TEXT: MATTHEW 24: 6- 13 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these things are the beginning of sorrows.

9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (KJV)

Today I would like to deliver a message entitled “NATION SHALL RISE AGAINST NATION.”

Every one knows that the Lord said as to the end time, “Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars,” and, “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” These are the signs for the end time. Well, when we think plainly about these words, we can clearly say that there is no other prophecy so ambiguous than this. For, it has been occurred many time from old days and been quite common, “Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars,” or, “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” It is absolutely impossible to guess right which war is linked to the end time. For example, there were some people in the past who said that the world war the first was the sign for the end time or the second. Recently, others said Iraq War that. But, as the end has not yet come to the present, we can consequently know that these wars were not the signs for the end. Those who said such made mistakes like this. But it can’t help to make such mistakes, as that is so ambiguous prophecy.

Why did a Person like Lord Jesus deliver such a prophecy like this concerning the end time? We would like to learn about it.

As I have repeated it many times, we should never forget that the Lord said about parables when He mentioned the interpretations of the Bible. He never emphasized such a thing as to read the Bible literally, as the present Bible scholars say so. The present teachers actually deny the word of the Lord about parables and persecute those who interpret them so, saying unreasonable thing such as, “Spiritual interpretation is wrong,” and emphasizing what are not written in the Bible.

The words for the end time have never been opened to them totally for the natural result. They only say empty ideas that they are not confident of, when they tell things about the end time. How come can they teach people what they do not even know? It is jus like Jeremiah said, “They have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?”

Let’s understand parables regarding such like this for that reason.

When we interpret the text, what we should pay attention to is to understand clearly what the Bible says about nation and kingdom. For, there may be some subtle differences between definitions of this world and of the Bible. For example, when we are in school, teachers mean those who teach mathematics or languages. But in church, teachers may mean different people, pastors. Therefore, the same words differ in the definition according to the situation. (Of course, as it is written in the Bible, “Be ye not called Rabbi,” I think we should not call anyone teacher in the Church.)

Kingdom that they say in this world is America or England, and so they may think that such kingdom or nation rise against each other in the end time. But such people may be well-acquainted with newspapers and knowledge of this world but not with the Bible. The Bible in any way should be read many times. Those who read and ask may touch the truth of the Bible. What does the Bible say about kingdom and nation? Let’s look at the following.

GENESIS 17: 4- 6 4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. (KJV)

GENESIS 17: 15, 16 15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

16 And I will bless her, and give her a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. (KJV)

It is also told that she would be a mother of many nations and many kings would be of her.

Therefore, conversely, we know that people, nation and king in the Bible are all descendants of Abraham and Sarai, in short, Christians now.

There are many kinds of kingdoms, nations and people. Of course, the nation of Israel is the descendant of Abraham, but there are Edom who are the descendants of Esau, elder brother of Jacob, and the descendants of Ishmael. Though these nations are of the same blood, they have not been always good to each other but fought each other to the contrary. This is the fact of the history.

Well, how about Christians who are the descendants in the New Testament? At least, there are now different positions of the Catholic and of the Protestant, there is no great conflict or war between them. But, this situation would be changed in the end time. The following would arise.

MATTHEW 10: 21, 22 21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.

22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. (KJV)

Namely, the change and conflict will arise in the relations between brothers and sisters, and as a result the day will come when the brother delivers up the brother to death and conflicts and wars arise among them.

Well, with these in mind, let’s look at the text.

6 “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

“War and rumours of wars’ do not mean the War in the Pacific Ocean or so on. They refer to no other than the conflict and fight among churches and denominations. As they are written in the Bible in advance, they would surely arise. Yet, the end would not come soon and we should not be troubled.

7 “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”

Nation and kingdom refer to the nation and kingdom of the descendants of Abraham, that is to say, each sect and denomination of Christians now. Each sect would fight against the other because of the difference of idea. Why so?

The reason is that the spirits that come down on each would be different. Some people would receive the true God’s Holy Spirit and others devils. There should not be unity between them but arise disagreement and dispute among God’s people. And another reason is that the work to correct and restore the distorted doctrines of churches will arise.

They would be called cult or heresy and persecuted by the orthodox churches. As Jesus was so, these people who try to correct the error of the traditional teachings would be persecuted conversely.

“and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”

Famine means no water, no living water of the Holy Spirit. As it is written in the letter to the church of Laodiceans, the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, will be driven out of the church, and the famine will come to the church as a result.

And the earthquake would come. What does the earthquake mean? Let’s think of the links of parables concerning earthquake in the Bible? What comes to our mind immediately is that the thing related to earthquake is that houses fall. So earthquake has relation to houses. Houses are metaphor of churches, and so the day of trial is the day of earthquake. As we know to see the Hansin Earthquake, not all the houses fell.

There are houses that fell and did not fall. Likewise, there will be some houses that do not fall in the trial of the end time. But even though some may be so, many churches would fall. That is the time of the earthquake. And as the time of the Hansin Earthquake was so, the people in the fallen houses, churches, would die.

8 “All these things are the beginning of sorrows.”

This is the beginning of sorrows. What will be born? It will be the man child who is the martyr.

9 “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.”

As a result of the wars and conflicts among brothers, those who follow the Lord would be persecuted and martyred. These occurred in the days Jesus. The Jews, the fellow brothers of Jesus, caused the disputes and accusations against Jesus and His disciples and at last crucifies Jesus to death under the rule of Pilate of the Romans. And, they also argued with Paul many times and accused him to the court to take his life.

And do remember that the same expression, “and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake,” is also quoted in Luke. We can see the similar pattern here.

Namely, in Matthew chapter 10,

a) “And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child.”

b) “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”

In Matthew chapter 24,

a’) “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”

b’) “ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.”

The same words are used in the above b) and b’). Why? Probably, like this, that is, the above a) and a’) actually refer to the same thing though they are different in the words. It seems that the descriptions are like this in order to show that. Namely, “nation shall rise against nation” is in fact another description of “the brother shall deliver up the brother to death.” These refer to the same thing.

10 “And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.”

Many will be offended at that time. In short, it is the time of “a falling away” on 2 Thessalonians. And, then, Christians “shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.”

11 “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.”

Many false prophets will rise in churches and meetings as if they knew the time. It is now the very time.

If our eyes are made open, we would be able to know that many workers, especially some coming from the foreign countries, are the false prophets and teachers of some wrong intention. Of course, there are teachers who deceive intentionally or make errors though confident of their no error. As a result many will be deceived.

12 “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”

The walk of Christians will be to not keep the teaching of God in churches. The love of many people God will be cold.

13 “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

Even though it is such a time like this, “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Therefore, we should never be deceived by such a lie as the Pre-tribulation Theory that we are all right because we are in rapture before the tribulation. It is now the time of preparation, prayer and discipline.

Let us do the will of the Lord in the end time.

End.