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.