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THE OLIVET DISCOURSE

(delivered upon the mount of Olives situate across from the east gate of Jerusalem)

07-31-11

(Mat 24:1-3)  And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple [signifying what?]: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down [denotation of intentionally vs. unintentionally “fall” down. Conclusion: God is in control]. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

1.      (1 Cor 6:19)  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own ? [having been purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ, if ye will receive it]

2.      (1 Pet 2:5)  Ye also, as lively stones [“like living stones” NIV], are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

3.      Commentary: “upon the mount of olives” = the figurative mountain of Jewish people then, and all saved people now, from whose crushed bodies is squeezed the olive oil, symbolic of the Holy Spirit.

4.      Commentary: the word “world” here is the Greek aion meaning this world, used rather than kosmos which means the universe. Thus, this world will end, but the universe will continue. J

(Mat 24:4,5)  And Jesus answered and said unto them [His disciples], Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ [Gk: the anointed; the Messiah]; and shall deceive many.

1.      deceive = Gk: to (cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue): go astray, deceive, err, seduce, wander, be out of the way /// delusion.

2.      Commentary: delusion may take the form of a spell, an enchantment, or a hex.

3.      Commentary: “Take heed that no man deceive you” = the idea of this phrase is repeated three times in the Olivet Discourse: verses 4, 11, 24, indicating imperative importance, certainly relating to and perhaps directly signifying the “strong delusion” found in 2 Th 2:11.

4.      (2 Th 2:8-12)  And then shall that Wicked [antichrist] be revealed [a counterfeit of “the glory which shall be revealed in us” Rom 8:18], whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

TRIBULATION

(Mat 24:6-8)  And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled [Gk: frightened] [reference the current middle-east conflicts]: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation [America vs. Iraq, America vs. Afghanistan], and kingdom against kingdom [Muslim vs. Jew, Muslim vs. Christian]: and there shall be famines [South Africa], and pestilences [Gk: plagues], and earthquakes, in divers [Gk: many] places. All these are the beginning of sorrows [Gk: a pangs or throes, esp. of childbirth: pain, sorrow, travail /// griefs].

1.      Commentary: bringing whom to childbirth? bringing the church to birth the Sons of God.

2.      (Rom 8:19)  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation [Gk: disclosure, be revealed] of the sons [Gk: mature] of God.

3.      (Isa 66:7,8)  Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

UNBELIEVERS & PROFESSING (deceived) CHRISTIANS & FALSE PROPHETS & BELIEVERS

(Mat 24:9-14)  Then shall they [the unbelievers] deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake [i.e., belief in Jesus Christ]. And then shall many [professing deceived Christians] be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity [the violation of God’s laws] shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he [believers] that shall endure unto the end [THE PROMISE:], the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

GREAT TRIBULATION

(Mat 24:15-22)  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:) Then let them which be in Judaea [symbolic of all Christendom] flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down [back inside] to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight [Gk: a fleeing, your escape] be not in the winter [the bad weather slowing and perhaps blocking the escape], neither on the sabbath day [when only extremely limited travel is permitted]: For then shall be great tribulation [Gk: pressure: affliction, anguish, burden, persecution, tribulation, trouble], such as was not since the beginning of the world [Gk: kosmos; orderly arrangement; the universe] to this time, no, nor ever shall be [again] [i.e., wholesale atomic warfare]. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake [Gk: selected, chosen] those days shall be shortened.

1.      abomination = Gk: a detestation, i.e. (spec.) idolatry /// (to stink); to be disgusted, i.e. (by impl.) detest (espec. of idolatry):--abhor, abominable.

2.      desolation = Gk: to lay waste: (bring to, make) desolate (-ion), come to nought /// lonesome, i.e. (by impl.) waste: desert, desolate, solitary, wilderness.

3.      Commentary: “stand in the holy place” = the holy place/most holy place is the throne-room of God. Whatever else it may be that stands against God in the holy place, it is certainly also the express symbol of the personification and embodiment of Lucifer’s original sin of pride. Pride qualifies again and again throughout the Bible as the abomination that makes desolation. Who then, as a living manifestation and the epitome of pride, could conceivably cause the extreme desolation yet to come? Answer: a woman who is the high priest of a one-world religion. Never in the Bible was a woman allowed to become a priest. Why not? Because that happenstance is an usurpation of God-given authority and a direct affront to Father God, and to His son Jesus Christ, and to man. The most powerful country in the world is the United States, and the most powerful person in the world is the President of the United States, which also has by far the most Christian residents of any country. A small-step spiritual extrapolation could easily place the holy place, the throne-room of God, as now being the United States, and the “abomination of desolation” as a female President. But then, bye and bye, we shall see.

4.      (Zec 14:12)  And this shall be the plague [Heb: slaughter] wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

a.      Commentary: in Hebrew, “plague” has the dual meaning of slaughter and pestilence. In the context of Zechariah 14:12, the word slaughter indicates somewhat instantaneous death (e.g., a fiery nuclear explosion), whereas pestilence points to the extended death of radiation sickness.

5.      (Psa 91:5-8)  Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow [the ancient vision of a guided missile] that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence [radiation sickness] that walketh in darkness [approaches unseen]; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday [highly visible slaughter]. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Amen