Could the Great Tribulation foretold in the Bible begin in 2015?

Why the 7 Year Tribulation Will Most Likely Begin In 2015

by Rev. Paul J. Bern

“It is a Shemitah cycle. Which means, next year begins a new seven year cycle. If the tribulation does not start next year it cannot start for seven more years. Because it’s one unit—seven days make up one week and we’re having a seven year tribulation. The first year of the tribulation begins the first year of the seven year Shemitah cycle…. We have one year to prepare before the tribulation!” --- Pastor Mark Biltz

Haven't you noticed, over the past few years, things getting a little hotter, a little heavier? Now, add to that the rate at which events are increasing, just like the pains of a woman in labor. Haven’t we all heard that somewhere before? 1 Thessalonians 5:3; “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape”. Are you among those who believe we have years left before the return of Christ? Or, are you watching the events escalate with anticipation, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that the hour for His return is getting really close?

But wait! Before you start quoting scripture to me regarding ‘no man knows the day or the hour…’, let me first say that, for one, there is no day or hour recorded here or even mentioned. Secondly, we’re talking about the year ‘when’ the tribulation could ‘more than likely’ begin according to some very important information that is readily available on the Web. The keys are the number ‘seven’, the Shemitah, and the Four Blood Moons (two of which have already occurred as I write this), all together at once. All we have to do is examine Biblical End Times Prophecy (sometimes called 'eschatology') and you will understand why, with everything that is currently taking place prophetically, it makes sense that the tribulation will most likely start next year! Will it start next year? I don't know, but it certainly looks like a great possibility!

“The only way that America could be saved from judgement now would be that all of us repent and God would hear in heaven and heal our land. We have mocked God. It’s time to get ready. God is specific. His numbers are always the same. Numerology will make you know God.” – Pastor Jim Bakker

Here are some examples of God's numerology. As you can see from these first examples, the number seven figures very prominently in God's kingdom all throughout the Bible. Leviticus 25: 8-13 (NCV) says, “Count off seven groups of seven years, or forty-nine years. During that time there will be seven years of rest for the land. On the Day of Cleansing, you must blow the horn of a male sheep; this will be on the tenth day of the seventh month. You must blow the horn through the whole country. Make the fiftieth year a special year, and announce freedom for all the people living in your country. This time will be called Jubilee. You will each go back to your own property, each to your own family and family group. The fiftieth year will be a special time for you to celebrate. Don’t plant seeds, or harvest the crops that grow by themselves, or gather grapes from the vines that are not trimmed. That year is Jubilee; it will be a holy time for you. You may eat only the crops that come from the field. In the year of Jubilee you each must go back to your own property.” Leviticus 25:3-4 KJV says, “Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard”.

As you will now see from the verses below, God always makes allowance and provision for those who obey all His commandments. I offer two quotes as examples: Leviticus 25:20-22 KJV; “And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store”. And, Deuteronomy 15:1-2 KJV says, “At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the Lord’s release”.

God held his entire nation of Israel accountable to follow these and all other laws and precepts which God has made, all of which is for our benefit. Deuteronomy 31:10-12 says regarding this, “And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law”. (KJV)

The Bible predicts the resettlement of the Holy Land by the Jewish nation of Israel in modern times, which are the direct descendants of the same Israelites who were released from slavery at the hands of the Egyptian pharoahs. Ezekiel 36:24 (NKJV) says, “For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land”. This Old Testament prophecy was confirmed in the New Testament in John's gospel (John 10:27 KJV), “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”. The arrival of Russian Jews in Israel in the late 20^th century, a process that continues unabated to this very day, is also predicted by the Bible in Jeremiah 31:8 (NKJV), “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child And the one who labors with child, together; A great throng shall return there”. This is confirmed later in the Old Testament in Amos 9:14 (NKJV), “I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them”.

God has warned us in the past of what could happen to us all if we fail to obey, or if we ignore, God's commandments. There are numerous examples throughout the Bible of this, and many more that predict this evil to continue ever more as we get close to the end of all things as we have known them. But more basic than that, does the Bible give humankind any advance warning about what could actually occur if we ignore God and do only as we please? I can cite several examples that coincide with Biblical prophecy. It is likely, for example, that these verses predict WW3:

Revelation 6:8 NCV; “I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill people by war, by starvation, by disease, and by the wild animals of the earth”. Isaiah 24:20 KJV; “The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again”. Rev. 9, verses 13-16 NIV; “The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, 'Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates'. And the four angels who had been kept for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill one third of mankind. The number of their mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.”

The Bible tells us quite plainly what the aftermath of WW3 is going to be, and it will be traumatic to say the least! For example, Ezekiel 38:20 (KJV) says; “So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground”. Acts 2:20-21 (KJV) says; “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord comes: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”. But God commanded the prophet Daniel to explain absolutely nothing about the details of these prophecies until the End Times arrive. Daniel 12:4 (KJV) says, “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Well people, it looks to me like the End Times have arrived, and with a vengeance. 

 

The prophet Amos says yet again in Amos 8:11 (KJV), “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord”. And what, you are probably asking right about now, is the greatest sin of humankind as the end of days approaches? I can sum it up in one word: Greed. I Timothy 6:10 (KJV) says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows”. But, there is a way out of all of this which is spelled out in II Chronicles 7:14 (KJV), “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”.

There is still time to seek God's face, his mind and his will. But we are just about out of time. As I said at the beginning of this week's message, two out of the four blood moons that signal the start of the Great Tribulation forecast to occur in the Bible have already happened. The first was in April of this year, and the second was in October. The Third will be next April and the fourth will be in September of 2015 (exact date unknown, since “no man knows the day or the hour, not even the Son of Man, but only the Father who lives in heaven”). If it doesn't happen in September of this coming year, then that means we have seven more years to go before the beginning of the Tribulation. That, quite frankly, is not likely to occur. So get ready, the end is close. We may only have eight more months to prepare ourselves.