Destruction comes after the mark of God is put on the forehead of Christians. 

Ezekiel 9:5-6

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity…” Ezekiel 9:5

When the events of the Fifth Trumpet happen, the following is written about sparing those with God’s mark on their forehead, “They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” Revelation 9:4

All of the Israelis, Jewish people, and everyone around the world will suffer within the events of the Fifth Plague unless they have the seal of God’s mark on their forehead. The only way to be favored by God is by living for the testimony of Jesus Christ, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

 “Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.” Ezekiel 9:6

The wrath of God’s judgment will begin with those who have corrupted His sanctuary, which is our body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. This will certainly include those who have corrupted the churches by serving as their god the entity that sits within them and lives through their thoughts, feelings, words, and behaviors. This is the one “…who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4 Click here for a post on the “man of sin“. This entity enables the image of the beast to live and speak through people in every city around the world. The masses of the global culture are groomed to the mark of the beast by what they say and do. Click here for the post on “The Image and Mark of the Beast”

Lawlessness, violence, and anti-social behavior knows no age boundaries, no social classes, no levels of power etc. The devastation will include “… old and young, both maids, and little children, and women:” Jesus warns us, “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Matthew 24:19-21

The destruction of the “ancient men which were before the house” refers to the leaders of the Jewish people, and most notably those who plotted to crucify Jesus Christ to have Him put to death. Today, the Jewish people discard the need for Jesus Christ and have discarded the entire New Testament from their Bible, the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those spiritually corrupt leaders are mentioned in Ezekiel 8:11-12. They are responsible for leading the Jewish people away from the will of God for them to receive Jesus Christ.

Today, the church leaders have abandoned the Gospel of Jesus Christ to serve the god of the community culture. Instead of coming apart from the ways of the world to serve God through Jesus Christ, they have formed a partnership with the anti-Christian culture. They wear the fig leaf of humanism as they serve the entity that lives and speaks through them by giving them their thoughts and feelings. God is a trinity, which means that wherever God is there will also be Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The three are one and one does not exist without the other. Anytime God is mentioned, the name of Jesus Christ will be uplifted, and the presence of the Holy Spirit embraced. To claim to be serving God, but not lifting up the name of Jesus and scrubbing the life of Holiness is serving a false god.

Lawlessness, violence, and anti-social activity plagues the world and builds up to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a time when people have totally blasphemed the Holy Spirit (who restrains lawlessness), “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 Click here for a post on the “lawless one”.

The Day of the Lord mentioned in Zachariah 14 describes the destruction mentioned in this section.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11