@mr.mark "19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day" (Matthew 24:19-20)
The phrase "that are with child" in verse 19 was translated from the Greek words echo, en, and gaster, meaning "to have", "in", and "belly" respectively. In other words, the Greek text literally says, "that have in the belly". The Greek word gaster is the word from which the English word "gastric" is derived; gaster appears 9 times in 9 verses of the New Testament; it appears 6 times in 3 of the 4 Gospels and 3 times elsewhere. Out of the 6 times it is used in the Gospels, it is used 3 times to refer to Mary being pregnant with Jesus, and the other 3 times, it is used to refer to the time of great tribulation (as is the case in Matthew 24:19 above). This has prophetic significance. When Mary "had Jesus in the belly", she was forced to experience public shame for being an "unwed mother". As her belly grew in size, she was considered to be just another young girl who had thrown her life away. Mary's pregnancy made her look like a "failure" in the eyes of natural man. Thus, the word gaster is used in the Gospels to represent a burden that exposes you as a "failure" in the eyes of soulish man.
