Millennial Period - My Comments.

When we started studying Ezekiel and Zechariah, we noticed that this period was going to be a combining of two facets of God's people, on the one hand the remnant (believing Jews who stayed loyal to God and refused to worship idols) and Christians who are part of God's people through adoption; made available through Jesus' death and resurrection. Throughout our history, Christians and Jews have been at odds with each other. I don't know why this is; If we read the Bible for all its worth like Gordon Fee says in his book, this idea becomes clear. Ezekiel and Zechariah talk about this combined group, but you won't find this idea in their commentaries. They don't remember what Paul said in Romans about Christians being grafted into the Jewish roots. In fact when they talk about what Paul says, they forget Paul was a Jew and knew the Old Testament very well. Everything Paul said is based on the Old Testament; how can they say that what Paul said in Thessalonians is a mystery. Jesus said a student is never greater than His master. Jesus being God, can not be less than Paul. Why do we give Paul's words more weight than Jesus?? The Bible is God's Word, and one of God's attributes is that He can not lie, how come so many different schools of thought for end times?? The problem is, scholars are reading the Bible and cutting it up; as they would any other book. The Bible is not an ordinary book, and as such, it must be handled carefully and with respect. We call God the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. If God can not lie and can not contradict Himself; then how can we change so drastically what He told the prophets in the Old Testament, with what He says in the New Testament?? The core verses on the right hand side of this blog, are there to keep me grounded. Jesus said "I did not come to do away with but to fulfill." Why is it I seem to be the only one who reads God's Word in this fashion??

24th Meeting - Millennial Discussion Zech. Chapter 4

This chapter opens with a vision of a Lampstand with two Olive Trees, one on either side of the Lampstand, with both trees supplying the Lampstand with oil. Why are there two olive trees supplying the one Lampstand. There are several ideas on this one. If you have study Bibles they will tell you what they think, read what I have to say and my explaination and then decide for yourself which one makes more sense. My post of last week dealt with Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus said that salvation starts with the Jews. Keep that in mind. The fact that these trees are in the same close area of eachother means that this also will take place during the Millennium. In Romans Paul says that we are grafted into the roots of the Jews and this is how our adoption into the family of God came into existance. Romans 11:11. The one Olive tree represents the believing Jews who remained true to God through all the mistakes the rest of the Jews made. These are called the Remnant. The other Olive Tree represents the Gentile believers that are also called Christians. The Old Testament believers were chosen by God through their Father Abraham, the New Testament believers are joined together into this family through adoption. We were chosen by God through our belief in the redemption of Jesus Christ through His death and ressurection. The two Olive Trees represent the whole family of God. This is why Paul gave his message to the Jew first and then to the Gentile (non-Jew). We as Christians can never forget that Jesus was and still is a Jew. John 3:16 says that "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son for whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." This is God's promise to us. The Olive Trees supply oil to the Lampstand, in this way the trees are working for the Lampstand by providing this service. Like the trees, we by doing the works of God to provide a service and by doing so we produce light. Jesus called us to be salt and light. We need to remember that the Jews are the chosen ones of God; but that He also chose us through His adoption, so we could have all the same benefits given to the Jews.

24th Meeting - Millennium Discussion - Zech. 3-5

Chapter 3 opens with a High Priest named Joshua standing before an angel of the Lord and Satan is there to accuse him. This is a great story and reminds us that as Joshua is standing here, we are in a similar situation before God with Satan accusing us of not being clean enough. Joshua is the High Priest and he is wearing dirty garments, that should be clean, and it is his uncleanness that makes him unfit. We are unclean by sin before God and our God demands perfection. We by ourselves are not clean enough to stand before God, no one is. We plus Jesus makes us 100 percent clean in God's eyes. This is why everyone needs Jesus, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God". Joshua had a friend in the angel of the Lord. Listen to the authority used by this angel. If he was an ordinary angel he would have said by God's power I will change your clothing. This angel did not talk in this manner. When ever an Angel of the Lord talks with this authority, He is the preincarnate Christ. Or Jesus before he came to live in the Gospels. This is how Jesus could say to the Pharisees, that before Abraham was "I AM". Jesus is God (He was there at creation of the world) and man, this is how He can intercede for us. Then the angel of the Lord told Joshua that he had to walk in God's Statutes and keep my words than you will be restored. This is the same command Jesus gives to us today. If you follow Jesus, your walk must match your talk and it must match what Jesus says. If not you are not keeping the Words of God. After you make a decision to live for Christ, you have to start taking off your old self and putting on the attributes of God. When you die you will be the closest you can be to the life of Christ and Christ will complete that work when He comes again.
I see I am again at the end of my allotted time and will have to post again. We will pick it up on chapter 4 of Zechariah.

24th Meeting - Millennium Discussion - Zech 2-5

Its going to take a long time to get through this I'm afraid, 2 previous posts to finish chapter 1 and we have four more chapters to go.
Chapter 2 Zechariah opens with a man with a measuring line in his hand. He is measuring Jerusalem to make sure it can accommodate the increase in population of people and animals. Then he goes on to talk about a city without walls. This is very interesting, Jerusalem now has a 40 foot wall that surrounds most of the city and all of the old city. Even our cities are starting to have gated communities in order to keep the people safe. This clearly mentions no walls, this is still future to us and will happen during the Millennium period. If you remember when the children of Israel were wandering in the desert out of Egypt, God went before them as a pillar of fire at night and a swirling cloud during the day. This is the Shekinah glory of God, during the Millennium, Jesus Christ will reign in Jerusalem for 1,000 years. The Shekinah will be the protection, so no need of gated or walled communities. In verse 6, he tells the people to flee the north, and to come back to your homes. This would be the kingdoms of Babylon and Assryia, and would be the kingdoms that deported the Jews in the Old Testament. If Zechariah was speaking of lands known to him, if he is talking of future times than all lands north of Israel that house Jews would be part of this statement. Notice who brings these countries down, the slaves of these kingdoms. What do you know about slaves? They are kept in a constant state of humility to make sure they are afraid to rise up. Only God can give hope to the hopeless. If you don't believe that, look at yourself before you became a believer. You were on the slippery slope that leads to damnation, and you knew you deserved to be there. Then Jesus came into your life and gave you a reason for living, only Jesus can change your misrable situation. That is why God named Him Jesus (He saves us from our sins). That is what the name Jesus means. I see I am again at the end of the post limit and have to stop, I will pick up Chapter 3 of Zechariah on the next post.

24th Meeting - Millennium Discussion con't Zech 1 -5

We are trying to end the first chapter of Zechariah, I left you hanging concerning the craftsmen or blacksmiths that are going to come to destroy the four horns. If you look back at the book of Daniel, his prophecy deals with the rise of each horn or kingdom. It seems that each horn was destroyed by the next horn. Zechariah talks about craftsmen or blacksmiths that will destroy these horns. The horns were anti-God, but the craftsmen and blacksmiths seem to be God-fearing men that God has chosen to destroy the horns. These smiths will rise much the same way as the horns did but unlike the horns, they will be concerned with fulfilling God's plan for them, the way God intended. Not like what we have seen in the past where God's will seems to have come about by dumb luck. With God there is no sense of luck. Everything God does is for a reason and never by chance. Since we can not point out these smiths, means that this also seems to be future to us. We still have the horns even though they are broken, but they are still strong enough to cause God's people pain. This also is mentioned in Daniel chapter 2, the rock is supposed to slide down the mountain and hit the statue at the base and cause the whole statue to be ground to dust. If you are remembering where we are now according to that statue, we are in the period of feet of clay and of iron, but without knowledge of the ten toes. See Daniel chapter 2 is still relevant and we need to remember this. I see I am again at the end of the allotted post and am not done. I am beginning to feel like the old radio dramas when they used to say stay tuned for our next adventure, but in our case the next post.

24th Meeting - Millennial Discussion Con't -Zechariah

I have to get some business out of the way before we start. The Bible that helped me to understand the Old Testament better is "The Reese Chronological Bible" ISBN 0-87123-115-8.
In our study of Millennium Bible references we went from Old to New Testament Bible Verses, and some in my class have found that better knowledge and understanding of the Old Testament will help in understanding the New Testament. This as a teacher has been fun for me to watch. If I can make Bible Readers out of my students, then I feel I have been successful. After studying the passages in Matthew and John, they felt they needed to look at some of the Minor Prophets, I tried to get them to focus on earlier Zechariah is the first Minor Prophet they wanted to study further. We will pick this up now.

Zechariah Chapters one through 5.
Zechariah opens with "In the eighth month of Darius..." I asked them when this was, they looked at me blankly, I showed them my copy of my handout of the Statue mentioned in Daniel Chapter 2, then we looked at the time line and found that two Darius' had ruled the Kingdom of Medo-Persia. We had to figure out which it was, the class came to the conclusion that it had to be during the time of Darius the Meade, because he was ruler of Babylon during the time of the Temple being rebuilt in Jerusalem.
In verse 8, Zechariah had a vision, it was similar to the one John had in Revelation (Rev. 6.), but at the same time different. The angel asked the man standing in the myrtle trees and on a red horse. The visions of heaven that we have does not mention any trees. I believe this to be in Babylon, since this is where Zechariah is at the time of Darius the Meade. Zechariah is different from Revelation chapter 6 the horsemen come out of Heaven and the horses have riders and they are going out into the world. In Zechariah only one horse has a rider and the person says that the horsemen have returned and found the world at peace. In Revelation the horsemen are taking vials with them because of the conflicts in the world. The fact that the world is now at peace should tell us that Zechariah's vision can not be at the same time as Revelation chapter 6.
The whole world is at peace, the world is still waiting for this to take place, so this is still future to Revelation Chapter 6. This will not take place until the Prince of Peace Comes back to dwell on the earth. This points to the Millennial period. Chapter 1 closes with the mention of four horns, that destroyed Israel. These four horns seem to be the four kingdoms Daniel foretold in chapter 2 of his book of prophecy. Some Bible versions talk about craftsmen, or blacksmiths that will come to tear down the four horns. Who are these craftsmen or blacksmiths? I see I am close to the end of my allotted time for each post so I will take this up on the next post; coming shortly, hopefully yet today.

23rd Meeting Millennium Discussion Continued

Matthew 16:18, was part of the Millennium verses, we talked about. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. Jesus then told Peter that no one but the Heavenly Father could have revealed that to you. then Jesus went on and said "Upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." Why then would the church be raptured before the tribulation, when Satan will be the strongest? It seems for this to happen, then the Words of Jesus are in error. The church being around during the tribulation seems to fit with what Daniel chapter 7:25b The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times, and a half a time. If the whole church is raptured before the anti-christ comes, who will be left to educate the people left behind to be saints? If you look at most churches, now they are very seeker friendly, but not very strong on the teachings of God. If you don't know God before you go to church, you may not find Him from the service. These churches are counting on their small groups, Sunday School and other venues to teach about God. If these churches are raptured, who will be left to train the left behinder's into saints?? The teachers, they were counting on would have been taken with the rest of the church.

Didn't Jesus say I will be with you always, even unto the end of the age? I don't see anywhere in scripture where Jesus says He will take some with and leave some behind. We are not talking about sheep and goats here, we are talking about separating sheep from sheep.

22nd Meeting - Millennium Discussion Continued.

We are continuing our tour of Bible Prophecy, we have finally gotten to the New Testament. John 4:21 came up in this list. This is taken from the story of the woman at the well. If you are not familiar with this story, Jesus was being pursued by the Pharisees and they were trying to kill Jesus for His teachings. Jesus and His disciples fled to the area of the Samaritans, because he knew the Jews would not pursue Him in this territory. He meets this woman at the well, and starts talking to her. During their conversation, the woman asks Jesus which place is better to worship the Lord. Her people the Samaritans (worshiped on Mount Gerizim) , and the Jews worshiped in the Temple at Jerusalem. Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is here, when you will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." John 4:21 - 24. Jesus is telling this woman a lot in this passage, she knew that the Messiah was coming, the Jews and the Samaritans were both looking for the Messiah. The story of the Samaritans was foretold in Deuteronomy chapter 28. The Northern 10 Tribes were dispersed first for their unbelief, and were conqured by the
Assyrians. This dispersion was different than what the Babylonians did. After the Assyrians dispersed the Jews they put them in a land that was not their's, and they took those people, whose land it was and put them in the Northern Tribes territory. These people intermarried with the Jews that remained and combined their religious practices. This is why the Jews looked down on the Samaritans. The Jews considered them unclean, and would avoid them.

The Jews and the Samaritans knew that when the Messiah would come, He would be both High Priest and King. For this to happen worship as the Jews and Samaritans knew it would have to change. This is what Jesus was telling her when He said the Father is looking for people to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

21st Meeting - Discussion on Millennium continued.

We looked at all the Millennium Bible passages in the Bible starting with Isaiah and going through the New Testament. This gave us a better understanding of how Israel and Jesus will rule during this time. Deuteronomy Chapter 28 talks about the curses and promises that will befall Israel if they either stay true or turn away from God. This teaching will not be necessary during the Millennium. Israel will be under authority of Jesus as King of Kings, and Chief High Priest. Jesus will rule along the lines of Melchizedek who was both King and High Priest. All the nations of the world are to go to Jerusalem and worship Jesus during the feast of Tabernacles, and if they don't, Jesus would withhold rain from falling in their countries. This will be done to make all the nations of the world to understand there is only one God, and He is Lord of All. This is the reason that Israel was supposed to travel back to the Temple. The Jews were sent all over the world because of their unbelief in the Most High God. By making them have to come back to the Temple in Jerusalem, they were admitting that it was their unbelief and their refusal to do God's will that caused them to be dispersed. Now this will be the lesson for the nations.

20th Meeting - Discussion on the Prince Continued

In Chapter 45 the Prince has land given to him on which he supplies the sacrifices for the people. This is completely different from any Temple built in Israel, in any time up to now. When animal sacrifices were put in place by God, the person who committed the sin had to supply an unblemished animal to be sacrificed on their behalf. God commanded this to remind man of his need for a Savior. This pointed to Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, after Jesus became the unblemished Lamb when He Died for our sins (on the cross), Jesus paid the price for the sin that Adam brought into the world. Jesus has already paid the price of our sins so it is not necessary for Him to do it again. When the Prince supplies the sacrifices for the people, this acknowledges that Jesus has paid the price already. By providing the sacrifice, the Prince is reminding the people that He has already paid the price of their sin, this is a symbolic rendering to prove to the Jews who the Messiah is, when He lived, and is here now. Why is God choosing to do this, and why do the Jews seem to get another chance at this?? This is part of "God's ways are not our ways."
If this Prince is not Jesus, I don't know who else it would be.

The Old Testament tells us about a special time when things will stop being like they are now. The Old Testament prophets tell us that the beast of the wild be be led by a child. And the lion will lay down with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6). God will be in charge and the world will be a different place than it is now.

If you look back through the Bible, the world as we knew it changed as history changed. When God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden; their world as they knew it changed. When God judged the world by the Great Flood, their world as they knew it changed. God has shown us that this is part of His plan. If God wants to change the world again in the time of the millennium, why is this so hard to believe??

The signs are there in the Bible if you but only look for them. Jesus asked us to know and watch for the signs. This is what I have tried to do in this study.

20th Meeting - Discussion on Millennial Temple

As Paul told us that we needed a second Adam to take sin out of the world that the first Adam introduced when he ate of the fruit. In the same way we needed a second Temple to show the world how the first Temple was to function. Jesus is the second Adam, the God-Man chosen to take sin out of the world. Ezekiel's Temple shows us how the Temple is to operate during the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth. When Jesus reigns, he will be our King of Kings and our High Priest. Ezekiel and Hebrews are both books in our Bible. We call the Bible the Word of God; since both books are in the Bible then we need to look at both of these being true. God can not contradict Himself. Instead of choosing not to look at Ezekiel because we can not understand it. We should choose to try to find ways to make both books be true. This is what I have tried to do with this study.

In Ezekiel, the High Priest was to come from the line of Zadok. Why Zadok? When you look up Zadok, you will find that he lived during the time of King David. Zadok (1Chronicles 12) is remembered for his loyalty to both David and God. The High Priest was to remind the king that he was to rule according to God's Laws. The High Priest was also to reside over the animal sacrifices and to act as an intercessor between man and God. Since Jesus is our High Priest, He will take over this part of the job. The line of Zadok will be responsible for doing the work of running the Temple. Why is Jesus not responsible for this? Jesus completed His part of task on the cross. This is why Jesus is sitting on the right hand of the Father (His work is finished). In Ezekiel the people who were high priests, but did not stay true to God (Ezekiel 8) will be demoted to lesser priests and do menial tasks (Ezekiel 44). Since these men have already died and are working in the Temple, is spoken plain in Ezekiel but does not make sense to us. God tells us that His ways are not our ways, and that it would be impossible for us to understand everything before it happens. Only after prophecy is fulfilled, can we look at it and understand it; and sometimes not even then.
The high Priest's duties will be carried out by the line of Zadok. Why is there this distinction? When Ezekiel was taken in the spirit from Babylon to the Temple in Jerusalem, the angel that went with him showed Ezekiel all the places the high priests had hidden their idols within the Temple. This was an abomination in the eyes of God. The High Priests that were to show the Israelites the true God, were now the ones responsible for adding to their unbelief. The line of Zadok were the only high priests not to turn away from God during this time.
Going back to what I mentioned earlier in this post, things not making sense. God chose the people of Israel, He judged them more severely than anyone else and if God chooses to show mercy to Israel above that which He does for others; God as God can do whatever it is He wants, and we can not say anything about it. All through out history, the Christians (and the world) have been envious of the Jews, that is why the Jews have been persecuted so unmercilessly by the world. Think about it, no matter where you find a Jew in the world he is still known as being a Jew; even when they had no homeland to call their own, they were still called Jews and not refugees.

20th Meeting - What's Missing in Temple.

Here is a list of items that are missing from the Temples that were built by Solomon and rebuilt by Ezra and Zerubbabel and enlarged by Herod the great. We need to understand who is building this temple and why. The previous post concerns people that do not believe for whatever reason this Temple will be built. The fact they believe like this shows they don't understand why this temple needed to be built. Go back to chapter 40 of Ezekiel, and reread who it was that did the measuring, and decreed that this information be written down. After doing so, it should be perfectly clear who is building the Temple and why. God commanded both the angel (to measure) and Ezekiel to write down what was measured.

1. The first thing not mentioned is Wall of Partition.
This was a small wall that separated the women from the men in the Temple, it was enlarged by Herod the great, remember Herod was not a Jew and had to worship as a Gentile when he went to the Temple. This king could not go everywhere in the Temple that a king of Israelite blood could go. The previous Temples were for the Jews and Proselyted (converted Jews) only. This new Temple will reach out to all believers. The Bible references are Isaiah 49:6; Isaiah 42:6; John 10:16 and Ephesians 2:14.

2. The next item is the court of Women.
The women could only go in the court if they had business with God, sacrifices and laying their offering. Herod being a Gentile had to have another Jew do this on his behalf. The fact that this is missing in this Temple means that God has called all of His believer's to Him. The Bible references for this Galations 3:27-29.

3. The Laver (Bronze Sea).
The priest's were required to wash before and after serving in the Temple. This was to remind them of their own sin, and that they needed to take care of their personal sin before they could perform their duties in the Temple. Jesus paid for all our sins at one time on the cross when he said "It is Finished". Bible references Ezra 36:24; Titus 3:5; 1John 1:9; John 15:3. Notice that there are Old Testament references and New Testament references.

4. The Lampstand.
With Jesus in the Temple His Shekinah glory will provide all the light that will be required.
What was the lesson of the seven churches in Revelation? They allowed their Lampstands to be taken out of those Churches. With Jesus in the Temple we will no longer need these Lampstands for Light and it will no longer be up to us to keep faith inside the Temple to keep it alive!! Bible references Isaiah 9:2; Matthew 4:13 - 16; Isaiah 49:6; John 1:4; John 8:12; Ezekiel 43:1.

5. The Table of Showbread.
This was to remind the Isralites that they were chosen. This is no longer needed because Jesus has brought together both groups of sheep (His Believer's) into one fold. This is exactly why this temple has to be built, Christians and Jews have been separated from each other too long. The Jews felt they were special in the Old Testament, and the Christians are forgetting the words of Jesus and the prophets, when they continue to separate themselves from the Jews. I believe that Romans Chapter 11:19 says that the Gentiles are grafted into the roots of the Israelites. This is not a misprint or mistake! Bible References Ezekiel 34:23; John 6:35.

6. The Altar of Incense.
When the incense was placed on the altar if the smoke went up, the Lord would accept the offering. With Jesus at the Temple and He is the one who is to intercede for us, the fact that He is there is all the proof we need that God is accepting our offering. Bible references Hebrews 7:25; Zechariah 8:20; Zechariah 8:23; Ezekiel 48:35; Isaiah 25:7.

7. The Veil.
This was the partition between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. This was a large woven partition that was as thick as a man's hand (about 4 inches). This was torn from Top to Bottom when Jesus died. The fact that it was torn from Top to Bottom, shows that God was responsible for its tearing. It symbolized that Jesus was now our intercessor and the regular high priest had lost this job. Jesus is our High Priest and King on the same line as Melchizedek, mentioned in Genesis 14:17 and Hebrews 7: 1-3. Except Jesus is greater!! Jesus being both High Priest and King would mean that He would have to go certain places in the Temple that those offices would require. The King could not enter the temple at all, except for Solomon up to this time of Jesus. Jesus is greater than Solomon, or Melchizedek. If God is going to show us what the world would be like with His leadership then this Temple must be built!! Bible references Isaiah 25:7.

8. The Ark of the Covenant.
This has been a very interesting item and the subject of much speculation considering its where abouts. The Ark of the Covenant represented where God would intercede for His people.
The Mercy Seat is a sacred place to Jews and Christians alike; they would like to come before God in front of His Mercy Seat as opposed to His Judgment Seat. Our God is a God of Mercy and a God of Justice. The Justice side of God required that His only Son be Cruciified in order that we believers would live. We can never forget this!! We must remember that the Ark of the Covenant is a symbol that pointed to Christ, when Jesus died on the cross, there was no more need for the Ark of the Covenant. It would stand to reason that in Ezekiel's Temple the Ark of the Covenant would be missing. Jesus has taken its place. Bible References Exodus 25:22; Jeremiah 23:5-6: Jeremiah 3: 16-17; Ezekiel 43:5 -7.

I hope you have a better understanding of Ezekiel's Temple now than before we studied it.

20th Meeting - Discussion concerning Millennial Temple.

We were discussing the need for a millennial Temple, when one of the students said that their Study Bible says that the Prince could not be Jesus, but the author of the Study Bible did not give a counter idea. As far as he (the author) is concerned it is not Jesus, end of story. This author is all over television, and held as an authority on the Bible. This happens time after time; I don't understand why people can not say they don't know, or talk with great authority about what they have not studied. I guess according to this author, "I can't get my mind around this possibility so it must be too big for God."
We are told elsewhere in the Bible that Jesus is our God-Man, High Priest, King, Prince and Redeemer. Why are we afraid to look at the parts of the Bible that would help show how Jesus would hold these positions?? The king or prince could not have access to everywhere in the temple. In Ezekiel's Temple this Prince would have this access. Why is what makes this such a great study for all Christians; but we have people who have graduated from Seminary and have not continued to study and meditate on the Word of God!! I have been studying the Bible for over 40 years, and I continue to learn, and do not believe I am an authority on the Bible at all.
Every time I read the Bible I learn something new. I guess that this is only true for some people only in some parts of the Bible. To me the Bible is Totally the Word of God, and God does not contradict Himself. God does not waste words or actions. What is this author going to do when he is confronted with this Temple and the Prince is Jesus Christ?? God is still on the Throne!!

19th Meeting - Millennial Temple con't 7th Post

The question was raised why there had to be a Millennial Temple at all. Good question! The answer starts in the Garden of Eden with the fall into sin. When Adam sinned, he brought sin into the world. Sin separated us from God; this set up the need to be restored to God. How was this to be accomplished? We needed a second Adam to take sin out of the world, but how? This second Adam would have to be stronger than the first Adam in order to stand up to the temptation of sin. This required a God-man to be our savior (John 3:16). How do we get rid of sin? The Bible tells us that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. If you follow the story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis; God provided the first blood sacrifice, when He provided Adam and Eve the skins of animals to cover their nakedness. The Old Testament points to the need of a Savior. The Temple in Jerusalem, pointed out the cost of sin by demanding an animal sacrifice to be brought to the Temple with the animal provided by the person requesting forgiveness. The person was to pick an unblemished animal from his own stock; this was to remind him of the cost of that sin. When he got to the Temple, he would go to the priest with his animal put his hand on the head of the animal and confess his sin in the presence of the priest transferring his sin to the unblemished (sinless) animal. When Adam and Eve sinned, they needed a blood sacrifice to atone for their sin. The animal sacrifice could only cover the sin it could not take it away. What was needed was a man who could live a sinless life, and be put to death on behalf of all mankind; in order to take sin out of the world. Only one man fits that bill, and His Name is Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the price for all mankind on the cross, when He said "It is Finished". As we needed a 2nd Adam to come into the world; in the same way we need a new Temple to show that the Savior as already come, this is the way to worship Him now. Instead of trying to dismiss the Millennial Temple, why don't you try to find all the differences between the Old Testament Temple, and this Millennial Temple. I assigned homework to find the missing Temple Furniture, but those are not all of the differences. I hope that when you contemplate these differences, you are blessed as I was, and am when I do the same.

19th Meeting - Millennial Temple con't 6th Post

We talked about how the Jews would be duped by the anti-christ. This led to the discussion between differences of Christian and Jewish scriptures. I reminded the class that when I first started teaching them about Daniel; I showed that the Jewish Tanakh, and the Masoretic Text both show the book of Daniel as part of the Kethuvim or other writings section of their scriptures. Christians show Daniel as a prophet, not only as a prophet but a Major Prophet. Why would Christians put Daniel in such a position of importance; it is because Jesus himself called Daniel a prophet. This led to a discussion of tranlations. I told them that the Jews went into Babylon speaking Hebrew, but after seventy years in captivity they went back to Israel speaking Aramaic, the language of the Babylonians. This made it necessary for the Jews to have their scriptures translated from Hebrew to Aramaic. At first, translators could not write their translations down. Over time this was relaxed and the Targums were born. Now because we are human we have two types of writings that were born out of this One is halakic or more in line with what scripture actually says; the other is haggadic or more open to other interpretations of the passage. It is the latter that is getting in the way of the Talmud actually interpreting scripture. This is how the Jews will be duped by the anti-christ.
This need for translators, is what Apostle Paul meant, when he talked about the need for translators for people speaking in tongues.

19th Meeting - Millennial Temple con't. 5th Post.

We had a good discussion last night, concerning the millennial temple, anti-christ's temple, and where these will be built.
First off, the temple that the anti-christ will build will take place during the first half of the tribulation period. The question was raised how a Jewish temple will be built on the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah) with the Mosque Dome of the Rock already there. This is a very good question, and marks one of the tell-tale accomplishments made by the anti-christ. Daniel is very clear that the anti-christ will rebuild the Jewish Temple. It is this bold statement, unbelievers of the Bible use to play down the fact that Jesus will come again. The anti-christ will be able to make all of the people believe that he can bring peace to this region, that has not had peace for a long time. This peace will be short lived; after 3.1/2 years, the anti-christ will go into the temple and come out and declare that he is god. When he does this, the Jews will realize who he is and will fight to to throw him out of Jerusalem. This will set up the battle of Armegeddon. When we mentioned the Dome of the Rock, the question was raised why the Jewish temple could not be rebuilt. The Dome of the Rock is said to be built over the rock that Abraham was going to sacrifice Issac on. It is said that the Ark of the Covenant also sat on this rock when the Jewish Temple was in existance. The Ark of the Covenant was located in the Holy of Holies, part of the Jewish Temple. Jews not sure where the Holy of Holies is, refuse to step on the Temple Mount for fear of dishonoring Holy Ground. This is why Jews worship and pray at the wailing wall, which is the only wall left standing that held up the Temple Mount.

The Millennial Temple is the temple that will be in existance during the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ. I assigned homework concerning this temple. There are eight pieces of temple furniture that are missing from the Millennial Temple that were part of Solomon's Temple. Will list missing furniture after next weeks meeting on Sunday Night.

18th Meeting - Ezekiel Chapter 45 4th Post

Chapter 45 opens with the allotment of land for their inheritance. Notice the size they are to set apart for the Lord's portion. The Holy District is to be 25,000 cubits long and 20,000 cubits broad (wide) the size of the cubits could either be standard 17.4 inches long or long being 20.4 inches long. Solomon used the long cubits in measuring his temple, so we will use the longer ones to calculate this temple. This works out to be 25,000 cubits about 8 miles long and about 6.1/2 miles wide.

This is larger in area than the Temple Mount now sitting in Jerusalem. Please do not mix this temple up with the one the anti-christ is to build during the tribulation period. This is the Millennial Temple, God gave the dimensions, and God will see that it is built. If you look in Bible Encyclopedias or Bible dictionaries for a drawing of this, you will not see it. Popular opinion does not believe this will actually be built, but is merely a symbolic idea. I believe that if God took this much trouble to make sure that we have an accurate description of this Temple, we will see it. This is God's Word and not mine!! From studying the Bible, we learn that Bible Prophecy is 100% accurate, add to that what Jesus said about not one yot or tittle will pass from the law and prophets until all is fulfilled. It is very hard to follow the symbolic road. This is why I feel compelled to speak out so strongly on this! The Major and Minor Prophets talk a lot about End Times, but I will bet that most of you who have studied Revelaton in the past have never heard any of these things. I told you when I started, that I would look at the Bible compeletly and not just the verses that back a certain agenda! Jesus told us to be aware of the signs, not to try and guess how He will fulfill history. Remember history really means His Story, it is going His way and by His Book!! God is still on the Throne!!

18th Meeting - Millennial Temple - Continued Post 3

Ezekiel Chapters 43 - 46; the Prince comes to live within the Temple. Unlike the Temples before, the Prince can go anywhere he wants in the Temple. This Prince is High Priest and ruler of the kingdom. This Prince is Jesus Christ; the Bible tells us that Jesus would be both High Priest and King. The Jews will restart their animal sacrifices as part of the reconstruction of this Temple. Ezekiel is very clear about this; and the book of Hebrews is also very clear when it says that Jesus is the last sacrifice. Now how can both of these statements be true? Ezekiel is just as much a part of the Bible as Hebrews is; God can not lie or contradict Himself. These statements although they seem to contradict themselves are both true. How God will manage this is His problem, we will know after the fact. This whole Millennium thing is a bit hard for Christians to grasp. It seems that the Jews will have to bring the blood sacrifices to Jesus instead of the ark of the covenant. This should be an eye opening situation; they have to deliver the animal sacrifice to the Redeemer that their ritual points to. This is a lot like the parable of the laborers, that go to work for a Danarius, at the end of the day, the laborers that went to the vineyard at the end of the day, got the same pay as the ones who worked the whole day. The ones who came early were angry because they worked for the same pay as the ones who just got there. When you look at this story further, you see that the owner of the vineyard can pay whoever he wants whatever he wants. He had to remind his workers that they were excited about getting a Danarius when they reported to the vineyard early in the day. The owner did not lie to them; they thought that since he was generous to the late comers, he would be generous to them as well. The message of this parable is that the owner by being the owner can do whatever he wants. We have to remember that God chose the Jews and because of this He can treat them however He wants, and we should be happy, because if He continues to treat them well, He will also treat us like the adopted children we are. God is still on the throne.

18th Meeting - Millennial Temple Contined 2nd Post

To understand why God needed to Have His Temple, should not be a surprise to you. When man sinned in the Garden of Eden, this made necessary for God to provide a Redeemer; a second Adam to fix first Adam's mistake. The first Temple also was flawed, it was to show the Jews that they needed a Redeemer. God would provide a new Temple, set up by Him in order to show the Jews, the correct way to worship God. This is what this Temple is supposed to do. Now we will look at Ezekiel Chapters 40-48.
Chapter 40 starts out with Ezekiel being transported to a high mountain where he could see the Temple Mount in a vision and sees the destruction of the first temple. Ezekiel sees a man whose appearance was like bronze, this is an angel, he has a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand. Chapters 40 - 42 describe the outer parts of the temple. Take time to calculate the size of these dimensions, the place will be huge! Now remember who it is that is doing the measuring for Ezekiel, God is using the angel to call out the information and is making sure Ezekiel is writing it down; I don't believe God is going through all this trouble for a symbolic exercise; I believe that like it or not at some point you will see this Temple. In chapter 43 the glory (Shekhinah) of the Lord comes and fills this temple. Through out the discussion of the Temple, God keeps making Ezekiel aware of where in His house man has defiled it. Man will not defile this Temple!!! This is what God says, not me!

18th Meeting - Ezekiel 40 - 48 Millennial Temple.

This is probably the most controversial subject of end times. Modern scholarship wants to make this symbolic instead of literal, because they are more comfortable with this idea. However, this provides the following problems. We tell people that God is the Alpha and the Omega, but when it comes to interpretation of end times we seem to only focus on the Omega of ideas. In the core verses on the right side of my blog, I have listed what Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount. "I did not come to do away with the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them, every yot and tittle will not pass away until all is fulfilled". Ezekiel is a a prophet and is found in the prophecy section of our Bible, having this position also makes it part of the authorized Word of God and part of our cannon.
Prophecy in the Old and New Testament as far as during the Life of Christ was fulfilled literally, how can we look at Revelation and say now it will be fulfilled symbolically. This idea is not consistent with the rest of the Bible. When we read the Bible, we need to remember whose words these are. God's ways are not our's. It is our interpretation of the Bible that makes Ezekiel's temple not consistent with what Hebrews says about animal sacrifice. Ezekiel and Hebrews are both part of our Bible and as such are authorized Word of God. God can not lie, and God does not contradict Himself. If you re-read my explanation of Exegesis, and Hermeneutics, the Word of God is always correct, and when we misunderstand, the fault is not God's Word, but our understanding of it. When we look at end times we need to remember that God is revealing mysteries to us and it will go His way, we don't have to explain it, just mark the signs as Jesus told us to do. This is what is important.

17th Meeting Revelation Chapter 20 - Comment Con't.

The God-man (Jesus) had to die; to fulfill the justice of God. When Adam and Eve sinned; blood had to be shed in order to restore their relationship to God. Someone had to pay for the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden; because they brought sin into the world, when their sin was wiped out, so was everyone else's sin. To claim this you need to believe that Jesus Christ is your Savior (John 3:16); because Jesus was the one that accomplished this. This explains why Satan was able to be thrown into the Abyss. Jesus had already destroyed his power on the cross when Jesus said "It is Finished".
Jesus will come back to rule the earth for 1,000 years, this is what millennium means. We will see what the world would be like with God in control instead of Satan. Satan needs to be taken out of the picture in order for us to get an accurate picture of how different God's world will be. The animals that we fear will eat plants and not us. The Old Testament says that the lion will lie down with the lamb. The beast of the wild will be led by a child. This would make camping in the wilderness not as scary. We will still have our free choice, which will prove our need for a Savior.
We will still have the ability to sin during this time, we won't have Satan around to entice us to sin more. We will be able to live longer. this will be explained in the next chapter of Revelation.

17th Meeting Revelation Chapter 20 - Comment

What is the purpose of the millennium? Since the fall in Genesis, the world has not been the way God had imagined it. God gave us free choice, and it was this gift; that the devil or Satan used to allow sin to get between God and man. God told Adam you can eat freely of every tree in this garden except one. This tree was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Satan got Eve to eat of this tree because he told her God did not want her to eat of it, because she would become like God. The lie Satan told her would be like God. When Eve ate the fruit of this tree, she had broken the bond between God and her; when she had Adam also eat, the separation was complete. The only way to restore this bond between God and mankind was through a Redeemer. Jesus Christ is that Redeemer! When Eve sinned(disobediance of God's Word), she allowed sin into the world. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). The only way to restore the world was through a Redeemer, and this Redeemer had to be sinless. How is this possible? Free choice makes man susceptible to sin. For this reason we would need someone stronger, to be able to resist the temptation of sin. This required a God-man to become the redeemer. This is what exactly happened. Jesus was virgin born, meaning he had no earthly father. Jesus is proof of this God-man. Matthew 1:1-16, is the genealogy of Jesus Christ; there is another genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:23-38. Why are there two different genealogies of Jesus Christ?
The one in Matthew belonged to Joseph, the husband of Mary. Joseph had to be of the line of David in order to be forced to move from Nazareth to Bethlehem by order of the Roman Ceasar. God made this happen; the Romans did not believe in the Most High God, and would not have done anything to help with fulfilling of this prophecy. This puts Joseph Mary's betrothed at Bethlehem, but there is no reason for Mary to travel there. The fact that Joseph was her betrothed made it possible for this to be accomplished. If you look at the genealogies, both are of David's line, but the one in Luke is the unbroken line, this is the line of Mary. Women were not treated with much importance during this time in history. Why would Mary's genealogy be mentioned at all? Mary had to give birth to her God-man in Bethlehem to fulfill God's prophecy.
These two genealogies prove that Joseph was not the father. If you go back to Genesis 3:15, God curses both the seed of woman and the seed of man. The woman's seed is the seed of God; the man's seed is the seed of the serpent or of Satan. This explains why we have two types of people, one that serves God and one that serves evil. This explains that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, Redeemer, King of Kings!

17th Meeting Revelation Chapter 20

Chapter 20 opens with an angel binding up Satan in the Abyss, where he will spend the next 1,000 years. This sets up the millenniual period of Jesus reign here on earth. This was quite an interesting discussion we had concerning the millennium. We have tried not to discuss different schools of thought on End Times until after we look at what the Bible says. I introduced three new schools that believe that Jesus will come pre-mill, mid-mill, and post mill. Most of class never heard about this, so I told them we would look at it later. We had a discussion concerning the first resurrection, and what that entails. You know that when Jesus told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, they were in Hades or (Scheol). On the cross Jesus told the thief that "Today you will be with Me in paradise". Hades and paradise are not the same place. When Jesus returns the dead who believed in God would rise first, and the unbelieving dead will still be asleep. Now this group of dead are both believing Old and New Testament people and will rise. They will receive their resurrected body at this time. The believers who are still alive at this point will also receive their resurrected bodies at this time also, but after the believing dead receive theirs. This is what the first Epistle of Thessalonians talks about. When this happens we will meet Jesus in the Air, while He is on His way to the Mount of Olives. Zechariah chapter 14, will shed more light on this.
Verse 7 talks about Gog and Magog, but only after Satan is released, for this to happen the 1,000 year of Jesus reign is over. This is after the battle of Armeggeddon as mentioned in last post.
Look carefully at who destroys this large army, it is God.

16th Meeting - Continued Revelation Chapter 19

As John continued to look at the vision, he saw a white horse and rider. The rider is called Faithful and True; with justice he judges and makes war. This rider is Jesus; his eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven are following him riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, if you look at Isaiah 63:3, will explain the blood; the whole chapter of Isaiah talks about God and His wrath and how deal with it. In the earlier chapters of Revelation, we talked about the grapes of wrath, and Isaiah talks about the wine press, which is symbolism for war. We need to keep in mind, why Jesus is coming back and riding his white charger. The anti-christ was waging war with the saints and was about to beat them, when all of a sudden in the Eastern sky He appears to save the day. Jesus will rule with an iron scepter; which means He will Judge with justice and truth. The war is the battle of Armaggeddon, notice Gog and Magog are not mentioned here we will discuss them in the next chapter of Revelation. Just like now, it may not look like God is control, but God is Still on the Throne!

16th Meeting - Revelation Chapter 19

Sunday night we looked at both Chapter 18 & 19; since I had already posted chapter 18, I thought we should move on to chapter 19. Now keep in mind that all of these chapters 17 - 20:5 are all on one vision John had had. As you will remember, John introduces the people and places first, then he tells you about them. In chapter 18, the great prostitute Babylon was destroyed, and all of her benefactors looked on, but from a distance. Verses 1-3 explain that Heaven is in agreement with the judgment just unleashed. Verse 4 describes what the view of Heaven will look like. What is happening is God is starting to take back the world from Satan and his corruption. God is more and more visible, Heaven is preparing for the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. This was foretold through many of Jesus' parables during His ministry here on earth. The Parable of the ten virgins is one of these. The 10 virgins are separated into 2 groups, 5 foolish and 5 wise. The foolish did not bring any provisions with them, to account for the possibility of a delay of the Bridegroom (Jesus). These are the people who go to Church, but do not take any responsibility for their walk with Jesus. They only show up for Church, never read their Bible or attend Sunday School, or Bible studies offered by the Church. Their walk during the rest of the week, does not match their walk on Sunday morning. When Jesus' coming is delayed they fall asleep, not worrying about the second coming. The other group is labled the wise. this group also fell asleep, but unlike their counterparts, they made provisions for a late arrival, by securing additional oil prior to arriving at the wedding feast. When the alarm came that the bridegroom was at hand; the foolish ones asked the wise to share their's; the wise said that they would not have enough to share. The wise told the foolish to go to market place and buy their own. By the time they came back, the groom had arrived and the wise virgins escorted the groom into the wedding feast. The foolish were locked out and when they asked to enter; "they were told they were not recognised and told to go away.

15th Meeting - Revelation Chapter 18 - Continued

Without the apostate church part of Babylon, verse 4 does not make sense. In verse 2 Babylon is said to be home for demons, evil spirits and every unclean and detestable bird. Demons, and evil spirits, and people with the mark of the beast would not listen to the voice of heaven calling them out of Babylon. The only ones who would listen would be the posers of the apostate church. These are people who hold to some of the teachings of God, but think that the apostate church is the real one. Only when confronted with the voice out of heaven do they realize they are following the wrong group. This is like what happened to Saul on the road to Damascus, when he was confronted by Jesus Christ and forced to make a decision, to remain in his unbelief or follow Christ. Saul became Paul, and wrote two thirds of the New Testament; and in doing so became one of the loudest voices for Jesus Christ in his day.
If you continue with verse 4 of chapter 18, they are told that if they turn now, they will be free from sharing in the sins of Babylon, and her judgment. God will give her a double portion of His wrath, for all she has done. Words and actions matter. When you become a Christian, you are not sinless, you only sin less! God tells Babylon that all the sins and luxury she made herself available to will be added in grief back to her. She will reap what she has sowed. It took her a long time to accumulate all she has it will be destroyed in one day. Then she will know that the Lord is Lord of all and in control. All of the kings of the world that followed her will she her destruction, and know that their's is only a matter of time, before they will stand before the same God, and get the same fate. The merchants also will mourn, because they made huge profits while they were doing her bidding. Even the merchants who travel by sea, will not be free from God's wrath. He will strike everywhere at once. Verse 23 talks about the light of the lamp; this is symbolic of the lampstands taken out of the 7 churches. God is Still on the Throne.

15th Meeting - Revelation Chapter 18 - Continued

In my previous post, I made it sound like Pergamum was the only church to fail in what Jesus asked them to do. This was not the case, all seven churches failed in keeping the main thing the main thing. This is what many churches today are guilty of; they are trying to fill their seats so badly, that they don't figure in the cost. Churches today preach you should be a good person, and treat everyone fairly. This is true, but just being a good person will not get you into Heaven. If this is your goal, you must meet the risen Savior and understand that God loved you so much, that He sent His Son to Die on a Cross so that you might have Eternal Life. It is through the forgiveness of sins that you obtain eternal life! A personal relationship with Jesus Christ is what is required to go to Heaven.
We have other churches ordaining practicing gay people to become ordained preachers. God created sex and He created marriage. This practice openly mocks God. If you read your Bible, you will learn that God will not be mocked!! If you do not believe that the end times will have an apostate church, just look around. Revelation says that this apostate church will ride on the back of the beast, meaning that they will be of one mind. The anti-christ and God are at oposing sides of the spectrum, the church should never be in league with Satan. We are watching the eroding of the church today. Do not worry or fret for God is Still on the Throne!!

15th Meeting Continued - Chapter 18 of Revelation

We will be looking at Chapter 18 along with the messages of the seven churches if an effort to understand the full range of the term Babylon. Chapter 18 opens with another angel coming to tell the world something. He says "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!" Then he advises of her sins, she has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. (Rev. 18:2). If you remember the letters to the 7 churches (Rev.2-3); Pergamum was supposed to speak out against these types of sins, that city had a large temple dedicated to the works and power of Satan. This was their call to action by God and they failed to get it done. If you look back at the 7 churches, each one had attributes that churches today would like to aspire to. The message to these churches is the same for us today. We like them can get caught up in what the world thinks is important, and completely turn away from the main thing which is teaching Jesus Christ Crucified. If you look at churches today, you can see that they are losing their focus on Jesus Christ. They are starting to weaken the teachings of Christ. You can not mention sin or hell, because you will upset people. Jesus said He would become a stumbling block! Jesus said "I am the truth and the way; no one gets to the Father except through Me"! This sounds like the way to heaven is quite narrow, but there are churches out there saying all roads lead to heaven. The truth is all roads lead to the cross! Once you meet Jesus you have to make up your mind which way will you go, with Him or against Him. The choice is yours!

15th Meeting Revelation chapters 1-3 & 18 (Church)

We will be looking at Babylon as the apostate church. The definition we will be using for apostate is as follows: Apostate means to believe a certain way and then turn 180 degrees from that belief. This is not a one time thing, and if you are worried about losing your salvation, the fact that you are worried about it, proves that you have not committed this sin. In order to commit the sin of apostasy, you have to be indifferent to the fact that you have turned your back on God. God will not make you be in Heaven if you don't want to.

I waited until now to discuss chapters 1-3, because I wanted to include them with the teaching of the Apostate Church as mentioned in chapter 18. Chapters 2 - 3 talk about the letters to the seven churches that were located in what is now Turkey. At the time these letters were written to the seven churches, Christianity was 98% of the population in this area. We need to keep this in mind to remind us that the seven churches were going concerns and had a large following. Before we look at each one individually, we must understand that each one of the churches were different, and had different challenges to keep their faith alive.

The first Church mentioned is Ephesus, it was commended for rejecting evil, and persevering for the truth of Jesus Christ. The letter warns them that they have lost their love for Christ, and tells them they must return to do the deeds they first did in order to win the "Tree of Life". This means to stay true to the end and receive eternal life. Then I showed them pictures of what the Church of Ephesus looks like today, and it is a pile of rock ruins. This means that God allowed the candlestick to be removed from this church, because of their failing to remain true to Him!

The second Church is Smyrna, it was commended for gracefully bearing suffering. This church had no criticism raised against it. This is the only City of the seven that is still in existence, the Church has also become a pile of rocks. Its promise was to receive the crown of life.

The third Church is Pergamos (Pergamum), it was commended for keeping the faith of Christ. It was criticized for tolerating immorality, idolatry, and heresies. This church was in much the same situation Lot found himself in when living in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot also believed in God but the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah proved to be much too much for him, he would have given in if it weren't for Abraham and the angels coming and rescuing him. The Church at Pergamum (Pergamos) was not as lucky. The sin of the city finally swallowed them up. Their promise was secret manna, and a stone with a new name.

The fourth Church is Thyatira, it was commended for love, service, faith, patience is growing in them. They were criticized for toleration of cults, idolatry and immorality. They were told to keep the faith; if they remained true they would rule over nations and receive the morning star which is Jesus. They also became a pile of rocks; which means that they did not keep the faith.

The fifth Church is Sardis, it was commended for trying to keep the faith by some of the group, not the whole. They were criticized for being a dead church. Repent and return to keeping the faith of the whole group. The promise was faithful would be honored and clothed in white. This site also became a pile of rocks.

The sixth Church is Philadelphia, it was commended for persevering through faith. It also had no criticism. They were told to keep the faith. Their promise was a place in God's presence, a new name, and the New Jerusalem. They also became a pile of rocks.

The seventh Church is Laodicea, they had no commendation because they were neither hot nor cold, they were not alive. They were criticized for being indifferent. They were commanded to repent and become zealous for the things of Jesus Christ again. Promise, if they retuuurned to their faith they would be able to share God's throne. They did not and became a pile of rocks like the others.

The lesson from these churches is to keep focusing on Jesus Christ and continue to teach about Him if you want to finish the race. In 1999 the percentage of Christians in the area of the seven churches was .2%, that means 99.8% non-christian!!

14th Meeting Continued Revelation 17: 9-18.

17:9 calls for wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. The City of Rome sits on seven hills. 17:10 This passage goes on to say "they are also seven kings, 5 have fallen, one is, the other has not come, he must remain for a little while." This passage has caused a lot of problems for commentators over the years. There at least 9 different ways scholars have tried to explain this verse, none of them has explained it to me without trying to force the information. For this reason I am not going to spend time trying to explain it. Going on to verse 17:11, the beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king; this is also the anti-christ the number 2 in the demonic trinity. The anti-christ is to come from the 10 kingdoms, but not part of the government, this is different from the little horn seen by Daniel in the third kingdom (Greece). If you remember this little horn grew out of an existing horn (Daniel 8:9). The little horn of the 4th kingdom (Rome) will grow out from amongst the 10 but not part of an existing horn (Daniel 7:20). It will destroy 3 kings, if you look at Revelation 17:11, the ten kings minus 3 kings that the anti-christ will subdue brings the number to 7 plus the ant-christ makes 8, he like the seven kings before him will go to their destruction. Verses 12 - 14 explain that these kings will all make war against the Lamb (Jesus). Jesus will win out in the end because He is Lord of lords and King of kings this will conclude with Jesus' followers following Him when He comes back, in the eastern sky.

Verse 15 through 18, talk about the multitudes of people and nations that will side with the anti-christ at this time, in verse 16 they start to hate the prositute, so there is the beginning of in-fighting amongst the lost. God is in control and is giving power to whomever He wants.

God is still on the throne.

14th Meeting Continued Revelation 17:6

The beast mentioned in verse 8 is the same as mentioned in 17:3. Once was, now is not and will come out of the Abyss and go to his destruction; this part of the verse threw me last night, it was the part about the Abyss that confused me. You remember that the third part of the demonic trinity comes out of the Abyss. Now we will look at verse 8 closely and hopefully this time we will be able to say without question this is the anti-christ number 2 of the demonic trinity. Once was, points to the fact that the anti-christ at this time has come to power (still future to us now); he will be wounded by a head wound and seem to die, signified by now is not. And will come out of the Abyss and go to his destruction if you look back at Revelation 16:10, the fifth angel poures out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kngdom and the beast is plunged into darkness, this is the symbolism of the Abyss. The beast is broken and subdued but not yet cast into the lake of fire, which is how he will come up from the Abyss and go to his destruction. Verse 8 concludes with the inhabitants of the earth whose names are not written in the book of life being astonished when they see the beast, because he once was , now is not, and yet will come. Those of you who read my blog and don't come to class, missed a discussion at this point. I write on the Board a zero, and tell people that that is the number God would like to be in hell. The people who find themselves in hell can not blame God for their being there. They themselves have put themselves there by their unbelief. The class thought they had me, when they raised this question. "If God predestined these people to be not written in the Book of Life, God couldn't want zero people in hell." Sounds good, but this arguement makes the point of free choice. Remember in Genesis 3:15 when God curses the serpent and the woman; God said that the seed of the serpent would find enmity between his and her seed. Enmity means hatred; the seed of the woman are the God fearing ones and the seed of the serpent are the ones who follow Satan.

I see that I have run out of posting space and will take Revelation 17:9 on next post.

14th Meeting 9/13/09 - Revelation Chapters 17 & 18

Chapter 17 begins the "Final judgment at the time of Eschaton (last things). This section starts in chapter 17 and goes through Revelation 20:15. This should be grouped together and taught as a block, but due to the immense amount of symbolism and the different subjects talked about, this section will take some time to discuss and map out. We will attack this subject one verse at a time and hopefully it will make sense.

Verse 1 starts out with one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls (judgment) came and said to me (John), "Come I will show you punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters.
The great prostitute is the name given to Babylon, but this passage goes on to say she sits on many waters. Historic Babylon sat on only two rivers the Tigris and Euphrates, I don't believe this Babylon is the one mentioned here. Historically, the term Babylon was used in the Bible in prophecy and applied to Rome and other cities. Verse 2 talks about the kings she committed adultery with and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries. When the Bible talks about the kingdoms and kings committing adultery, this means that they have sinned against God and the place that they commit their sins against is Israel. The Bible is stating that the countries around Israel joined Babylon in committing sins against God and Israel.

Verse 3 says that the angel carried John away in the Spirit into the desert. In the Bible, the desert can be a place of refuge as we saw in earlier chapters where the pregnant woman was taken for protection; and as a place for judgment like the Children of Israel found during their Exodus from Egypt. The second half of this verse shows the woman sitting on the beast. The fact that the woman is shown riding on the beast means that they are like minded at this time. This beast is the anti-christ mentioned earlier and person number 2 of the demonic trinity. Verse 6 states that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. Babylon was destroyed before the birth of Jesus, so I believe that Babylon mentioned here is the city and kingdom of Rome.

I will stop this post here and take it up in a new post. I told you this will take some time to get through.

13th Meeting continued things we discussed.

List of Psalms you were to read on End Times and Messianic Psalms.

Messianic Psalms: # 2, 8, 16, 22, 45, 52, 58, 59, 69, 72, 89, 109, 110, 118, 132, 140

End Times Psalms: # 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 24, 29, 47, 48, 74, 75, 80, 83, 85, 92,
96, 98, 104 & 111.

These are other places you can look for information concerning end times. After you have read them we will discuss them.

We talked about how to study your Bible, and the book "HOW TO READ THE BIBLE FOR ALL ITS WORTH" by Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart ISBN# 0-310-38491-5

In this book you will learn terms like Exegesis and Hermeneutics. These are tools you will need to know, and learning how to use them, in order to study your Bible for all its worth.

First Exegesis - means that you do careful and systematic study to learn what the Bible actually said to the people that first heard it. This is what that passage actually means, and you must not change that meaning.

Second comes Hermeneutics - means that you apply the information of the Bible passage so that it will be understood today, without changing the Bible passage's meaning from what it meant when it was first written.

If you read the Bible this way, you will have the tools to be able to discern good Bible teaching from Bad, and faithful teachers from false. This will be more important as we get closer to the End Times. Jesus warned us that false prophets and false teachers will abound during this time, and we must be able to distinguish between the two.

I hope that this will be of some help to you.

13th Meeting 9/06/09 - Revelation # 15 & 16.

We have been learning that the visions so far have taken us from earth to heaven, and back. Chapter 15 opens with a vision from heaven, introducing the last 7 plagues and the 7 angels that will deliver them. Verse 2 talks about the glassy sea mixed with fire (symbolizes judgment), and beside it were the ones who had successfully been victorious over the beast, his image and the false prophet. To be at the glassy sea, means that they would have to be dead. We know this because no one can be in the presence of God the Father and live. There was some questions here about how could these people be called successful and yet be dead and the demonic trinity still be in power? Very good question.
These people who are at the glassy sea, are the ones who remained true to God until death. This is what Jesus calls all of his believers to do. Endure to the end, be true to the end, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." These people who were killed, by the power of Satan are up in heaven, Satan is still around on earth at this time and still very much in power. In verse 3 these people are singing the new song of Moses. Remember this song was started by the 144,000, and has been building in strength and power. If you go back to Daniel chapter 2 and look at the statue, and the rock that is mentioned there; this rock crushes the statue and starts to grow until it takes over the whole earth. This rock symbolizes Jesus Christ, and His turning the earth from darkness to light.
The chapter ends with the seven angels dispensing their bowls of judgment on the earth.

Chapter 16 opens with the seven angels each being introduced and dispensing their bowls onto the world. These seven judgments should look familiar to you if you have studied Exodus and Moses fight with Pharaoh to let God's people go; these seem to be the same plagues. Look carefully at who it is that is affected by these plagues from God; it affects only the ones with the mark of the beast, who like pharaoh before them did not turn from their unbelief. The ones with the mark of the beast, they cannot be turned so this chapter is confirmation of this fact. Verse 12 talks about the 6th angel and he is drying up the Euphrates River, making it possible for the kings of the east to make their way to Israel and Jerusalem. Notice verse 13, the demonic trinity, adds to the curses already being handed out by God. Why is this? As we learned from Exodus, pharaoh's priests could not stop the plagues but could only help with the increase. The devil can only spread suffering, he can not get rid of suffering. This is a way that you can expose Satan and his workmanship.
Verse 15 says "Behold I come like a thief!", this is Jesus talking, notice the timing around the time of the Battle of Armageddon. Which coming of Jesus is this?? How many comings of Christ did Jesus tell us about?? My Bible only tells me about two, his first advent, and this one! If you read 1 & 2 Thessalonians carefully, no mention of when the catching up in the clouds takes place.
The catching up of believers would take place when Jesus comes in the clouds with great power as mentioned in Daniel Chapter 7. This is why there are so many schools of thought on how the end will come about. It has been my intent to bring the whole Bible to the table, and not just the verses that back a particular agenda. God tells us to study, if we are right or wrong on this issue, will not keep you in or out of heaven. If you believe this, then what does it matter. All we know for certain is that it will go God's way, and we will not know which way this was until after the fact! "God is still on the Throne"!!

12th Meeting Discussion of Paul and Jesus

Jesus Christ was the first to talk about the second coming; and since He will be the principle character when it happens. I can not understand why His words on the subject are left out when looking at Revelation. Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount, that He came to fulfill the law and the prophets. If this is what Jesus taught, and Paul is His apostle, Paul would also teach the same things. When Jesus was teaching the Gospel what did He say concerning His relationship with His Father? Didn't Jesus say "I do the works of my Father who sent Me". "You will know my words are true because they are my Father's Words?" If all of this is true, then how can we just look at what Paul says and apply our own meaning to what he says or does not say?? As I pointed out yesterday, Paul knew the Old Testament and therefore knew what it said concerning End Times.
The doctrine that Jesus and Paul taught is the same, not different. Jesus said "If it were not so I would have told you"!!

The Old Testament talks about end times in more places than just the major and minor prophets. The Psalms also speak of how things will be. We will be looking at these as well. If you look back to the beginning of my blog I wrote what the intent of this class was to be. And I warned that the whole Bible would be brought to the table, not just the verses that back a certain opinion. This is why I have not looked at the different schools of thought yet, I feel that you need to know what the Bible says on the subject, before you can make a decision of which school if any you will believe. We need to look at the whole truth not just pieces of it.

12th Meeting Discussion Continued.

I have been quoting the words of Jesus lately; and I have been thinking maybe I should talk a little about the differences in the teachings of Paul and of Jesus.

When Saul/Paul had his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus; something happened to Saul to make him become Paul. Lets look at this a little more closely. When Saul became Paul, he did not throw out everything he learned about the Old Testament. It was this knowledge of the Old Testament that helped him witness to the Greeks. The Greeks had access to the Old Testament Scriptures written in Greek in the form of the Septuagint authorized by Alexander the Great 323 B.C. It is this form of the Old Testament that Paul quotes from most.

Paul's letters to the Thessalonians were written from Corinth after Paul had taught in Thessalonica. Why would Paul write letters to the Thessalonians after he had taught there? The answer is that they did not understand what Paul had taught them. The first letter was to correct their misunderstanding that when Jesus comes only the alive in Christ will be caught up.
Notice no mention of when this would take place. Paul continues by saying that the dead in Christ or believers would rise first and then the alive in Christ. Paul thought that this letter made all the corrections; then Paul hears from Timothy that they still have not got it right. This was the reason for the second letter. Paul had to write the second letter because they now believed the persecution they were going through had to be the time of the tribulation; so they stopped working and went to the hills around the city to wait for the Return of Jesus Christ. Paul then tried to explain to them how the tribulation would be much worse than what they are going through now.

Jesus taught that the student is never above the teacher; I don't think Paul ever forgot this. This brings us up to the question, did Jesus ever say anything about end times? The answer is of course the Olivet Discourse, and several parables. I mentioned one in my discussion of Revelation chapter 14. The parable of the 10 virgins is another of these teachings on end times.

Do you remember the Road to Emmaus? Jesus appeared to two of his disciples on the road, they did not recognize Him, and He opened the Scriptures to them starting with Moses and all the prophets explaining to them how they witnessed about Him. Which scriptures did Jesus use? The New Testament as we know it was yet to be written at this time.

The Old Testament Prophets taught on the great and terrible Day of the Lord. I remember reading this as a young boy and wondered how one day could be both great and terrible. As I kept on reading the Bible and growing up I came to realize that depending where you stand on that day determines which it is, either great or terrible.

You notice on the right hand side of my blog are Bible verses, soon to grow. These are there for a reason, to remind me what is right and what is not. Jesus said "I came not to do away with the law and the prophets, but to fulfill. Every yot and tiddle every dot of the "i" and every cross of the "t" will be fulfilled." I believe that the Bible can never mean what it never meant. I stole this from Gordon Fee and his book "Reading the Bible for all its worth". This book is worth its place in your bookcase.

I believe that you have to know all the signs, before you can have an understanding of how it will go. "Trust and Obey" and "God is still on the Throne".

12th Meeting 08/30/09 Chapter 14 of Revelation

We looked at Revelation 14: 1-8 again and continued to finish the chapter. We had a lot of good discussions concerning the visions of this chapter. We have noticed that the visions focus on earth and then focus on heaven. Mount Zion mentioned in verse 1, would be part of the heavenly vision because the elders, and the four living creatures are there. For the 144,000 to be there they would have to be already dead, since we know that no one can be in the presence of God and live.

The new song they sing that no else knows is the song of compliance and unity with God. This song has not been heard since Adam ate the apple in the Garden of Eden. This is the start of the uprising against the anti-christ, Satan and the false prophet that starts as a trickle and will turn into a wave that will wash all evil away and prepare the earth for the 1,000 year millennium reign of Jesus Christ. Jesus is coming back to reign to show the world how much different a place it would be with God on the Throne instead of Satan running things.

Then you have the first of three angels all with a message. The first angel tells everyone on earth to "Fear God and give Him Glory". Do not put the mark of the beast on yourself, stand and be couragous for God and not Satan. The second angel comes and warns "Fallen Fallen is Babylon the Great". Babylon when mentioned in the Bible has the same connotation with it that Sodom and Gomorrah have; except Sodom and Gomorrah are known for only one type of sin(sexual) and Babylon was know for allowing all types of sin both material and sexual. That is why the word adulteries was used, you notice that it is plural meaning more than one. Here God uses the angel to expose Babylon's sins to the world. Babylon here is used to mean the whole world not the ancient city. The world has been made to know that they have sinned against God. The third angel comes close behind, and says that God's judgement is about to take place and advises who it will be that God's Wrath will be waged against. Notice he(the angel) describes all that will fall under this wrath. The beast, and anyone who receives the beast's mark. This warning is very clear. If you are alive during this time and you follow Jesus Christ, you have to stand for Jesus. Just like the martrys of old stood up against the Romans; "Trust and Obey" is the order of the day for believers. Jesus told us over and over again stay true to the end; this is also what Paul meant when "He said Finish the race".

Verse 14 gave a little trouble. It talks about someone seated on the cloud like the son of man. Most thought this to be Jesus, but if you keep reading the passage, you find that another angel is telling this son of man what to do, and he has a sickle in his hand. This son of man is another angel whose job it is to put God's orders into action. The crop he is harvesting are grapes, not wheat. In the parable of the "Farmer and his Enemy", we learned that after the farmer sowed his field, he went home, and that night his enemy came and sowed tares(weeds) into the field. The farmer not knowing continued to care for his complete field not knowing that he had been compromised. It was not until the field was almost ripe for harvest, that the farmer learned of his fate. He could not pull the tares (weeds) out at this time because he could damage some of his good wheat in the process. He chose to wait until the harvest, then he had his workers harvest the weeds first, and throw them into the fire. The good wheat was then harvested and put into the barn. This opened up a big can of worms in class. This seems to run in the face of what the pre-tribulation crowd believes. This parable comes from Jesus' own mouth, along with the explaination. These are not my words, but God's. Bible prophecy can not be fully understood until after it happens. This is why the Jewish scholars could find out where the Messiah was to be born. If the wise men were in Jerusalem looking for the child, He had to already been born! This is why they could tell where he would be born. There was no need to look for the child until then. You notice that even after they looked up the location, none of them went to see the child, unbelief it did not effect them at all. This is how sin works and how it can control us.
Back to the grapes, why grapes? I asked in class if anyone knew the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", we started to recite the words of the song until we got to "the grapes of wrath are stored". They all kind of said "Wow"! Then it was confirmed when they read further on in the passage. We closed with the last verse of chapter 14 with the vision of the blood rising to a level of a horse's bridle, that would be about 4 - 5 feet depending on the size of the horse, distance of 1,600 stadia about a mile and a half. This is a considerable large river or pool.

11th Meeting Revelation 13 Con't & Chapter 14:8

We continued discussing the differences between the Holy Trinity and the satanic trinity. The Holy Trinity represents The Most High God who created the heavens and the earth and everything in it.
Satan is the great deceiver and as such, will try to trick people into believing that he is God. The created can never be greater than the creator. He will do this by having the anti-christ be struck with a fatal looking blow that will look like it will kill him. Then the anti-christ will recover and the unbeliever's will start to follow him. This anti-christ will be able to do incredible things, and many of the things he does will look like the miracles of God of old. The unbeliever's will be flocking to him and calling him savior. To the elect(the chosen people of God who are here during this time), the ones that Daniel and John talks about as doing battle with satan during this time. To these people, God gave them His Word (the Bible) and it is through this Word, that they will be able to see the truth; and unmask the devil's plot and expose it for what it is. This will make satan angry and as the Jews and Romans did to Christ's follower's after Christ's death, they will try to round up all of them and kill them. We talked about how God was going to protect His own during this time. The Jewish believer's were sealed in Revelation chapter 7, I asked why only the Jewish believer's were sealed? Christians are sealed at the time they are indwelt with the Holy Spirit when they first believe. The elect are already sealed by God.

The last part of Chapter 13 deals with the mark of the beast. Nero the Roman leader, satisfys this requirement of the number 666. Does this mean that we dismiss this as fulfilled? Maybe. But, prophecies can come true over and over again. Look at chapter 28 of Deuteronomy, that states that the Isrealites will eat their children. This has happened more than once. In order for it to occur again all of the factors that made it occur in the first place must be exactly the same. For this reason, you can't count out things that happened as not being able to happen again.
We started chapter 14 of Revelation, this is a transition chapter that introduces the characters for the next part of the story. We got as far as verse 7. We will look at this chapter totally next week.

10th Meeting 8/16/09 - Revelation Chapter 13 Con't.

We started this meeting with verse 5. The beast that came out had all of the animal parts of the vision in Daniel Chapter 7. In verse 1 this beast had seven heads, 10 horns and 10 crowns. This beast had seven heads and one of the heads seemed to have a fatal wound in one of its heads, but this wound healed. This beast alludes to the anti-christ mentioned as the second little horn in Daniel 7:8. This little horn comes out of the fourth kingdom (Rome) and is different from the little horn of the third kingom (Greece). Verse 4 of Revelation says that men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and worshiped the beast and asked who can stand against him? The dragon mentioned here is a symbol of the devil (Satan), this beast is the anti-christ of the fourth kingdom prophesid in Daniel chapter 7. As in Daniel, this anti-christ Blasphemes God and slanders His name for 42 months (3.1/2 years, 1,260 days). In verse 7 of Revelation this beast is given authority to make war against the saints and to conquer them. The beast was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nations. Verse 8 of Revelation explains it better, all those whose names have not been written in the book of Life belonging to the Lamb that was slain (Jesus) from the creation of the world. The unbeliever's will be under the control of this beast; but the saints (believer's in God whose names are written in the book of Life) will make war and will be conquered during this time. Verses 9 & 10 of Revelation chapter 13 confirm this. Some of the saints will be killed(martyred) during this time.

Verse 13:11 opens with another beast coming up out of the earth this time instead of the sea. This is the false prophet that works hand in hand with the anti-christ during the 42 month period. This beast completes the Satanic trinity that Satan has assembled, to further mock God.

You have:

Satan is the great deciever, and as such he will do everything in his power to try to achieve his agenda. Since he has taken on the aspects of God. He has three parts, like God; his anti-christ was wounded and seemed to heal of his wound unlike God, and he has a helper to try and force his will on people unlike God and the role of the Holy Spirit. Satan can not be exactly like God, and this is how you will be able to expose him. Knowing the Bible is the only way you will know the true attributes of God from the pseudo-attributes of Satan.

9th Meeting Revelation 13 Additional

When I was talking about the 4 kingdoms beast that came out of the sea, I neglected to include that according to the statue described in Daniel Chapter 2. The period we are now looking at is the bottom part of the statue the clay and iron feet and toes of the statue. The ten toes represent the 10 kingdoms of the ancient Roman empire; from which the second anti-christ will come from. If you remember when we studied Daniel 7, the kingdoms of the statue of chapter 2 were given animals to describe them. The first anti-christ was to come from the third kingdom Greece, this little horn would grow out of an existing horn. This horn has been assigned to Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who lived during the period between Malachi and Matthew 164 B.C. This is not the little horn mentioned in chapter 13 of Revelation.

The little horn mentioned in chapter 13 of Revelation comes out of the ancient Roman Empire from the feet of clay and iron. The ten toes of the statue represent the 10 kingdoms of the ancient Roman Empire at this time. This is still future to us as we still do not know who these 10 kingdoms are. This will have to take place before we will know where the anti-christ is to come from. The origin of the little horn of this beast is different from that of the third kingdom; in the third kingdom the little horn grew out of an existing horn. This will not be the case with this little horn. This little horn will come to power on its own and without the help of an existing kingdom. This insures that it will come on the scene unexpectedly.

I asked the question to whom is Jesus talking to in the Olivet Discourse when He tells them to beware when they see the Abomination that causes Desolation standing in the Holy Place, let the reader of Daniel know and understand. If you want to see the whole quote look on the right column of my blog. Those Bible verses are there to remind me of what Jesus and the prophets had to say on this subject. Jesus said in His sermon on the Mount Matthew 5:17 -19 that He did not come to do away with the Law and Prophets but to fulfil them. These are not my words but God's Words. If you have a problem with them your complaint is with God not me.

Going back to Matthew chapter 24, who are the elect that Jesus is saving from the tribulation period by shortening the period? If the elect are already raptured before this, who is Jesus talking to. He could not be talking to them, they are already present with the Lord, why would they care what is happening on earth??

9th Meeting Revelation 12 & 13 - Rev. Chapter 13.

Chapter 13 opens with the dragon standing on the shore and a beast comes up from the sea.
This beast has parts of it that we have studied in Daniel. It resembled a leopard (Greece), but had feet of a bear (Medo-Persia), mouth of a lion (Babylon), beast (Rome) was the 4th animal that Daniel could not describe. This beast seems to be made up of all the parts of the ancient kingdoms that have come before. In verse 3 one of the seven heads seemed to have a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. This is Satan's attempt to make himself to be on the same level as God. Satan is the great accuser of the brethren. When Satan pulls this off it will fool a lot of men and they will follow the beast and Satan.

The pre-rapture group was vocal again at this time. Saying that the the saints would not be fooled.
When this was said, I asked who these saints are if they have already been raptured? The answer came back that these are the tribulation believers who are the saints. I continued to ask how did they become believer's if all the teachers and believer's had already been taken up? They answered that the Holy Spirit would teach them. To which I asked this question, I thought that the Holy Spirit had to step aside in order to set up the rapture. If He is in heaven with the believer's then how did these tribulation saints become believers??

It was here that I brought up the parable for the wheat and tares. The farmer doesn't know that his land has been compromised until the wheat starts to mature. He could not pull the tares (weeds) out at this time, because it would be possible to damage the good wheat in the process. The farmer had to wait until the time of harvest, where he had the tares harvested first and then the good wheat. The tares (weeds) went into the furnace to be burned and the good wheat went into the barn. The harvesters were angels, symbolizing end times. I told another parable of the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins and the wedding feast. They are waiting a long time for the groom to come. When he finally comes the 5 wise had enough oil to last through the feast; but the 5 foolish virgins did not have enough oil and they asked the wise to share, but they could not. The five foolish had to go out and buy oil and by the time they returned, the 5 wise had gone out to meet the groom and bring him into the wedding feast and the door was closed and locked behind him. When the 5 foolish tried to enter they were told to go away. Both of these parables were told by Jesus to explain about his 2nd coming. Since all ten virgins were invited to the feast, they were all believers. Why were 5 accepted and 5 rejected? The 5 rejected heard the word but did not act on it.

This is our problem today, do we just hear God's Word, or do we act on it by implementing it into our lives? Only you can answer this question.

We will pick up Revelation 13:5 next week.

9th Meeting Revelation 12 & 13 (8/09/09)

Revelation Chapter 12 opens with a woman with 12 stars above her head; she is pregnant and having birth pains. This woman is symbolically Israel; we know this from the 12 stars above her head. These are for the 12 tribes of Israel. To this is added a red dragon, this is symbolically the Devil. The dragon sits in front of the woman waiting for her to give birth so that he can devour the child. This child is born a male child who will rule all nations with an iron scepter. This child is Jesus and he will rule when He comes again. The woman's child is snatched up to God and His throne. The woman fled to a place in the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she will be taken care of for 1,260 days. The woman will be taken away and protected by God for 3.1/2 years.

Verse 7 opens with a war in heaven between Michael and the dragon. The dragon was not strong enough to win so he was thrown out of heaven. Verse 11 talks about they (the saints) overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus Christ), and by the word of their testimony; they did not shrink from death. These are the saints who will oppose the devil during the time of tribulation.

It was during this time in the Bible study when questions arose to who exactly these saints are. Since chapter 12 opens with the woman symbolizing Israel, it would stand to reason that these believer's are part of the people of Israel. Is it only the believers of Israel is another question, I don't feel we have enough information at this point to discuss it further.

The end of chapter 12 ends with the dragon pursuing the woman into the desert to destroy her. A river of water comes out of his mouth to try to destroy her but the earth opens up and swallows the water. The woman and the rest of her offspring. If the woman represents Israel, and she/they are in the desert, then who are this additional part of her offspring? This is quite interesting, and created lots of questions as to the identity of these offspring. The fact that the woman represents the believing Jews of Israel, the offspring also has to be a group of believing non- Jews. We had a big discussion concerning the rapture at this point. The loudest group was in favor of a pre-tribulation rapture. My question to that was if the believer's are taken before the anti-christ is uncovered, then who are these saints? They answered that these are the ones who come to belief during the tribulation period. My question to them was if all the believer's are raptured, then who will be left to teach these people to have them become believer's (saints)?

8th Meeting - Revelation Chapter 10 - 11

Chapter 10 opens with a strong angel holding a small scroll and asks John to eat it. This is not the first time a prophet was asked to eat a scroll, and that it tasted good in the mouth and turned the stomach sour. This is symbolism for judgment; it means the same here. The angel said there would be no more delay. This means that the time of grace is over, and it will be too late to ask for mercy. We now have more than enough sin to convict us and judgment is now due. We are talking about non-believers here. If you are a believer in Christ, you are already sealed and your destination is sure. God is getting ready to judge the whole world.

This brings us to Chapter 11, John is asked to measure the temple of God, but not the part given to the Gentiles (non-Jews). The Gentiles will trample the holy city for 42 months. This is the last part of the time of the Gentiles. During this time two witnesses will prophecy against the earth and prophecy on the truth of God. These witnesses are men as verse 6 states. However, to the identity of these witnesses there has been much speculation. John was present at the Transfiguration of Christ, he had no problem ng the identities of Moses or Elijah at that time. The fact that John does not advise their identity is interesting. Malachi said that Elijah would come before the Messiah to make way for His coming. We know that God used John the Baptist in this position at that time. God can use whoever, He chooses to do His will. There is no Biblical proof to who these two are or what their identity is. For me to change my mind on this I will need chapter and verse. The beast comes out of the abyss and fights with these witnesses and kills them. They lie on the streets of Jerusalem for three and one half days. The whole world rejoices at their death, and it is seen throughout the earth. Television makes this possible, we did not have world communications until recently. By recently, I mean within the last 20 - 50 years. In relation to when the book of Revelation was written, and the age of the earth, this length of time would be considered recent. After they have been dead, God breathes life into them and calls them to Heaven and they disappear in the clouds. Clouds here is a form of the shekinah glory that stands as a attribute of God. The last thing mentioned in this chapter deals with the ark of the covenant. The ark that Moses had made has been missing even before Jesus' time on the earth. I don't believe it to be that one but another, remember that God was the one who gave Moses the dimensions and instructed him on how to construct it. The tabernacle was to be a model after the one in Heaven. I believe that this ark is the one that is in heaven. Since the vision is from Heaven this would make sense.