in upon the church. The world passes laws to kill unwanted babies and to permit and encourage fornication of every sort: divorce and remarriage, homosexuality, open sexual perversion, etc. And when the church says, “These are dreadful sins against God,” the world puts them in prison for “hate crimes”.

 

I just read an article about the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that ruled, by a 5-4 majority, that a large company did not have to pay medical costs to its employees who wanted to have abortions. It seemed like a victory for the people of God. But congress is preparing legislation to overthrow this decision, and people are screaming at the top of their lungs that the company who won the case in the name of freedom of religion is now destroying the freedom of religion of people who claim it is their religion to kill babies and allow men to marry men and women to marry women. We all know who will finally win.

 

And so the place of the people of God in this world gets smaller and smaller until there is no place left for them at all. That is also the meaning of the text when it says, “tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” The text does not mean that the torture inflicted on the child of God will be worse than any saints have endured before – although that may be true; but the text means that finally tribulation shall be directed against the whole church everywhere in the world in one last (and nearly successful) attempt to obliterate the church completely.

 

Nor will it be difficult to tell the true people of God from the people who claim to be of God, but are not. Every man, woman and child in the whole world will be required to take the mark of the beast (Rev. 13:16). So Antichrist can easily tell who are true people of God and who are not. It will be a decisive distinction. If one takes the mark of the beast, he disowns Christ, takes the side of Satan, and joins the godless world. There will be no deception, no halting between two opinions, no secret Christians: just those with the mark and those without. Everyone with the mark will be friends of Satan; everyone without the mark will be a servant of Christ. It will be easy to tell. There will be no hypocrites.

 

We will finish our description of these verses next time.

 

Prof. Hanko.