EB: 23 God’s Predestined Will for You in the Endtimes

Chapter 23

God’s Predestined Will for You in the Endtimes

Death, prison, or ministry

Contents

A) God’s predestined will for some to be imprisoned and/or martyred

B) God’s predestined will for some to be protected and do ministry

C) God’s predestined & prayed-for will for those obeying Christ’s Last Great Commandment

Primary points

• God’s Prescribed Will is written in Scripture.
• God’s Predestined Will are things God chooses for you.
• God has predestined some Christians to be imprisoned, and others to be martyred, during The Greatest Persecution.
• How might you know God has given you the grace for prison or the supernatural gift for martyrdom in the Endtimes? You’re not afraid of those things.
• Scripture clearly predicts that at least for a significant number of Jewish saints in Israel during The Greatest Persecution, God’s Predestined Will is to help them go to a place where they will be fed, cared for, and protected.
• It is probable that a significant number of Christians will be spared death and imprisonment during The Greatest Persecution and glorify and serve God by doing some sort of ministry in the Endtimes.
• God’s Predestined Will for some in the Endtimes will not be just to survive, but to also THRIVE. To experience amazing spiritual growth, fellowship, and ministry.
• It seems God has predestined three different destinies for different Christians in the Endtimes: 1) imprisonment, 2) martyrdom, 3) or ministry.
• God expects Christians to do everything they can to live, help others to live, and to love and serve His people for as long as He allows them to.
• If He has chosen you to live until Christ’s Return like the Jews predicted in Revelation 12, then you cannot die during the Endtimes.
• If an American Christian has a predestined role to play after the complete destruction of Endtime Babylon (America), then they are also predestined to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment.

A) God’s predestined will for some to be imprisoned and/or martyred

In discussing God’s will for you in the Endtimes, it is helpful to understand there are different aspects of God’s will. For example, some things are in what can be called God’s Prescribed Will which is written in Scripture. This includes commands that God expects you to obey, like Christ’s Last Great Commandment in Revelation 18:4.

An overall aspect of God’s Prescribed Will for Christians in the Endtimes will be to GLORIFY God no matter what happens. God commands in Scripture: Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31 NIV). Or as it says elsewhere: We make it our goal to please him (2 Cor 5:9 NIV). That is God’s Prescribed Will for all Christians in the Endtimes. It is also reflected in Exodus Conviction #7: I will do my best to please and glorify God in the Endtimes.

Obeying such commands is your choice. God has not predestined how well you will obey His commands. He wants this to be your decision out of love for Him. This is why you will be eternally rewarded for choosing to obey God’s Prescribed Will in Scripture.

Another aspect of God’s will is His Predestined Will. These are things God chooses for you. They include things like when and where you were born (cf. Acts 17:26), how long you will live (cf. Ps 139:16; Job 14:5), whether or not you would be a Christian (cf. Eph 1:4-5; 2:8-9; Acts 13:48; Rom 9:1-24), and your spiritual gifts (cf. 1 Cor 12:4-11). You did not choose these things. God chose them for you. God’s Predestined Will will be operating in the Endtimes.

For example, we read of God’s Predestined Will for some of those during The Greatest Persecution in Revelation 13: Anyone who is destined [by God] for prison will be taken to prison. Anyone destined [by God] to die by the sword will die by the sword (Rev 13:10 NLT). ^[1] This implies that God has predestined some Christians to be imprisoned, and others to be martyred, during The Greatest Persecution.

To be predestined to die by the sword could mean to be killed in a variety of ways. But the context of Revelation 13:10 is The Greatest Persecution and martyrdom in the Endtimes. Martyrdom will be the murder of Christians who refuse to worship the Antichrist and deny the real Christ. Those murders will be primarily carried out by religious or government authorities. Revelation describes the Endtime martyrs as:

those who had been beheaded [with a sword] for their testimony about Jesus and for proclaiming the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. (Rev 20:4 NLT; cf. 6:9; 13:15)

Therefore, some Christians are predestined to be martyred during the Endtimes. What may indicate that this is God’s Predestined Will for you in the Endtimes? God will give you supernatural grace and faith for it. The example of Stephen (cf. Acts 6:8-7:60) and martyrs throughout Church history, who peacefully and even painlessly experienced death, demonstrates this. Accordingly, in a list of supernatural gifts and abilities from God, Paul refers to sacrificing my body (1 Cor 13:3 NLT), even to surrender my body to be burned (NASB). ^[2] This supernatural gift and grace from God explains how Stephen and martyrs throughout history have experienced a peaceful and painless death.

So how might you know God has given you the grace for prison or the supernatural gift for martyrdom in the Endtimes? You’re not afraid of those things. You may even desire for them to happen. Perhaps you do not feel that way now, but if such things are God’s will for you, He will give you supernatural grace and faith before they occur.

The Bible promises: God is faithful; He will not let you be tested [peirasmos] beyond what you can bear (1 Cor 10:13). God has promised to filter our life, even in the Endtimes. Nothing can happen to us without God’s permission. And He will not allow a test or trial in our life unless He is willing to eventually give us the grace and faith to be victorious in it. This is because God always wants you to glorify Him. And if He gave you a test that was going to be too big for you to ever overcome, then you could only fail and sin and not glorify God. But God always controls your circumstances so you can overcome them and glorify Him.

B) God’s predestined will for some to be protected and do ministry

But death will not be God’s Predestined Will for every Christian in the Endtimes. In fact, it could be argued that there will be equal or even greater glory for those exercising the faith and enduring the hardships of living, instead of dying, for God in the Endtimes.

Accordingly, it is clear God wants some, maybe even many, of His people to survive and serve in the Endtimes. This is why He commanded American Christians to escape from Endtime Babylon before He destroyed it. Notice God’s stated reason for Christ’s Last Great Commandment:

“Move out of Babylon the Great My people; so that you will not be connected to her sins and so that you will not experience her being struck hard with a sudden and severe disaster” (Rev 18:4)

God’s will for those obeying this command is that they would escape being killed in a horrible way and live during the Endtimes.

Accordingly, the Bible anticipates that some (even many) Christians will survive the Endtimes to the very end and experience the Church’s Rescue while they are alive. Jesus described this after the completion of The Greatest Persecution and at His Return (cf. Matt 24:29) when He said:

“Immediately after the completion of the greatest persecution of those days … He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet sound, and they will lift up and gather together God’s elect people from one end of the sky to the other, from everywhere on Earth.” (Matt 24:31 ^[3]).

Likewise, Paul wrote that those who are still alive and remain on the earth during the Endtimes will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess 4:17 NLT). Jesus and Paul predict there will be a significant number of God’s people whom God has predestined to live until Christ’s Return and the Church’s Rescue.

This is one reason Jesus told His disciples regarding the Endtimes: “When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another” (Matt 10:23; cf. 24:16). Accordingly, this was the repeated practice of the Early Church (cf. Acts 8:1; 9:23-25; 14:5-6; 17:1-10, 13-14). Until you know God’s Predestined Will for you is to be persecuted, imprisoned, or die, God wants you to do all you can to escape all of these things.

Therefore, we know from Scripture that God has promised to protect and provide for some (maybe many) of His people so that they will survive in the Endtimes. In fact, there is an example of this very thing predicted in Scripture. Regarding a saved remnant of the saints in Israel during the Endtimes we read in Revelation 12:

The woman Israel escaped [ephygen] to an isolated [erēmon] place that God had prepared for her, so that she would be fed and trained [trephōsin] for 1,260 days… The woman Israel was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she would fly to the isolated place prepared for her, be fed and trained [trephetai] for three and one half years, and be protected from the dragon. (Rev 12:6, 14).

In the suggested translation, escaped translates a Greek word (ephygen) which simply means: “to become safe from danger by eluding or avoiding it, escape.” ^[4] Isolated translates a Greek adjective (erēmon) which means: “being in a state of isolation.” ^[5] It need not carry the idea of “barren.” Accordingly, the same Greek word is used where we read: Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded [erēmon] place by Himself (Matt 14:13 NASB). The place Jesus went to was probably not a desert or wasteland. It was simply secluded. Accordingly, Mounce comments:

To the Jewish people the wilderness spoke of divine provision and intimate fellowship [with God]. It was in the wilderness that God rained down bread from heaven (Exod 16:4ff.) and nourished his people for forty years… For John’s readers the wilderness in this context would not suggest a desert waste inhabited by evil spirits, but a place of spiritual refuge. ^[6]

The suggested translation fed and trained translates a Greek word (trephōsin) which means: “to care for by providing food or nourishment.” ^[7] In the NT it is always used specifically of feeding food to people or animals (cf. Matt 6:26; 25:37). Thomas comments:

In this place of refuge the woman will receive nourishment [trephetai] from God just as Elijah received food at the brook Cherith and as Israel received manna in the wilderness. This is a critical provision because no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast during this three and one half years (13:17). ^[8]

In addition, the Greek word here (trephōsin) also means: “to care for children by bringing them up, train.” ^[9] Accordingly, related words are used in Ephesians referring to husbands who feed (ektrephei) and care for (thalpei) their wives (5:28-29 NLT). However, the same word is used to refer to fathers who are to bring up (ektrephete) their children … with the discipline [padeia] and instruction [nouthesia] that comes from the Lord (Eph 6:4 NLT). The spiritual health and growth of children requires both caring for their needs and training them. The discipline [padeia] necessary is painful and requires that we endure hardship as discipline [padeian].

Therefore, as in other places of the NT, the meaning of the Greek here [trephōsin], may not be able to be translated with just one English word. ^[10] Admittedly, most versions simply have care for (NIV, NLT, nourish NASB). But the meaning of “training” should not be left out of the intended meaning. It seems probable that God intends to provide for, protect, and spiritually train these Jews, even through painful hardships, during The Greatest Persecution. But surely, their training will have the purpose of them serving Christ in some way during the Endtimes.

Protected from translates the literal Greek which reads: “from the presence of” (apo prosōpou tou). Obviously, if God will be keeping these Jews “from the presence of” the Antichrist (whom the serpent will be indwelling), then He will be physically protecting them from the Antichrist’s persecution as well. ^[11]

This is a significant promise as the prophecy specifically relates to the 1,260 days or three and a half years of The Greatest Persecution. ^[12] This will be the same forty-two months in which the beast Antichrist will be given authority over every … nation and given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them (Rev 13:5-7 NIV). While the Antichrist will certainly want to kill these Jews, he will not be able to even during his reign. This is why the prophecy adds that after the Antichrist experiences God supernaturally protecting these Jews (cf. vs. 15-16), Then the dragon indwelling the Antichrist went off to wage war against the rest of her [Israel’s spiritual] offspring [the Church]—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus (v. 17).

It must be admitted that the substance and sequence of Endtime events in Israel is perhaps the most complicated and obscure topic in all of Scripture. But some suggestions can be made. In Revelation 12 the woman represents a large number of people. This is not referring to some relatively small remnant, as the woman symbolizes the nation of Israel. More specifically, it probably refers to the Jews who will be converted to Christ during the Endtimes (cf. Rom 11). More specifically, it seems God predicts regarding the Jews in the Endtimes:

“Two-thirds of the people in the land will be cut off and die,” says the LORD. “But one-third will be left in the land. I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’” (Zech 13:8-9 NLT)

The two-thirds of the people in the land of Israel who will be cut off and die probably refers to Jews being killed during The Greatest Persecution. Therefore, like the remnant described in Revelation 12, the one-third in Zechariah 13 seem to be a remnant of Jews in Israel that will be protected and provided for during this time.

But notice that one of God’s primary purposes for them will be bring that group through the fire and make them pure and refine them like silver and purify them like gold. This too fits the description of the Revelation 12 remnant who will be protected and fed and trained (trephōsin). ^[13]

Scripture clearly predicts that at least for a significant number of Jewish saints in Israel during The Greatest Persecution, God’s Predestined Will is to help them go to a place where they will be fed, cared for, and protected. It is also probable He will place them in this “sanctuary” for the purpose of spiritual growth and to serve God in some way. Surely, they will not simply be surviving for the three and a half years (Rev 12:14) they are there. God will want them to spiritually thrive and serve Him in some way during The Greatest Persecution. This is how they will glorify Him in the Endtimes. ^[14]

How might this relate to Christians in the Endtimes? It must be admitted that this prophecy specifically relates to Jews in Israel during the Endtimes. In fact, the prophecy states that the Antichrist will indeed go after Christians during The Greatest Persecution (v. 17). And even Revelation 13:10 quoted above predicts that some Christians are destined for prison or destined to die by the sword in martyrdom during The Greatest Persecution.

But descriptions of the Church’s Rescue (cf. Matt 24:31; 1 Thess 4:17) clearly predict some (maybe many) will be alive at Christ’s Return. Are we to assume all of them will be rescued from prison? Probably not. It is probable that a significant number of Christians will be spared death and imprisonment during The Greatest Persecution and glorify and serve God by doing some sort of ministry in the Endtimes. The example of the Jews described in Revelation 12 at this time is additional biblical precedent for believing this. It cannot be interpreted as a biblical prediction for Christians in the Endtimes, but it is an example of what God will want for some of His people.

Therefore, God’s Predestined Will for some in the Endtimes will not be just to survive, but to also THRIVE. To experience amazing spiritual growth, fellowship, and ministry. This will be discussed more in the final chapter of Endtime Babylon.

Therefore, it seems God has predestined three different destinies for different Christians in the Endtimes: 1) imprisonment, 2) martyrdom, 3) or ministry. Of course, His will may include all three. It can be assumed that imprisonment or martyrdom would glorify and please God more than ministry in the Endtimes. But it is more probable that all of these will glorify and please God equally because it will be His Predestined Will for you. It is a glorious thing to either die for God or be miraculously preserved by God to live and serve God.

Whatever God has for you He will empower you to do. But you cannot be certain of God’s Predestined Will for you until it happens. This is why theologians have also called it God’s Hidden Will. Regardless, God expects Christians to do their best to live as long as possible in the Endtimes. God will want them to do everything they can to live, help others to live, and to love and serve His people for as long as He allows them to.

If He has chosen you to live until Christ’s Return like the Jews predicted in Revelation 12, then you cannot die during the Endtimes. As Scripture says of God: You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer (Job 14:5 NLT; cf. Ps 139:16). If He has chosen you to be imprisoned or martyred, then there will come a time that no matter what you do, you will not be able to escape those destinies. God has determined how you will glorify Him in the Endtimes, whether it will be imprisonment, martyrdom, or ministry. Knowing this is intended to comfort, encourage, and strengthen you, as you and your loved ones face the Endtimes.

C) God’s predestined & prayed-for will for those obeying Christ’s Last Great Commandment

There is one more thing God may have predestined about your life. That you would survive the complete destruction and depopulation of Endtime Babylon (America). Of course, Revelation 18:4 is a command and part of God’s Prescribed Will. American Christians will have the choice to disobey it in the Endtimes. American Pastors have had the choice to ignore it and not teach it to their people. Therefore, in a sense, Christ’s Last Great Commandment is in God’s Prescribed Will.

However, we have noted above that Scripture teaches that imprisonment, martyrdom, or ministry during The Greatest Persecution is God’s Predestined Will for at least some Christians in the Endtimes. If this is true, then any Christians living in America at that time would need to survive Antichrist’s Attack on America in order to be imprisoned, martyred, or do ministry during The Greatest Persecution. Therefore, if an American Christian has a predestined role to play after the complete destruction of Endtime Babylon (America), then they are also predestined to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment.

And here we are confronted with the mysteries of God’s will. As noted, it is helpful to understand different aspects of it. But there are times when these different aspects of God’s will seem to overlap from a human perspective. On one hand, Christ’s Last Great Commandment is in God’s Prescribed Will. It is revealed in Scripture and God will hold Christians and Pastors accountable if they do not teach it and obey it when the time comes to do so. They will painfully die in disobedience and miserably fail to please and glorify God in the Endtimes.

But whether or not you obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment and escape the Antichrist’s destruction of Endtime Babylon (America) in the Endtimes to fulfill another role, also seems to be a part of God’s Predestined Will. The apparent difficulty of doing all of this is one indication of this.

One would think the meaning of Revelation 17-18 is clear, and the grace to obey 18:4 abundant. But that is not the case today, nor will it probably be in the future. It requires the supernatural grace of God to have the passion and burden to invest the amount of work and focus required to correctly understand the truth about the Endtimes, and courageously submit to Christ’s Last Great Commandment. Without that special grace, rampant idolatry and false teaching among American Christians and churches will continue to severely hinder them from correctly understanding and courageously respond to Revelation 17-18, even after the Endtimes begin.

Therefore, it becomes evident that a supernatural intervention by God is necessary for anyone to correctly understand Christ’s Last Great Commandment and courageously obey it when the time comes. If you are one of those people who do, you will have to ultimately give God the credit for doing so. When God does something so unique in your life, that you cannot take credit for, it is evidence that it was by His special grace and part of His Predestined Will for your life.

Very, very, few Christians even know about Christ’s Last Great Commandment, or have help to obey it. If you do, then it is because God has uniquely blessed and helped you. Why? Only God knows. But if the Endtimes begin, and you escape God’s punishment of America, then it would seem you have been chosen to fulfill a special purpose in the Endtimes.

There is biblical precedent for suggesting that who actually obeys Christ’s Last Great Commandment is included in God’s Predestined Will. This seems to have been the case when God’s people obeyed His command to leave ancient Babylon. As discussed in chapter 16 (sec. C), God repeatedly commanded His people to leave ancient Babylon at the end of the prophesied 70 years of their captivity. But Scripture records that a total of 42,360 people returned to Judah (Ezra 2:64 NLT). Although it is impossible to know for certain, this was probably a rather small portion of the Jews who remained in prosperous and comfortable Babylon.

Why did these 42,360 Jews decide to obey God, leave the comforts of ancient Babylon, and take on the difficult tasks of travelling 900 miles to Jerusalem and rebuilding a temple in the face of great opposition? Ezra explains regarding the Exodus from ancient Babylon: everyone whose heart God had moved —prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:5 NIV). This decision was not purely a free will choice as is usually the case with something merely God’s Prescribed Will. As noted above, this aspect of God’s Will includes things that is purely our own choice. But it seems God supernaturally compelled these people to leave Babylon because He had also predestined that the temple would be rebuilt. As Wiersbe notes here: “The same God who ordains the end (the rebuilding of the temple), also ordains the means to the end, in this case, a people willing to go to Judah and work.” ^[15]

Likewise, God has predestined that some Christians living in America when the Endtimes begin will glorify Him by being imprisoned, martyred, or doing ministry in the Endtimes. Therefore, God has predestined that they will obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment and He will provide them with everything they need to do so. It is predestined that they will have the necessary understanding of Scripture, faith in God, spiritual strength, physical resources, and spiritual leadership to fulfill God’s Predestined Will for their life in the Endtimes.

There is one more aspect of God’s will that may be operating for some of those who obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment. It is God’s Prayed-for Will. These are things God will do, only because we ask Him to. Otherwise they may not happen. In 2014, this author began praying: “Father, help me rescue my family, flock, and friends from the coming destruction of Endtime Babylon.” That prayer has been prayed hundreds of times since then. Perhaps others have been praying something like this as well. And maybe it will be revealed some day that it was ultimately because of those prayers that God decided to save you from the destruction of Endtime Babylon (America) in the Endtimes. Again, such is the mystery of God’s will.

1. Unfortunately, there is some debate about the meaning and even original text of Revelation 13:10. The issue can be illustrated by the differences in the NIV and NASB translations:

   If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed. (Rev 13:10 NIV; cf. NLT, ESV, NET, CSB, NCV)

   If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. (Rev 13:10 NASB; cf. KJV, NKJV)

   Most translators and scholars agree with the NIV of 13:10b. In essence it is describing the same Predestined Will of God as 13:10a. As Thomas notes, this text is:

   warning the saints of the impending persecution by the beast and urging them to submit to divine providence (Swete)… It stresses the inevitability of persecution and death for the faithful (Alford, Mounce). This interpretation … also fits with the reference to endurance at the end of v. 10.

   It invites the faithful to recognize that the actions of this false Christ have been decreed by God, as indicated in the fourfold use of δόθη (edothē) (13:5, 7, 14, 15) (Kiddle). This meaning also coincides with the emphasis on divine providence in the Jeremiah passages to which John alludes in v. 10 (Jer. 15:2; 43:11). The emphasis in the immediate context on the victory of the beast over the saints leaves little room for any other meaning except an encouragement to accept this as the sovereign will of God. (1132; cf. Osborne, 506, 509).

   MacArthur uses the NKJV (cf. NASB above) in his commentaries, but comes to a similar meaning of the text in that “believers alive at the time of Antichrist’s persecution … are to depend on God’s providence” (52). ↑

2. The textual difficulties of 1 Cor 13:3b are greatly debated, with equally respected NT scholars supporting both the NLT (sacrificed my body; cf. Fee, Morris, Thiselton) and the NASB (surrender my body to be burned; cf. MacArthur, Bruce, Barrett, Collins) The ancient textual evidence seems to favor the former, and could easily refer to the latter. ↑

3. For an explanation of this translation of Matt 24:29, 31 see Christ’s Endtimes Teaching ch. 3, sec. E; and ch. 4, sec. C. ↑

4. BDAG #2. ↑

5. BDAG #1. ↑

6. Mounce, 234. ↑

7. BDAG #1. ↑

8. Thomas, 1085. ↑

9. BDAG #2. ↑

10. One rather clear example of where the biblical author probably meant a double meaning for a Greek word is John’s use of anothen (“again” or “above”) in Jesus’ statement, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again [anothen, NIV; from above, NRSV] he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). As the NIV text note states: “Or from above; the Greek is purposely ambiguous and can mean both again and from above.” ↑

11. The phenomenon of the near/final and partial/complete fulfillment of biblical prophecy has been discussed elsewhere (cf. CET, ch. 12, sec. B.3). Therefore, this prophecy may have had a near and partial fulfillment with the invasion of Israel by the Romans ca. A.D. 66 and the destruction of Jerusalem ca. A.D. 70. Accordingly, Mounce comments regarding Rev 12:6, “The flight may in part reflect the escape of the Palestinian church to Pella at the outbreak of the Jewish war in A.D. 66” (234).

    It is a remarkable fact that Josephus does not record the death of a single Christian in Jerusalem when the Romans destroyed the city in A.D. 70. How could this be? In spite of persecution there for decades, the early Church historian Eusebius records that a number of Christians were living in Jerusalem at the time. How did they escape the Roman massacre? Eusebius writes (and other early church writers confirm this):

    The people of the church in Jerusalem, in accordance with a certain oracle that was given through revelation to those who were worthy in the place, were commanded to migrate from the city before the war and to settle in a certain city of Perea—Pella it was called—to which those who believed in Christ migrated from Jerusalem. (Ecclesiastical History, III.5.3)

    The ancient town of Pella was located about 75 miles north of Jerusalem. Eusebius does not specify how the “oracle” was received. Another influential early Church writer, Epiphanius, wrote:

    For when the city was about to be taken and destroyed by the Romans, it was revealed in advance to all the disciples by an angel of God that they should remove from the city, as it was going to be completely destroyed. They sojourned as emigrants to Pella (On Weights and Measures, 15) ↑

12. The time of The Greatest Persecution is also symbolized in verse 15 where we read: Then the dragon tried to drown the woman with a flood of water that flowed from his mouth. Persecution is often symbolized as a flood in the Psalms (cf. 18:3-4; 69:2-4; 124:1-5). ↑

13. K&D write regarding Zech 13:7-8:

    The dispersion of the flock will deliver two-thirds of the nation in the whole land to death, so that only one-third will remain alive [and in the land]… The remaining third is also to be refined through severe afflictions, to purify it from everything of a sinful nature, and make it into a truly holy nation of God.

    Wiersbe has little comment here. Unfortunately, McComiskey is rather useless on Zechariah because he spiritualizes its fulfillment in the Church. ↑

14. Thomas helpfully comments on the Jews described in Revelation 12:

    The future flight of Israel to a place of safety midway through the seventieth week is the best way to understand the prophecy of this vision (1068)…

    The passive form (edothēsan, “were given”) retains its usual apocalyptic sense of being granted by God for His purposes. God’s miraculous intervention explains how the woman accomplished her escape mentioned in v. 6. The dragon is no match for her God-given powers…

    The expression “two wings of a great eagle” signifies expansive strength and rapid flight and is an echo of terminology used for Israel’s deliverance from Egypt (Ex. 19:4; Deut. 32:11; cf. Isa. 40:31). The use of the terminology indicates that this is a further act of God’s protecting of Israel (cf. Ps. 91:1-4). (1085)

    Likewise, Walvoord writes:

    Here is the godly remnant of Israel standing true to God in the time of the great tribulation… Since Israel is comparatively tranquil and safe in the first three-and-a-half years of Daniel’s seventieth week (Dan. 9:27), the reference must be to the preservation of a portion of the nation Israel through the great tribulation [better, “persecution”] to await the second coming of Christ…

    Some have felt that the reference here is to some specific place such as the rock city of Petra, in the southern part of modern Jordan, as the end-time city of refuge for the Jewish people where at least a portion of Israel might be safe from her persecutors. Fruchtenbaum makes a strong case for Petra, pointing to clues in Matthew 24:16; Revelation 12:6, 14; Isaiah 33:13–16; Micah 2:12; and Daniel 11:41.10…

    Verse 14 implies that there is some supernatural care of Israel during this period such as that which Elijah experienced by the brook Cherith (cf. 1 Kings 17:5), or that which Israel experienced during the forty years she lived on the manna in the wilderness. Whether natural or supernatural means are used, it is clear that God does preserve a godly remnant, though according to Zechariah 13:8, two-thirds of Israel in the land will perish. (195, 200; cf. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, The Footsteps of the Messiah: A Study of the Sequence of Prophetic Events, 294–297).

    MacArthur agrees with both Thomas and Walvoord and has nothing notable to add. Osborne oddly ignores the prediction that God promises these Jews will be protected from the dragon (v. 14). He writes:

    They will be oppressed through physical persecution but will be nourished spiritually by God… “From the presence of the serpent”… may mean she will be protected from the deceptive wiles of the devil … Satan will be able to kill them but will not be able to defeat them. (483)

    Contrary to Osborne, the prophecy clearly states these Jews will be kept from the Antichrist harming them in any way.

    Ladd is deceived about this text, claiming, “the woman represents the ideal people of God—the church” (166). He also claims v. 6 is referring to something that occurs in heaven, not the Earth (cf. 170). ↑

15. Wiersbe, Ezra 1:5. Likewise, K&D remark:

    The thought is: All the Jews were called upon to return, but those only obeyed the call whom God made willing to build the temple at Jerusalem, i.e., whom the religious craving of their hearts impelled thereto. ↑