<p>24:9&nbsp;<i>Then shall they deliver you up</i>- Just as the Lord was 'betrayed' s.w. 10:4; 20:18,19; 26:2,15,16,21,23,24,25,45,46,48; 27:3,4; 17:22 &quot;the Son of Man shall be betrayed&quot; to the Jews and 'delivered up' to the Gentiles s.w. 27:18,26,2 &quot;delivered Him to Pontius Pilate&quot; for suffering, death- and thereby to resurrection. Again, there is an attempt to make those enduring these things identify with Him in His time of suffering. They too would be delivered up to both Jews and Gentiles- to synagogues Jews; 10:17; Lk. 21:12 and to prisons, rulers and kings Gentiles; Lk. 21:12; Mk. 13:9. Mark adds &quot;They shall deliver you up to councils and in the synagogues you shall be beaten&quot;. Clearly the Lord had in mind a first century fulfilment of His words, but as we have seen, not all the signs fulfilled in the first century and the Lord's&nbsp;<i>parousia</i>&nbsp;did not literally happen when the temple was destroyed. We therefore have to look to a re-scheduled fulfilment of these words in the persecution of the disciples in the last days.</p><p><i>To tribulation</i>- S.w. &quot;great&nbsp;<i>tribulation</i>&quot; (:21,29). The Lord was addressing the disciples, and yet their sufferings were not completely in line with the picture presented here, whereby their suffering was at the same time as Jerusalem was surrounded by armies. Clearly the intended program was delayed. John's equivalent of the Olivet prophecy is the upper room discourse, and the same idea as in :8 of a woman in the sorrows of labour is to be found there, and also this same word for 'afflicted' is found, translated &quot;anguish&quot; and &quot;tribulation&quot;: &quot;A woman when she is in labour has...&nbsp;<i>anguish</i>... in the world you shall have&nbsp;<i>tribulation</i>&quot; (Jn. 16:21,33). The Lord seems to speak as if these experiences will be those of all His true followers, but just as His anguish and sorrow came to term in His triumphant resurrection, so for all who are in Him. John uses the language of the Olivet prophecy but seems to apply it in more general terms to the suffering of the believer in all ages. Surely this was consciously done as a response to the fact that the Olivet prophecy had been rescheduled in fulfilment. Again we find the idea of 'affliction' associated with the Lord's sufferings. Joseph, His clearest prototype, was 'afflicted' (Acts 7:10 s.w.), just as his brothers were 'afflicted' to lead them to repentance and acceptance of how badly they had treated Joseph / Jesus (Acts 7:11 s.w.). Stephen's use of the same word for the sufferings of both Joseph and his brothers was surely to teach that Israel's affliction was in order to teach them what they had done to Joseph, and to thereby identify with Him and repent. And this is exactly the purpose of Israel's latter day afflictions as outlined in the Olivet prophecy, and likewise the reason for the new Israel experiencing them- to help us identify with our crucified Lord. The same word is used in Rom. 8:35: &quot;Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?&quot;. Here Paul lists the kinds of tribulation outlined in the Olivet prophecy and assures his first century readers that these will never separate them from God's love- he clearly expected the prophecy to have a first century fulfilment. Likewise the Lord foresaw the possibility of the &quot;great tribulation&quot; coming upon the first century church (Rev. 2:22), and uses the same term &quot;great tribulation&quot; to describe the experiences of those Jewish Christians who would finally be saved (Rev. 7:14).&nbsp;</p><p><i>And shall kill you</i>- &quot;Some of you shall they cause to be put to death... but there shall not an hair of your head perish&quot; (Lk. 21:16) can only be reconciled by appreciating how miraculously the first century disciples were preserved in order to inspire and co-ordinate the rest of the body. Perhaps a similar group of elders (&quot;the two witnesses&quot;?) will be preserved in the last days too.&nbsp;<i>Apokteino</i>, &lsquo;to kill&rsquo;, is used many times in the Gospels, nearly always with reference to the killing of the Lord Jesus. Again there is the hint that the sufferings of the tribulation period are intended to create identity with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. In John, the upper room discourse replaces the Olivet prophecy. The word is used there for how the believers would be put out of the synagogues opposition from synagogues is specifically mentioned in the Olivet prophecy and then &ldquo;whoever kills you will think that he does God service&rdquo; (Jn. 16:2). Only religious hatred could explain the mad hatred unto death of which we are reading here- persecution on the basis of thinking that they are doing God service. We can expect, therefore, religiously motivated persecution in the last days. With the collapse of secular Christianity and strong religious commitment in much of the modern world, the only religion likely to fulfil this picture is Islam- and there is no lack of evidence that a worldwide persecution of Jews and those who hold a Jewish rooted faith is absolutely on their agenda, and is already bursting upon us.</p><p><i>And you shall be hated by all nations</i>- But the Gospel will then be preached to &ldquo;all nations&rdquo; (Mk. 13:10). It seems that the persecution will result in preaching, perhaps through highly publicized legal cases. If the Gospel is taken to all nations, then this will not need to happen.</p><p><i>For my Name&rsquo;s sake</i>- The phrase rarely occurs outside of the Olivet prophecy; one other time is in the upper room discourse, which is John&rsquo;s parallel with the Olivet prophecy as recorded in the synoptic Gospels. Here we read again that the believers will be &ldquo;hated&hellip; for My Name&rsquo;s sake&rdquo; (Jn. 15:18,21). But in John 15 the Lord seems to be angling His words not just to the twelve, but to all in Him; for His reasoning is that the world&rsquo;s attitude to Him will be their attitude to us, and all in Him will suffer as He did. Again we can conclude that John, the latest of the Gospels, was re-adjusting the emphasis of the Olivet prophecy, knowing that it had been rescheduled and would not fully come true in an early coming of Christ in the first century.</p><p><i>You shall be beaten in the synagogues&nbsp;</i>(Mk. 13:9). The Lord predicted that His people would be cast out of the synagogues (Jn. 16:2), as if He was happy that Christianity remained a sect of Judaism until such time as Judaism wouldn&rsquo;t tolerate it. His prediction that His people would be beaten in synagogues (Mk. 13:9) implies they would still be members, for the synagogues only had power to discipline their own members, not the general public. The Lord had no fear of &lsquo;guilt by association&rsquo; with wrong religious views such as there were within Judaism.&nbsp;</p><p>Mark and Luke add &quot;It shall turn to you for a testimony&quot;. Maybe the idea is that public trial for our faith will be a good public witness. Or it could be that the testimony in our favour is before the Heavenly throne room, where our human situations are as it were played out before the Lord. When the Lord said that His people would preach before rulers &lsquo;for a witness / testimony against them&rsquo; (Mk. 13:9), we are left wondering when and how exactly this will be. It&rsquo;s hard to come to any other conclusion than that this refers to how our words of preaching will be quoted back to the hearers at the judgment. It&rsquo;s an incidental proof that it is hearing the word of the Gospel that makes a person responsible to the last judgment. But in our context, my point is that our words of preaching in this life will be quoted back to those who heard them, at the day of judgment. The simple point is, our words aren&rsquo;t forgotten. They will be quoted back, in some form, at the day of judgment. And yet it appears we can speak and think how we like in this life. Indeed we can; but all these things will ultimately surface again in the last day.</p><p>Lk. 21:13 speaks of how when a believer is persecuted, &ldquo;it shall turn to you for a testimony&rdquo;. Perhaps the Angels give a positive testimony of the faithful believer in the court of Heaven. And at the final judgment, these things will be 'gone through' with them at judgment as a testimony to their faithfulness. Or could it mean that the way we respond to our trials during the tribulation will determine our verdict at the judgment? It will be a testimony in our favour at the day of judgment. In view of this, &quot;Settle it&nbsp;<i>therefore</i>&nbsp;in your hearts&quot; to make this witness in God's strength (Lk. 21:14). &quot;In the endurance of you (in the tribulation), ye will gain the souls of you&quot; (Lk. 21:19 Marshall's Interlinear). The run up to the tribulation will provoke a &quot;praying always, that ye may be accounted worthy... to stand before the Son of man&quot; (Lk. 21:36). Peter describes the tribulation of the believers in the run up to AD70 (and therefore the last days too) as judgment taking place on the house of God, in which even the righteous are &quot;scarcely saved&quot; (1 Pet. 4:17,18). This suggests that the last generation of believers will only be saved due to their response to the tribulation which comes upon them; but even then, only by the skin of their teeth. Lot in Sodom and the parable of the virgins, among others, are hints that the last generation of believers will be in a weak state.</p><p>Lk. 21:15 adds at this point: &quot;I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay&quot;. This is alluding to Ex. 4:12, where God tells Moses at the time of the Egyptian persecution of God's people, &quot;I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say&quot;. This persecution lead to intensified prayer to God, resulting in&nbsp;the deliverance of the suffering saints at Passover time, after a period of especial distress and 'time of trouble' for the surrounding world due to the plagues. After this deliverance, God's people went into the wilderness and were declared God's Kingdom. We have earlier shown how all these events form a remarkable latter day prophecy. This verse also suggests that the gifts of the Spirit may be given to some in the Elijah ministry in order to enable them to make a more powerful witness (as in Rev. 11:6). The fact they are given personally by Christ would indicate that in some way, Christ is already back at this stage. Time and again we will see how the prophecies of events in the last days are ambiguous as to whether Christ is already back at the time of their fulfilment, or whether they herald his return. Seeing that we will never know the exact time of Christ's return, this is understandable. Similarly Joel 2 prophesies the pouring out of the gifts &quot;before the great and terrible day of the Lord&quot; (Joel 2:31). Malachi surely refers to this passage when prophesying the Elijah ministry &quot;before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord&quot; (Mal. 4:5). This suggests that the 3.5 year Elijah ministry of the last days (James 5:17) will be accompanied by Spirit gifts, and will coincide with the time of persecution. Note that the gifts were given &quot;before the day of the Lord&quot; in AD70 too. It is possible that because of this possession of the gifts by 'Elijah', false teachers within the ecclesia at the end will also claim to possess them (Mt. 24:24), so convincingly that all but the elect within the ecclesia will be duped into following them. Yet it must be stressed that it is a feature of the gifts that they are unmistakable and obvious to identify (cp. Acts 4:16); it will be evident enough if and when they are poured out in the last days.</p>