In chapter 9, Daniel wondered if the times of the Gentiles would soon be over, at least concerning the deliverance of the Jews. Nevertheless, he learned that another seventy weeks of years were appointed for them. During this appointed “Times of the Gentiles,” what would be the relationship now between the Gentiles and the Jews?

This burden culminates in chapter 12, where Daniel is told of a coming time, a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation of Israel. The nation of Israel has had several times of great trouble throughout its history leading up to this final trouble prophesied; these times must be noted with care.

The Times of Trouble

Each troubled time had a purpose for preparing and purging Israel in the divine plan of God. Trouble was present at the very birth throes of the nation in Egypt. It had no leader while under deep persecution and affliction. Pharaoh was killing off the male children and assimilating the young daughters of Israel into the Egyptian nation. Within this “house of bondage” they were forced to serve with rigor, crying out to God. God sent the leader Moses and then sent plagues to oppress Egypt; this only intensified the anger of Pharaoh and his people. Then finally, after the midnight exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea, God delivered them from Pharaoh and Egypt.

There were also repeated crises during the times of the Judges and of the Kings due to Israel’s falling away from the Lord. These troubles came from enemies such as Nahash, Goliath, Sennacherib, who threatened them with oppression and destruction. Their enemies either subjected them to heavy tribute or paralyzing conquest until God raised up a deliverer.

With the coming of the Babylonian captivity many were killed and the city of Jerusalem was destroyed. Three deportations of God’s warnings witnessed the precious children taken first, then the warriors and workers, and then the destruction of the city itself with its Temple. This critical event initiated “the times of the Gentiles” and the overthrow of Israel as a nation with its king.

There were the times of trouble in the perilous days of Mordecai and Queen Esther. This time of trouble brought Israel to the brink of genocide as Haman sought for the full destruction of the Jews. Nevertheless, deliverance came through Mordecai, Esther, and the moving of a king to permit the Jews to protect themselves.

Later there was the abomination of desolation by Antiochus IV. He was called Theos Epiphanes, “the god who appears or reveals himself.” He was a man who energetically pressed the Hellenization of the Jews. The death penalty was extended to all who kept the Sabbath or who were circumcised. Some Jews drawn to the hope of Hellenization attempted to reverse their circumcision in order to participate in Greek athletic games and denounce the Abrahamic covenant. Nevertheless, once a month all Jews were searched to see if any were circumcised or had a secret copy of the Law. The Zerubbabel Temple was rededicated to the Greek god Zeus. In December of 168 B.C., a pagan altar was built on the Great Altar of Burnt Sacrifices; on the 25th of December a first sacrifice to Zeus was placed on this pagan altar. Daniel had prophesied of the “abomination of desolation”—a filthy, abhorrent, idolatrous thing—an abomination that would make desolate the Holy of Holies and the Temple itself. This was a time of deep trouble until God brought deliverance through the Maccabaeus revolt.

There was also the “time of trouble” under the Romans that led to the eventual destruction of Jerusalem under Titus. This siege ended when after some five months Titus’ soldiers were able to get into the city and take control, destroying both city and Temple. Over a million Jews were killed, and over 100,000 were taken captive to Rome. This brought the final dispersion of Jews throughout the world that lasted almost two thousand years.

The “times of trouble” have still continued for the Jews as witnessed with the inquisitions by the Roman Catholic Church and other countries influenced by Romanism. There have also been the troubles of the twentieth century through Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler culminating with the extermination of some six million Jews.

All of these troubles are only preludes to that coming, final, terrible “time of trouble” unlike any that has gone before. From all the troubles of the past, the Jews have had sufficient deliverance to prolong their race; however, they have never had final deliverance.

The Coming “Time of Jacob’s Trouble”

A coming “time of trouble” that will surpass all other troubles rises in prophecy during the time of the culminating powers of the times of the Gentiles. Soon afterward, Gentile rule ceases and God places the Jews back into the rulership of the world. Yet this transition will not be without trouble. This transition begins in the last 3½ years of the Tribulation Period, the last 3½ years of Daniel’s “last week.” This transitional time marks the season when the Antichrist is in full dictatorial rulership over the world; it is also the season when he turns against the Jewish nation with vehement anger and decides to destroy the city of Jerusalem. These 3½ years will be the final assault of trouble upon Israel.

Jeremiah 30:4–7 compares this time to the birth pangs of a woman:

And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the Lord; we have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

In Ezekiel 20:34–38 it is declared that they shall pass under a rod:

And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

We also read in Ezekiel 22:18–22 that God will cast them into His “melting pot”:

Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the mist of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you.

In Zechariah 13:9 it is revealed that God will destroy all the unbelieving Jews with one-third being saved in Daniel’s “last week”:

And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.”

John the Beloved in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 13:1 to 19:21) gives us the details of this time of “Jacob’s Trouble.” In this season of trouble, in one stroke alone 144,000 Jews will be killed in these last 3½ years (Revelation 14). A time of judgment for the Jews will be this “time of trouble,” through which as a “refining process” they will be made fit to again be God’s chosen people. Their deliverance identified in Zechariah 14, including the Battle of Armageddon, will bring to an end the times of the Gentiles. The Jew will enter the Kingdom Age and restore the Kingdom to Israel with Christ, the Jew (Christ is a Jew!), being King forever!

Antichrist and the Times of Trouble

Daniel’s “last week” begins when the Antichrist makes a covenant with the Jews, sealing that covenant by building a temple for them in Jerusalem. This covenant and building lasts for only the first 3½ years of Daniel’s “last week.” The beginning of the last “time of trouble” occurs when the Antichrist enters the Holy of Holies in the middle of the week; in the midst of the week he shall spread the abominations to make that Holy of Holies desolate. Christ gave us this sign in Matthew 24:15, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand.)” This incident has been seen before in the Jewish history. It was seen in the days of Antiochus (Daniel 11:31), and will be seen in the coming of Antichrist (Daniel 9:27 and 12:11). This was (and is) to be a sign to the Jew concerning “the beginning of the time of trouble,” the last 3½ years of Daniel’s “last week” and the end of the Tribulation Period.

The Church Ages

The Church Age, which has continued for the past two thousand years, was truly a mystery in Old Testament times. The prophets had no revelation regarding this segment of history in a literal way. However, the Church Age is couched spiritually in their utterances; they spoke as the Holy Ghost moved on them, and He concealed in their words truths that the revelation of the New Testament later opened. Jesus mentioned this mystery in Matthew 13:17 when He interpreted these particular parables to His disciples:

Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

In Matthew 13:35 Christ declared, “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.”

In the prophecy found in Daniel 9:24–27, there is no mention of the Church. Nevertheless, a place is left for its existence between the 69th week (culminating at the Triumphal Entry of Jesus) and the 70th week (which will be the beginning of Daniel’s Last Week). In a general way, brief mention is made of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in a single verse (9:26), which even falls in the prophetic gap, but nothing more is said that can be put in between the weeks.

The Church is witnessing its own “abomination of desolation” coming into the end of the Church Ages. Although the Protestant Reformation brought the institutional church back to the Scriptures, God brought the Church into the greatest insights of spirituality during the time of the 1700s and 1800s or what is commonly called the Awakenings or the Revivalist period in Church history. It was insight to “Holy-Place” living and “Holy-of-Holies” living. Although the Reformation gave the emphasis upon our standing and state relationship before God, it was the Philadelphia Church Age (1700s and 1800s) that brought the deeper working of the Atonement inwardly to the spiritual heart. No matter what the theological system a Christian embraced at this time, there was the hunger for an inward life, a full gospel, and purity of heart and life. The greatest, spiritual insights of God in personal, inward living were during this time period of Church history.

The Last Church Age

Following the preciousness of the Revivalist period, something troublous happened at the turn of the twentieth century. Drastic changes came one after another even to the conservative segment of the Church. Liberalism and Modernism were already permeating the denominations when providence gave birth to the Fundamentalist movement to stop the plague of these former movements. However, since there was no inward return to truth, many were forced to separate from the denominations in order to protect the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith. Thus the Fundamentalist movement became a Separatist movement. Like a tidal wave, the Neo’s came with overwhelming power into the denominations bringing their abomination, filth, and despicable blasphemy, and making desolate the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The corrupted gospel of the Neo’s so pervaded the denominations that there could be no recovery for them. The Gates of Hell did prevail against these denominations.

Is there any denomination of any magnitude in existence today that has not been affected or even permeated by the Neo-Christianity of our times? Is there one that has not been affected by Contemporary Christian Music? Apostasy is that abomination that has brought the desolation into the sacred precincts of former decades of true Christian identifications. We are in the final abomination stage of the institutional church, a Church Age that has caused the Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ, to speak of vomiting the church out of His mouth. The inner-sanctuary truth of spirituality, holiness and purity of heart is hated, despised, preached against, mocked, and intimidated. Worldliness has finally entered the Church and even claimed the last bastions of evangelicalism, the most conservative of Christianity today.

People care not about godliness and holiness of heart anymore; it is denied, rejected, labeled legalistic, and the gnashing of teeth against such truth is only giving evidence of the deepening hatred in Fundamentalism. Contemporary Christian music has entered the Holy of Holies claiming to be the music of the Holy Spirit for our times. The casual and slob-culture look in dress has now become the norm. The Christian schools have declared “culture” to be the medium through which the risqué, the carnal, the impure of sight and thought are permitted in the Christian context. The world’s fashions, vogue, and style dominate the appearance and the trends of Christian leaders. Even the Holy Place of Scripture has been abominated with the various versions or the perversions under the guise of scholarship.

Conclusion

Fundamentalism now has succumbed to the camp of the Neo-Evangelicals. The last public bastion that once defended the Scriptures is now questioning the Word of God, publicly weakening it, attacking it, criticizing it, and destroying its power before the people. The leadership of Fundamentalism has allowed spirituality to be hated and condemned under the canopy of professing methods of evangelism and scholarship. When careful hindsight is given, it seems God visited Fundamentalism in the 1970s and the 1980s with a call to spirituality and holiness, a heart walk with God, a holy walk, a consecrated walk, and an anointed walk. But there appears to be no hope for recovery in Fundamentalism now; for the movement no longer sees what is happening in its Holy Place. It has now gone the way of all flesh.

There is only a remnant that sees the desolation taking place, only a remnant that even understands what has happened. Fundamentalism is now found patronizing the Southern Baptist denominational leaders, looking more like their corrupted Gospel in appearance, courting their ministers to speak in their conferences and schools, with such schools becoming more and more involved with the Neo crowd in sports. We have created a religious insanity that is destroying our thinking of what is biblical versus what is expedient. Like Laodicea, we are growing rich, our churches are increasing with materialistic goods, and we are refusing to acknowledge any need of heart or life from God. The casualty is that we have made excuses for our changes and viewed these changes for the betterment of Christ and His Church. Yet, the sad reality is we do not know we are wretched, poor, blind, and naked. Equally true, we are in great trouble with God!

When such realities are brought up in conversations to many Christians, they do not seem to be disturbed and vexed in spirit. We read in Daniel 7:15, “I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.” We also read in 7:28, “Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.” Note what Ezekiel saw down by the river Chebar:

The glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side; And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (Ezekiel 9:3, 4).

It is rare now to see anyone in Fundamentalism sighing and crying for all the abominations that are being done, and the changes taking place in the midst thereof.

Dear friend, what about your personal life before God? Has any change come in your life? How is your “Holy of Holies?” It is evident that the remnant is endeavoring to evangelize and build spiritual lives in a most hostile time even within the global church. It reminds us of the days of Nehemiah when they had to build with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other. “The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times” (Daniel 9:25b).

May God help us to discern the times, these troubled times within the Church as we are at the threshold of the imminent coming of our blessed Saviour.