It’s All About the Moment – Jonathan Brentner - https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/https/jonathan-brentner-g8fgsquarespacecom/config/2020/12/1/its-all-about-the-moment
The voices we hear from the world are increasingly at odds with what read in God’s Word. The commercials we see on television encourage us to get the most out of this life, to “just do it.” The message of the world is all about living for the moment. And I would agree . . . although I have a much, much different “moment” in mind. In 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Paul wrote, “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” (emphasis mine) For those of us who belong to Jesus, it’s not about the thrill of a moment in time; it’s all about the moment when eternity begins for us. It’s all about the “twinkling of an eye” when Jesus takes us home to the place that He’s now preparing for us (John 14:2-3). It’s this future “twinkling of an eye” that has repeatedly refreshed my soul during this shocking year that has forever changed life on planet earth. THE MISERY OF 2020 POINTS TO A MUCH GREATER THREAT I am sure we all can recall heartbreaking and disturbing experiences from 2020. We have witnessed the activity of our enemy in our world as never before. The devil has created a culture of fear in our communities and furthermore, his minions have made their endgame abundantly clear; they plan to take full advantage of COVID-19 to make Satan’s plan for world domination a reality. The coronavirus and what the World Economic Forum (WEF) dubs as The Great Reset go together like a couple in love walking down the street arm in arm. These elite globalists intend to use COVID-19 as a springboard to advance their plans for a Marxist New World Order. The articles and videos on the WEF website openly describe their radical plans for controlling the lives of everyone on planet earth. One of the videos begins with these chilling words about their vision for 2030, “You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.”[i] They make The Great Reset sound like a glorious utopia when in reality it will become a living hell for those alive when it comes to full fruition. The intent of the world’s most powerful and wealthiest people is communism; how else can one describe their vision for 2030 where no one owns any personal property, not even the clothes they wear (yes, they actually say this in one of their articles). This is Satan behaving precisely as Jesus described him in John 10:10. Satan will work through the Antichrist and those who follow him to “steal and kill and destroy.” These words precisely sum up what the elite globalists at the WEF and UN have in mind for the people under their jurisdiction. According to James Delingpole of Breitbart News, “COVID-19 has provided the perfect pretext” to usher in “a globalist takeover” of virtually every aspect of human life. “Put simply,” Delingpole continues, The Great Reset “is the blueprint for a complete transformation of the world economy. There will be no money, no private property, no democracy. Instead, every key decision — what you do for a living, how much stuff you consume, whether you can take a vacation — will [be] decided for you by a remote, unaccountable elite of ‘experts.’”[ii] Lest you think the idea of The Great Reset is the product of a bygone era when John Lenin sang Imagine about a wistful utopia, it has become a hot topic today. Newsweek recently devoted an entire issue to it. The campaign slogan of Joe Biden, “Build Back Better,” comes directly from the WEF and their plans for world dominance.[iii] Kerry, who Biden named as his special presidential envoy for climate last week, has already affirmed his allegiance to the radical agenda of the WEF. “The notion of a reset is more important than ever before, I personally believe … we’re at the dawn of an extremely exciting time.” Kerry further assured the elites of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that a Joe Biden presidency would quickly advance the globalist “Great Reset” agenda “with greater speed and greater intensity than many might imagine.”[iv] In a recent prophecy roundtable led by Amir Tsarfati, Jan Markell said, “The Great Reset is the great tribulation.” I wholeheartedly agree. A lady from Australia recently sent an e-mail to me in which she said the tribulation is coming toward us at “warp speed.” This is so true! What we see happening around us is the beginning of what the apostle John wrote about in the book of Revelation. And if this is the case, and it is, then the rapture will happen sooner than many people can even begin to imagine. OUR ETERNAl HOPE FAR EXCEEDS ALL EARTHLY THREATS So why bring up all the current news about the coming Great Reset in a post about the moment Jesus comes for us? Because it confirms that the tribulation is knocking on the door, and this means Jesus’ appearing is ever so near. The threat to our future wellbeing is substantial, but our hope in Jesus’ soon appearing is greater; our hope far exceeds all threats from the enemy of our souls. Because the rapture must happen before the tribulation, we are not waiting for the “Reset” of life and the radical transformation of life as we know it, but rather for our ascent into the clouds. We may see more of Satan’s plans for this world come to fruition before the rapture, however, the Bible assures us that we will be with Jesus in heaven well before the antichrist assumes control of the rapidly approaching Great Reset. I do not know what the remainder of 2020 or 2021 have in store for us who believe. We may experience greater restrictions on our freedoms and perhaps added suffering. Circumstances, no matter how terrifying they seem, cannot derail our hope nor hinder the Lord’s sovereign agenda for His church, Israel, and the world. In other words, nothing can interfere with our “blessed hope.” Jesus is coming soon to take us home; that is the moment when our faith will become a reality. In Philippians 3:20 Paul wrote, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” The word for “await” in the Greek denotes an eager anticipation of something. I believe it signifies the apostle’s “goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14) SPECTACULAR NEWS FOR ALL THOSE SECURELY IN CHRIST Paul also wrote about his excited expectation of Jesus’ appearing in Romans 8:23-25. I especially like his words in verse 23, “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” This is spectacular news for all my fellow groaners in 2020. Jesus will not disappoint us; He is coming and at that moment we will receive immortal bodies and fully experience our membership in God’s forever family. If you are wondering why I am so certain that our departure from this world will occur before the start of the coming tribulation, see my blog post entitled The Biblical Necessity of the Pretribulation Rapture. If you groan because the events of 2020 have taken a heavy toll on you, take heart and focus on the prize that lies ahead of you. The Lord may keep us waiting a bit longer, but we can be absolutely certain He will not disappoint us. Jesus will surely reward our patient endurance just as He promises us in Revelation 3:10-11. If you have not read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 recently, I encourage you to do so often as a reminder of your wonderful and glorious hope. These verses reveal the outcome of our faith. Many today make the foolish mistake of divorcing our “blessed hope” from the Gospel message; they say it’s a third order doctrine. It’s most assuredly not! Our imminent departure from this world is the essence of our Gospel hope per the Lord’s assuring words through the apostle Paul in Romans 8:18-25. I very much need a constant reminder of my hope and I suspect that many of you do as well. Despite writing about it, I far too often lose sight of the Lord’s appearing as the true prize that awaits me as well as all those whose sins are covered by Jesus’ blood. You see, it’s all about the moment Paul described in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; it’s the “twinkling of an eye” when the glorious hope of the Gospel becomes reality for us and Jesus turns our perishable bodies into imperishable and immortal ones. I cannot imagine a better moment than that. Note: Please consider signing up for my newsletter on the home page of my website at https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/ . It will greatly help me in reaching more people. Thanks! [i] The WEF has revised this video, but it still can be seen here on the Zero Hedge website: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/horrifying-future-wefs-vision-post-covid-world [ii] James Delingpole, The Great Reset Is Trending. Here’s Why…, On the Breithart website at: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/11/18/the-great-reset-is-trending-heres-why/ [iii] Ibid. [iv] Article on the LifeNews Website: John Kerry: Biden presidency would advance globalist ‘Great Reset’ with ‘speed’ at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/john-kerry-biden-presidency-would-advance-globalist-great-reset-with-speed The Death of a Global System - By Matt Ward - https://www.raptureready.com/2020/12/01/the-death-of-a-global-system-by-matt-ward/
I often wonder about Job and his amazing resilience. I wonder how I would react if the calamities that afflicted him came upon me. To accumulate such great wealth, status, and comfort and have it all reduced to nothing in such quick fashion, and then have your loved ones taken away from you in such a devastating manner as he. It must have been crushing for him. I wouldn’t have the resolve or fortitude of Job; I think few would. Yet today, we are all of us like Job. We stand on the very brink of everything we know and have come to accept as “normal” being forcefully changed in just a moment, and almost nobody seems to know it, or worse, care. We all take everything for granted, even our precious loved ones. Even they can be taken away from us. Very soon, our world will be filled with men and women just like Job. People who have never known the pain of overwhelming and complete systemic loss. People who will very quickly be plunged into the most extreme circumstances of loss imaginable. This is because our current global system is already effectively dead. Right now, we await the emergence of a new global order, a one-world system of governance and control that will leave no person untouched. Something serious has gone wrong with our current world order, and it now stands on the verge of total collapse. This is no mere hyperbole either. There is a feeling, just a sense perhaps, that the masses are finally beginning to realize this, even if only at a subconscious level. There is a deep feeling of unease wherever one chooses to look; it permeates all our societies from the Middle East to Russia, from North America to South America, and throughout Western Europe. And with this volatility and unease, there is a tangible sense of societal failure, betrayal and even foreboding over what might yet be in the not too distant future. People and societies are increasingly on tenterhooks. Stable world orders that last for prolonged periods of time are rare things indeed. Our current world order, now about 75 years old, arose from a period of intense convulsion and violence caused by the Second World War. Over a hundred million people died in the process of birthing our current world order. It is a truism of history that new world orders never arise out of calm but from the ruin of destruction and chaos. Maintaining any kind of stable world order for any length of time requires skillful diplomacy and statecraft, as world orders are made and maintained; they do not just suddenly appear. If they are not maintained and managed effectively with creative diplomacy, with functioning national and transnational institutions to hold them up, and creative effective decision-making at just the right time to avert crisis, global systems eventually break down and fail. This is where we stand today, on the very brink of collapse. Our global system is breaking down and failing right before our eyes. Millions upon millions are still living their lives under the false daily presupposition that the way things are today is the way things will always be in the future, both for themselves and their children. This viewpoint could not be more wrong. Our current global system is fragmenting before our very eyes. It is no feat of extraordinary prognostication to say such things either. All world orders come to an end eventually. It is an inevitability of all history. Ours will be no different. What is not in any way inevitable, though, is what comes in the wake of a collapsed world order. There is no guarantee that one world order will move seamlessly and peacefully into the next. What is more likely is that there will be another intense period of convulsion and violence before another world order is birthed. It is becoming increasingly clear that we are even now heading into another period of extreme chaos. It strikes me as being highly unlikely that we will experience a period of peaceful transition into the next world order. In history, I can think of few such examples ever occurring. Everything in our global system is linked and intertwined. And I do mean everything. The financial system, supply chains, transportation, food, oil production, the electrical grid, nuclear power… everything. When one system fails, it all fails; and the crash, if one is to occur in our global system, will not be a slow one as in previous world systemic crashes, like the Roman Empire that declined over a period of a century or more. When our society crashes, it will be an epic fast crash. The interconnectivity of our global system ensures it. The interconnected nature of our world, which enables worldwide business and trade, which in turn generates such huge profits, has not made our world system strong; it has made it incredibly fragile and brittle. If just one element in the complex system fails, all other systems inevitably crash too. Consider this realistic feedback loop crash related to our dependence on oil. When oil prices rise, so does everything else simply because all things are connected to oil in some way. So, oil prices rise, slowly at first but then very quickly. Food prices then rise in step with the oil price rises. The high price of oil begins to drive many businesses into bankruptcy, which leads, in turn, to a failure in the financial system leading to a collapse in belief in the monetary system. This then leads into societal revolt, which ultimately is what collapses governments. But even that scenario, bad as it is, would not be the end of the matter. It would get even worse from there. Oil prices, which caused this hypothetical fast crash through high prices, would then experience a price crash because demand would fall to zero. All drilling would then stop, and new exploration projects would end, meaning that in likewise fashion all other connected businesses and industries would stop, and the worldwide economy would crash again. A double whammy. It would be a domino crash, with one system bringing down the next, and the next, and so on until all that is left is chaos. And this is just one example of many. It could happen in a thousand different ways. What is important is that it will certainly happen. But are there any indications of this happening today, or even soon? Well, the short answer is yes, there are. There are very real parallels between where our global civilization is today and those of the past, especially to the global system that existed in the mid-nineteenth century, during the Concert of Europe period. This period saw the most sustained efforts up until that time at building and maintaining a truly global world order, until the modern day. From 1815 until the outbreak of the First World War, a little under a hundred years later, this period saw the first real multinational effort to define international relationships through global law and order, and attempted to set basic norms for international conduct between countries. It was the precursor to our own current United Nations-led world system. And it failed catastrophically in 1914 with the outbreak of the “war to end all wars.” The crucial lesson for our generation today lies in the way this world system failed, not in the fact that it did so. The Concert of Europe’s increasing failure and demise had become apparent long before it actually came crashing down, but crucially world leaders and decision-makers failed to recognize that simple fact. This meant that the decline was managed poorly, and that led directly to the calamity and carnage of the First World War. And this is exactly what we are seeing today. We are witness to an ever-growing distrust both within nation-states and especially between them. Civil war is even openly discussed in the United States today as a potentially realistic outcome of the entrenched partisanship of a current US political system that has divided US society, especially in the wake of the recent contested general election. There is chaos and bloodshed everywhere one chooses to look. In the Middle East, there is no end in sight to the undeclared war between Israel and her blood-sworn enemies Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran is resurgent and increasingly bellicose. Syria is still in the grips of a civil war and is now a ruined land, being eaten up by Iran, Turkey and a host of other competing nation-states. Iraq is as unstable today as it has ever been in its history. In Turkey, Recep Erdogan has transformed a once pro-West country into an increasingly Islamized one, and an increasingly anti-Israel one too; Asia is riven by tension, and China is actively seeking to reassert itself globally as the world leader that will usurp the United States’ place over the coming decade. This strain can be seen daily in the ongoing tensions in the South China Sea. Europe is reeling from one crisis to another, mass migration is reshaping the very fabric of the continent, and there is chaos and uncertainty coming to Britain from Brexit. What makes the demise of our current world system a certainty is that America’s traditional dominance in international affairs is rapidly coming to an end, with its influence in world affairs starting to diffuse. This is why we are seeing the power and the influence of the United States being challenged now like never before. The election of Joe Biden, if it stands, will only increase this. None of the current world leaders or decision-makers of today seem to recognize these simple facts. This is likely because the consequences of this actually happening – that our world system actually does collapse – are too awful for many of them to seriously contemplate. But it will, and all we are waiting for is the crisis that will start the free fall and push us all over the edge. The really pertinent question, however, is who or what will come forward to take over when the world emerges from the coming chaos? The Antichrist will. Keep looking up. wardmatt1977@gmail.com Jesus Reveals the Coming Tribulation to the Apostle John – (Part 2) - by Pastor Mike Taylor - https://pastormiketaylor.blogspot.com/2020/11/jesus-reveals-coming-tribulation-to.html
“And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? 3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. 4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon” (Revelation 5:1-4) Continuing our study of the language found in Revelation, that Jesus reveals to the Apostle John. God uses many elders to teach John what is coming upon the earth...Let us continue in Chapter 5. The apostle saw in the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, a roll of parchments in the form usual in those times, and sealed with seven seals. This represented the secret purposes of God about to be revealed. The designs and methods of Divine Providence, toward the elect and the rebellious world, are stated, fixed, and made a matter of record. The counsels of God are altogether hidden from the eye and understanding of the creature. The several parts are not unsealed and opened at once, but after each other, till the whole mystery of God's counsel and conduct is finished in the world. John weeps as he knows that this is the future of the world and the will of God for all mankind, to redeem those out of the earth, and to reclaim creation lost in the Garden of Eden because of sin that entered in due to the act of one man and one woman. But he is comforted when an elder standing close by, which is part of the church of God proclaims who is worthy to unloose and open the scroll. 5 “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. 6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” (Revelation 5:5-6) Jesus appears as a Lamb, having seven horns and seven eyes; perfect power to execute all the will of God, and perfect wisdom to understand it, and to do it in the most effectual manner, as the number seven is the number of perfection. The Father puts the book of his eternal counsels into the hand of Christ, and Christ readily and gladly took it into His hand; for He delights to make known the will of his Father; and the Holy Spirit is given by Him to reveal the truth and will of God. 8 “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. (Tribulation saints, my emphasis) 9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:8-10) Notice what the elders say in this last verse? God Almighty has made us Kings and Priest, and WE shall reign on the earth. This is a promise to the Kings and Priest that Jesus will set up as rulers with Him in the future Millennial reign of Christ for a 1000 years. “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:6) Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the will of God the Father to redeem the earth, and those who will believe on His Name through the coming Tribulation, starting in the next chapter 6, the whole throne room of God falls down prostrate and worships Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 11 “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. 13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. 14 And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever” (Revelation 5:11-14) Note that as we progress through these verses and chapters, that Revelation is a chronological book, that is until chapter 12, which we will discuss later, but each chapter speaks of what the will of God and His judgment, His wrath against those who reject the only payment for their sinful nature, that being the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. So ends the two chapters that speak of the glory of God surrounded by His glorified church and all angels and beast that worship God and show that God has taken for Himself a remnant of mankind, those who have accepted Jesus Christ as the only payment for their sins. They have overcome, and they wait with bated breath for the coming “WRATH OF GOD”, which is the culmination of the rule of mankind on this earth. But a side note: It is hypothesized, as we don't exactly know, but a theory that the time between chp 4:1 and chapter 6:1 is called the “Gap Period” by some, who believe, as I do, that there is a period of time, maybe a week, maybe a month, but maybe a few years that will lapse on earth before judgment falls upon the earth. It would give time for wars to result and a covenant to be signed by the man of lawlessness and the earth being in chaos and the world looking for anyone, be he “god or demon” to set things back in order. Most earth dwellers just want to continue in their life of sin and unrighteousness. Mankind has been thoroughly rattled by the disappearance of millions of people, and they don't know how to explain it. CHAPTER SIX: THE WRATH OF GOD BEGINS “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. 2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” (Revelation 6:1-2) Jesus has just opened the first seal of the scroll of the title deed to His creation, and has loosed and revealed the coming Anti-Christ. Which lines up perfectly with what Paul told us in 2nd Thessalonians: 6 “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” (2nd Thessalonians 2:6-10) As Paul told us in this epistle, and here John has told us the same thing, that until the Holy Spirit is pulled back, or withdrawn to Pre-Pentecostal times, the Anti-Christ will NOT be revealed. But since now the church is in the throne room of God, the seals are broken, and the Anti-Christ comes upon the scene. But make no mistake, this man of lawlessness will not come until God allows Him to in His perfect plan. The coming seals are God's Will and He will use each of these actors known as the Anti-Christ and the four horse of the Apocalypse to fulfill His will. Some make the erroneous assumption that this is the wrath of Satan, but note even in the book of Job, and elsewhere, that Satan could do NOTHING, unless the Lord God willed it. Satan has a “divine bridle” upon him and he is bound by the will of God. Here God will use mortal men who are deceived by Satan to bring judgment upon this earth. It reminds me of when God used Assyria and then Babylon to bring judgment and His wrath upon a rebellious House of Israel for her idolatry, first to the northern kingdom of Israel, then later to the southern kingdom of Judah and sent them into exile and scattered the north kingdom to the wind.....God uses men to do His will and has happened many, many times in the pages of your Bible and is supported by historical and archaeological evidence to prove the Bible to be 100% prophetically correct. As we progress through this chapter, each seal reveals another portion of the four horse of the apocalypse that lead to war (possibly nuclear war), then to famine, disease and death, which is the result of world wide war that destroys food supplies and crops leading to hunger, famine and ultimate death. 3 “And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. 4 And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. 5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. 7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:3-8) (fourth part of 7 billion people, my explanation) Notice in verse 6 the curious command to not hurt the oil and the wine? This comes from the midst of the four beast, so it is God the Father who is giving the command. What does it mean? In famine, those who are on the lower end of the scale of society are the first to suffer and it will take a whole days wages just to buy food for one day, wheat being more nutritious that barley, which you'll need three times that of barley than you do wheat, just to stay alive. The oil and the wine denotes those that are the upper crust of society who never endures hardship as they have riches to buy whatever they want. Kinda like “Kim Jong- Un” in North Korea is a fatty dictator while his people starve..so it will be in the Tribulation. In the ensuing verses beyond this chapter, we read about untold carnage that is just warming up. But note those who are described in verses 9-11. 9 “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” (Revelation 6:8-11) These are the saints who have been slain and have died believing in the coming of our Lord. This seal pertains to martyrs - to a time of prosperity and triumph; to discord and bloodshed; to oppressive taxation; to war, famine, and pestilence. In the series of woes, it was natural and proper that there should be a vision of martyrs, if it was intended that the successive seals should refer to coming and important periods of the world; and accordingly we have here a striking representation of the martyrs crying to God to interpose in their behalf and to avenge their blood. It is a representation of all those who have died for the cause of Christ..., and those who die in the Tribulation. It is more of a symbol of those who have overcome and will be rewarded. But near the end of this chapter, God has used the likes of mankind in the first 5 seals to do His will. Every man and woman on earth realizes who is doing these judgments upon the earth, and they cry to the mountains and the rocks, because they know this is just the beginning. 12 “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:12-17) Up to this point, God has been causing destruction, war, famine, pestilence with its results of starvation and death to ravage mankind, but here, the environment is starting to grow toxic and earthquakes and celestial calamities that can only be the Divine Wrath of Almighty God and men realize it and ask for the mountains and rocks to fall upon them. Our God will now use the creation of earth, wind and fire to destroy mankind and it will be numbered in the billions in a very short time...Isaiah told of what this will be like and that the saints of God, the Church will be hidden away till God's wrath is finished. 19 “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. 20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. 21 For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” (Isaiah 26:19-21) Isaiah speaks of a time, when God's people will be resurrected and changed to be hidden in their chambers and will shut their door behind them, till God's Wrath is expended and the blood will stain His vesture that we will see when He comes with His saints with a “vesture dipped in blood”...the blood of those He has slain in the wine-press of His wrath and righteous fury. As a friend asked me once before...where are these “chambers”? “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” (John 14:1-4) Jesus will come to take us to His Father's house, and as Isaiah said, we will enter those chambers till His wrath is finished. Jesus is coming for us, we are going to Him, not Him being received by us on earth, but to where He is, and where the Father God is...somewhere OUT THERE, in the third heaven. MEN KNOW THAT GOD IS CAUSING THIS DESTRUCTION Evil men as recorded in chapter 6 (Revelation 6:15-17) that it is God who is causing this destruction and they only wish to escape His wrath, but they will not. 1 “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.” (Revelation 7:1) As we progress through these chapters of 6-11, we see an ever increasing crescendo of events that is linked to each seal that Jesus our Lord opens before the Father in heaven. Notice that it is God who is causing the events to happen on earth, and He is using men, at first, to do His will and perform judgment on the earth. If you follow these messages, Satan has no power that God does not allow him to have. Satan is the great deceiver and tempts men to do what is hidden in their evil hearts and makes war on other men. A QUICK REVIEW FOR UP TO THIS POINT But as we have seen in the past, for a quick review, Jesus our Lord covers all the church ages from chapters 1-3, and then makes a decided shift in focus and John is in the throne room of God the Father. There we see the glorified church represented as 24 elders sitting on thrones with rewards of gold upon their head, and seated in the government of God Almighty. John witnesses the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ as He comes to the Father and takes a parchment written on both sides and sealed with seven seals. This can only be described as the “Title Deed” to all the earth, and the plan to rid God's creation of rebellion and to bring Israel, His chosen people to the knowledge of their Messiah. For 2000 years, the Jewish people have rejected Jesus Christ as their coming King, but in the following chapters starting in chapter 6 and progressing into chapter 7 and beyond, Israel is refined as silver is refined in the fire to bring a remnant to faith and belief in the same Messiah their fathers, and they have rejected up until this time. (Malachi 3:3) DIVINE DESTRUCTION BEGINS DIRECTLY In chapter 6, we see our God using mortal men do His will by using them to create war, famine, pestilence and starvation that results from wars fought over land and conquering other people to submit to their rule. The Son of God opens 6 seals and the destruction grows, as He uses men to destroy those who are in rebellion against Him, and Satan is used to deceive and tempt those who only wish is to continue in their unrighteous behavior to other men and destroy what is before them. As mentioned in earlier, some try to equate this carnage to the wrath of Satan, but it is God who is causing these events to happen. So the wrath of God, much as was written in the Old Testament when Israel was taken into captivity and the majority of their population was destroyed by Assyria and Babylon, so here God is using mankind to enact judgment and begin His righteous wrath. His wrath begins in verse one of the sixth chapter and continues here. So let us look at this chapter.. “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. 2 “And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, 3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. 4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.” (Revelation 7:1-4) Noted in verse one, God holds back the four angels that are the four corners of the earth from doing what they have been assigned to do. That is to begin the Divine destruction on the earth and the dwellers of men who live upon the earth, but first God seals 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. These Jewish evangelist, or more correctly, Israelite men are sealed with the seal of God and ordained to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. The question must be raised, if these are being sealed to proclaim the Gospel, where is the church who was commissioned to preach the Gospel to all mankind? It is another clue that the Church is unable to preach the Gospel, as she is not on earth, and the “baton” is given to another in this race to continue to preach the Word of God. These evangelist are supernaturally protected until the harvest of souls that they have been elected to bring the Gospel to, are brought into believing on Jesus Christ as the Son of God, much as the Church believed before them. So you wonder, why have these men believed suddenly, that Jesus Christ is truly the Messiah? These men have seen the disappearance of millions in the rapture and have believed the witness of the two men who are preaching before the Temple of God in Jerusalem that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of mankind. (Revelation chp. 11) Many people believe that these men are Elijah and Moses that came to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration that Peter, James and John saw in their glorified state along with Jesus as they talked to each other. But no matter who these men turn out to be, and I believe that the belief who they are is probably correct, these men will preach the Everlasting Gospel, and do so for 3.5 years, or the first half of the 7 years tribulation, and these 144,000 men believe the Truth of God's Word proclaimed and become a great soul winning powerhouse that brings millions to the belief in our Lord and Savior. This continues until we see in verse 9 of this chapter a vision of those slain standing before God on His throne and before the Lamb of God holding palm fronds in their hands. In ancient times, palms were associated with celebrations like the Feast of Tabernacles or “Booths” (Lev. 23:40; Neh. 8:17; John 12:13) 9 “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; 10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshiped God, 12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12) I have mentioned in past sermons, that the palms that they hold, gives a clue of who these saints are. Only in Israel has the use of palm fronds been used to signify giving God glory, much as ancient Israel did to when Jesus rode in on a foal of a donkey and proclaimed Jesus King found in Matthew chp. 21. Signs noting Israel in scripture are figs, fig tree, olives and palm branches. When you see any of these, it is referring to Israel. But an angel makes it clear when John sees the men standing before God. 13 “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. 17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” Revelation 7:13-17) These are those who have been martyred in the first half of the Tribulation, and I want you to focus in on verse 15. Note that the church is called “Kings and Priests” unto our God (Revelation 5:10), but here these saints minister in the temple of God, much as the Levitical priesthood did in Ancient Israel. These have a secondary role that is not associated with the Church, but are a different group of believers that serve our God in His Temple. In what capacity do they serve, is not revealed, but God will protect them and care for them and they will never hurt again. One comforting truth gleaned from Revelation is that although Antichrist will have power over all peoples and languages, (Rev. 13:7) he will not deceive every individual. (Verse 9), makes it clear that the preaching of the gospel by the 144,000 Jewish witnesses will reach a multitude that no one can number, from every language, tribe, and people. Therefore, even Satan's deception will not keep people from receiving Christ individually. But concerning the Anti-Christ having power over all nations, kindreds and tongues, we will discuss how this can only be those left behind after the Rapture of the Church in future messages, as Jesus has overcome the world and His Holy Spirit is dwelling with each “born again” Christian in the Church Age, so Satan cannot overcome them, but here they are overcome. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is not sealed in these Christians as the Church was, save the 144,000 Evangelist from Israel were and they have not the deposit or earnest of future glorification as a seal of salvation. IN the Tribulation, these saints can still loose their salvation, if they take the Mark of the Beast, or deny the blood of Jesus and follow the AC. We will cover this in more detail when we get to chapter 13 of this bible study. Next time, we will explore the next chapters that ravage this planet in an ever increasing crescendo of events that happen in a few short years. Will you be with the Church in God's Throne room, or will you be enduring the calamity and horror that befalls all who must endure the Tribulation? See you next time. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18) 8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:8-13) Don't put off believing in Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior and soon coming King within your heart and repenting of your sins...as what I am describing could come when you least expect it and “like a thief” Jesus will come and rapture His Church away from what is coming upon the earth ,,,,,, This is Pastor Mike Taylor, praying you seek the Lord while He may be found this side of the rapture of the church...if you need counseling, prayer, or just a listening ear, email me at pastormiketaylor@yahoo.com , God bless you all. TILL WE MEET AT JESUS FEET...............SOON!! Running Out of Time - By Daymond Duck - https://www.raptureready.com/2020/11/28/running-out-of-time-by-daymond-duck/
No one on earth knows the day or the hour of the Rapture, but a large number of excellent Bible prophecy teachers believe that those that haven’t accepted Jesus as their Saviour are running out of time if they want to go to heaven before the Tribulation Period. Here are some reasons why they believe that: One, on Nov. 20, 2020, the staff at World Net Daily reported that former U.S. Sec. of State John Kerry and European Commission Pres. Ursula von der Leyen said a Biden win will propel the Great Reset (fundamentally changing America; the end of capitalism, cash, private property, democracy, freedom of religion and speech; the beginning of new rules to live by, the global ethic, digital money that will eventually allow the tracking of all buying and selling; restrictions on the size of houses and vehicles, limits on eating meat, higher fuel prices, and more). As I understand the article, globalist elites are saying world government and world religion will begin with the Great Reset during a Biden presidency. Here is a link to the article: Biden presidency opens door to globalist ‘Great Reset’ America’s crisis is much bigger than voter fraud. The existence of the U.S. and individual freedom are at stake (globalists will link everyone’s global ID to their bank account, health care records, lifestyle, etc. so they can control every aspect of a person’s life). Fortunately for Christians, the Rapture will occur before they get all of this in place, but that marvelous event will remove the Restrainer (Church and Holy Spirit) and accelerate world government. Two, on Nov. 20, 2020, there was a shuffle on the U.S. Supreme Court that placed the Circuit Courts in several Democrat-controlled battleground states under the jurisdiction of conservatives on the Supreme Court. If Pres. Trump’s legal team has the abundant proof of voter fraud that attorneys claim, and they can get it to the U.S. Supreme Court, the cases will be under the jurisdiction of a conservative judge. This could be the answer to the prayers of multitudes that have been praying for the truth to prevail. But regardless of who wins, the U.S. is now a very divided nation (globalists will still push world government; socialists will still pressure moderate Democrats; Democrats will still blame all of their failures on Republicans, especially on Mitch McConnell, etc.), and Jesus was clear that kingdoms divided against themselves will be brought to desolation (Matt. 12:25). Of course, I am speculating, but in case this election gets overturned, the authorities should be prepared for major rioting in Democrat-run cities and states. Three, concerning lawlessness, on Nov. 20, 2020, Federal Election Commission Chairman Trey Trainer said, “The Trump campaign is bringing legitimate accusations to court through affidavits of credible witnesses and other evidence used in its challenges to electoral outcomes in various states.” He said, “The massive amounts of affidavits that we see in these cases show that there was, in fact, fraud that took place. And the other side really needs to answer these questions.” Four, concerning the cashless society, on Nov. 18, 2020, it was reported that the UN announced the rollout of a biometric digital wallet that UN employees can use for travel and other purposes. Five, I have long taught that the Rider on the Black Horse during the Tribulation Period in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 6:5-6) is hyper-inflation and economic collapse. On Nov. 22, 2020, it was reported that John Williams of shadowstats.com (Shadow Government Statistics) said the Covid vaccines are not enough to turn the economy around. Williams said the economy has been damaged so much that no matter who wins the election, the budget deficits will continue, a stimulus package will be needed, and they will eventually cause hyper-inflation and great depression. The biggest difference between a Trump or Biden victory is that the stimulus package under Biden will be bigger, and the hyper-inflation will come sooner. Six, on Nov. 22, 2020, in a video conference of the G-20 nations, Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping suggested that the nations should agree to use QR codes (Quick Reader Codes that were invented in 1994 and can be used to store information, scan and track people, etc.) to track people that have had Covid. A QR Code looks like a postage stamp, and it is small enough to put on your thumb nail (right hand). By the way, have you noticed that many places are scanning your forehead before they let you enter? (Scanning one’s right hand or forehead sounds familiar.) Seven, in recent days, there have been several reports that Biden plans to get rid of Trump’s “America First” policy. If he does this, it will signify that the “Old World Order” is gone, and the “New World Order” is here. Globalists probably think they have arrived in heaven. They will probably soon select their 10 Kings. (I haven’t heard anything about it, but I am wondering it that will be included in The Great Reset.) If so, they will soon need a white horse, a bow with no arrows (gun control; like letting gun owners own a gun without bullets), and a crown of victory (to simulate the many crowns of royalty that Jesus wears; Rev. 6:1-2; 19:11-16). Eight, concerning deceit, whether it is true or not, I have read that big pharma has given large sums of money to Democrats and Republicans, and the information we are getting about how some people have been impacted by the Covid vaccine tests is slanted to present a positive picture (a small number of people have had major adverse symptoms). Nine, concerning the growth and prosperity of Israel, on Nov. 17, 2020, it was reported that Israel and the EU are discussing the possibility of building a railroad to link the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf States. If they agree, it will possibly be called the “Regional Peace Railway,” and it will probably strengthen the economies of Israel, Jordan, the PA, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. Ten, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog, according to Biden’s website, if Iran returns to compliance with the Iranian nuclear weapons deal, the U.S. will return to the agreement. On Nov. 22, 2020, it was reported that Israeli Prime Min. Netanyahu said Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons…. “There can be no going back to the previous nuclear agreement.” Some believe Netanyahu’s comments were directed to a potential Biden administration. Eleven, good news for pregnant women with Covid: 96.5% of the babies born to mothers with Covid do not test positive at birth. Out of about 105,000 births in Israel since the beginning of Covid (700 to mothers that tested positive for Covid), just 24 babies tested positive. Twelve, concerning persecution, competition may be the best way to fight the left-wing extremism of Facebook and Twitter, two social-media giants that continue to ignore the freedom of speech and religion of Christians and conservatives. By censoring and flagging Christian and conservative websites and postings under the guise of racism, purveyors of hate, conspiracy theories, etc., Facebook and Twitter are driving social-media users to Parler, and that social media is now surging in popularity. Also, for the first time in almost two decades, Fox News Channel’s daytime ratings (9 a.m.-4 p.m.) came in second to MSNBC. The problem seems to have started with Fox being one of the first to call Biden the president-elect. Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity have not caved to the liberalism, and they continue to lead the ratings in primetime. Thirteen, a reader sent me the following links with information about chips, vaccines, and the Mark of the Beast. I can’t verify the accuracy of all of this, but the reader obviously spent a lot of time compiling the information, so I am passing it on to those that might be interested. Creator of The Chip Speaks RFID Technology Strong’s Concordance Greek (chxs: abbreviation for six hundred sixty-six) Strong’s Concordance Greek (dexios: the right hand or side) New video shows PROOF that AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is made with aborted human fetal tissue Alert! DOD’s Virus Eliminates Spirituality | thx MrTakeBackAmerica Wikipedia: God gene Experimenting with Spirituality: Analyzing The God Gene in a Nonmajors Laboratory Course Rumor from 2011 About Creating a Virus to Manipulate DNA Finally, God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin born, sinless Son of God, who died for the sins of the world, was buried and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this. Prophecy Plus Ministries, Inc. Daymond Duck duck_daymond@yahoo.com The Fullness of Sin Part 2 - By Randy Nettles - https://www.raptureready.com/2020/11/12/the-fullness-of-sin-part-2-by-randy-nettles/
In my last article, the fullness of sin of the Antediluvian people (neither Jew nor Gentile) was discussed, as well as the fullness of the Gentiles’ sin (Sodom and Gomorrah). In this part, we will discuss the fullness of sin of the Jews, which came in three waves, before God’s judgment (at the hands of the Assyrians and Babylonians) befell them. The first wave began during the time when judges ruled the children of Israel after the death of Joshua, the servant of the Lord, and continued through the first three kings of the united kingdom of Israel. “When all that generation [of Joshua] were gathered unto their fathers, there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor the works which he had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals: and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. “And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed” (Judges 2:10-15). The children of Israel did exactly what Moses prophesied they would do in Deuteronomy 31. This prophecy occurred before Moses died and Joshua led the Israelites into the promised land of Canaan. Moses said, “For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then how much more after my death? Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands” (Deuteronomy 31:27-29). Moses knew the children of Israel would break the laws of the Ten Commandments, especially the first two: You shall have no other gods before me and you shall not make idols. However, the Lord did not completely abandon His chosen people. The Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those who spoiled them. The people would repent for a while and worship the Lord and follow his commandments, but when the judge died, the people would corrupt themselves more than their fathers in following other gods. This cycle continued for hundreds of years during the time of the judges. Samuel was the last of the judges who ruled Israel, before the time of the kings. He was a righteous person who listened to the voice of God even as a youth. He was the first true prophet of God amongst the children of Israel (besides Moses). When Samuel was old, the people made his two sons judges over Israel. “And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre [dishonest gain], and took bribes, and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, you are old, and your sons walk not in your ways, now make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:3-4). This demand displeased Samuel, so he prayed unto the Lord. “And the Lord said unto Samuel, listen to the people for they have not rejected you but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt even unto this day; wherefore they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also do unto you” (1 Samuel 8:7-8). Samuel tried to persuade the people against this action, but they would not listen. “The people said, No, but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles!” (Samuel 18:19-20). The Lord told Samuel to hearken unto their voice and make them a king. Under the guidance of the Lord, Samuel anointed a man named Saul. Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin, and his father Kish was said to be a mighty man of power. Here is how 1 Samuel 9:2 describes Saul: “Saul was a choice young man, and a goodly [handsome]; and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people [very tall].” The Lord chose Saul to demonstrate to Samuel and the children of Israel not to judge a person by their looks or their family lineage, but by their heart. “For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart [spirit]” (1 Samuel 16:7). King Saul initially proved himself to be a good military leader. Under his leadership, Israel defeated the armies of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Zobah, and had some success against the Philistines. However, in spiritual matters, he was a poor leader. Several times Saul did not keep the commandments of the Lord and made excuses for his disobedience. After one of these instances, Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly: you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you: for the Lord would have established your kingdom upon Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue: the Lord has sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be a captain over his people, because you have not kept that which the Lord commanded you” (1 Samuel 13:13). Of course, the man after God’s own heart was David, the son of Jesse, from the tribe of Judah. David demonstrated this spirit as a young lad when he fought against the giant Goliath, a Philistine. Most people know this story that is told in 1 Samuel 17, so I will just touch on a few particulars. Goliath stands out as a special adversary of the Lord and His people; an anti-Christ if you will. Symbolically, he even had the anti-Christ’s special number, 666, attached to him. According to 1 Samuel 17:4-7, Goliath had a height of 6 cubits, had 6 pieces of armor, and his iron spearhead weighed 600 shekels, thus 666. Goliath was also a blasphemer of the Lord God. As the armies of the Philistines and Israel gathered for battle, Goliath came forward and defied the armies of Israel with his speech. He challenged any of the warriors of Israel to a one-on-one fight. The winner would take all, and the loser would become their slaves. When Saul and all Israel heard the words of Goliath, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Goliath presented himself and his challenge to the Israelites twice a day for 40 days with no response from Saul or his men, until the young man David arrived on the scene. “Then David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:32). Saul reluctantly agreed to let David fight the giant. As the two drew near one another, the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” (1 Samuel 17:44). David responded with some of the greatest words in all the Bible, which clearly showed he was indeed a man after God’s own heart: “You come to me with a sword, and a spear, and with a shield; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of heaven, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into mine hand, and I will smite you, and take your head from you; and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hands” (1 Samuel 17:45-47). “Of course, everyone knows what happened next. David killed Goliath with a sling and a stone and chopped off the giant’s head. The outcome of the fight and subsequent battle (slaughter of the Philistines) was exactly as David had foretold to Goliath and the army of the Philistines. The battle belonged to the Lord! God had used a mere boy to defeat a ten-foot giant (with armor and sword) and win the battle for his people. This was the beginning of the end of Saul’s leadership, as his jealousy of David began to consume him, and his apostasy towards the Lord grew.” {1} Samuel’s prophecy regarding Saul’s kingdom and legacy proved true, as Saul and his sons died in battle against the Philistines in 1010 B.C. God then raised up David as king of Israel. David was Israel’s greatest king and was a mighty man of God, both spiritually and militarily. After Saul’s death, David went to Hebron where the people of Judah anointed him king. However, the northern tribes continued to follow Ishbosheth (Saul’s son) for another 7.5 years, until his kingdom finally collapsed. In the year 1003 B.C., David assumed the throne as king over all 12 tribes of Israel and made Jerusalem his capital. “David successfully conquered Israel’s enemies, built a royal palace, and secured the material prosperity of his kingdom. Even more importantly, he brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem and placed it in the tabernacle. God made a covenant with David, promising the eternal reign of his descendants (2 Samuel 7). David experienced great success and committed great sins, including violating the 6th and 7th commandments of murder and adultery (2 Samuel 11); but because he repented (2 Samuel 12), his descendant the Messiah now sits on David’s throne (Acts 2:30-36)” {2} Not only was David a great warrior, but he was also a great prayer warrior. Psalm 51 is a plea for mercy, forgiveness, and cleansing that David prayed to God after Nathan the prophet confronted him regarding his terrible sins. “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according unto the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with your free spirit” (Psalm 51:1-4). God forgave David, as He does for every believer in Jesus Christ who sincerely asks for it and turns from their sins. Sin committed will always have consequences. You will reap what you sow, but God will forgive you no matter how great your sins are. David’s sins had repercussions for his family, nation, and himself, but God restored him as Israel’s greatest king. David ruled in Hebron for 7 years (1010-1003 B.C.) and 33 years in Jerusalem (1003-970). He was 70 years old at his death. “Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established” (1 Kings 2:12). Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba, became king of Israel in 970 B.C. “And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father; only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar. In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, Ask what I shall give you” (1 Kings 3:3-5). Solomon told the Lord to give him an understanding heart (wisdom) to judge the people, that he might discern between good and evil. This answer pleased the Lord, and God said unto him: “Behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. And I have also given you what you have not asked; both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in my ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days” (1 Kings 3:12-15). Solomon’s first act as king of Israel (and before his dream) was to marry the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt. This was, in essence, seen as a pact or treaty between the two nations. This act of marrying wives of foreign nations started a habit that would last for the rest of Solomon’s life. David’s last words to Solomon was to keep the charge of the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes and commandments, and His judgment, and His testimonies, as is written in the law of Moses. One of these statutes is found in Exodus 34: “Take heed to yourself, beware lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, wherever you go, lest it be a snare in the midst of you; and you go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call you, and you eat of his sacrifice; and you take of their daughters unto your sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make your sons go a whoring after their gods. You shall make you no molten gods” (Exodus 34:12-12). Solomon inherited the fruits of his father’s labors (wars). This was truly the golden age of Israel. “Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing. For he (Solomon) had dominion over all the region on this side of the River from Tiphsah even to Gaza, namely over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace on every side all around him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, each man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan as far as Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. God granted Solomon’s request for wisdom. “And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding and largeness of heart like the sand and seashore. Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon” (1 Kings 4:29-30;34). God also added great wealth to Solomon, for he was pleased with Solomon’s request for wisdom. “The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was 666 talents of gold, besides that from the traveling merchants, from the income of traders, from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country. So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom” (1 Kings 10:14-15, 23). Solomon initially proved to be a wise and understanding king. His greatest achievement was building the Temple in Jerusalem, which began in 966 B.C. (1 Kings 6:1-9) and was completed in 7 years. The Temple was one of the most magnificent structures of the ancient world. It was built on Mount Moriah in the very spot where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac and where David had built an altar to the Lord. Unfortunately, Solomon did not heed the last words of his earthly father, David; nor did he obey the word of the Lord regarding this matter: “Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites – from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. “For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidionians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. “So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. “Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen” (1 Kings 11:1-13). This was the beginning of the end for the united kingdom of Israel due to their rapidly approaching fullness of sins against the Lord their God. The sins of Solomon, the wisest man in the Old Testament, would leave a lasting legacy on the future generations of the kings of Israel. Solomon traded the wisdom of God for the foolishness of man (and women). Solomon ruled Israel for 40 years (as did David and Saul) before his death in 930 B.C. Solomon did not receive the conditional promise of the Lord regarding living a long life. “So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days: (1 Kings 3:14). The Bible doesn’t record his age at death, but he was probably 60 or younger. I assume this because of the following verse in 1 Kings during the time of Solomon’s dream and conversation with God: “Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in” (1 Kings 3:7). In the next article, we will look at the second and third waves of the fullness of sin regarding the divided nations of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah as it builds up to an unstoppable crescendo of apostasy. Randy Nettles nettlesr@suddenlink.net Endnotes: [1] https://www.raptureready.com/2015/10/20/spirit-lord-part-2-randy-nettles/ . {2} When and Where in the Bible and Throughout History by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten – Tyndale Publishing pg. 20 Jesus Reveals the Future to the Apostle John - by pastor Mike Taylor - https://pastormiketaylor.blogspot.com/2020/11/jesus-reveals-future-to-apostle-john.html
1 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: 2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” (Revelation 1:1-3) Based on my last sermon on the Book of Revelation, that I called the “Book of the Apocalypse” which is another name for this most confusing book (to some), that the Lord has led me to write in detail of what each of these chapters represent. The messages are designed as a learning tool for those who find this last book of your Bible somewhat intimidating and read right over the words and don't have a grasp of what our Lord Jesus was using this book to reveal, as it is called Revelation of Jesus Christ, as our Lord is doing the revealing to His servant John to tell us in vivid detail what is coming upon the earth. So let us take a closer look at the passages and explain in more detail what the Son of God, the God of the Old Testament has had written down for our own enlightenment when Jesus will come for His church, and when the judgment on the rebellion of mankind will begin and how it will conclude. THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION Remember, that the coming Tribulation of which this book is about, has two purposes. First, the time of the tribulation is called “Jacob's Trouble” for good reason, as the nation of Israel is the focus that God has turned His attention to solely, as the Gentile church has been completed, and the ship of the ark of salvation has left port and will return at the end of the Tribulation to set things as it was in the Garden of Eden after all rebellion is extinguished by just a Word from our God . That first reason for the tribulation is to refine Israel as silver is refined in the fire to accept her Messiah after so long a time in unbelief, and to remove the dross so that the Lord may see His image in her (Malachi 3:3). Second, the purpose of the Tribulation is to remove the rebellion of mankind that has rejected His gift of grace and mercy through the sacrifice that Jesus paid for nigh 2000 years ago, and revel in their unrighteousness even to take a blasphemous Mark of the Beast and worship a false god. Let us begin with the introduction and work our way through a few of these first few chapters found in this much maligned book of what is coming upon the earth. THE APOSTLE SETS THE STAGE As the Bible records it, the Apostle John was on the Isle of Patmos which is an island southwest of Ephesus off the western coast of what is now Turkey where the Caesars banished those in their empire that caused too much trouble. It was a quarry where John being in advanced age, probably did not enter much into manual labor because of him being physically unable. But his exile effectively removed him from the presence of the citizens of Rome and the surrounding landscape. In the beginning of this book, John tells us that while he was here, he gives the testimony of who our Lord Jesus is and what the purpose of this written Word is designed for: 4 “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; 5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” (Revelation 1:4-7) John makes clear Who is speaking with him, and Who is directing this prophecy of what is coming upon the earth, by identifying our Lord in the next few verses, as being the God of the Old Testament, known to all at that time as YAHWEH or Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 8 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. 9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.” (Revelation 1:8-11) Note in v. 10 that John refers to the “Lord's Day”...this was not a Sunday, but a definition of the beginning of the wrath of God upon the earth, that the prophets spoke of in Joel, Amos and others at the end of the Old Testament. 30 “And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. 32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.” (Joel 2:30-32) By using the terms that are found in the Old Testament of Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, it identifies Jesus our Lord as the God of the Torah, and the Major and Minor Prophets, all which are found in the Old Testament. As John makes this introduction, he relays what he heard and what he begins to see. The voice of Almighty God is the sound of a Trumpet, most likely the same that Moses heard and the children of Israel heard at the foot of Mt. Sinai in the Arabian desert. It scared the Hebrew children so much, that they begged Moses to speak to God, as they feared Him greatly. John hearing the same sound, and seeing what he saw, if it were me, I would have had the same response. 12 “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. 17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: 18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” (Revelation 1:12-18) This long introduction by John wants to be sure that his readers—the members of God's church—realize, not only who is revealing the future to the church, but also just how special and important He is to us now. In a way, the apostle is adding a final chapter to his gospel, showing us the awesome glory, power, and eternal nature of our Savior in His present role as High Priest and Head of the church. When John turns "to see the voice" he beholds "One like the Son of Man" standing among seven golden lamp stands, later explicitly identified as the seven churches. John sees a glorious Being who resembles his dear friend and Master, Jesus of Nazareth, but this Person is far beyond human. He is God, in many respects just as the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel describe Him from their visions (Daniel 10:5-6; Ezekiel 1:26-27). The vision he sees of our Lord and Savior is more than his mortal body can stand and he falls face first and lays as a dead man. I can only imagine that it was similar to what Paul saw on the road to Damascus and it blinded him, but here our Lord wants John to see everything He wants to show him, and He puts out His hand to bring him back around to full consciousness. Laying His right hand on John (Revelation 1:17), perhaps in healing or in blessing, Jesus tells the aged apostle not to be afraid because "I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death" Our God, who is alive at the right hand of the Father, Jesus in His glory wants John to write a letter to the seven churches that are in Asia Minor, which are real historical churches that God wants to send a warning to about what is coming upon the earth, in their time, and in the far distant future, which is written not to them only, but to us, those who live at the end of this Age of Grace, or the Church Age. Jesus identifies them at the end of the 1st chapter of this book. “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” (Revelation 1:20) As noted, these seven churches although real churches at that time the Apostle was alive, they are also believed to be seven different dispensations of what the church has been down through the ages of time for the last two millenniums. In these next two chapters, our Savior gives a breakdown of these churches accomplishments and their failures that must be corrected, or as He warned, “or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” (Revelation 2:5) This was not only for these literal churches, but the warning was for each church period that has come and gone, save the ones we are in and are heading for the end of this age, which we refer to as the Age of the Church, or the Age of Grace. A short breakdown of the times of the ages of the church begins with the church at Ephesus, which was the age the apostle was now living in, but below is the time periods of each age. a. Church at Ephesus.....AD 30 to AD 100, as John wrote this in about AD 95 b. church at Smyrna ….AD 100 to AD 313 or the time of Roman persecution c. Church at Pergamum....AD 313 to AD 600, the Age of Constantine and beginning of the Catholic Church and it's rule. d. Church at Thyatira, AD 600 to AD 1517, The Dark Ages of the “Holy Roman Empire” e. Church at Sardia...AD 1517 to AD. 1648, or the Reformation and the splitting of the Roman Church into Protestant branches. Then we come to the sixth church and she stands out amongst all of the churches up to this age...The sixth letter was written to the Church of Philadelphia, often called, "the Missionary Church." Of the Church of Philadelphia, Jesus writes, 7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; 8I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. 9Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.” (Revelation 3:7-9) Now where have we heard the expression, “an open door”...hint: I will cover that later in this message. In plain English, Jesus is telling them “Look, I will force those who belong to Satan's synagogue--those liars who say they are Jews but are not--to come and bow down at your feet. They will acknowledge that you are the ones I love.” Those who have persecuted this church will bow down and give them honor, because they will be ruling and reigning with Jesus Christ for a 1000 years in the coming Millennium. Note, if you have followed any of my messages, that I conclude that there is an overlap between this above church, and the final church that is represented by the luke-warm church, or the church that goes into apostasy. Each are mingled together, much as the wheat and the tares of the parables that Jesus gave His apostles in Matthew 24. One is the true church, and one is the tares or not really a church at all, save they have the title. One will be glorified, and one will be thrown into the oven to be burned. And brother, the Tribulation is a burning oven that will refine Israel and burn up the tares, unless they repent. The Church at Philadelphia which came alive in the 17th century and has been preaching the Gospel worldwide for now nearly 400 years. This phase of the churches will be concluded when this church that Jesus had no warnings for, but with praise for what she has been steadfast and immovable in the time of great temptation, holding fast her confession of the Lord Jesus Christ and have not denied His Name, will be removed from this planet that I will show in the coming parts we will discover in this message. But focus in on the promise that our Lord makes to this church and to her alone? She is promised something that no other church has received, because she is the church that comes up to the coming Tribulation. Many overlook this passage and I know I am repeating it again, but to drive home the point, as you can't talk about this Age we are living in, if you don't understand what has been promised.. 10 “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” (Revelation 3:10-11) To get a clear meaning of the passage, you must go to Koine Greek, which is the original language that the New Testament was written in. Many debates have been made for the Greek interpretation of this promise that was given only to the Church of Philadelphia. The debate centers on a Greek word that John uses multiple times in this book which above in verse 10 of this chapter, is the phrase “will keep thee from”...which in Greek is the word (εκ [ek] ) which literally means to be “taken out of or separated from the event.” A large body of discussion attends this phrase. The debate centers on whether from (εκ [ek] ) here denotes out of or through. Is the promise to keep the church out of the trial or to preserve it through the trial? Proponents of the kept through view observe other passages where εκ[ek] can have this meaning. They also observe examples in Scripture where God’s people are protected in the midst of God’s judgment: On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark. (Genesis 17:3) Proponents of the kept from view point to the fact that the most natural use of εκ[ek] indicates out of and that if the alternate meaning were in view, another more suitable preposition would have been used. They too can point to passages which support their view—where the faithful are removed prior to God’s judgment: Example: And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:24) Enoch, a symbol in the Old Testament of the rapture of the church before the Great Flood of Noah's day. Another Example: And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it?” . . . Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: suppose ten should be found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” (Genesis. 18:23-32) Note that the above examples show that God being a merciful God desires that no one perish, but He is just, and if His wrath begins to fall on this earth, will He not remove His people out of the way? 10 “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come”. (1st. Thessalonians 1:10) 9 “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.” (1st Thessalonians 5:9-10) There may not be as many Christians on this planet as it once was, but the Bride of Christ is a significant force for good in our world, that God will not change how He has dealt with those who follow Him in this instance, as He has done also in the past of Ancient History. Today's Christian world is the salt and light of this world, and sending His people through His wrath, goes against what the word in Greek denotes that He will remove “out of and separate” His people from His coming wrath. Only thing a person has to do is decide when the wrath of God actually starts to fall on this world and we will discover that in the next part of this series. But let us now look at the last Church that Jesus has harsh words for. CHURCH OF LAODECIA, THE APOSTATE CHURCH But notice , what I call the tares, that Jesus speaks of great warnings for this last church? The Church of Laodecia has risen in the last 100 years, as the apostasy has grown more perverse and departing from the Words of our Lord and His commandments in our day. 14 “ And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:” (Revelation 3:14-17) These are those in the so called “modern churches” that rely on another gospel, and traditions of men, instead of what the Bible teaches and contradict with their doctrines and rituals. Those who go to their church and warm a pew for an hour or so (maybe) on one day of the week. Or they go to their church and do rituals that mean nothing to grow them as a “christian” in name only. But notice what our Lord tells them to do..and frankly, they are going to need it: 18 “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” (Revelation 3:18) These are the bench warmers that I see sitting in their local church, being all bored with what the preacher is saying, when like a video I saw, a clap of thunder is heard and the preacher's bible falls to the floor, as they come awake and realize that the church that was filled with people is now suddenly near empty, save for them and a few more and they fall in recognition of what just happened...and this is inside the church. Those outside will know that chaos has come to a neighborhood near you, as the TV and radio is blaring for the disappearance of millions of people in an unexplained fashion. This church, this luke-warm church that Jesus said makes Him sick, will be thrown head long into the coming trial, the last trial of mankind and the final blow to the government of mankind and they will be refined as gold is refined in the fire, (chp. 3, v. 18 just above). Jesus makes a further promise of those who overcome. 12, “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”( Revelation 3:12) But only the ones in the true church of the Living God that follow Him as shepherd and imitate Him in all things that He teaches us will receive this promise. The Tribulation will last 7 years, give or take a few years or months...Why do I say that? As we will probe our journey through Revelation, it is hypothesized that there is a “gap” of time between Revelation 4:1 and Revelation 6:1...How much time, we don't know. Could be a few days, a few months, or even a few years. As there is no time in God's realm...an hour to God is noted to be 7 years. 12 “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” (Revelation 17:12) “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; he shall destroy fearfully, and shall prosper and thrive; he shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people. Through his cunning he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule; and he shall magnify himself in his heart. He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without human hand.” (Daniel 8:23-25) In this part, we have quickly covered the first three chapters of Revelation, and we are on the cusp of John being transported into the spirit world, and standing in the throne room of Almighty God. What does He see? Most of the symbolism just clouds the mind of the biblical babe in Christ or the unbeliever who for some reason, could care less...Oh, but they will care, when the visions presented are fulfilled in real time and they are living in a horror they wish they could wake up from, for it is truly a nightmare beyond the imagination of anyone who cares to study what is coming. But let us note what the first verse of this passage speaks of. “behold, a door was opened in heaven”...now where did we hear about a door being opened, as I hinted to that earlier of this journey we are taking? Remember what our Lord said to the church at Philadelphia at near the end of chapter 3? 7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; 8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.” (Revelation 3:7-8) The Lord Jesus has the key of government and authority in and over the church. He opens a door of opportunity to his churches; he opens a door of utterance to his ministers; he opens a door of entrance, and opens the heart. He shuts the door of heaven against the foolish, who sleep away their day of grace; and against the workers of iniquity, how vain and confident soever they may be. But here a door is opened to the church at Philadelphia and I see a connection between this door mentioned to only the Philadelphia church at the end of chapter three and of the age having a door opened unto them which we see in the beginning of the next chapter quoted in the opening verses. CHAPTER FOUR, THE THRONE ROOM OF GOD The apostle John is whisked away in the spirit, much like Paul was taken to the third heaven and God showed him mysteries that had not been revealed in the preceding centuries of Biblical prophecy. (2nd Corinthians 12:2) Here John has just been writing about the last two churches on earth, which as we discovered, the Church of Philadelphia will be those who are taken up, snatched away by force, which is the meaning of “harpazo” that Paul spoke of in his epistles to the Corinthians (1st Corinthians 15:52) and the Thessalonians (1st Thessalonians 4:16-17). As our Lord has the key to unlock the door to those who belong to Him, and the key of government for the coming ages, John enters the very throne room of God, and the description of what he saw makes this old minister reel with awe in my mind of what it must have looked like. This is similar to what the prophet Daniel saw when he saw the Lord of Glory. 3 “And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. 4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. 5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.” (Revelation 4:3-6) Note the symbolism of “He who sat” on the throne? The stones it speaks of are the jasper and sardine which in color are a fiery red, which speaks of what Paul said about our God. 28 “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29 For our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29) Although God the Father is a Spirit, many places in the Bible describes His power as a burning fire. The Prophet Daniel which meshes with what John saw, describes our God also as a consuming fire. 9 “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. 10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” (Daniel 9:9-10) A most powerful description of the Creator of the Universe, who has a rainbow and the color of emerald surrounding His throne. The latter half of this verse shows us these surrounded by the emerald-colored bow, the evident symbol of the divine mercy. The allusion to the bow in the cloud given to Noah after the flood (Genesis 9:12-16) is obvious; the bow completely encircled the throne, as mercy encompassing judgment. But notice verse 4 of this chapter? 4 “And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.” (Revelation 4:4) I covered this in my first sermon in this chapter, in the “Book of the Apocalypse”, but it must be covered here to make a point of who these elders are. The description of these elders give them away. Recall that the Church of Philadelphia was spoken of in terms of God's government, and that Jesus has the Keys of David, His earthly ancestor? As John enters the throne room of God, those who surround the throne of our ABBA Father, are signs of rulers, elders which is another word for those who have been given authority. They number 24 which is multiple of the number 12 (12x2) with 12 being in biblical numerology the sign of government. Note their description as being seated on thrones round about God's Throne, so being seated they are at rest. They have finished their work. They have crowns on their heads which is spoken of in other pages of your bible. Given most likely at the Bema Judgment seat of Christ for things done for Jesus Christ on earth. (1st Corinthians chp. 3) 12” Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” (James 1:12) 8” Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”(2nd Timothy 4:8) They are clothed with white raiment, which in the pages of this book, is a sign of the saints. When speaking of the church, she is also clothed in white raiment but goes even further to describe the clothes she wears. “And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.:(Revelation 19:8) So the description fits the details of the Church of the Living God who has been taken through the open door, and now sits on thrones, clothed with white raiment, with crowns of righteousness on their heads. No angel has ever had the honor of sitting with God on thrones and given the description that these elders are given. No angel has ever been called an elder, but minister of fire that serve the heirs of salvation...that would be us, the Church of God glorified and entirely human but now an everlasting spirit of flesh and bone, just as Jesus was described when He came to His apostles. John sees the government of God in His throne room. Further, the descriptions of the beast that surround the throne are analogous what what the prophet Daniel saw with their six wings, but here describes them with faces of an eagle, an ox or calf, a lion, and a man. These are the same faces that were the symbols used for the Hebrew children in the wilderness when they camped with 3 tribes each to the north, the south, the east, and the west of the Temple or Tabernacle of God in the wilderness. A picture on earth, what was seen in heaven in eternity. Twelve tribes, twelve apostles, the Old testament and the New Testament represented here and another sign of the church glorified. The Throne room is all about giving God glory and praise for what He has done for us. Whenever the beast cry aloud: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. 9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, 10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Revelation 4:8b-11) We and all those who surround the throne of God give Him glory, honor and praise, for He is worthy of all adoration. Such is the scene that John saw in chapter four, that sets up the coming of the Messiah into the presence of God the Father. Next time, we will see our Lord Jesus come and take the title deed to His creation preceding the beginning of the Tribulation and the revealing of the Anti-Christ. Destruction will begin and will increase exponentially as we go along....but how do you miss what is coming? 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:16-19) 8 “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”(Romans 10:8-13) Do not put off what I am describing, as the horror of the coming Tribulation that I will describe in the next part, is so horrific, that no one who is sane would want to go through...Admit you are a sinner, that Jesus died for you, rose again to live forevermore..then repent of your sins, accept Jesus as Lord of your life and turn and follow Him as is mortally possible this side of the rapture.... 2 “(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)”(2nd Corinthians 6:2) Join us next time, as we explore further into this book that these horrific details you must avoid, but is written for our time and for our salvation....As God, our Savior gives this Revelation to John and to us... This is Pastor Mike Taylor, praying you come to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus and avoid the destruction of your body and possibly your soul in the coming Tribulation....if you have question, need prayer, or just a friendly listening ear, then email me at pastormiketaylor@yahoo.com. God bless you all, TILL WE MEET AT JESUS FEET The ‘Gloom and Doom’ Factor - By Jack Kinsella - https://www.raptureready.com/2020/11/17/the-gloom-and-doom-factor-by-jack-kinsella/
A reader emailed me… saying, “the closer I look at prophecy and fulfillment, on an every-day basis, the gloomier it all seems. I know I can’t be the only one feeling that – we all must struggle with that…” The prophecies of the Bible for the last days ARE a lot of doom and gloom — the very purpose of the Tribulation is to judge a Christ-rejecting world. It is called the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, the Day of Wrath, etc. It is the time of God’s judgment on the world — and there isn’t much cheering going on. Three-quarters of the world will die of the plagues and judgments during this period (Revelation 6). One third of the trees on earth will burn up (Revelation 8:7), a third of all sea life will die, a third part of the ships will be destroyed in a sea turned one-third to blood (v.9). The judgment extends from the earth to the heavens: “And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise” (Revelation 8:12). It isn’t a pretty picture to contemplate. Especially in light of the very next verse: “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!” (Revelation 8:13). No wonder much of the Church prefers the replacement theologian’s view that all prophecy was fulfilled with the Destruction of the Temple in AD 70 and that Revelation and Daniel are figurative or allegorical rather than predictive. Sir Isaac Newton is reputed to have observed, “About the time of the end, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamour and opposition.” Now that we live in that time, Newton’s observation sounds almost prophetic. There is a HUGE clamor surrounding the study of Bible prophecy. And any of you who’ve read the forum debates over replacement theology know how strongly they oppose studying Bible prophecy. In any case, the prophecies for the last days are so terrifying, many would rather allegorize them away. We are not living during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. But our world is preparing itself for that time as we sit back as astonished eyewitnesses. The chaos that seizes the planet during the Tribulation has its beginnings during the last days of the Church Age. Jesus warned that there would come wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilences and so on. He warned that, “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8). The signs of the times are all around us, and they are scary. They are scary even to many saved Christians who know the signs mean the Day of the Lord is at hand. They are scary to Christians who believe the Rapture will occur before the Tribulation begins. There is nothing in Scripture to suggest that the Church Age will escape bad things in the last days — just that it will be removed before the beginning of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Bad things are already happening. The wars. The rumors of wars. Famines. Earthquakes and pestilences. All on an ever-increasing scale of frequency and intensity. But Jesus said, “all these things MUST come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6). The ‘end’ He refers to is the ‘end of the [Church] age’ (Matthew 24:3), so we know it’s going to get uglier. Assessment Those are all good reasons to get depressed with the ‘doom and gloom’ of Bible prophecy. It’s easy to get caught up in it — especially when examining the ‘nuts and bolts’ of how things fit together, and what Scripture says should be next on the global agenda. Since nothing particularly pleasant is prophesied to come upon the earth, studying it in detail gets pretty depressing. And there are all the people we know that are not yet saved — we know that time is running out, that they won’t listen, and that is even more depressing. We see all the tiniest details of God’s plan being played out before our eyes, but the details obscure the bigger picture. This is GOD’S PLAN! Before the world began, God knew exactly how things would play out. He told us in advance of each event. He told us that fulfilled prophecy was His Signature; “Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me” (Isaiah 45:21). Also, “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear” (Isaiah 59:1). In this generation, we live in an age of miracles. There appears that there is nothing that science won’t be able to accomplish eventually, thanks to the advent of computers. We can replicate almost any miracle except one. We cannot predict the future. It simply can’t be done. No computer could calculate every detail of every life in advance, which is what would be necessary. Should one person do something unexpected, then the whole course of future history would change. Bible prophecy was given to the Church in the last days for the same reason that the Apostles were given miracles, signs and wonders following Pentecost. In both instances, God’s Authority is proved by God-given signs. It was by the Authority of God, authenticated by miracles, that the Apostles proclaimed the birth of the Church Age at Pentecost. It is by the Authority of God, authenticated by fulfilled prophecy, that the Bible proclaims the end of the Church Age in this generation. Taking into account the bigger picture, Bible prophecy isn’t ‘doom and gloom’ at all. It is incontrovertible evidence that cannot be shaken by modern scientific ‘miracles.’ When the skeptic argues for evolution and random selection, trotting out fossils, skeletons and diagrams, it seems pretty convincing – maybe the Bible isn’t all that literal, after all. Maybe science has got something there…maybe…(!) But when one compares the accuracy of the Bible’s account of the unknowable future to the ever-changing scientific ‘explanations’ for the distant past, doubts melt away. The skeptic has multiple explanations for static events that have already happened. The Bible gives a single explanation for a fluid, changeable series of events predicted to happen thousands of years in the future — the events that define our present day. Which is more convincing? Bible prophecy proves Jesus was the Son of God, regardless of the latest scientific, archeological or historical discovery. No matter what else might be offered as ‘evidence’ to the contrary, there is no other explanation for Bible prophecy. It is our generation’s unique miracle. It proves that He remains in charge of the affairs of men. Scripture records His Promise in all three Gospel accounts: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33). “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). Bible prophecy is proof positive that God remains on the Throne, that His Word will NOT return to Him void, and that all the chaos and terror of the world notwithstanding, all continues to go according to His plan. Given the unbeliever’s explanation of uncontrolled chaos, Bible prophecy isn’t all that depressing, after all. What WOULD be depressing would be to be among the lost, not knowing what this world is coming to, and believing the world is in a state of uncontrolled chaos. For the believer, Bible prophecy can be pretty encouraging, which is what the Lord intended for the last days’ Church all along: “But these things have I told you, that WHEN THE TIME SHALL COME, ye may remember that I told you of them” (John 16:4). The Great Setup – Jonathan Brentner - https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/https/jonathan-brentner-g8fgsquarespacecom/config/2020/11/13/the-great-setup
Perhaps I have an overly suspicious mind, but something does not feel right about what I am seeing in the aftermath of the recent election. We know massive election fraud took place late on November 3 and the early morning hours of November 4. The evidence is overwhelming, which in itself makes me more than a little skeptical. Why didn’t those engineering the fraud do a better job of covering up their tracks? Did they actually want their illegal schemes uncovered and thus have the courts throw out all the fabricated votes that favored Biden? Is this a ploy to further enrage the groups that seek to turn the United States into a Marxist state? My mind keeps racing back to a November 1 news item. A GOP congressional candidate in Pennsylvania, Sean Parnell, woke to discover this message spray painted in red on his garage door, “Elections no – Revolution yes!” Is this an indication that the radicals are not depending on the election to forever change the U.S.? I keep wondering. The mainstream media in the U.S. repeatedly pounds us with the message that Joe Biden won the election. Facebook reminds us of his victory under every post that even suggests the results of the 2020 election are not yet final. Besides recounts in at least a couple states, the Trump team has amassed four hundred twenty-nine affidavits from those who witnessed the fraud and recorded twelve thousand incident reports. The Trump lawyers have already brought evidence before the Supreme Court. With all this activity, surely the mainstream media knows that Biden’s victory remains clouded in considerable doubt. Yet they persist in telling those who hang their hopes on their every word that the election of Biden is a done deal and far beyond question. How are we to understand such misdirection? Could it be a setup for future disaster? THE GREAT RESET The first piece of this puzzle is The Great Reset, a term the World Economic Forum (WEF) uses to promote their vision of a one world government. This represents the ultimate goal of all the elite globalists in the world. Many excellent articles and prophecy updates such as one by Tom Hughes cover this topic well. An excellent article on this is Own Nothing and Be Happy": The Great Reset's Vision Of The Future, by Tyler Durden. He writes this about what he gleaned from the WEF website: Using COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions to push through this transformation, the great reset is being rolled out under the guise of a ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ in which older enterprises are to be driven to bankruptcy or absorbed into monopolies, effectively shutting down huge sections of the pre-COVID economy. Economies are being ‘restructured’ and many jobs will be carried out by AI-driven machines. In a short video showcased on social media, the WEF predicts that by 2030, “You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.” A happy smiling face is depicted while a drone delivers a product to a household, no doubt ordered online and packaged by a robot in a giant Amazon warehouse: ‘no humans were involved in manufacturing, packaging or delivering this product’; rest assured, it is virus- and bacteria-free – because even in 2030, they will need to keep the fear narrative alive and well to maintain full-spectrum dominance over the population.[i] In an open letter to President Donald Trump dated October 25, 2020, Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò wrote these chilling words about The Great Reset: The purpose of the Great Reset is the imposition of a health dictatorship aiming at the imposition of liberticidal measures, hidden behind tempting promises of ensuring a universal income and cancelling individual debt. The price of these concessions from the International Monetary Fund will be the renunciation of private property and adherence to a program of vaccination against Covid-19 and Covid-21 promoted by Bill Gates with the collaboration of the main pharmaceutical groups. Beyond the enormous economic interests that motivate the promoters of the Great Reset, the imposition of the vaccination will be accompanied by the requirement of a health passport and a digital ID, with the consequent contact tracing of the population of the entire world. Those who do not accept these measures will be confined in detention camps or placed under house arrest, and all their assets will be confiscated.[ii] This is the vision that the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world have for the inhabitants of earth. And make no mistake, they have powerful allies in both the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States as well as in high level government leadership positions throughout the world. It’s important that we understand the ultimate goal motivating those hoping to steal the election from President Trump. PRESIDENT TRUMP IS THE KEY OBSTACLE The WEF hopes to fully implement their Marxist vision by 2030, which by no coincidence is exactly the year set by the UN for fully realizing their Marxist dream of utopia as stated in the seventeen goals of their Agenda 2030. If they are to make their aspirations a worldwide reality by 2030, they must start making tangible progress now in the United States, but therein lies their greatest problem. President Trump vigorously opposes the plans of the elite to enslave the people of the United States to The Great Reset. On the campaign trail, He repeatedly stated that “as long as he was president, America would never be a socialist nation.” In other words, he will never allow the U.S. to join The Great Reset. In his October 25 letter to President Trump, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò stressed the necessity of Trump’s victory recognizing that he and the U.S. represents the greatest obstacle to the plans of the WEF to implement The Great Reset on a worldwide basis. “Mr. President, you are well aware that, in this crucial hour, the United States of America is considered the defending wall against which the war declared by the advocates of globalism has been unleashed.” But will the election of Joe Biden as president accomplish all the goals of the left as quickly as they need to meet their 2030 goal? If the Republicans retain control of the Senate and it looks probable, they will vote down all proposals put forward by Biden or Harris that would move America toward The Great Reset. Biden would still inflict considerable damage to the U.S. in regard to its standing as a free and independent nation, but the checks and balances of the constitution would slow down the march of America to The Great Reset. The globalists of our world and the deep state within America need something more drastic to meet their timetable of bringing the U.S. and thus the world under their domain by 2030. This takes me to what I call “the great setup.” THE GREAT SETUP I pray I am wrong about my take on the scenario unfolding in the U.S., but it’s the putting of all these things together that makes me wonder if this is all a big setup for disaster in America. Let’s review where we are at: · An abundance of evidence exists pointing to election fraud is something the courts will not be able to ignore. It goes well beyond what I mentioned earlier in this post. · The mainstream media, which is surely aware of the massive amount of evidence pointing to election fraud, unceasingly pounds out the narrative that Joe Biden is the President-elect and only fools dare doubt them on this. · The media is thus purposely raising the expectation of victory with all those on the left. · A Biden victory with a likely Republican Senate helps the left, but it leaves them short of being able to implement their draconian measures necessary to speed up the implementation of The Great Reset within the U.S. · The elite globalists and deep state cannot allow President Trump to remain President until January 2025. That would be disastrous to their plans. There’s also this. Even with what they believe is a clear and unchallengeable victory for Biden, the radical left’s hatred and anger at President Trump and all his supporters has not subsided one bit, not one iota; it’s still as strong, if not stronger than ever. Consider this quote from the website One News now from a November 13, 2020 article: Bolstered by Joe Biden’s expected win over Trump, the so-called Resistance movement of Democrats and “Never Trump” Republicans is blatantly calling for Trump supporters to be punished if they voted for him and put out a yard sign, cheered for him and defended his policies, or served in his administration.[iii] Now combine the still seething rage of the radical left in America with the possible announcement that the courts have overturned Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania and that recounts in the Michigan and Georgia show clear victories for the President. Would not the pent up rage of the left explode into violence on the streets at the news of a Trump victory? I think so. As the evidence mounts day by day and hundreds of people come forward attesting to the election fraud in all of the swing states that currently lie in the Biden win column, my confidence in a ultimate Trump victory grows. At the White House, a prominent staffer for the President says they are planning for a second term; Trump is totally confident of victory. I believe the great setup is this: By calling the election early for Biden, the media hyped the expectations of the left to a fever pitch, which sets them up for over-the-top fury should the Supreme Court give the election to President Trump. This outcome now appears to be a distinct possibility given the massive amount of evidence that the Trump team is assembling. If this happens, I believe we will see the greatest outbreak of violence in America since the Civil War. Was the writing on the garage door indicative of the ultimate plans of the elite globalists, “Elections No – Revolution Yes!”? I think it was. Such violence would make the U.S. extremely vulnerable to foreign enemies. And should the revolutionists overturn the government and put their person in charge (hint: it will almost certainly not be Joe Biden), they will place the United States on a glide path to the Great Reset. Our Imminent Departure from the Earth I cannot write about such a dire possibility without mentioning our hope in the soon appearing of Jesus Christ to take us home. Our ultimate hope is not in anything temporal whether it be “four more years” or an even greater America. Our departure to the place Jesus is preparing for us constitutes our ultimate and immediate expectation (John 14:2-3). The articles I read on The Great Reset tell me that the seven-year tribulation is approaching faster than we can imagine. The things that I read about Bill Gates’ future plans for the COVID-19 vaccine scream the future fulfillment of Revelation 13:11-18; I sometimes wonder how it’s possible that the rapture has not already happened. Satan and his demonic forces are rushing the world toward the final form of the beast described in the books of Daniel and Revelation. Step by step, the globalists are slowly gaining more control over our world. America, however, remains an elusive prize for them. The fulfillment of 1 Corinthians 15:50-56, Philippians 3:20-21, and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:10 is so very close. As I finish writing this post, the reality of the nearness of our departure from this world seems more real than ever to me. I would be foolish to predict the timing of the rapture, but I also believe it would be unwise to assume it cannot happen this year or next year. With the seven-year tribulation closing in on us like an out of control freight train, we know that our departure, which must happen first, is ever so close. Perhaps things will turn out differently than I imagine with the great setup. But even if the Democrats succeed in stealing the election from President Trump, the perilous times we now experience will get much, much worse and so the nearness of our ultimate redemption. Maranatha! [i] This article can be found at: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/own-nothing-and-be-happy-great-resets-vision-future [ii] The full text of the letter can be found at: https://taylormarshall.com/2020/10/archbishop-viganos-open-letter-president-trump-great-reset.html [iii] The full article can be found at: https://onenewsnow.com/politics-govt/2020/11/13/eyeing-a-white-house-win-angry-left-vows-to-purge-nazis-in-name-of-unity Rough Road Ahead - By Daymond Duck - https://www.raptureready.com/2020/11/15/rough-road-ahead-by-daymond-duck/
Announcements coming from the Biden campaign and the apparent election fraud signify a rough road ahead for many in Israel, the U.S. and the world. Here are a few examples: One, concerning world government, in 2019 Pres. Trump gave the required one-year notice of his intent to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accords. On Nov. 4, 2020, the one-year waiting period ended, and the U.S. is now officially out of that agreement. Whether the U.S. stays out of that pact or gets back in may now be up to Biden, but it is being reported that he will sign an Executive Order to rejoin the globalist wealth redistribution scam on Jan. 20, 2021. Two, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog, according to the Biden website, if Iran returns to compliance with the Iranian nuclear weapons deal, the U.S. will return to the agreement (Note: Trump withdrew because Iran wouldn’t comply). The Biden website also says Biden will stop giving U.S. support to Saudi Arabia’s effort to contain the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. Put another way: Biden intends to let up on Iran, Israel’s number one enemy and the number one world’s biggest supporter of terrorism. Three, also, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog, on Nov. 4, 2020, an Israeli official said a U.S. return to the Iranian nuclear deal will eventually lead to a war between Israel and Iran. Four, also concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog, Iran has vowed to help Syria retake the Golan Heights from Israel. In late Oct. or early Nov. 2020, Israeli planes dropped leaflets on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights that warned Syrian troops and residents that Israel will attack Iranian forces and proxies that are trying to build bases in the area. Israeli intelligence says Iranian troops are dressing in Syrian military uniforms and, in some cases, Iranian officers are commanding Syrian troops. Five, concerning peace in the Middle East, Biden claims that he supports Israel, but he said he will restore U.S. support for the two-state solution which will divide Israel and endanger Israel’s existence. Dividing Israel and scattering the Jews is the reason God will drag the nations into the Battle of Armageddon (Joel 3:2). Six, concerning persecution of believers, on Oct. 31, 2020, Rev. Franklin Graham said he believes a Joe Biden election victory will lead to attacks from the left against businesses, Christian organizations, churches, and groups doing humanitarian work. He believes there will be an effort to tax and close down these groups. Seven, on Oct. 9, 2020, it was reported that PA Pres. Mahmoud Abbas has been covertly contacting Biden in an effort get him to reverse most of Pres. Trump’s pro-Israel policies, including the removal of the U.S. Embassy from Jerusalem. There is no indication that Biden will do it, but if he does, America’s leaders should get in a cave and beg God to let the rocks fall on them (Rev. 6:15-16). Eight, in 2018, Pres. Trump cut off the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars per year to the UN that went to the Palestinian Authority (PA). On Nov. 9, 2020, it was reported that the UN is confident that the Biden Administration will restore these funds. Nine, here are some of my thoughts on the election: · It may take several weeks to determine who won the election. · Regardless of who won, America is still a divided nation, we are still blessed to live in the U.S. (but things are likely to get a lot worse), Christians are still obligated to pray for their leaders, Christians will still go to heaven, and the lost will still go to Hell. · Some of the charges of voter fraud appear to be true, and I am praying that God will expose the fraud and deal with the perpetrators. There is good reason to believe that this is a deliberate coup against the presidency of the U.S. It has been widely reported that several states used voting machines that came from people with ties to George Soros and that these machines were programmed to switch votes from Trump to Biden. Soros funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Democrats. There have been reports that Nancy Pelosi invested in the company that created the software for the machines. Republicans are investigating this in Michigan. · God is still in control, He has this, He will still decide the outcome, His decision may be grace for America and the world, or it may be that it is time for His judgment to fall. He may use the Tribulation Period to do that. · If Biden wins, it will demonstrate the power and control of the shadow government. Trump was hindering their New World Order. They wanted him out of office badly enough to spy on him, falsely accuse him, impeach him, lie about, falsely accuse and illegally jail some of his staff, and, in my mind, to steal the election. This is just part of their never-ending effort. · If Biden wins, globalists will fast-track world government as soon as he takes office. Biden operatives are not waiting for Jan. 20, 2021. They are already preparing to reverse many of Trump’s policies, enact the Green New Deal, pass global warming legislation, pass Medicare for all, tear down the border wall, rejoin the World Health Organization, re-join the Paris Climate Accords, and more. Many believe tearing down the wall will spread Covid, and some also believe Covid is a scam to bring in world government. · If Biden wins, globalists will fast-track world religion. Democrats have not allowed any references to God in their party platform, and they will go all out to remove God from our society. · A Biden victory will increase persecution of Christians and conservatives. Extremist Democrats call Christians and conservatives racists; homophobes; they have attacked churches and synagogues; rioted, looted, burned businesses, and more. Biden has been supporting mandatory masks and talking about tougher lockdown requirements. On Nov. 9, 2020, Biden announced that his plan to fight Covid includes nationwide lockdowns, Covid testing and contact tracing (sounds a little like a system to track everyone). Another concern is a call from some Democrats to make a list of troublemakers that voted for Trump. · The mainstream media and social media are corrupt. Deception and censorship are rampant. Truth rarely prevails. Fox News is beginning to slip. · The importance of the Georgia Senate race cannot be over-emphasized. If Republicans retain control of the U.S. Senate, they can hinder the plunge toward world government and world religion. · If the U.S. Supreme Court does not intervene, the shadow government has control of that institution too. · A Biden victory will make war in the Middle East more likely. Russia, China, Iran, and the PA are already rejoicing over the possibility that Trump has lost, and Iran is already calling on the Arabs to abandon their normalization treaties with Israel. Biden, who’s son Hunter is under investigation for receiving millions of dollars from China, said he will restore America’s relations with China. · The bad news is it looks like there is a rough road ahead for many. · The good news is that the approaching world government and world religion signify an even closer Rapture, meaning Christians could soon exchange the rough road for streets of gold. Finally, person’s having proof of election fraud have been asked to call True the Vote’s Election Integrity Hotline at 1-855-702-0702, or go to ValidatetheVote.us. Information is available at the website, and there is a place to contribute to efforts to challenge the vote. God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this. Prophecy Plus Ministries, Inc. Daymond Duck duck_daymond@yahoo.com |
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February 2021
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