'Then understood I their end'

Haggai 2: [6] For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
[7] And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.

"Almost every commentator you read likes to make that the first coming of Christ and they like to take that passage and say, 'I will shake heaven and earth and the desire of all nations shall come.'

"If you got something in a bag you want to get out, you shake it. He's literally shaking the wicked out of the heavens and then the earth. Gathers them together so He can then eliminate them," explains Richard Jordan.

"Bach wrote the famous Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. I used to actually use the conclusion of that piece as the closing song for the 'Riches of Grace' program. I did that for years until the tape got so bad it wouldn't play. It's very stirring; I learned to play that on the piano when I was 16 years old.

"Charles Wesley wrote Hark! the Herald Angels Sing and it had, 'Come, Desire of nations, come, Fix in us Thy humble home.' That's not Jesus Christ. There's never been a nation on the earth, much less ALL the nations of the earth, who has ever desired the Lord Jesus Christ. Never has been.

"You think the Muslims and the Buddhists and the Hindus and the atheists and the communists and the capitalists--you think all those people desire for Christ to come?! They don't want anything to do with Him. They don't love Him.

"That's what happens when you take a passage like this and put it in the wrong place; make it the first coming instead of the Second Coming. You wind up with all kind of screwball ideas.

Joel 3: [15] The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

[16] The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

"Revelation 6 says He's literally going to reorganize the government of the heavens up there:

[14] And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
[15] And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
[16] And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
[17] For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

"Isaiah 24 is a passage talking about the great tribulation:

[18] And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
[19] The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
[20] 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.
[21] And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.

"There's a lot of stuff going around about the earth not moving and so forth. When they mean that it's not moving through space and that kind of stuff, there's not one time I've ever heard anybody talk about  verses (about the earth being stable and not moving) who knew anything about what these verses talk about. The Lord's going to shake the earth. He's literally going to cause men's hearts to fail them for fear of what's coming.

Isaiah 34:

[2] For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.
[3] Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
[4] And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
[5] For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.

"He's not just going to shake the physical universe; He's going to shake the nations. Verse 4--that's Revelation 6. He's going to take all that organizational structure He has in the heavens with the dominions, thrones and powers and the angelic host that fill those things. He's going to roll all that up, take the government out of their hands and all their host shall fall down as a leaf.

"That's that stuff about the Advent coming down through Bozrah and Idumea down south of the Dead Sea. Lights that stuff on fire. All that passage is talking about the Second Advent.

"By the way, when the Lord says in Haggai, 'Yet once, it is a little while,' that's that delay principle in Hebrews 10:

[30] For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
[31] It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

"Notice after that: [35] Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

[36] For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
[37] For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

"In your patience you possess your soul, Isaiah told them. 'I'm going to come and deliver you, but there's something that has to happen first.'

"That old question of, 'Why do the righteous suffer?' The answer in Job is he's told, 'Trust your soul to God as a faithful Creator. He knows what He's doing, He's got a plan, He's going to deliver you, just wait patiently because the time to deliver you isn't here yet.'

"That's what Paul tells us in Romans 8. God's plan for deliverance hasn't shown up yet. The timing's not right yet. 

"Verse 37, there's a testing period in that tribulation where the rebel's being purged out and that Antichrist program has to work its way out, so there's that seduction policy of the Adversary that will seduce those who don't love the truth.

"When you ask Him 'Why?' . . . In Psalm 73, Asaph asked why and then he went into the temple and heard the Word of God and said, 'I got it now':

[16] When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
[17] Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.

(new article tomorrow)