End-time Pestilences

One of the clearest signs of the beginning of sorrow is frequent occurrences of pestilences mentioned by our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 24:

Jesus said, "take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in My name, saying 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Matt. 24: 4 - 8, NKJV, emphasis added).

Bible teachers point to these verses as prophetic in that they as well as the rest of Matthew 24 will take place during the Great Tribulation. I tend to agree with them on that interpretation. But we can certainly see all these things currently approaching, similarly to a woman in travail. Birth pangs are growing very intense in these end-tim hours.

The recent outbreak of the Swine Flu or more correctly, the Global Flu or Influenza A(H1N1) is one of the pestilenses. Other earlier pestilences are HIV/AIDS, Bird Flu, Spanish Flu, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and the Nipah Encephalitis Epidemic, etc.

A question we are tempted to ask is - are we in the Great Tribulation yet? The answer is, NO. And the reason can be found in my earlier posting/message - "Some Biblical Facts about the Future". Toward the end of that message I mentioned that Paul, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit said something about the timeline of the events of the future:

Paul said, "Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sit as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, ...." (2 Thess. 2:3 - 4, 6 -8, NKJV, emphasis added).

Here are some statements of truth:

1. The Antichrist is known by many names - the man of sin, the son of perdition and the lawless one. The word 'Antichrist' simply means 'instead of Christ' rather than 'against Christ'.

2. The word 'He' in "He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way" refers to the Holy Spirit. The true Church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit also lives in individual true believers. Therefore, when the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way, the true Church is also taken out of the way. This event is obviously the rapture of the true Church - a future event.

3. This is the timeline of future events - the falling away (the great apostasy); rapture of the true Church; the revelation of the Antichrist and followed immediately by the Great Tribulation.

The above clearly says that the true Church will not go through the Great Tribulation.

Prophecies concerning more severe pestilences

If you think the present Global Flu A (H1N1) Epidemic is hard to control and hard to bear, you should read read what other more severe pestilences are waiting for the people of this world during the Great Tribulation period. We need to thank God that true believers will be with Jesus just before the Great Tribulation.

The four seals and the four horses and their riders (Rev. 6:1 - 8)

The apostle John, in the Book of Revelation, saw visions of four horses - the white horse, the red horse, the black horse and the pale horse.

If you are familiar with Bible prophecies you will realize that the man who rides the white horse is the Antichrist, disguising himself as Jesus Christ, falsely claiming he is the messiah who will bring peace and prosperity to the world. He uses a bow whereas Jesus fights with a sword (Rev. 19:15). He wears only a crown whereas Jesus, the Word of God, the King of kings wears many crowns (Rev. 19:12, 13).

The red horse symbolizes war and blood. And "it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another and there was given to him a great sword" (Rev. 6:4). I believe the red horse also signifies communism, which is symbolized by the color red.

The black horse symbolizes famine. The rider has a pair of scales in his hand (Rev. 6:5). This is a time of great famine. Famine and economic ruin always the aftermath of war. During the war, resources are consumed by the war effort, as are available workers. Many industrial and business/commercial facilities are also destroyed.

The pale horse and its significance

John wrote: "So I looked, and behold, and ashy pale horse (black and blue as if made so by bruising), and its rider's name was Death, and Hades (the realm of the dead) followed him closely; and they were given authority and power over a fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword and with famine and with plague (pestilence, disease) and with wild beasts of the earth" (Rev. 6:8, The Amplified Bible, emphasis added).

It is interesting to note that the estimated world population as of May, 2009 is 6.77 billion - Google search result. One-fourth of which is about 1.69 billion. That means during the first three and one-half years of the Great Tribulation, nearly 1.7 billion will die on account of war, famine, religious deception and pestilence. If again one-fourth will perish on account of pestilence and disease, the figure is 425 million! We must also understand that by the time of the Great Tribulation all these figures will be much higher. At the time of writing this message the number of death due to Swine Flu A(H1N1) is only 160. There are hundreds of confirmed cases but not all lead to death. This figure is considered negligible in comparison with the number of deaths, due to pestilences, in the Great Tribulation!

The key to the identity of the last horseman is the word 'pale', which often makes us think of someone who is feeling sick, having an anemic-looking appearance. 'Pale' is translated from the Greek word 'chloros', which we would normally take to mean the color of chlorophyll, the property that gives plants their healthy green appearance. When used Biblically, however, 'chloros' means the sickly pale green color of sickness and disease.

All the four horsemen represent the end-time culmination of the most traumatic problems endured by a rebellious mankind. They picture one of the most ominous scenarios ever. The man on the pale horse symbolizes climatic, globe-encircling plagues and pandemics occurring now (pre-Great Tribulation period) and soon to occur in an uncontrollable scale in the days to come.

Old Testament Prophecies

I believe the only reason for this type of extreme punishment is man's unabated rebellion toward his Creator God.

According to Moses

Let us examine Deuteronomy 28 (part of the Law of Moses) and add modern-day expressions to see more clearly how this warning applies to our time now:

"But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee; .... The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption (chronic, degenerate disease such as AIDS), and with a fever, and with an inflammation (malaria or communicative diseases such as influenzas), and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. ... The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt (elephantiasis), and with the emerods (tumors, cancer, etc), and with scab, and with the itch (agravated psoriasis and other nutrient-deficiency diseases such as scurvy, rickets, etc.), whereof thou canst not be healed (incurable or drug-resistant diseases). The Lord shall smite thee with madness (mental illness, insanity), and blindness, and astonishment of heart (emotional distresses such as depression)" (Deut. 28:15; 21, 22; 27, 28, KJV, emphasis added).


Here are some statements of truth:


1. The Lord shall let curses come upon His people (Israel and the Church) if they refuse to obey His commandments, His statutes, His laws, His Word, etc. Most incurable sicknesses, diseases and pestilences are the result of curses.


2. In the eyes of God, compromised teaching is also considered disobedience toward God. Please read my previous posting/message - "Hidden Danger of Compromised Teaching". A compromised teacher or preacher will never teach or preach the full counsel of God. He changes the meaning of the Holy Word of God to please men and to make his teaching more acceptable to men. This is the outworking of what Paul wrote to Timothy:


"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth ..." (2 Tim. 4:3, 4, NIV, emphasis added).


In my opinion, preachers/Pastors who are in the habit of preaching compromised sermons are very proud persons. They knowingly or unknowingly judge God's Word - add or take away as situation arises.


3. Compromised teaching is a recipe for sickness, disease and pestilence. Please read my earlier messages on healing and health. God's Word is His recipe for health:


"My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh" (Prov. 4:20 - 22, NKJV, emphasis added).


When you keep His Word and His sayings in the midst of your heart, you will have health in all your flesh. And if you ignore His Word and His saying, you will not have good health. Instead sickness, disease and pestilence will come upon you.


According to Daniel


Referring to the Law of Moses, Daniel wrote:


"As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice" (Daniel 9:13, 14, NKJV, emphasis added).


Here are some statements of truth:


1. The Book of Daniel is an end-time prophecy (Daniel 12:4, 9).


2. God's people failed to call upon the Lord for forgiveness when they sinned. They failed to confess their sins; implore His mercy; and to deprecate His wrath. It would have been easy to turn aside His judgments if they had been penitent, and had sought His mercy, but they had not done it.


3. God will heal our land of disease and pestilence if we just cry out to Him:


The Lord said to Solomon: "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chron. 7:14, NKJV).


The above verse says that God requires us to do four things - humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and trun from our wicked ways. Then He will do three things - hear our prayer, forgive our sins and heal our land.


Conclusion


Millions are prophesied to die (especially through disease and pestilence) because they fail to heed God's warning to turn to Him with the type of contrite attitude necessary to please Him.


"This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word" (Isaiah 66:2, NIV).


God wants true repentance - a turning away from the carnal "human nature" (the old nature of the old man) that we possess to the spiritual nature God originally intended us to develop.


Jesus said, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 26:41).


We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit at all times so that we can overcome the weakness of our flesh.


Paul said, "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:16, 25).


Above all, God wants us to "tremble at His Word" - to fear Him and revere His commands.