Matthew Henry, Adam Clark, John Foxe, and many other 18th and 19th Century Commentators posited that the “Plague of Locusts” in Both Joel and Revelation 9, were armies of moslems.
They were, at the time, going out on a limb, as the islamic empires were in decline and pretty much contained in the Middle East and Africa.
What seemed like a “stretch” back then makes perfect sense now.
Story Flow of the Book of Revelation
“. . . Let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:6-11).
“Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:34-36, NASB).
“Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time is. It is like a man, away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert” (Mark 13:33-35, NASB).
“Therefore, be on the alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, at cockcrowing, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’” (Mark 13:35-37, NASB).
from:
Bible Study Course Lesson 5
Is There Hope for Human Survival?
Many of these threats to human survival play prominent roles in prophecies in the Bible
Does your last sentence imply that Christians will go through the tribulation?
Interesting article Pastor Bill
I think part of Europe falls to Islam. Reason being is the legs of the image of Daniel chapter 2, are East to West of the Roman empire. So five toes out of each. I could never understand how Islamic countries could join that close with non-Islamic countries. But maybe it’s 5 in Europe and 5 in the middle east.
Bill,
Why is his reign only half of the tribulation? Doesn’t he initiate the covenant at the beginning of the seven years? If he is the White Horse rider, that would put him at the first seal. Much of the action that he’s involved with occurs in the first half of the Tribulation.
I pretty much agree with Fruchtenbaum that the AntiChrist may probably be known by most dispensationalists prior to the rapture — assuming a short gap between the Rapture and the Treaty.
You’re wrong
1. The Roman Empire was continuous from around 400 BC to 1453 AD
2. What we call the “byzantine empire” called itself and was called by outsiders as the Roman Empire. They called themselves Romans and were a continuation of the Empire
3. The ‘Holy Roman Empire’ was neither Roman, nor Holy nor an Empire but a gaggling confederation that died in 1806. It wasn’t a continuation of the Roman Empire.
4. Daniel spoke of the 4 empires of Babylonia (Gold, lion), Persia (Silver, bear), Macedonia (Bronze, Leopard) and Rome (Iron moving to Iron-mud) - the last was shattered by a stone, uncut by human hand that became a mountain that covered the entire world.
That uncunt stone was Jesus Christ and the mountain was/is Christianity since the 1st century.
the 42 months is the 3.5 years of the Jewish-Roman war that culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem, which was burned to the ground (the western wall is not the wall of the temple but of the embankment around it), and where the Christians ran to the mountain town of Pella to stay alive.