The entire world was affected by the events that occurred in the last 2000 years and changed substantially because of them. Rome's fall, Crusades, Transatlantic Slave Trade, WW1, WW2, Nuclear Age, to name a few...
Those events that you mention above will pale greatly in comparison to the coming seals, trumpets and bowl judgments. The seals, trumpets and bowl judgments are not plagues of wrath which were to take place over the span of 1900 years, but will take place within a seven year period leading up to the Lord's return to the earth to end the age. As I said, with just the 4th seal and the 6th trumpet alone, the fatalities will be well over half the earths population and that within the first 3 1/2 years of that seven year period. And that is not including the fatalities that will result from trumpets 1, 2 and 3, nor from the bowl judgments.
It's pretty surprising that we assume the Almighty has somehow been completely silent for 20 centuries of human history, as we arbitrarily add our own gap to his prophecies where no gap is described, just to fit our eschatology.
Oh, but there is a gape! Seventy seven year periods were decreed upon Israel and Jerusalem:
7 sevens (49 years) = restore and rebuild Jerusalem
62 sevens (434 years) = at the end of which the Messiah would be cut off (Christ crucified).
Therefore, 69 of the seventy sevens have been fulfilled. Below is the last seven:
"He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."
The "He" in the verse above has to be the last person spoken of in verse 26, which the prince or ruler that is to come. It cannot be referring to the Messiah, for He was cut of at the end of the sixty nine sevens. Where this last seven deals with the events which take place after that sixty ninth seven.
He (the ruler) establishes a covenant with many. We know this is referring to Israel because after He makes his covenant
it states that he causes the sacrifice and offerings to cease and he sets up an abomination in the holy place, both of which would be pointing to Israel's temple worship. In Matt.24:15, Jesus quoted from Daniel 9:27:
"So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation,’
a described by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains."
From the time that Jesus quoted the above to the destruction of the temple, no seven year covenant was made and not abomination was set up. Therefore, God destined the events of Daniel 9:27 to be fulfilled in the future in conjunction with the Lord's return to the earth. Daniel 9:27 will take place during that last seven years during the time of God's wrath. And if you don't think that God puts gaps in His prophesies, He demonstrated that He does. In Luke 4:18-19, while Jesus is in the synagogue, the attendant hands Him the scroll of Isaiah where He reads from Isaiah 61:1-2, except that He stopped mid-sentence leaving off "the day of vengeance of our God." The information that He read prior to that He said was fulfilled that day in their hearing, with "the day of vengeance of our God" being a future event, which is referring to the coming wrath of God via the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments, as well as the beasts kingdom.
When Jesus quotes Daniel 9:27, it alerts the reader of Matt.24:15 to the fact that the abomination being set up takes place in the middle of the seven years, with Matt.24:30-31 taking place 3 1/2 years after the abomination will have been set up when Jesus returns to the earth to end the age.
Consider this...We know that the statue in Nebuchadnezzar & Daniel's dream was a complete statue from head to toe prophecying all the major empires of the world, flowing from one to another until the statue was destroyed at the toes by heaven's stone (i.e. Christ) which then grew into a great mountain to cover the earth.
Nebuchadnezzar's statue represents all human government with the ten toed kingdom made partly of iron and baked clay, as that last kingdom, which the Rock (Jesus) destroys by falling on the feet of the statue, which will be accomplished via the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments. The reference to the statue being smashed to pieces like chaff on a threshing floor with the wind blowing the chaff away without leaving a trace, is indicative of the dismantling of all human government.
The reference to that ten-toed kingdom being partly of iron demonstrates that it will be of the same kingdom before it which was the legs of iron, which is representing Rome when it was that city that ruled over the kings of the earth. Therefore, these ten toes made of partly iron and clay will be of the same Roman empire, except that because of the mixture of people it will not have the strength that it did when it was pure iron (see Dan.2:43). In conclusion, the ten-toed kingdom is a future kingdom that will be a revived or extension of the Roman empire.
Then it states that the Rock grows into a great mountain and fills the whole earth, which is referring to Christ's reign during the thousand years which begins when the Lord returns to the earth to end the age. Below is a summary of the chronological order of end-time events:
* The gathering of the church, both dead and living, takes place (John 14:1-3, I Cor.15:51-53, I Thess.4:13-17)
* The man of lawlessness/antichrist establishes his seven year covenant (Dan.9:27, Matt.24:15-22).
Note: During the entire seven years the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments will be in operation
* In the middle of the seven the antichrist puts and end to sacrifices and offerings and the abomination is set up in the holy place within the temple, which causes the desolation (Matt.24:15-22, Rev.12:6, 14)
* Jesus returns to the earth to end the age at the end of the seven years, after the 7th bowl has been poured out which completes God's wrath (Matt.24:29-31, Rev.1:7, 17:14, 19:11-21).
* The beast and the false prophet are captured and thrown alive into the lake of fire (Rev.19:20)
* Satan and his angels are seized and thrown into the Abyss and restricted there during Christ's thousand year reign (Rev.20:1-3)
* The great tribulation saints are resurrected and rule with Christ during that thousand years (Rev.20:4-6)
God's wrath will take place during that last seven years and not over a period of 1900 years. The time of God's coming wrath will be like no other time in history, unprecedented. And it will happen in a short period of seven years. Because Jesus has already suffered God's wrath, satisfying it completely, God's wrath no longer rests upon the believer and this is why believers must be removed prior to God's coming wrath.
1
