When They All Look UP!

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Luke 21:28

By Mike Wingfield

During the April 8 solar eclipse that moved across America, God’s Spirit reminded me of how utterly uniformed people are about what is about to take place across our planet. As I watched the eclipse on TV, I was reminded that there will be a day every person on earth will be looking toward the heavens. On this day, they will not be looking at a solar eclipse. They will be looking in utter awe at the supernatural heavenly sign that will accompany the King of Kings to this earth!

This recent eclipse was a rare celestial occurrence and was certainly worthy of our attention. However, that eclipse pales in comparison to the amazing supernatural events that will take place during the Tribulation Period. And especially to the last day when Christ returns to earth. Predictably, people were mesmerized by the recent solar eclipse, because of the media hype leading to April 8.

For months, we were bombarded with details of this eclipse, and its direct path across North America. We also know that the next eclipse that will sweep across America will take place in 44 years. How can scientists make these accurate and precise predictions? The Bible has the answer. In the beginning of His creation, the Lord placed the sun, moon, stars, and planets in the heavens for the benefit of man on earth. The Bible says, “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so” (Genesis 1:14-15).

God set the order of these heavenly bodies in an exact arrangement and orbit in relationship to earth time. Since the time of their creation, the heavenly bodies have continued to travel through space with incredibly accurate precision. God made the heavens to be a giant clock and calendar. The exact movements of the earth and the heavenly bodies are very predictable because God made them that way. People around is with woke agendas say there are no absolutes. These people need to look up! God’s testimony of faithfulness and sovereign design are all around us!

As I watched the eclipse on April 8, I was drawn to comments being voiced by news reporters and people they interviewed. I was captured by the superlative words they voiced to the viewing audience. Words like “miraculous,” “incredible,” “amazing,” and “awesome,” were commonly used to describe the eclipse. Some people even called it a “supernatural moment.”

As I heard these comments, I thought to myself, “These people do not know what awaits the inhabitants of earth.” As we approach the end of this age, it is critically important that we inform all people that God created and appointed the position and path of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. And the same God has also informed us in His written revelation concerning what He has in store for the world. God has ordained that the incredible signs in the heavens and earth when Christ returns to earth, will be the most awesome manifestation of the power and glory of God ever witnessed by man.

I continue to be amazed and dazzled by the written revelation of God concerning man’s final days on earth. The Bible refers to the unique seven-year period of the Tribulation Period as “the day of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:12; Joel 2:11). This will be the day the Lord of heaven will miraculously intervene into the affairs of man. In His wrathful anger He will pour out His vengeance upon all the wicked, rebellious inhabitants of earth. Isaiah 24:5 tells us why the Lord will do this, “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, [and have] broken the everlasting covenant.” This simply means that God will have reached His final toleration point because man defiantly rejected His spiritual and moral code of conduct that is summarized in the 10 Commandments. Man is continually defying God by attempting to change His creative order. This is at the heart of man’s Artificial Intelligence rebellion. People refuse to accept “an everlasting covenant” (Genesis 17:7) that God established with Israel 3,400 years ago, giving them the Promised Land as “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8).

Furthermore, the nations are once again united in their goal to destroy the Jewish people and to annihilate the modern nation of Israel. The prophet Isaiah declared that this violent rejection of Israel will be at the center of God’s wrathful judgment that will be inflicted upon all the nations. Concerning the Tribulation Period, Isaiah declared, “For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion” (Isaiah 34:8). The current attacks we are witnessing on Israel for defending itself against Islamic enemies are a testimony to the world’s commitment that will be fulfilled when they march against God and Israel at the battle of Armageddon at the end of the Tribulation.

The entire seven years of the Tribulation will be marked by continual supernatural events in both the heavens and the earth. The Bible calls them “signs.” This word could also be translated as “wonders” or “miracles.” In other words, a sign is a supernatural event that is the direct work from the hand of God. These signs are a manifestation of the power and glory of Almighty God. They are aimed at bringing mankind to a point of awe and humiliation as they recognize God’s supernatural intervention into the physical world of finite man. They are designed to cause wonder and fear, bringing man to repentance and submission to God.

For example, near the beginning of the Tribulation, the Lord will strike the world with a massive global earthquake that will trigger a multitude of volcanic eruptions (Revelation 6:12). This will be accompanied by great signs in the atmospheric heavens. “And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places” (Revelation 6:13-14).

As a result of these devastating and threatening signs on the earth and in the heavens, the people of earth will all flee to the mountains to find some shelter from the supernatural storm of God. They will cry out to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand” (Revelation 6:16-17)?

The Tribulation Period will be filled with deadly and destructive signs that will bring about an unparalleled global death toll and global devastation that will destroy civilized humanity as we know it in these modern times (Isaiah 24).

By God’s design, the climax of all these signs will culminate on the final day of the Tribulation Period. A multitude of Scriptures give the awesome details of this final day when the Messiah, the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus, will be unveiled in all His glory, power, and majesty (Psalm 18:7-15; 97:3-6; Micah 1:3-6; Nahum 1:5-8).

When the final day comes, all the inhabitants of earth will look up to the heavens to see the sign of the coming of the Son of Man. The apostle John said, “and every eye shall see him” (Revelation 1:7). Matthew recorded the words of Jesus about this day, “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. … Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:27, 29-30).

Yes, people cheered with amazement as looked toward the sky to see the recent solar eclipse. However, when people all look up at the sign of the coming of the Lord in the heavens, they will have a different reaction. Luke reports about their response on that day, “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory (Luke 21:25-27).

Unlike the predictable eclipse Americans just witnessed, the earthly and heavenly signs that will unfold during the Tribulation are unparalleled in human history. And these coming events are not on the radar of the world’s astronomers. The human mind and all our God-given senses have never experienced what will transpire in God’s final chapter of man’s rule on earth. God has promised that He will not only violently shake the earth (Isaiah 2:19-21), but also the heavens above (Hebrews 12:25-26).

What the Lord will do in the future is reminiscent of what He did in the days of Moses when He set His people free from the cruelty and unjust oppression of the most powerful nation on earth in those ancient times – Egypt. Before Moses was sent to Egypt with His divine assignment, the Lord told him what would happen, “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them (Exodus 7:3-5).

God unleashed His arsenal of terror upon Egypt because they refused to yield to His will to allow His people to go into the Promised Land that God had given them (Exodus 6:1-8). In a similar way, God is calling His people from their exile from the land of Israel for 2,000 years. He has promised, “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24).The world has wrestled with God concerning the land of Israel and the Jewish people from the beginning of the modern nation of Israel to this day. It now appears that we are entering into the final phase of the world’s attack upon the Jewish people. The final chapter of this war between God and the nations will be concluded during the Tribulation Period.

It is important to note what happens to those who oppose God. He hardens their hearts and leads them to their demise. Throughout the Exodus account, the Scriptures remind us that Pharoah hardened his heart against the call to let the Jewish people leave Egypt. Then, suddenly in the narrative, the Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. This hardened heart of Pharaoh led to His own demise, the death of his people, the destruction of his nation, and the death of his army in the Red Sea (Exodus 7-11, 14). God unleashed His divine power in a series of deadly plagues.

A similar development took place during Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land. God hardened the hearts of the people living in the land of Canaan so that they would war against Israel, ultimately bringing them to their demise. Joshua 11:20 reports, “For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses.”

History is repeating itself. It is very apparent that the global population has reached the spiritual point of no return. Except for a small remnant of true believers, the nations are in rebellion against God. They reject His commandments. They are attempting to confuse and rearrange His creative order. They refuse to recognize and honor the everlasting covenant that God established with Abraham, giving his descendants the Promised Land in “an everlasting covenant” (Genesis 17:7). God has given the Jewish people their land as “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8).  

By Mike Wingfield

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