GREAT TIME OF TROUBLE

Daniel 12:1-3. “And at that time, (the time spoken of, chap 11:40,) shall Michael stand up, (commence his reign,) the great prince, which standeth for the children of thy people, (the people of God, Jew and Gentile;) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was, since there was a nation, even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered; every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness; as the stars forever and ever.”APEC 104.1

None of these events have as yet taken place; therefore “the time of the end” has not ended; nor will it close until the end itself, when the righteous shall be everlastingly glorified.APEC 104.2

The great time of trouble, verse 1st, is the same as that spoken of by the Savior, Matthew 24:21. Both affirm it to be a time of trouble, such as was not from the beginning to that time; and the Savior adds, no, nor ever shall be. I think I shall be able to prove, here, that those who refer the trouble spoken of by Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem, are in error.APEC 104.3

1. Both Daniel and Christ predict such tribulation as never before was known. But the time of that tribulation is placed by Daniel subsequently to the fall of Buonaparte, and prior to the resurrection. Hence it is in futurity. The time spoken of by Christ could not, therefore, have been when Jerusalem was destroyed. For the Lord Jesus declared there never should be another such time as that spoken of by him. But Daniel’s is to be such as never was before. They must, therefore, both refer to one and the same time: a period just prior to the resurrection of the just. It will be, probably, after the Lord Jesus leaves the throne of grace and commences the work of judgment; when “the dead (Revelation 20:12.) will stand before God, and the books be opened, and another book be opened, which is the book of life, and the dead will be judged out of the things written in the books, according to their works.” Then, too, “Ye shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” The Lord will “give his angels charge” of his people, and they shall “not be afraid of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day. A thousand shall fall at their side, and ten thousand at their right hand, but it shall not come near them; they shall only see the reward of the wicked.” The Lord “will spare his people as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” Then will follow the resurrection of the just.APEC 104.4