What Signs Will Come Before Jesus Returns? Revelation Gives Us the Clues - Robert Furrow

Robert Furrow is committed to the study of the Word and maintaining a close walk with God as he serves and shepherds the Calvary Tucson Church. In early childhood, Robert had aspirations to become a pastor. When a youth leader challenged his faith in Christ, Robert received Jesus and became born again. Near the end of high school, Robert's faith was shaken when his pastor and his longtime mentor were both caught in adulterous affairs. After a year of trying to live his own way, he returned to the church and recommitted his life to Christ. Robert is a lead pastor of Calvary Tucson. His teachings are delivered around the world through his YouTube channel, Calvary Tucson with Robert Furrow, and through Practical Christian Living Radio and TV. Robert hosts TruthQuest, a podcast that equips listeners by seeking answers to hard questions through the lens of Scripture. This guy means business. This is the CounterCulture Mom Show, I'm your host, Tina Griffin. End Times is where it's at this week. One of my favorite topics, and we purposely literally air it over the Feast of Trumpets for a reason. I'm with Pastor of Calvary Tucson, Robert Furrow. Robert, how are you doing today? I'm doing good and really glad to be here with you, Tina. Really, really excited. I am so stoked. We should have been taping the first 10 minutes that we had during pre-show setup. There's so much to discuss in 22 minutes, but I have to ask, what's the weather like in August down there? Are you guys melting or are you doing okay? We're melting. It's 100 to 100 plus, and these are the monsoons when it gets humid, so yeah, no, it's hot. This is the tough time of year, but it's beautiful down here. The Sonoran Desert, it really is gorgeous in Tucson, and you get the heat here, but you don't get the cold, so it's a give and take. Yes, absolutely. We were just down there, family of six here. I've got four teenagers, husband. We were down in your neck of the woods, or desert, I should say, about two months ago, and we loved it. Absolutely loved it. You are the director and co-founder of Practical Christian Living Foundation, a ministry that helps people locally and abroad who are in need. Tell us, the book of Revelation is about the end times. Why in the world is it so difficult to understand? Dissect this beast for us. Well, I think it's difficult to understand because a lot of people don't want to touch it. People don't want to teach prophecy. They don't want to teach the Bible. There's just not a lot going on, and I think there's so much done back in the 70s and the 80s along the line, and they got into some date setting, and date setting is always problematic, and so it gave people a reason to scoff. You know, the Bible says that in the last days, scoffers will arise, but they're going to say all things have been created and stayed the same, so these are Christians if they believe in creation, so Christians are going to be the scoffers in the last days. It doesn't mean they're not saved. It just means they're going to start scoffing His return, and that scoffing, I think, has just stuck people away from it. It's very biblical. A third of the Bible is prophecy. If you understand what's being said in it, you can understand it. I'm not going to say it's super easy to understand, but I like Skip Heitzik, which is my pastor out of Calvary, Albuquerque, has a book called You Can Understand the Book of Revelation, and you can understand the return of Christ. You can understand how we're supposed to live today in a light that Jesus could come back for His bride at any moment. Host 1 I completely agree. Can you give examples of scoffing? Like, what's currently taking place? What are the biggest things being said that you think are leading people astray? Skip Yeah, well, I mean, I'll hear people say, well, Martin Luther didn't understand the Book of Revelation, didn't want to get into it. People will say, I don't want to get into it. It's too difficult. It's too hard to understand. You just can't understand it, and in reality, that's just not true. You have the Book of Daniel, and you always interpret the Bible through the Bible. So, you don't ever read something that you go, I'm just going to go out of thin air and pick this up. The Book of Revelation is hyperlinked with the rest of the Bible, mostly Daniel, but the whole Bible is hyperlinked. Every verse ties into another verse. Verses are quoted several times in the Bible, and so once you start going, well, what does the rest of the Bible say? Like, you need to know what 2 Thessalonians says to really understand the Antichrist and when he's going to come, and the fact that we're not looking for the Antichrist today, which people are trying to find out his identity, and Jesus said when you start to see these things happen, look up your redemption draws nigh. So, our goal is to look for Jesus and his return, to know the season, which I believe that we're in, and not to try to figure out a day. That's so good, and I say that when I also believe Feast of Trumpets could be a warm spot for the next Feast to actually be lived out in person and could be the time of the Rapture, and yet I hear what you're saying. It's like a thought in my brain, we shall see when it happens, but I hear what you're saying. Focus on Christ. What is his calling for us to do right now on the face of the earth when we still have days to witness to the loss and draw him to Jesus? I think that's number one and key. What? Yeah, I think Jesus could certainly come back in the Feast of Trumpets. He can come back whenever he wants to, right? He's not going to go, I'm not going to come back on that day, but he did say no one knows the day or the hour. Now, people misuse that. Here's what people do to the Bible. They go, well, no one knows the day or the hour, so it could be two days, so we know the two days it's going to happen. Then they set a date. This has happened in the last few years, and as we march towards 2,000 years, 33, 32, 33, 2,000 years since the resurrection of Jesus, we're only going to hear more of this, right? And so, and let's think about what Jesus was saying there to his disciples. When he was saying no one man knows the day or the hour, he was telling them no one knows when I return. He wasn't saying no man knows the day or the hour, but you could know the two days, so why don't you work on finding out the two days that he's going to return, and that's what people tie it into the Feast of Trumpets often. They're like, well, it's these two days. He said no one knows the day or the hour, so they're excusing themselves to be able to set a date, and I'm going to say stop it. That's nonsense. You don't know the day Jesus is going to return. It's been set hundreds of times. It's always disappointed people. The great disappointment in the 1800s caused people to walk away from Christ. It was, they gave everything they had to buy the booklets to say Jesus is going to come back on this date. William Miller was the one who propagated it. That should have taught us don't set two days. Yeah, it's like we have the seasons. Jerusalem is trampled underfoot by the Gentiles. Right now, Jesus said that in Luke 21. Everything, the stage is set. There will be a temple built in Jerusalem, and we wait for him to come back. He's coming back for those who are eagerly waiting for him. Are you eagerly waiting for Christ? Yep, and the number one thing we have to be doing as believers is living out exactly the calling that he's called us to do, so when he does call us home, we are literally being caught doing what he's called us to do. Not a benchwarmer in the game, preaching the word of God. I couldn't agree more. What are other things that you see in the world today that would cause you to think that we are absolutely living in the end times besides Temple Mount talk, chatter about that being built? I've seen 3D images. Can you go through a couple bullet points of, I think we're in the end times because these things are happening? Israel back in the land is a big one. So, God said in the latter days. So, we have the last days, which we know started at Pentecost because Peter said that in the last days, I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh. So, we're in the last days since Pentecost, the church age, is the last days, but the Old Testament says in the latter days, I will bring Israel back into the land. Isaiah 11, 11 says they will be born again in a day. We know that Jesus said Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot till the time the Gentiles comes near, so we know Jerusalem has to be inhabited by Jews in the last days. You absolutely, I listened to a podcast a couple days ago where they were saying, you don't have to have a nation of Israel for Jesus to return. No, the Bible shows a nation of Israel. That's where Armageddon happens. The enemies that are deceived by the frog spirits from Revelation come to the valley of Megiddo or the Mount Megiddo, Armageddon, and then they march on Jerusalem, which are Jews that are there. And if we are faithful in sharing Christ, which many Jews are coming to Christ today, the Bible says they're going to be regathered in unbelief, but they're going to believe at the end. Zechariah 12, 10 says, God says, I'll pour out a spirit of grace and mercy on Jerusalem, and they will look upon me. This is God speaking. I will pour out a spirit of grace and mercy on Jerusalem, and they will look upon me whom they pierced. And so, God's going to be gracious, but when did they pierce God in Jerusalem? Of course, John tells us that when they put the spear in his side, that fulfilled that passage. And so, they're going to one day receive Jesus as their Messiah. I go to Romans 11, much contested, you know, a lot of people saying that we are Israel today, but Israel has to be unique. Paul said, I am of Israel, an Israelite, and then at the end it says, don't be ignorant concerning this, that all blindness in part has happened to Israel. So, if he was talking about the church, he wouldn't say blindness in part has happened to Israel. He said, blindness in part has happened to Israel. So, he's talking about the people of Israel, the nation of Israel. And then he says, and so they will all be saved. When God pours out that spirit of grace and mercy on Israel, we're all going to rejoice, and it's going to be so many of them that get saved that we go, it's like they all got saved. That's the idea. All doesn't have to mean all. When we won the national championship in the NCAA basketball, all Tucson rejoiced, but not all. But it can never be some. It can be most, but it can never be few. So, Israel's days are marked as a secular nation. They're going to receive Jesus as their Messiah. That's foretold in scripture. And just like they became a nation again, they're going to surrender to Christ. Yeah, I completely agree with everything you're saying. As far as the Temple Mount, what is the latest? And do you know anything about the red heifers? Because that's been in the news for the last couple of years. They found them. They're now at least two to three years old. Then I heard some stuff in the headline news where they were actually sacrificed and they have their ash. What's the latest catch us up on all that? Yeah. So, in order to consecrate certain Temple implements and the priest, they have to have a red heifer without more than two or three hairs on it that aren't red. As far as I know, all the heifers were being disqualified because they were getting more and more hairs. They did sacrifice one as a practice sacrifice. Some claim that that was a qualified heifer and that they might have the ashes. I don't think there's any way for us to know. We do know, like everything else, there will be a third Temple. The Bible says so. There will be a red heifer. They've got a place to sacrifice it on the Mount of Olives where it said that they would be sacrificed at. They're going to take place. It's one of those interesting side notes that, hey, look, they've got red heifers now. They spent a lot of money on them, by the way. I think $750,000 for four of them. They spent a lot of money on them, but they now are able to breed them. They're getting more and more red heifers, which when the time comes, they'll be able to do it. Maybe they do have the ashes. We just don't know. It could be a rumor. It could happen. Here's what's nuts. We're that close regardless. We're that close regardless. It's unbelievable. We're going to go a short commercial break, and I cannot wait to talk with you more because I have like 15 more questions because of the phenomenal info you're already giving. Like normal, I knew it was going to happen. More with Robert right after this. We all know how critical sleep is, yet I've had major sleep issues for years. I just discovered WaveWatch, and I'm finally sleeping through the night. 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The invitation at the end of Revelation says that the bride says come and Christ says come. And we're ambassadors of Christ. We are imploring people to come to Jesus. We forget our job, and we forget that David was just a kid when he slayed Goliath, and we feel like we don't have what we need to be able to do what God wants us to do. But you're filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, when you come to me and drink, out of you will flow rivers of living water, the gushed torrents of living water. Bessie spoke of the Holy Spirit that was given. Everywhere you go, the Holy Spirit gushes out of you. People are, that's why they get mad at us as Christians. They say, stop preaching before you even said anything, because the Holy Spirit's already working on their hearts. Yeah. And the beginning of the book of Revelation, one of the things people get wrong about it is they call it Revelations. And for a pastor, that drives us crazy, right? So, are you going to study the book of Revelations? It's like, no, there's no such book, never. But it's not, and I can understand why they would think that, because there's a lot of things that are revealed in the book of Revelation. However, it's the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ. So, if we only study the gospels, and a lot of people do that, they won't go to Revelation. We're promised we will be blessed if we read and hear the things that are in the book of Revelation. So, we want to be blessed. We're living in a cursed world. We want to be as blessed as we can be. But the reason we're going to be blessed is because we see Jesus in His glory. We see Him. That picture of Jesus in Revelation 1 is amazing. You don't get that in the gospels. In the gospel, you get Jesus who came into humanity, who lowered Himself and humbled Himself, even to the point of the cross, Philippians tells us, and died. But in Revelation, you have Him returning on this white horse wearing diadems, and He is in His glory. And you're learning that He's the one you'll answer to, right? The books are opened, and Jesus judges in the book of Revelation. So, if you only, if you never study the book of Revelation, then you don't know all that the Bible has to say about Jesus. Natalie Amen to that. I have a curveball question for you. We have right here, the four horsemen. Can you explain what each one signifies? Sure, sure. So, the first one that comes out is the white horse, and many people mistake this for Jesus. This happens all the time on our YouTube channel. When I put out videos like this, I'll put out, what's the white horse? What's the black horse? What's the red horse? What's the pale horse? And people will come in and just go, well, that's so dumb. It's Jesus. No, I see why you think that, because Jesus returns on a white horse. But this horse that rides forth has a bow, no arrows, and has a wreath. It is, the word, the Greek word is for a wreath, a perishable crown. Jesus comes with diadems, with crowns that are unperishable, and He conquers the world. So, we know when the tribulation period starts. A lot of people will say we're in it now, but we know when we see the Antichrist. It says in 2 Thessalonians that the great falling away is going to come first. That could be an apostasy, or it could be a catching up, the gathering together, either one, and then the Antichrist will be revealed. He's not saying the Antichrist comes first. He's saying the great falling away comes first, and then the Antichrist is revealed. Paul was telling them, you're not in the tribulation period. Go read it in context. You're not in the tribulation period. When you see the Antichrist, you're going to know you're in the tribulation period. That's why he's the first one, when he tears the first seal, the very beginning is the Antichrist coming out. Now, he comes out to conquer, but war follows with him. So, there's economic disaster that happens, and then there's war that takes place, and then the pale horse comes on the scene, which death and Hades follows it. I think it's mapping out the whole tribulation period. It's not just these things happen in the beginning, but it's a time of the Antichrist, it's a time of economic disasters. Look at the destruction of Mystery Babylon where the merchants of the earth have gotten rich on her. She's a city, she's a religious system as well, and she made the world rich, and then you have the pale horse, and it says in the end of that, and the wild animals attack. So, the wild animals begin to attack people during this time. They lose their fear of It's just absolutely wild. I've always been fascinated by this since I was a teenager, but the fact is we can see that we're living in the end times. We're that close to the end, and people have been looking for Jesus' return since the early church. So, you have like a lot of people saying, oh, you know, they've been saying that for thousands of years, hundreds of years. What do you think makes today different in the fact that we're literally in the 11th hour and Yeah, I think that the Jews are back in Israel. The nation of Israel has been reborn. God said it would happen. It happened in 1948. Jesus said Jerusalem would be trampled by the Gentiles until the time the Gentiles was fulfilled. That happened in 67. Jesus, the stage is set. The temple could be built during the tribulation period, so there's nothing else that has to happen for Jesus to return. The reason you have people who will want to do away with Israel is because they didn't know what to do with the fact that the Bible said they would be a nation, so they had to make the church Israel, and that became problematic. So, we see that. Plus, the Bible says in the last days the love of many will grow cold. Think of all the hatred in the world. Think of the political divisions in our country. It says men will be rebellious and lovers of self and lovers of pleasure. That's what we have people living for, and Jesus said men love darkness and will not come to the light because their deeds are evil. That's why people don't come to Jesus. We live in a time where there's more evidence for Jesus, for the Gospels. When I first started teaching in 1985, they believed that the consensus among scholars was that the Gospels were written in the second century, 140, 150, and they couldn't be eyewitnesses. Today, we know they're eyewitnesses because of the internal evidence. We know they were written before 60. Paul quotes Luke in the book of Luke in 1 Timothy. So, the book of Luke had to be written before Paul wrote for 1 Timothy. That had to be before 60. So, these are eyewitnesses, all of them, that we're reading about in that section, and all of those speak that we need to be ready and stay ready because The culture is coming hard after our kids, so it's imperative we arm them with truth. That's why I love Acts and Facts, a totally free creation science magazine from the Institute for Creation Research. It's packed with jaw-dropping science that lines up with scripture. We're talking dinosaurs, DNA, fossils, astronomy, geology, evidence that points straight to our Creator. It's written by real scientists in a way your kids and you can understand. In addition, it talks about all the upcoming events happening at the Discovery Center, including their dinosaur dig each summer in Montana. I've been getting this magazine in my mailbox for years, and we have thoroughly enjoyed it. Get your free subscription now by going to icr.org forward slash tina and sign up, or just scan the QR code on the screen. That's icr.org forward slash tina. 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Partner with Capstone Legacy Foundation to transform our culture for Christ and get your non-profit started today. Everybody out there, I know that you're going to love Robert's book. It talks much more in detail than what we've just talked about here in this short 25-minute episode. Grab it now. It's called The Difficult Passages in Revelation, Navigating the Most Challenging Verses and Topics with Biblical Clarity. This is phenomenal. I don't know if anybody else that's done what you've done. Everybody out there, calvarytucson.com. Check out that website, and check out Robert's phenomenal messages each and every Sunday, and a lot of his other teachings at calvarytucson.com. Can you share what else we can find your fantastic site? Yeah, you can Calvary Tucson YouTube, at YouTube with Calvary Tucson with Robert Furrow, and we've got all of our videos there, and we make some shorter content as well to try to answer shorter questions, as well as the longer content with the Bible studies and different things that we're doing. You can go to Practical Christian Living for the radio station, the TV program, and even our foundation, which reaches out to help people who are in need. Every week, we have four phenomenal guests with biblical content. Go to counterculturemom.com, click on the show tab, share these episodes with the masses with this End Times Prophecy series, because this is truth that will answer a lot of the questions that the lost have today, and to encourage people to get off the bench and in the game that are believers. Robert, you rock. I'm watching you. Our ministry of over two dozen committed grandparents, parents, and yes, even teens exist because of your prayers and donations. 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