Jesus' Olivet Directive: Revised Edition to:“En Route to the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24)”

By David R. Rosen

THE MISSION OF THIS BOOK.

To warn the reader as to when the season of the end begins. To present the signs, the events, and the warnings that Jesus tells us in Matthew 24. And as believers in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, to present our required responses. To our actions required, Jesus spells out to us what we need to see, what to know, and then what to do when the time of the end approaches.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385004225

David R. Rosen

In life, each day is a gift from God. And throughout life, He also blesses us with things expected and unexpected. I have been so blessed, more than I can write. For, outside of my salvation in Jesus, my wife Sandy is right behind the blessings of salvation - in having a Christian woman as my wife and life partner. And from there, my kids and my grandkids are also my blessings and treasures in life. It’s hard to order all that Jesus has done, but to say that I am so blessed to have the family He has given me, and that they, too, are in Christ brings me to my knees in gratitude with thanksgiving. Having just finished my second book about the signs of Jesus’ return and the end of this age – En Route to the Mount of Olives – Matthew 24. I felt the calling to author this book next. I humbly praise God for the honor and privilege of doing so. I pray that He will have me continue to write about Him as my life starts in the next chapter. And I pray that He would help me endure as a witness and testimony of His loving grace and mercy to my family, friends, and you, the reader. As Psalms 139:16 declares: “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” So my ask of you is to pray for God’s glory. Pray that He continues to change your and my hearts to be more conformed to the image of Jesus. And pray that He will keep us both in the faith of, in, and through Jesus. And pray that God will continue to use me to write about His glory for my family, friends, and you as long as He grants me the days. In Jesus’ name, and for and to His glory, Amen!

Book preview

IN REMEMBRANCE AND DEDICATION.

When I first wrote this book, I dedicated that book to my wife, Sandy, for God called her home unexpectedly on November 29, 2021, a few weeks after I sent the manuscript to the publisher. I praise God for bringing her into my life and blessing us with faith and love for almost forty years of marriage. Sandy is now with Jesus, our faith’s author and finisher. Her mission here is complete. And she stands before the glory of Jesus Christ, enjoying Him forever!

And to further remember and honor Jesus through our life together, I wrote and dedicated my third book, At Heaven’s Door (Westbow Press, 2022), to her. The release of At Heaven’s Door completes my authoring a trilogy of life stages with Jesus, unaware from the beginning of my writings of this mission.

So in this refresh, I rededicate this Second Edition to her memory. And now, all three books I began writing are better linked together.

My first book, The Sovereignty of God in Our Daily Lives (First Edition: Christian Faith Publishing, 2021; Revised Edition, Westbow Press, 2023), explores Jesus’ actively living within us. In this next book, you will study the Scriptures about the signs Jesus gives for His return. And then, with At Heaven’s Door, I take you into the realm of Heaven – what happens when a believer dies and goes to Heaven. I explore what the bible says about death, Heaven, and eternal life for a Christian, and I position life eternally with Jesus through the questions I pose from my view of the passing of my wife, Sandy.

And when the mission that God has prepared for me to walk in is complete, I will join Sandy, our family members, and all the saints in Heaven - those who have gone before us in the faith of Christ- to worship and enjoy Jesus face-to-face! And my prayer now, while it is still day, is that God will save all the generations from Sandy and me that come after us. So they, too, will stand before our Lord and Savior with all the saints and worship and enjoy Him forever!

So until that day -

Now to him who can strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith - to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

–Romans 16:25-27

Contents

IN REMEMBRANCE AND DEDICATION

THE MISSION OF THIS BOOK

INTRODUCTION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TO THOSE WHO HAVE HELPED ME PULL THIS BOOK TOGETHER

READER ASSUMPTIONS

MY APPROACH

Hermeneutics

Grammatical-Historical Methodology of Bible Study.

The Sovereignty of God.

What about Replacement Theology?

Premillennialism, Postmillennialism, Amillennialism

The Wrath of God

The Rapture

Tribulation

Pre-tribulation, Post-tribulation, Mid-tribulation Rapture.

The Wrath of Satan.

Witnessing, purifying, suffering, glorifying.

Pre-wrath Rapture.

Near-Far Understandings.

Having Oil in Our Lamp.

God’s Wrath.

The Day of the Wrath of the Lord.

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition.

Ready, Set, Let’s Go.

FIELD OF SCRIPTURES

Seventy Weeks Have Been Decreed.

The Abomination of Desolation.

Cosmic Signs: Stars, Sun, Moon - Day of the Lord.

Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision!

The Rapture Verses.

The Growing Time of Immense Sinfulness.

The Seals, Judgment, and the Wrath of Satan and the Wrath of God.

Jesus’s Opening of the Seven Seals: Satan’s Wrath Unleased within Seals 1-5.

The Beginning of the Wrath of God.

The Seventh Seal Opened.

Jesus’ Eternal Reign.

The Seven Churches.

Church in Ephesus.

Church in Smyrna.

Church in Pergamum.

Church in Thyatira.

Church in Sardis.

Church in Philadelphia.

Church in Laodicea.

1000 Years.

SCRIPTURE OUTLINES.

How to use the outlines.

MATTHEW 24 OUTLINE.

REVELATION 6; 8:1-5 OUTLINE.

REVELATION 1²6 [NASB]

DANIEL 12 OUTLINE.

DANIEL 9: 24–27 OUTLINE.

REVELATION 6 & 8:1-5 in Relation to MATTHEW 24:1-31 & 1 THESSALONIANS 4:15-17.

THE MISSION OF THIS BOOK.

CHAPTER 1- RIGHT BEFORE THE PASSOVER.

In the Temple.

The Reconstruction of the Temple in 20 BC by Herod the Great.

En Route to the Mount of Olives.

CHAPTER 2 – THE TWO QUESTIONS.

Jesus warns about deception.

Sidebar 1: The One who Makes Desolate – The First Seal.

SIDEBAR 2: Two Examples of Biblical Time Measurement.

CHAPTER 3 – WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS, FAMINES AND EARTHQUAKES.

Wars and Threats of Wars: The Opening of the Second Seal.

The THIRD Seal Opened: Famines, Inflation with Earthquakes (B).

CHAPTER 4 – THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION: THE FOURTH SEAL.

Outline of Matthew 24:15-18 The Holy Place, The Temple

Seal ONE opened: political conquest, crown given, has a bow meaning without arrows, which is key.

Seal TWO opened: takes away peace, people killing people, lawlessness.

Seal THREE opened: inflation, famine, strvation.

AND NOW, Seal four opened: Death and Hades, one-fourth the world.

Sidebar 3: The Beasts.

The First Beast.

The Second Beast.

Recapping the Three Tribulation Verses within Matthew 24.

CHAPTER 5 - TRIBULATION, THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION, THE GREAT TRIBULATION.

The Abomination of Desolation gives rise to the Great Tribulation.

Outline Matthew 24:15-28.

God intervenes.

Be Strong in the Lord.

CHAPTER 6 – THE FIFTH SEAL.

John’s Throne Room of God Experience.

The Sovereignty of God!

Sidebar 4: I wonder.

CHAPTER 7 – THE SIXTH SEAL: COSMIC SIGNS.

Enough Is Enough.

Outline of Matthew 24:29-31

CHAPTER 8 – ENDURANCE.

The call of and for ENDURANCE.

Jesus warns us!

Standing firm!

CHAPTER 9 – KNOWING THE SEASON.

The Lesson of the Fig Tree.

From the Outline of Matthew 24, Verses 32-35.

CHAPTER 10 – BE READY!

Therefore you also must be ready.

From the Outline of Matthew 24.

No One Knows That Day and Hour.

SIDEBAR 5: The days of Noah.

Therefore, STAY AWAKE!

CHAPTER 11 – THE RAPTURE.

Of the Saints (The Elect).

Revisiting the Days of Noah.

Ten Virgins, Ten Lamps, Five Without Oil.

The Debate.

The Second Elephant.

CHAPTER 12 – THE SEVENTH SEAL NOW RELEASED: THE SCROLL IS FULLY OPENED.

God’s Judgment Commences after the Awe of Silence for about Half an Hour.

CHAPTER 13 – SUMMARY TO THE SIGNS, WARNINGS, AND ACTIONS.

Signs.

Warnings.

Actions.

CHAPTER 14 – THE GOSPEL WITHIN GOD’S WRATH.

CHAPTER 15 – THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE BRIDE.

My Eschatology Shifted to Future Israel as Jesus’ Bride.

The Time of the Wedding of Jesus.

And in summation, the Apostle John concludes.

Closing Prayer.

APPENDICES.

THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. (01)

A quiet place for David to pray during the conflict with his son Absalom.

Psalm Sunday.

The gathering place of Jesus and the Twelve after the Last Supper.

Jesus’ quiet place for prayer.

The coming Day of THE LORD.

JESUS’ SECOND COMING. (02)

BIBLE INDEX – BY CHAPTER. (03)

INDEX – BY BOOKS OF THE BIBLE. (04)

THE DIDACHE: THE LORD’S TEACHING THROUGH THE TWELVE APOSTLES TO THE NATIONS. (06);

THE TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM. (07)

PARTING COMMENTS.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

THE MISSION OF THIS BOOK.

To warn the reader as to when the season of the end begins. To present the signs, the events, and the warnings that Jesus tells us in Matthew 24. And as believers in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, to present our required responses. To our actions required, Jesus spells out to us what we need to see, what to know, and then what to do when the time of the end approaches.

This book aims to share my learnings from Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse. To present a quick primer from my eschatological studies, the times of the end and Jesus’ return from verses in the Bible. I will try to refrain from going deeply into the wrath of God. I’ll pass by after the opening of the seventh seal to the Trumpet and Bowl judgments of God, the two witnesses, and who they might be. The earthly battle with the Antichrist - resisting in calling out who will be the Antichrist or taking a position as to what part of the world he resides. And to all the other actions of God’s wrath, staying focused on the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24 for this study.

However, where it makes sense, is practical to clarify, or becomes essential, this book will bring in assessments of the other scriptures beyond Matthew 24’s description of Jesus’ answering the disciples’ two questions. Thus, I will present the purpose of other verses outside Matthew 24 for the reader to see and understand the declaration of Jesus and how He connects them as He speaks to His Disciples. His knowledge of the writings of the OT prophets for which He gave them and then came to fulfill, and from His Revelation to John later in the years ahead, align with His Olivet Discourse. Remember, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. –John 1:1. Jesus is the Word of God!

The secondary goal is to challenge contemporary conventional doctrine that says the church, the elect, is not under Jesus’ warnings in Matthew 24.

I hope to show that Jesus instructs the present-day church to the saints within these churches. For us to look, see, know, prepare, and then stand firm to the future generation of the season of the end, He has in view. If not within my generation of today, Jesus’ return is valuable for every Christian to know and understand. And that we have received instructions to be ready, to be watchful, to anticipate, and to pray for Jesus’ return. To know and understand the signs of the season for His return, which He will not return before the Great Tribulation, as scripture declares. So when Jesus returns in the clouds, it will be later than most folks think. Not in understanding - but in thinking.

My hope, by and through the grace of God in His guidance, is to turn thinking into knowing. And through knowing the signs, it is through the word of God, with His Spirit in us, granting understanding to the sum of scriptures.

Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake!

–Mark 13:33, 37

INTRODUCTION

In 2020, I began writing The Sovereignty of God in Our Daily Lives. I wrote primarily to leave my adult children and my grandchildren a legacy of my faith in Jesus, for them to know and to pass down that knowledge to their children and their children, should the Lord grant.

In that book, I closed by sharing with them my heart about being watchful of the days in which we live. Then, I presented to them, and at an elevated level, the basis of what to look for in the days coming, as the Bible gives us insights into those days for which people will become progressively blinded in their sinfulness.

From there, the book went to print in June 2021. The first edition was then released.

I then wrote this book to offer my family a fast primer to those years of my eschatological studies and share the scriptures I have studied as the fruit of that effort - as quick coursework for their own needs in the future. And this book was first published in April 2022.

And now, in refreshing this book, the message of the Gospel is more relevant today than ever. Since the first edition’s release, a war between Russia and Ukraine that began in early 2022 has been enduring and intensifying, with the world standing on guard. In addition, North Korea is launching more missiles, and economic pressures to a global recession are knocking at the door, with inflation at current international record levels. Global health concerns with Covid-19 are still creating disruptions through fear in life. And recently, as of February 2023, giant, high-altitude balloons, having originated from China, have flown over the United States for whatever purposes and intent are unclear to me. And murders and violence are daily news events that, somewhere each day in our society, we, as people, are killing each other for selfish, sinful resolves. And now, Artificial Intelligence – AI, is here, and it is a threat to how society going forward functions. Not only in doing and accomplishing traditional human tasks but going deeper into ‘behaviors,’ ‘governances,’ and even ‘artificial-computerized-contrived logic.’ So the watch care and urgency of Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 are even more valuable today than when I first penned this book in 2021.

So I went back to the beginning of my first book when I wrote to my family a love letter in the testimony of my life of faith in Jesus. I was unaware that I would continue writing at that time. But now, having written two related books, I refreshed that first book to better connect with this book and my third book, At Heaven’s Door. And now, I see value in linking all three books with an update of En Route to the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24) to Jesus’ Olivet Directive, which you now hold in your hands. It better complements the trilogy of my writing about life with Jesus and further points to the Bible - to be ready and alert to the signs of Jesus’ return.

If you have read my other books, you may have noticed my approach to writing is leading with a scripture section and striving to let scripture interpret scripture. And by aligning the scriptures with common subjects that build and then connect upon each other in a way that assembles a better, complete picture of the events to the last days and Jesus’ return, much like building a picture puzzle.

I now present the revised second part of a three-part life series with Jesus.

And - I have just finished writing a fourth book that looks back to the day of salvation realized in personal faith: "BORN AGAIN. A Bible Handbook Presenting God’s Gift of Grace Given Through Faith." Available now through WestBow Press, 2023.

Praising God in answering my heart of prayer towards my grandchildren in their salvation, I present to the reader through scripture a biblical reflection on how faith enters our lives as to what Jesus means when He states, ‘You must be Born Again to enter the Kingdom of God.’

So now, let us begin our study of Jesus’ Olivet directives to the signs of the times when He will return to Earth.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

When I first came to faith in Jesus fifty-two years ago, I started reading my Bible. And at the beginning of my walk with Jesus, I came upon passages like Matthew 24 and saw that scripture pointed to the future church experiencing the times of the end.

I did not know of any doctrinal position that would describe my understanding of my early reading of the Bible as a new believer. But, being candid, my Bible reading after a few years in faith started to wane. My attention span wandered into other priorities then, so I never developed a foundational understanding of the end times. And honestly, I was not being fed or mentored at this time of my faith in Jesus.

Fast forward to about ten years later - when I got married.

Sandy and I started to attend an independent Baptist church in the township where we set up our home, and I started growing in reading the Bible and listening to good preaching from the Bible at this church. God was regenerating my heart to come back into the focus of more consistently reading the Bible, and God blessed us in those years of hearing the Bible’s teaching and growing in learning.

But as with most Baptist churches of the day, when the teaching on Jesus’ second coming was a truth to understand, they presented that the timing of His return was at the beginning of the time called the Great Tribulation, which they considered being at the opening of the first seal (Revelation 6). The study, the teachings, and applying that teaching were for those who would be left behind. So the accepted understanding of the Rapture was a Pre-Tribulation view, and I put my mind on cruise control about the last days’ teachings.

So I rode the bus, so to speak. And so I would skim the verses within the Bible that present the wrath of God, The End, and Jesus’ return, and follow along with the preaching of the time, trusting that the pastors I sat under and the study Bible commentaries I had at the time knew what they were teaching. I would say AMEN and pass it by too.

Another ten years passed, and God brought another awakening within me; this time, through a new pastor coming to the church, for whom I also gave attributes within the first book that I wrote, and that was Pastor John Buchta.

John came a teaching. Teaching to own what you believe. So God gave me a new spirit to study His word in the light of not what a pastor or a study Bible or the church says it is but began self-searching and seeking what God has declared within the Bible with the guidance and leading of the Holy Spirit.

So in remembrance of Pastor John Buchta, I am grateful to God for his being a servant of Christ to me and leading me to know what I believe and why I believe what I believe, making sure it is the truth I cling to and not feelings of opinions. To understand the truth and to know it well enough to own it as my own.

From there, I praise God for Dr. Bill McGhee. Bill is a well-studied man of faith for whom I sat under many of his Bible study classes while I was at the same Baptist church. God used Bill to challenge the conventional contemporary thinking of the pre-Tribulation view of many churches today. Bill brought the value of searching all of the