Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of understanding the end times by breaking down the prophetic timeline into three key time frames: the beginning of birth pains, a period of counterfeit peace and safety, and the great tribulation. He explains that the first time frame represents the current struggles and signs leading to the return of Christ, while the second time frame involves a deceptive peace that will precede intense tribulation. Bickle encourages believers to remain alert and discerning, as the world will be caught off guard by the sudden onset of tribulation, much like in the days of Noah. He highlights the role of the church as intercessors during these times, preparing for the glorious coming of the Millennial Kingdom. The sermon serves as a roadmap for understanding the complexities of biblical prophecy and the significance of being spiritually prepared.

That was so beautiful. I was trying to study my notes and the worship was distracting me. It made me close my eyes in worship. I couldn't study. I love it when the worship is so good I cannot prepare. I am so happy. That music was so beautiful. Session 10 or chapter 10? Page 155. Father, we ask you for your blessing. We ask you for understanding again. I ask you for an alert mind. I ask you for help to say these important truths in simple ways. In Jesus name, Amen. Well in this session, I want to put the whole story together into three, the whole end time story together into three important time frames. People say, I can't quite figure it out. When does this happen, and when does that happen, and they can't see the big picture. So as I lay out these three prophetic time frames, it's like a skeleton that everything fits, all the other pieces fit into this skeletal structure. It's like a road map, you get to see where the big picture is, so you can figure out where the little details fit in, in the end time plan. But like the session on historic pre-millennialism, this is going to be like that session. I'm going to be speaking to your mind, not so much your heart. In most of these sessions, I want to stir your mind, and I want to stir your heart. But this one is conceptual, so if you understand it, you will be able to understand the bigger storyline in a more clear way. So kind of get ready for an intellectual, I mean a kind of a mentally focused session more than a heart-stirring one. But it's very important that you understand this framework, or you'll be lost in the storyline of the end time plan. Paragraph 8, the Bible describes three very important time frames in the end times. We can find these three time frames when we compare these three passages. When we compare Matthew 24, verse 4 to 8, with 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 2 and 3, and Daniel 9, verse 27, by comparing those three verses together, we can find a roadmap, a framework to fit the rest of the end time story into. Paragraph B, these three time frames that we're going to talk about in a moment, they all relate to this well-known seven-year period before Jesus returns. The Bible makes it clear, there's a seven-year period that leads to the return of the Lord. But that seven-year period has two different periods within it, three and a half the first and three and a half the second period. That's three and a half years I'm in. And so this seven-year period is compared to a woman having labor pains to have a baby. The Old Testament prophets use this analogy a number of times of a woman in labor pains having a baby. There's a negative side, and there's a powerful side. The negative side, it really is trauma. It really is. But the positive side is a baby really comes. And in John chapter 16, Jesus said the joy of the baby will be so great you will forget the trauma and the pain to have the baby. John 16. And that will be true after the great tribulation. We will look back and say the trauma, we forgot the trauma because the joy is so great of the baby. And we must continually remind, the church must, the forerunners must continually remind people. Yes, we are in trauma, but a glorious baby is coming. And the baby is the Millennial Kingdom. The transitioning of this planet Earth into the Garden of Eden period of history. But better than the Garden of Eden. The man Jesus is on the Earth with his people forever face-to-face. And all the nations walk in righteousness and justice. It is unimaginable how glorious this baby will be. But before the baby comes, the Earth will go, the human history will go through the trauma of the labor pains. And just one of the reasons I believe the church is here at that time, Because the church, they are the true mothers and fathers and stewards and intercessors of the plan of God. I can't imagine all the mothers and fathers in the Spirit gone, and then the Earth goes through transition, then they come back to hold the baby. This is a difficult but glorious privileged time for the servants of the Lord to labor with Jesus to transition the Earth to the age to come. Well, these three time frames all center around the idea of this seven-year period. Paragraph C, the angel Gabriel is the one who told Daniel about the seven-year period right before Jesus returns. Gabriel spoke of the seven-year period as one week. This was a common expression in ancient Israel. Israel thought of a week of days or a week of years. A week of days, you know, seven days. Today, we think about a week as seven days. But in the Old Testament, like for instance Genesis 29, they talked about a week of years. So when Gabriel appeared to Daniel and said, it will last one week, he understood it was seven years as everybody else understood that as well. But 2,500 years later after Daniel, we go, what do you mean? It's so symbolic, it's so confusing, but it's really a very simple point. Let's give a quick overview of the three time frames, and then we'll go back to them and break them down little by little. Paragraph D, the first time frame is called the beginning of birth pain. In Matthew 24, verse 8, Jesus used the phrase the beginning of birth pain. Now, here's the problem. Some translations say the beginning of sorrows or the beginning of trouble. And that's an accurate translation. The translation I use, New King James, it says sorrows. Other translations say troubles. But the majority of the translations, they use the word birth pangs because the word is interchangeable. And the reason I want to use the phrase the beginning of birth pangs instead of the beginning of sorrows, because many of the Old Testament prophets used the analogy of birth pangs to describe this period. And the majority of translations of Matthew 24, they use the word birth pangs too, but mine doesn't. I believe Jesus meant birth pangs in referencing the Old Testament prophets describing this area, this period of time as birth pangs. Page 156, the second prophetic time frame that follows the beginning of birth pangs, it's very surprising. It's worldwide safety and peace. But the problem is it's a counterfeit and it's a temporary peace and safety. This is what begins the final seven year period is a counterfeit peace and safety that's worldwide. The peace speaks of political treaties and ceasing of war. And the safety talks about the lack of terrorism and the lack of people being killed in wars and the whole world collapsing economically. That's what the word safety would talk about. There will be a very temporary period where everyone will see, where the world will relax and say, Oh, the troubles are now over. But they're very wrong. Because the great trouble, the great tribulation comes right after, interrupts this peace and safety and great trouble comes to the earth. Paul prophesies of this counterfeit peace and safety. He says in verse 2, You yourselves know perfectly the day of the Lord, which means the events related to the second coming of Jesus. It will come like a thief in the night. For when they, that means the unbelievers, when they say, Peace and safety, at last the trouble is over. Then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains. And Paul uses the description of labor pains in unity with the Old Testament prophets who use that phrase many times. Then Paul says they will not escape. Now Paul uses the word they two times. And the they is talking not about the believers but the unbelievers. Two things happen. They, the unbelievers, will say peace and safety. And secondly, they will suddenly change and they will not escape the trouble. So this second season will seem good to unbelievers but it will be a time of trouble for the church. And we'll get to that in a few minutes. I'm getting ahead of myself. Okay, let's look at paragraph G. Then the third time frame comes right after the peace and safety. Paul called it the time of sudden destruction. Jesus calls it the great tribulation. Jeremiah 30 verse 7, I don't have this in the notes, calls it Jacob's trouble. So the three time frames. First, the beginning of birth pains. I believe we're in that season of history right now. Second, worldwide peace and safety though it's counterfeit. And then third, the great tribulation follows the counterfeit peace and safety. And you will find all the end time events will fit into one of those three time frames then you can kind of see the big picture. Page 157. Now let's begin, we're going to start with the second time frame to give context for the first and the third. If you understand the second one, you'll understand the first and the third one better. So we're going to begin in the middle of these three time frames. Let's read it again. Verse 2. Paul said, for you yourselves know perfectly. So Paul's talking about you, the believers. He goes, you know this perfectly because I've already taught it to you clearly. That the day of the Lord will come to the planet and will come to earth like a thief. The unbelievers won't be aware of what's happening. It's important to understand this phrase, a thief in the night. This is not my point in this session, but I'm going to take a minute and get off the subject for one second. This phrase, I believe is often misunderstood. Jesus doesn't come like a thief in the night to the church. He comes like a thief in the night to the world. The idea of the thief in the night is that if you're not watching, you will suffer loss. And that loss could be avoided if you would watch. And anyone that's not watching, this vision of the Lord will cause great loss to their life. That's the idea he's making. And the bigger point is the loss can be avoided if you watch or if you pray and you're alert. So I hear some believers say, well he'll come in like a thief in the night to us. And I say, no, no, the point is he doesn't come like a thief to you. You're watching, you know he's coming and you're alert and you're ready. You don't need to suffer loss before the Lord comes, but to receive a full reward and have great gain. It's the opposite when he comes. We're looking for him, we're praying for his return, we're watching the prophetic signs. We know it's coming. And so therefore we won't suffer loss, so it won't be a thief in the night to the praying church. And Paul makes that point really clear in 1 Thessalonians 4-6. I did not add this to the passage, but read it, the next couple of verses make it very clear what I just said. Let's get back to the main point of this session now. Paul talks about you know perfectly and they will say peace and safety. And 1 Thessalonians 5-10 is the entire passage. And throughout the passage he makes a contrast between you, the believers, and they, the unbelievers. So they will say peace and safety, but we won't. We will say deception, counterfeit, it's a fraud, it's a lie. That's what we'll say. Paragraph C. Now where will this peace and safety come from? It will be the result of the Antichrist confirming a covenant with many nations to have peace on the earth. Let's read Daniel 9 verse 27. This is the famous verse that talks about the seven-year period and the peace coming to the Middle East. The angel Gabriel is the one who told this to Daniel. Verse 27, then he, the Antichrist, he will confirm a political covenant in the Middle East. But it will go beyond the Middle East because the whole world is connected to the conflict and so he will bring peace by this covenant. He will make this covenant with many. In context to Daniel 9, it's not talking about many individuals, but he'll make it with many nations, obviously related to the nation of Israel. We know it's a covenant of peace with Israel because the verses before are all about the city of Jerusalem being in turmoil. And he will make this covenant, this military and political and economic covenant for one week. Now Gabriel did not mean a week of days, not seven days, but a week of years, seven years. Someone says, why only a seven-year period? This will be miraculous that nobody can get peace in the Middle East even for one month. Seven years is awesome. Undoubtedly, it will be a covenant that has political, military, economic and religious parts of the covenant. But something happens that surprises everybody. Suddenly, there's a great change. Right in the middle of the week, right in the middle of the seven-year period. At the three and a half year mark, the Antichrist breaks the covenant with Israel. And the way that Gabriel communicated that was in a way that was very clear to the Jewish people. He shall bring an end to the sacrifices in the Jerusalem temple. Now, at a quick reading, we think, what does that mean? That when the Antichrist, nobody knows he's the Antichrist when he's doing this. He looks like just a very excellent world leader that's very brilliant. He has all the main leaders of the nations there at the big peace summit. And all the cameras and everybody's watching. They go into the private room. What's going to happen? What's going to happen? And the leaders of Israel, they're around the table. And they say, yes, political peace, yes. Military restraints, yes. We'll agree to this too, yes. Land, territory, boundaries, yes. We'll move a few boundaries if we have to. And they'll, other nations will move a few boundaries possibly. Economic sanctions or the release of, yes, we agree to that, yes. Then Israel looks him right in the eye and they say, there's one more matter. For Israel to prosper and to be a unified nation, we have to offer sacrifices in the temple. And this famous world leader, he groans and sighs and goes, oh, I knew you were going to bring that up. Because to offer sacrifices, the law of Moses demands, I don't mean the law of Moses, the Old Testament law demands that the sacrifice is in the temple. They can't offer a sacrifice unless the temple is in place. But there's only one big problem. There is no temple in Jerusalem. So they said, we have to build a temple in order to give the sacrifice. And the Antichrist goes, I knew you were going to bring this up. And the Arab and the Islamic leaders, they're nervous. They're going, oh, I don't know if we can make this deal. Okay, you can have a temple so you can offer your sacrifices. The Jewish leaders say, sir, there's one more delicate matter. The temple has to be exactly in the same place that the temple used to be when Solomon built it before it was destroyed. And it just so happens that the Islamic Dome of the Rock is on that spot. One of the holiest sites in the Islamic world. They say Mohammed the Prophet ascended to heaven from that very rock. So the Jews will say, could you convince them to maybe move that temple over a few feet so we can kind of move our building in its place. And then we can offer our sacrifices in the right temple at the right place. God will be happy. We'll have peace in Israel. Everything will be great. I can picture the Islamic leaders, no, no, in a big fight and they all march out of the room. The Antichrist gets them all back and says, come on you guys. And he explains it and by some miraculous way they all come to unity which is the only time that could ever happen in history up to this time. So they come out of the room, all the cameras are there and they have their thumbs up. We have peace in the Middle East. A miracle, a miracle. And we don't understand the details of how it's going to all happen but we know it is going to happen. So the Jews build that temple and they're so excited. Right on the spot where Solomon's temple was. And then they begin to offer the animal sacrifices like they did in the Old Testament. Everything is going great. By a miracle, but it's by demonic power, but a miracle. All the Islamic nations are at peace and everyone is in unity. And so the Jews begin to offer the sacrifices and three and a half years go by and everything is going good. Then Gabriel tells Daniel, tell the nation of Israel. That in the middle of the week, at the three and a half year mark exactly, this evil man will pull his mask off and show what his heart is really like. He will show himself as a wild beast who hates the nation of Israel and wants to actually exterminate the whole nation. Well the problem is the Antichrist is now deeply established as the world leader and deeply established with authority in the land of Israel. This would be far worse than having Adolf Hitler set up his offices in Jerusalem. So the Antichrist says, no more sacrifices and that news shakes the whole world up. But it's worse than that. He says, on the Holy of Holies, where the sacrifice, I mean in the temple where the sacrifice is offered and then the blood brought to the Holy of Holies, something new is going to happen. He walks into the temple, sits down in the Holy of Holies, he says, I'm the God over Israel, away with the sacrifices. I'm the God over the whole earth, that's who I am, you will all worship me and then everything changes in one day. I spent too much time on that story. So I'm going to have to speed to get through this now. But I enjoyed it. Page 159. Paragraph J. Then Isaiah describes the covenant that Israel makes with the Antichrist. Isaiah 28 has a partial fulfillment in history, but the complete fulfillment is with the Antichrist in the end times. Paragraph K. Ezekiel 38 describes Israel in a place where they have peace and safety for a few years in the midst of the end times. So, Isaiah talks about the covenant, Ezekiel talks about the peace that's all over the land of Israel. And then Paul the Apostle spoke about the peace, it goes beyond the land of Israel, it's peace and safety around the whole world, everyone's talking about it. Page 160. Paragraph O. Now during this second season of peace and safety, this is when the unbelievers will be saying, peace and safety, peace and safety, this man is the great leader that finally brought peace and safety. This is after the first time frame, the birth pangs are done. But nobody knows the great tribulation is right around the corner except for the praying church. The nations are convinced the peace and safety will go on and on for many years, they don't know the Antichrist is going to pull his mask off. They don't know the Antichrist is going to ruin the whole thing by stopping the sacrifices and saying, I'm God, and he sits in the temple saying he's God. That messes up the whole process. But that was always his intention to be worshipped worldwide as God by force. Jesus wants to be worshipped voluntarily because of love, he wants to be worshipped by fear and by force, very different. So Paragraph O, Jesus is describing that second time frame where there's a temporary peace and safety right before the great tribulation. This is in Matthew 24. Earlier in Matthew 24, verse 4 to 8, he talked about the birth pangs. And he talks about great trouble. But now he changes the subject very radically and talks about people eating and drinking and getting married and having a great time. If you're not paying attention, you can be confused. What happened? Is it earthquakes and wars and rumors and wars? Or is everybody eating and drinking and having a party? Which is it? But what happened is that we moved from the birth pangs stage to the world peace and safety, a temporary relief and reprieve where things calmed down for three and a half years. It says it's like the days of Noah. Verse 38, they're eating and drinking and things are relaxed. But they did not, verse 39, they did not know the flood was coming. It's going to be the same way in the days of the Son of Man. A flood of judgment and trouble is coming. It's going to sweep the unbelievers away. They don't know it. Look at verse 39. They did not know the flood came and took them all away. Now notice the context. The flood is taking them away in death. That's a bad taking away. That's not a good taking away. The flood took away people in death. The vast majority, I mean the earth besides Noah's family was taken away in death. It's going to be the same way when Jesus returns. Two men will be in the field. One will be taken away. Verse 41, two women and one will be taken away. This verse is commonly taught as meaning the rapture. But Jesus just got through saying they were taken away in the flood by being killed. This is a negative taking away, not a positive taking away. To make verse 40 to 41 the rapture is to change the meaning of taking away to its opposite meaning of how Jesus just used it. Then you can add this verse to your notes if you want. Luke 17 verse 36 and 37. The disciples asked the question very straightforward, where are they taken away? And Jesus did not say they're raptured. He gave the opposite answer. He said I'll give you a proverb. Where the dead body is taken, the vultures gather together. That's how he answered the question. In other words, the taking away he's talking about here is taking away to death where the vultures gather around the carcasses laying in the open fields because they're dead. What verse 40 and 41 is talking about is unbelievers being killed under the judgments of God because sudden great destruction ends the time of peace and safety. I know that's new for some of you. That's a new way to read that. But I urge you to read it in its context. Don't read it through the lens of what you were taught when you were 10 years old at Sunday school. Read it in context to how Jesus taught it. Paul said peace and safety, then sudden destruction. Jesus said eating and drinking, and then the flood comes suddenly and takes them away to death. Compare the two passages, and they're saying exactly the same thing. Page 162. Now, during this middle time frame of peace and safety, the unbelievers are having a party, eating and drinking, and getting married because they think it's going to be easy from now on. They have no idea that a flood of trouble is right around the corner. That's going to sweep away almost every other person. If there's two men, one will be taken. If there's two women, one will be taken. That's like 50% is the idea. That's not an exact number though. The idea that the number of those that die will be a massive number like no time in history. Now, it will be peace and safety for the unbelievers who don't know what's going on like in the days of Noah. But the first three and a half years of that final seven year period will be an hour of persecution for the church. Because the praying church will be saying, this piece is of the devil, this piece is of the devil, this is evil, this is not right. And this will make so many people mad. Many will fall away in the pressures of that time. Many fall away from their faith. And you can read more about that on page 161 if that interests you. Let's go to page 163. Now, let's rub a number four. Let's now go to the period right before the world peace and safety. I've said most of this, but I just want you to see I have a few more Bible verses here. Jesus described the beginning of sorrows, or I believe a more accurate way to say it is the beginning of birth pangs. And so I give a little bit of information about the word sorrow and birth pangs. Page 164. Paragraph B. This is my opinion. This is not a revelation. But I believe it's an informed opinion. I believe the beginning of birth pangs began either in 1948 or in 1967. Those are the two common dates that people who teach on end time prophecy all agree with. This is not an idea original with me. Many people pick those dates as the beginning of the birth pangs. In 1948 is when Israel was born as a nation, so that's a logical choice. But something equally significant happened in 1967. Jerusalem came under the control of the Jewish people instead of under the control of the Gentiles. Now, that doesn't seem like a big thing to Gentiles. But Jerusalem had been under the Gentiles' control for 2,000 years. And in 1967, now the Jews are controlling their city for the first time in 2,000 years. If I had to pick one, I would pick 1967 as the one I would guess is the most accurate. But that's just an opinion. But Jesus said the generation where these birth pangs begin, it will not... Before that generation is over, the Lord will return. In Matthew 24, the passage right here, Jesus said, this generation will not pass. And He means the generation where the birth pangs are increasing. So that would mean the generation that began in 1948, or it could mean the generation that began in 1967. Now, somebody says, how long is a generation? Well, we let the Bible interpret the Bible. And the Bible defines a generation anywhere from 30 years to 100 years. It's a big span of time. So if 1967 is the beginning of birth pangs, it may be a hundred years before that generation is over from a biblical definition. So we have a general idea, but no one knows the day or the hour. We don't know for sure that the generation began in 48 or 67, but that's the common opinion of most prophecy teachers. So, it may be a hundred years from 1967, nobody knows the day or the hour, so there's no point in even spending time on that point. If anyone tells you they know the day or the hour, do not accept it. But we can know the generation because it's the generation when all the birth pangs are increasing on a global level. But the problem is the generation is a real long time frame. We don't know if it's a long generation or a short one, nobody knows. But either way, human history is approaching that time frame of history. We're getting closer and closer to it. Paragraph D. I list the 12 birth pangs that Jesus identifies. And each one of these birth pangs have many implications. They're not just a simple phrase, but they have many implications behind them. Page 166. So, now let's go to the third prophetic time frame, which is the Great Tribulation. So, the first time frame is the beginning of birth pangs. The second time frame of counterfeit peace and safety is increased birth pangs. Now, this is the fullness of the birth pangs. The birthing of the Millennial Kingdom is moments away. Well, technically three and a half years. But it's just moments away. Once we get into the heavy labor, the baby is coming in. Very soon. And so, that third time frame is obvious. Everybody understands that one. Romans 6. I want to give you six different expressions in the Bible. They all speak of the final three and a half years. They're spoken by angels to either John the Apostle or to Daniel or Jeremiah. So, they're heavenly terms that were given to the prophets. And they all speak of the same three and a half year period. Some verses call the final three and a half years 42 months. Some call it 1260 days. The angel told Daniel it's time, times, and half a time. Time means one year. Times, plural, is two years. A half a time is a half a year. Add it up, three and a half years. Gabriel told Daniel it's the middle of the week. Which was very clear to Daniel, the middle of the seven year period, which means three and a half years. Jesus called it the great tribulation. I believe it's biblical to call the seven final years the tribulation. There's Bible verses that make it clear the last seven years is the tribulation. The last seven years. But when Jesus used the term great tribulation, He meant specifically the final half of that seven years. So, someone says, is the tribulation seven years or three and a half years? Which is it? Well, I say, I can agree with both of them. Tribulation, but the great tribulation where it's most intense, Jesus made clear it's the last three and a half years. So, I normally think of the tribulation as that most intense time of the heavy labor of the final three and a half years. Jeremiah called this three and a half years Jacob's trouble. And Jeremiah 30, he describes the great tribulation very clear in detail. And of course, Jacob is the land of Israel. So, he could have said it's Israel's trouble. But it's trouble for the whole world, but Jeremiah was a prophet to Israel, so he focused on them because Israel will be the epicenter of the trouble. So, somebody asked, why did the Bible give six different ways to say the same thing? I believe one of the reasons, because it makes it impossible to just spiritualize this time frame away and just kind of write it off as symbolic. Because when you compare all these passages to one another, you can't just write it off and say, oh, it's symbolic of church history. It's not really a literal time frame. It makes it clear that it is. Amen. Let's stand. Now, you know we come back at two o'clock for the next session. Which is different than the schedule says, so it's a slight change. And we only have one teaching this afternoon, not two. Because I'm going to do the second one instead of this afternoon, I'm going to do it tonight at the service with all the interns here. So, you get more time off in the afternoon. I just want to remind you of that. Lord, I thank you for the word of the Lord. But so much information, I ask that the parts that you want to touch them would touch the individual. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.