What is the hour of test that is coming upon the whole earth? How can we escape this “hour of test”?
Revelation 3:10… Because you kept the word about my endurance, I will also keep you from the hour of test, which is to come upon the whole inhabited earth, to put a test upon those dwelling on the earth.
Notice verse 10, Jesus says because or since, which indicates a condition, because you fulfill the condition, Jesus was going to keep you from the hour of test. We can escape this hour of test that is coming upon the whole earth. What condition do we need to fulfill to escape the hour of test?
Once again notice in verse 10, that he uses the word endurance, that means to become steadfast or to persevere, we need to endure an unpleasant and difficult process or situation without giving way or giving into it? So, what is this situation or process that Jesus said we should endure?
We will look at three scriptures to help us better understand what Christ said about this situation that was coming upon us.
Matthew 24:8-13… All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress. 9 “Then people will deliver YOU up to tribulation and will kill YOU, and YOU will be objects of hatred by all the nations on account of my name. 10 Then, also, many will be stumbled and will betray one another and will hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and mislead many; 12 and because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off. 13 But he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved.
Luke 21:12-17… “But before all these things people will lay their hands upon YOU and persecute YOU, delivering YOU up to the synagogues and prisons, YOU being haled before kings and governors for the sake of my name. 13 It will turn out to YOU for a witness. 14 Therefore settle it in YOUR hearts not to rehearse beforehand how to make YOUR defense, 15 for I will give YOU a mouth and wisdom, which all YOUR opposers together will not be able to resist or dispute. 16 Moreover, YOU will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of YOU to death; 17 and YOU will be objects of hatred by all people because of my name.
Mark 13:9-14… As for YOU, look out for yourselves; people will deliver YOU up to local courts, and YOU will be beaten in synagogues and be put on the stand before governors and kings for my sake, for a witness to them. 10 Also, in all the nations the good news has to be preached first. 11 But when they are leading YOU along to deliver YOU up, do not be anxious beforehand about what to speak; but whatever is given YOU in that hour, speak this, for YOU are not the ones speaking, but the holy spirit is. 12 Furthermore, brother will deliver brother over to death, and a father a child, and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death; 13 and YOU will be objects of hatred by all people on account of my name. But he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved.
Notice from these 3 bible passages that Jesus was prophesying about the things that were coming upon us, from here we can make a list of things that we will have to endure on behalf of the name of Jesus Christ. These are called the pangs of distress, tribulation along with persecution and death, being objects of hatred because of the name of Jesus, along with stumbling’s and betrays that will occur, beatings in our places of worship (synagogues) and our being delivered up to local courts. Having to endure false prophets and the love of the greater number cooling off. Do you imagine that we can escape or negate this prophecy about this tribulation?
There’s only one way to escape what Jesus prophesied was going to happen here at Matthew chapter 24, Luke chapter 21 and Mark chapter 13.
You can simply just wait and go through the Hour of Test that is coming upon the whole world if that is what you want too.
Do you think or imagine the hour of test that is coming upon the whole earth will be easier than going through what Jesus prophesied was going to happen next?
So be reminded of what the apostle Paul says here at:
Hebrews 10:32-39… However, keep on remembering the former days in which, after YOU were enlightened, YOU endured a great contest under sufferings, 33 sometimes while YOU were being exposed as in a theater both to reproaches and tribulations, and sometimes while YOU became sharers with those who were having such an experience. 34 For YOU both expressed sympathy for those in prison and joyfully took the plundering of YOUR belongings, knowing YOU yourselves have a better and an abiding possession. 35 Do not, therefore, throw away YOUR freeness of speech, which has a great reward to be paid it. 36 For YOU have need of endurance, in order that, after YOU have done the will of God, YOU may receive the [fulfillment of the] promise. 37 For yet “a very little while,” and “he who is coming will arrive and will not delay.” 38 “But my righteous one will live by reason of faith,” and, “if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 Now we are not the sort that shrink back to destruction, but the sort that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.
We as Anointed Christians, need to endure these contests along with the sufferings and reproaches of Jesus Christ, we need to share in expressing sympathy for anyone undergoing such testing.
Okay so what is the Hour of Test and how bad could it really be? Revelation 3:10…
Looking at the Greek word for Hour in Strong’s Concordance #G5610 this word can be defined as, season or a limited space of time.
Looking at the Greek word for Test in Strong’s Concordance #G3986 this word can be defined as, Trial, Experiment, Proving, Temptation, Calamity or Affliction, the purpose of this test is to ascertain the proof of substance, that means what you are made of.
We should see that this hour of test, it is a limited space of time, a season in which God is going to ascertain the proof of substance from the World, we are going to have to show what were made of at that particular time.
So, what else do we know about this particular time or event? The Apostle Peter and Paul along with three prophet’s answer in the following scriptures.
2 Peter 3:10-17… Yet Jehovah’s day will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a hissing noise, but the elements being intensely hot will be dissolved, and earth and the works in it will be discovered. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought YOU to be in holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion, 12 awaiting and keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah, through which [the] heavens being on fire will be dissolved and [the] elements being intensely hot will melt! 13 But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell. 14 Hence, beloved ones, since YOU are awaiting these things, do YOUR utmost to be found finally by him spotless and unblemished and in peace. 15 Furthermore, consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul according to the wisdom given him also wrote YOU, 16 speaking about these things as he does also in all [his] letters. In them, however, are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unsteady are twisting, as [they do] also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 YOU, therefore, beloved ones, having this advance knowledge, be on YOUR guard that YOU may not be led away with them by the error of the law-defying people and fall from YOUR own steadfastness.
In the day of our Lord there is going to be an ascertaining by discovery, an approving by fire, a judgment of works of both the heavens and of the earth.
Malachi 4:1-3… “For, look! the day is coming that is burning like the furnace, and all the presumptuous ones and all those doing wickedness must become as stubble. And the day that is coming will certainly devour them,” Jehovah of armies has said, “so that it will not leave to them either root or bough. 2 And to YOU who are in fear of my name the sun of righteousness will certainly shine forth, with healing in its wings; and YOU will actually go forth and paw the ground like fattened calves.” 3 “And YOU people will certainly tread down [the] wicked ones, for they will become as powder under the soles of YOUR feet in the day on which I am acting,” Jehovah of armies has said.
Here the prophet speaks of the burning day like a furnace, but against who? Against the wicked and presumptuous ones.
Zephaniah 1:14-18… “The great day of Jehovah is near. It is near, and there is a hurrying [of it] very much. The sound of the day of Jehovah is bitter. There a mighty man is letting out a cry. 15 That day is a day of fury, a day of distress and of anguish, a day of storm and of desolation, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick gloom, 16 a day of horn and of alarm signal, against the fortified cities and against the high corner towers. 17 And I will cause distress to mankind, and they will certainly walk like blind men; because it is against Jehovah that they have sinned. And their blood will actually be poured out like dust, and their bowels like the dung. 18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah’s fury; but by the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be devoured, because he will make an extermination, indeed a terrible one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.”
Zephaniah speaks of the day of our Lord as being “bitter and distressing” and there will be an extermination of sinners.
Joel 2:1-11… “Blow a horn in Zion, O men, and shout a war cry in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land get agitated; for the day of Jehovah is coming, for it is near! 2 It is a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick gloom, like light of dawn spread out upon the mountains. “There is a people numerous and mighty; one like it has not been made to exist from the indefinite past, and after it there will be none again to the years of generation after generation. 3 Ahead of it a fire has devoured, and behind it a flame consumes. Like the garden of Eden the land is ahead of it; but behind it is a desolate wilderness, and there has also proved to be nothing thereof escaping. 4 “Its appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like steeds is the way they keep running. 5 As with the sound of chariots on the tops of the mountains they keep skipping about, as with the sound of a flaming fire that is devouring stubble. It is like a mighty people, drawn up in battle order. 6 Because of it, peoples will be in severe pains. As for all faces, they will certainly collect a glow [of excitement]. 7 “Like powerful men they run. Like men of war they go up a wall. And they go each one in his own ways, and they do not alter their paths. 8 And one another they do not shove. As an able-bodied man in his course, they keep going; and should some fall even among the missiles, the [others] do not break off course. 9 “Into the city they rush. On the wall they run. On the houses they go up. Through the windows they go in like the thief. 10 Before it [the] land has become agitated, [the] heavens have rocked. Sun and moon themselves have become dark, and the very stars have withdrawn their brightness. 11 And Jehovah himself will certainly give forth his voice before his military force, for his camp is very numerous. For he who is carrying out his word is mighty; for the day of Jehovah is great and very fear-inspiring, and who can hold up under it?”
Here the prophet speaks of “trembling in fear in the land” because the day of the Lord is upon us… And again, “the day of the Lord is great and dreadful”, awesome, terrible and who can endure, or survive it, who can hold up under it?
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10… This takes into account that it is righteous on God’s part to repay tribulation to those who make tribulation for YOU, 7 but, to YOU who suffer tribulation, relief along with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels 8 in a flaming fire, as he brings vengeance upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. 9 These very ones will undergo the judicial punishment of everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his strength, 10 at the time he comes to be glorified in connection with his holy ones and to be regarded in that day with wonder in connection with all those who exercised faith, because the witness we gave met with faith among YOU.
The Apostle Paul calls the Lords day one of vengeance and destruction of a judicial punishment, or an eternal punishment of destruction. So, the question begs to be asked why all this judgment, vengeance, wrath and destruction? The apostle Paul identifies three reasons why.
- God is going to pay tribulation to those who afflicted his Holy Ones.
- Then he will bring vengeance to those who did not come to know him as God.
- Next to punish those who refuse to obey the good news about exercising faith in Jesus Christ as our savior.
The only survivors will be those calling upon the name of the Lord.
Romans 10:11-13… For the Scripture says: “None that rests his faith on him will be disappointed.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for there is the same Lord over all, who is rich to all those calling upon him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.”
Matthew 23:38-39… Look! YOUR house is abandoned to YOU. For I say to YOU, YOU will by no means see me from henceforth until YOU say, ‘Blessed is he that comes in Jehovah’s name!’”
So, happy are you if you are suffering and undergoing these tests now for the sake of Jesus Christ, because later there is a great woe that is coming upon the whole earth very soon, are you ready for it?
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