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(Feast of Trumpets 2010 - LIVE)
Fred R. Coulter—September 9, 2010
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{First 4:50 minutes left out of transcript}
The thing that people are tired of with the Churches of God is, first of all, rule over the brethren.
There is not to be rule except the rule of Christ; let Christ rule in your heart! God expects us to be self-governing with His Spirit and Laws spiritually internally, from within! That's why God hates religion, because religion is outside, designed to be superimposed upon people from the outside.
God's way is with the Spirit and the change and conversion comes within. Sin begins in the mind!
Sin does not begin outside of us, though there is sin around us on every side. But it always being in the mind!
That's why in the sermon series we did—If Clauses in the Bible—Gen. 4:7 is the key to the whole Bible where Cain wasn't happy that his sacrifice wasn't accepted and God told him that 'if you do well, shall you not be accepted?' Doing well means doing things according to God's way.
Genesis 4:7: "If you do well, shall you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it!"
God gave us free choice and ability to rule over sin. But to have our heart and mind cleansed and to begin to have the laws and commandments of God written in our heart and mind, and have Christ develop them, and as a result of that we have the Holy Spirit of God. That comes with repentance, baptism and the laying of hands and receiving the Holy Spirit of God.
All of that has to do with, as you come down through history—beginning with Abel until the time of Christ and all of those who were to be in the first resurrection when Jesus returns as we know it from the New Testament—then from the time of the beginning of the New Testament Church until the return of Christ, there is the harvest of God. Everyone is wondering what is happening, and if there's a God, what is He going to do?
That's why the framework of the Sabbath and Holy Days tells us God's plan for mankind. It gives us the framework. Not the exact time, not the exact dates, but it gives us the events so that we know the beginning from the end in a framework, not every detail. As you know, everything begins with the Passover.
- Did not God begin to deal with Abraham and make the covenant on the Passover night (Gen. 15)? Yes!
- Did not God begin to deal with the children of Israel and the first thing they observed was the Passover?
Likewise in the New Testament, Jesus said, 'No one comes to the Father except through Me.' That means through His sacrifice, through what He taught, and that shows that before we can come to God—and God deals with us—it goes clear back to the same thing that God told Cain: if you do well, according to My instructions, you'll be accepted!
So, before anyone can come to God, they now must come through Christ. There's no other way! It must be through Christ, and that is to be in such a way that all of those who are ministers are to teach so that we all come to the knowledge of the fullness of Christ; all of us together.
That begins with the Passover. Christ died for our sins on the Passover Day. He was put in the grave for three days and three nights, resurrected toward the end of the Sabbath, then on the beginning on the count to Pentecost the Wave Sheaf Offering Day He fulfilled that by ascending to the Father to be accepted as the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.
But the sins of the whole world were not forgiven in that moment of time when He was accepted. The way for the forgiveness of sins was opened at that point. Then in order to accomplish what God wants to accomplish with His Church, He sent the Holy Spirit to the apostles and those who were at temple in 30A.D., and those who repented and were baptized and received the Holy Spirit. On that day 3,000 were added to the Church.
Since that time down to now, God has been dealing with His people in a special spiritual way that the world does not comprehend. Look at our small group here. But always remember Gideon! God said to go to battle, call for the troops, and 30,000 showed up. God said that that's too many,
I'm going to give you a scientific test: all of those who drink water like a dog, those are the ones you're going to take, because it's going to be My battle, not your battle.
There were 300 selected and the 29,700 were sent back and they were all angry and mad because God didn't accept them. They didn't qualify the way that God said! What happened? They won the battle, because it was God's battle!
Likewise today, what is God doing? Especially now when you look out and see how bad things are, and especially for those of us in the United States! We have never been so oppressed as now. That's because it's not finances, it's not politics, it's God! A lot of people are going out and searching around and trying to find out about God, but they're going about it the wrong way.
They may make some inroads. A lot of people like Glenn Beck, but he's going to get trapped in his own words. He says that 'Truth is like a burning bush and it burns everything that doesn't matter.' I thought to myself:
Glenn, its coming! One of these days you're going to run into a brick wall called the Sabbath! If you get through that brick wall then you're going to run into another brick wall called the Holy Days! Then you need to understand what they mean. By the way, the book that you wrote on Christmas, you better repent big time about that.
For the world, 'God will accept people returning to God if they turn from evil, but that's not conversion. That's not understanding God's plan. That's why God has buried in His Word the Truth of what He's doing through the Holy Days:
Christ is our Passover for the forgiveness of sin. then we can start overcoming, getting rid of sin and being converted, which is pictured immediately following the Passover, which then is the beginning of conversion—the Days of Unleavened Bread!
Then there is seven weeks to the harvest, Pentecost.That becomes a very important day because that's the day the Holy Spirit was given and that is the day that pictures the resurrection.
Number seven is the number of completeness. There are 7 churches in Rev. 2 & 3; there are not 8, 10 or 12, there are 7! That is the prophecy of God's Churches in history, the prophecy of God's Church at the end as God views it from heaven above. What we're doing and how we're doing it, we're few and scattered, but when you add up all the few and scattered around the world, many of whom we don't even know anything about. Just like one of the neighbors of one of the members in Pennsylvania who was talking to a man from Romania.
They showed him the Bible and he got all excited and he wanted to send some to Romania, so we said that we would send him two boxes—16 Bibles—and he sent them off to Romania. Now they can hardly contain themselves because they have the Bible and they want many more things.
There's another man who has gotten in touch with us and we're giving him a tryout on translating in Spanish, because the Hispanic people need to know the Truth as well.
That may not be significant to the world, and it's very small as the world would view it, but God deals in small things.
So, we have the first half of God's plan, that's for all of those in the first resurrection: Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost and that takes care of God's plan and who he is choosing to rule in the Kingdom of God when Christ returns. It's interesting that there are seven Holy Days, but there are eight days involved. Let's look at the last four:
- Trumpets—which is today
- Atonement
- Tabernacles
- Last Great Day
Trumpets is bringing the Kingdom of God, after the resurrection of the saints on Pentecost—and there's about three and a half months difference where we're all prepared on the Sea of Glass. As we'll see today, we come down off the Sea of Glass and we begin ruling in the Kingdom of God under Christ.
The next thing that has to happen is that you have to deal with the sin problem. Before anyone comes to God they have to deal with the sin problem. What is the next day after Trumpets: Atonement!
What is the key thing that's going to happen on Atonement? The sin problem will be solved, because Satan and the demons will be bound and put into the abyss. Now then, the 1,000-year rule of Christ starts as pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles. That runs for a thousand years. Then you have one more day, the eighth day that answers the question: What is God going to do with all the rest of humanity, that He just left to their own devices? He never gave them an opportunity for salvation. Never called them, billions of people! That is solved by the Last Great Day!
That's the framework of what God is going to do: 4 for the Church, 4 for the world, perfect balance! You cannot get that with the holidays of this world. Just like Christ, when He came the first time, did not join politically with the scribes, the Pharisees, the Romans or anyone, because that was not the time for the Kingdom of God to begin. God is going to let man grow and expand under the aegis of Satan the devil who is the 'god of this world' to expand the greatest civilization that could ever come into being, and that is coming in our days!
We sang the song that 'they run up on the wall.' Do you know that they now have shoes with soles that you can run up on a wall. All these movies that they show people running, leaping, jumping and all of that sort of thing, that's reality!
We live in a time now that we can understand that those things are going to happen. God does something else. Just like I quoted to you Gen. 4:7, that is the whole outline of the coming of the Bible. 'If you well, you will be accepted, and if not then sin lies at the door.'
Likewise, God has buried the knowledge of His plan in Lev. 23 and that's the beginning, the foundation of it, and then we go from there and see how the rest of the Bible put together—'precept upon precept and line upon line'—tells us what this day means.
God is going let this world develop to its maximum ability, and then the end will come! You would not think that such an important event has the literal return of Jesus Christ and the saints on this earth would begin with two verses buried in Lev. 23. But, you see, that's how God does things!
It's just like if you have a garden—flower or vegetable—or you have trees, you take a little seed. You just look at the seed and if you know what it is you expect the plant to come up that way.
That's what God has done with these two verses in Lev. 23; they're a little seed that develops and is explained through the Gospels and the book of Revelation, as well as other Scriptures in the Old Testament.
Leviticus 23:23: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel saying…'" (vs 23-24). Always remember that everything Moses said was from God!
God could have spoken it to the people directly, but what happened when they heard the Ten Commandments? They said, 'Don't let God speak to us! You speak and we'll hear!'
So, it's not the Law of Moses, though it's referred to that way, it is really the Law given by Moses from God!
"…'In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of ram's horns… [also silver horns and a everything else that they had] …a Holy convocation. You shall do no servile work therein but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD'" (vs 24-25).
That's a small beginning, isn't it? But we'll see how this develops in a bit. God shows that we are to take up an offering on the Holy Days, so that's the only time that we take up an offering during the church service.
(pause for offering)
Thank you for the offering you have provided, and we will put it to work with the things that we are currently doing.
I might mention that Daniel is in the writing and not in the Prophets, because in the original order of the Bible was not that way.
How many have seen on either the History Channel or National Geographic the 2012 scenario. The Mayan calendar. Oh what intelligent people they were, and they say that 2012 is the end of the world, the end of 5,700+ years. There have been books written about it and combine it with specials with the prophecies of Nostradamus and so forth. They never asked: Did God every deal with the Mayans? Not to give them His Word!
You're going to hear a lot between now (2010) and then about the end of the world! Now, something may happen in 2012, but they're looking at the wrong thing. That's what Satan and the demons have conjured up, but the end of the world is not going to be in 2012. Everybody wants to know about the time of the end.
Dan. 11 tells us, but even Daniel was not told the meaning of it. He was told 'no! That's for the time of the end! Go your way!'
Daniel 11:40: "And at the time of the end, the King of the South shall push at him. And the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries and shall overflow and sweep through."
As we look at the history of the King of the North and the King of the South. We have a chart of that in the back of The Holy Bible in Its Original Order. We know that the King of the North is going to come out of Europe, and the King of the South is going to come out of the Muslim world centered in Egypt; Cairo is the capital of the Arab League.
- What is the big problem today? Muslims vs Christians!
- What has happened in Europe? They're being overrun by Muslims!
There is a big problem brewing in Europe and it's coming closer and closer to the time that they will have to expel them from Europe.
I believe that will happen because you're not going to have the King of the North rise up until that problem is taken care of. Will he be the one to help solve that problem? We'll have to wait and see! Here's where he's going to come. He comes against the King of the South.
Verse 41: He shall also enter into the glorious land… [what is called today Palestine] …and many countries shall be overthrown. But these shall escape out of his hand: Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon…. [those are in the Middle East] …And he shall stretch out his hand also upon the countries. And the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. And the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall alarm him. Then he will go forth with great fury to destroy and to utterly annihilate many. And he shall plant his royal tents between the seas in the glorious Holy mountain. Yet, he shall come to his end, and none shall help him." (vs 41-45).
A very mysterious prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled. Rather than look to 2012, what we need to do is ask:
- Where is the King of the North?
- Where is the King of the South?
Not there, yet, but will be in due time!
- What is God doing between now and then?
Let's see some of the promises of Christ. Remember that Jesus said, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away!' Whatever He said is true and it's going to happen.
Let's see what He said that we also need to look to in the end-times, because all of these signal these events that are going to lead to the final Feast of Trumpets and the return of Christ and the saints to this earth.
We've gone through the cycles of false christs, wars and rumors of wars, nations, famines, pestilence, earthquakes, and those keep happening. But we need to look for the signal events that are going to tell us what to look for.
Matthew 24:10: "And then shall many… [the majority] …be led into sin, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another."
Does that sound like the nations of the world today? and The political scene in the world today?
Verse 11: "And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many." They're everywhere!
Did you know that people can preach out of the Bible and still lie? They don't rightly put it together! The first clue is:
- Do they keep the Sabbath and Holy Days or not? If they don't, you better look at what they say!
- How can you preach out of the Bible and still lie? Very simple, avoid vast portions of the Bible and never read them!
If you give part of the Truth, what is the rest of it? Not Truth! If it's not truth, it's a lie!
Would you conclude that those in the Christian world are deceived today? Yes, they are! God is now shaking them up! God is judging against them and destroying their foundation! That all has a purpose as we will see to pave the way for the return of Christ.
We have a book—Lord, What Should I Do?—that was geared toward the Churches of God that I did in 1995. Now with Church at Home, we redid it showing all the things that are happening to worldly Christianity and their churches, and the people are leaving in droves, because:
- they're not fed
- they don't find Christ
- they don't find that they're preaching the Bible
That's why we have Church at Home! We just ask God to open the door, because that's available for ever how many want to find those things. Anyone anywhere in the world can get it.
There are Churches of God who have things on the Internet, too. They're preaching much of the Truth, as well. So, that's going to help people. We're going to see that God is not done preaching the Gospel through His Church!
He has other watchman out there telling about economics and politics, but those who are showing about the message of Christ, and the Gospel of Christ is another story.
Verse 12: "And because lawlessness shall be multiplied, the love of many shall grow cold."
Does that sound like what's going on today? If you're just friendly to someone in the grocery story, you might get knocked flat on the ground. People hate one another, fight one another, and it's interesting that the more lawlessness you have, the more laws you must make, and the more police you must have because people can't govern themselves.
Now they have so many laws on the books that all of us our lawbreakers in one form or another. Just look at the politics of the world if you believe that.
Verse 13—this is something we need to pay a great deal of attention to: "But the one who endures to the end, that one shall be saved"—showing that there's much more time than we have figured!
A lot of us thought that we'll still be alive when Christ returns, and that 'we're going to be so good that we're going to be taken to a place of safety and avoid all the troubles that lie ahead. Well, I think we have a lot of other thoughts because we now understand the Scriptures even more.
God's plan is continually going on. Every saint that dies in the faith, was faithful to the end and is now in a place of safety called the grave, awaiting the resurrection! Isn't that going to be a fantastic thing when the resurrection takes place?
This is what has to be done, v 14: "And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come." Remember that Christ's words will not fail!
It's not how much we think that the Gospel is being preached, it's how much Christ causes it to be preached!
There will be two witnesses selected by God, one is going to be of the line of Aaron, who is a priest (Zech. 3) and the other one is going to be of the line of David, who is going to be the governor of Judea. They will be the two witnesses. Where will they operate? Right in Jerusalem!
Where will the beast and the false prophet come? To Jerusalem! We'll see about the confrontation in just a bit.
The two witnesses will preach and warn for three and a half years. But when does the Tribulation begin? There has to be the King of the North and the King of the South! They're not there, yet. A lot of things are leading up to it, but not there, yet. We will also see a little later that it's talking about a one-world government, and a one-world economic system. We're almost there. Some attempts have been made to do it, but the end is not yet! When does the end start?
Verse 15: "'Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy place.'…."
- What is the abomination of desolation?
- Where is the Holy place?
We'll bring you just a little bit about what we need to look to. We'll understand that the Holy place must be in the Temple of God. There must be a Temple of God built in Jerusalem, so the end cannot come until that is built.
Have you heard a lot about all the things that they're doing to prepare for the building of the temple? Go online to templeinstitute.org. You'll be able to see the priest's clothing, the urim and thummim, the lots for selecting the goats for azazel, and many of the implements already made and ready to go.
You've heard things like when as soon as they find a red heifer they'll be ready to go because they can purify the area for the building of the temple. The Muslims say that 'if you step up here on the area where the Mosque of Omar is, all you Jews will be annihilated.' How's that going to happen?
Where the Mosque of Omar is, is not where the temple was. Where the temple was, Jesus said, 'Every stone would be torn down. Look at the Wailing Wall and there are stones there; that can't be part of the temple area!
What was that? The area that belonged to the Roman Empire: Fort Antonia! So, the temple goes south of the Wailing Wall down to the Spring of Gihon. That's where the temple will be built and will satisfy the Muslims and the Jews. But it must be built, and let's see how we know for sure that it's going to be!
Revelation 11:1: "Then the angel gave me a measuring rod like a staff, saying, 'Arise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship in it." So, there has to be a temple!
- Who wrote the book of Revelation? The Apostle John!
- When did he die? 100A.D.; so he wrote this just before he died, 97-98A.D.!
Verse 2: "But leave out the court that is within the temple area, and do not measure it because it has been given up to the Gentiles; and they shall trample upon the Holy city for forty-two months. And I will give power to My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees… [tie in Zech. 4] …and the two lampstands that stand before the God of the earth" (vs 1-4).
Two men! The last preaching of the Gospel! They can call plagues down on the earth as often as they desire. That's how much power they have!
Now let's focus on the temple. Let's talk about something that we just read in Matt. 24.
Matthew 24:15: "Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy place…."
Rev. 11 tells us that there must be a temple, so the Holy place must be in a temple, so it has to be built. It's not built, yet.
Then we come to this phrase that's in parenthesis. Why is this in parenthesis? Because Jesus didn't speak these words! Even if you have a red letter Bible, it's not red lettered, at least it shouldn't be.
"…(The one who reads, let him understand.)" (v 15).
- Why would that be there? It's important for us to understand!
- Why would that be there in such a way? When the Church started at the temple, and it continued on past, but everyone could look at the temple, whoever came to the temple, it was there!
Beginning in 66-1/2A.D. the Romans began to come against the Jews who were rebelling against them. They eventually conquered all of Judea, came and destroyed the temple, and if you read what we have here about Titus when he saw what happened at the temple, Titus got up there and saw everything that had gone on, the results of the war; this was in 69-70A.D. He didn't want the temple destroyed, and he didn't want the temple burned. But when the soldiers got there and saw all the gold and precious things, they started looting, taking and burning, and the gold melted and went down in the cracks. They kept tearing the rocks down trying to get the gold, because there was so much there.
That's why Jesus said, 'You see these buildings, there shall not be one stone left upon another.' But what was missing in 69-70A.D.? There was no abomination of desolation! So, how did we get this statement here?
- John did the final canonizing of the Bible
- Paul died about 63-64A.D. maybe as late as 66A.D.
- Peter died shortly after that
- Matthew was gone, who wrote this originally
The only ones alive to put this statement were John, Andrew, Philip and Mark.
Why did they put it here? Because there was no abomination of desolation that went into the temple as was described by the Apostle Paul[transcriber's correction] and that has to happen before the Kingdom of God comes to the earth!
(go to the next track)
Why was that parenthetical statement put there? It had to be put there by John to clarify a very important point. Obviously, in the final canonization John had all of Paul's Epistles and all the General Epistles, all the Gospels, and John was finalizing it. So, in 2-Thess. we find an incredible chapter written by the Apostle Paul, written in 50A.D., which means that the temple was still in existence.
He talks about not being deceived by any means, that the Day of the Lord is at hand. That's precisely what we're talking about today. How many different ones have said, 'The Day of the Lord is here.' or 'The Day of the Lord is coming.'
Jesus said that 'no man knows the day or the hour.' So, here is the signal event that must tie in with Matt. 24, the abomination of desolation! That ties in with the King of the North that comes down and enters into the Holy Land, and we will see goes into the Temple of God, which must yet be built! In Rev. 11 it says that there's going to be a temple; that's what God told John to write.
John looks back and sees that the temple was destroyed, and he reads—because he's canonizing the New Testament—in 2-Thess. what the abomination of desolation is, and he knows that it didn't occur in 69-70A.D. 2-Thess. describes it very precisely.
2-Thessalonians 2:3: "Do not let anyone deceive you by any means because that day will not come unless the apostasy shall come first…" A total abandonment of God! Do we see that happening today more and more?
There's another part to it. "…and the man of sin shall be revealed…" (v 3).
- John never saw it
- Paul never saw it
- Peter never saw it
"…the son of perdition, the one who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is an object of worship; so that he comes into the temple of God and sits down as God, proclaiming that he himself is God" (vs 3-4).
In reading that, John knew that that didn't happen when the temple was destroyed, because he lived through that time. The Jews tried to rebuild it, but couldn't do it. After John's death with the Bar Kokhba Revolution they tried to rebuild it, but the Romans came in and completely destroyed Jerusalem, salted the ground so no one could grow anything there, and they established a completely Gentile embryonic Catholic Church in Jerusalem.
We can look into history and see that it didn't happen. Do we know of anyone in history who fits this description in verse 4, that we can look back and say that this happened. No, it couldn't have happened because no temple has been built.
Verse 5: "Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And now you understand what is holding him back in order for him to be revealed in his own set time" (vs 5-6). There is a particular time that this will happen!
Verse 7: "For the mystery of lawlessness is already working… [tie in Matt. 24 that lawlessness shall be multiplied] …only there is One Who is restraining at the present time until it arises out of the midst. And then the lawless one will be revealed (whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth, and will destroy with the brightness of His coming)" (vs 7-8).
That shows you very definitely for sure that this has not happened. Christ has not returned, the man of sin has not been revealed. There have been many sinful men, there have been many types of it. Notice how powerful he is going to be:
Verse 9: "Even the one whose coming is according to the inner working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who are perishing because they did not receive the love of the Truth, so that they might be saved" (vs 9-10).
That's what's important. That's why I've said that Glen Beck has his date with Truth; he's already proclaimed it. You have to love the Truth!
Verse 11: "And for this cause…" They don't want the Truth. People will say they want the Truth up to a certain point, as long as they agree with it. That's why Jesus said, 'You want to follow Me? Forsake everything: father, mother, brother, sister, children, lands, and your own life! Because they don't do it:
"…God will send upon them a powerful deception that will cause them to believe the lie" (v 11).
What is the lie? The son of man, the son of perdition who says, 'I am God.'John knew that that didn't happen.
Verse 12: "So that all may be judged who did not believe the Truth, but who took pleasure in unrighteousness."
It's no wonder that today we have more Bibles than ever before in the world, in more languages than ever before. There is the equivalent of one Bible for every human being on earth, most of them being in America with an average of four in every household. That's part of the Gospel being preached.
- Would you not say that a man going into the very Holy of Holies of the temple and saying, 'I am God' is the great abomination of desolation?
- Is that not greater than when Anticus Epiphanies offered swine on the altar?
Yes!
In writing this, John knew that it had to happen, but he knew that it didn't happen when the temple was destroyed. Therefore, he put in this parenthetical statement:
Matthew 24:15: "…(The one who reads, let him understand.)"—because he was canonizing the written New Testament! God inspired him to put that in.
Notice that when this happens, all the things are going to suddenly come like a great tsunami. All of the events at the end are going to unfold rapidly! If you're living in the area of Judea, here's what Christ tells you to do:
Verse 16: "Then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house" (vs 16-17).
Don't say, 'Oh oh! I've got to get this—my cell phone.' NO! Besides, when you get into the mountains, your battery is going to go dead and you will have no place to plug it in.
Verse 18: "And let the one who is in the field not go back to take his garments. But woe to those women who are expecting a child, and to those who are nursing infants in those days! And pray that your flight be not in the winter, nor on the Sabbath" (vs 18-20)—another warning about a false prediction!
- It's not going to happen on the Sabbath!
- It's not going to happen in the winter!
{note sermon series: Daniel/Revelation with charts}
So, there are a lot of details to fill in, covering a lot of things. So, what does this say that "…your flight be not…on the Sabbath"? At the end-time the Sabbath is still required!
- Why say it?
- If He was going to change it to Sunday, why not say 'not on Sunday'?
Verse 21: "For then shall there be Great Tribulation…" When?
Verse 15: "Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation…"
Verse 21: "For then shall there be Great Tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until this time, nor ever shall be again."
Greater than anything we have ever known! That's why it says in the book of Amos, 'Woe to you who desire the Day of the Lord. It's a day of clouds and gloominess,' death and destruction! It's coming!
Verse 22—the King James says that 'if those days were not cut short"; that's not a correct translation! Everything is on time!
- Did we not read about the man of sin, the son of perdition in his 'set time'?
- Was not Jesus born at a 'set time'?
- Was not Jesus crucified at a 'set time'?
- Yes! So, this means
Verse 22: "And if those days were not limited…"—the correct translation! What is the limit that God put on it? Three and a half years! That's the limit!
"…there would no flesh be saved…" (v 22). There will be flesh that will be saved, human beings that live on over into the beginning of the Millennium and the rule of the Kingdom of God.
"…but for the elect's sake those days shall be limited" (v 22).
Let's see the system that is now developing, that will come on the scene, and there will be a man who will be worshipped; that's why he calls himself 'God.'
Revelation 13:1: "And I [John] stood on the sand of the sea; and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea… [Satan's counterfeit] …having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard…" (vs 1-2).
Verse 2 combines all of the beasts of Daniel into one system. The Seventh Day Adventists say that this beast is the pope. That's not correct! So they're going to miss the point when it comes.
"…and his feet like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne and great authority…." Tie in Matt. 4! What did Satan tell Jesus if he would worship him? All the nations he would give to Jesus!
Verse 3: "And I saw one of his heads as if it were slain to death, but his deadly wound was healed; and the whole earth was amazed and followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, who gave his authority to the beast…." (vs 3-4).
Let's understand something about the book of Revelation: Very few, if any, commentaries are going to understand what's going on! This is not to be understood 2 centuries ago or 50 years ago, this is to be understood in our day and time as we see it unfold.
Just like the Seventh Day Adventists say that the mark of the beast is Sunday-worship. Nonsense! The mark of the beast is that you cannot buy and sell! If it were Sunday—if you don't keep the Sabbath—then you can buy any other day of the week, even if the whole world accepted Sunday.
- Do you think the Muslims will do that? Let's see the pope's mission to Mecca and see how that goes! It won't happen!
- Do you think the Hindus will do that? Won't happen!
But what if there's a world-monetary system? That's what the G-20 is all about. That's what all the financial problems are all about. Remember: the one who controls the money controls the people!
- If it is a world-currency, which it will be, what do they control? The world!
- Who gives them that authority? Satan!
It's like we read in 2-Thess. 2, there is the dividing line that comes. You're either going to repent and worship God, or you're going to follow Satan the devil, the beast and the false prophet. That's the choice!
"…And they worshiped the beast… [who manifests himself as 'God' through this man] …saying, 'Who is like the beast? Who has the power to make war against him?'"
Notice after the deadly wound was healed! What he does, and this ties directly in with 2-Thess. 2.
Verse 5: "And a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies was given to him; and authority was given to him to continue for forty-two months."
- How long is 42 months? Three and a half years! A limited time!
- When does the Tribulation begin? When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the Holy place!
- When does he do that? If we put it together, probably right after he comes back from the deadly wound.
It's the King of the North and he comes against the King of the South and goes into the temple and says, 'I am God!' That's when the Tribulation begins!
Verse 6: "And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. And he was given power to make war against the saints, and to overcome them…" (vs 6-7).
So, there's another great martyrdom coming! A lot of people ask why God would do that. Because Christ gave His life for us individually, He died for us! If we're still alive at that time, and these things take place, are we willing to give our life for the Truth and for Christ? If so, we'll be resurrected! The beast and the false prophet will be thinking that they are getting rid of the enemy! NOT SO!
"…and he was given authority over every tribe and language and nation… [If that's not a world government, I don't know what is!] …And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (vs 7-8).
The dividing line is coming! Remember what happened in the days of Elijah? There was an argument: Is Baal God? or Is the Lord God? Finally after a three and a half-year drought, Elijah was able to get all the children of Israel together and King Ahab and 450 of the prophets of Baal and he said to the children of Israel, 'How long do you jump between two opinions? If the Lord is God, serve Him; if Baal is God serve him.'
Remember the test that came about: Let's have an offering, all you 450 prophets of Baal, go ahead and offer your offering, and when you're done I'll offer mine. They shouted, yelled, screamed, cut themselves and jumped up and down on the altar, because the answer would be that the 'one who answers by fire is God.'
When they were all done praying all day long, moaned and groaned and all of this, Elijah got up there, laid out his offering, poured water on it—at the end of drought water was precious—and Elijah just doused it and it was overflowing with water. He stepped back and said, 'Lord God, show this day Who is God in Israel.'
That was an awfully long prayer!! The prophets of Baal were all day praying, and Elijah has about a 20 second prayer, and fire comes down from heaven and destroys it! It also evaporated all the water.
That dividing line is also coming again! Now is the time that if anyone is halting—as it is in some translations—between two opinions, you better decide what you're going to do. That's why we have all the things going on in America today, to get people to understand that it's God! Even a lot of people recognize that.
Verse 9: "If anyone has an ear, let him hear."
Verse 11: "And I saw another beast rising out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon." Then it talks about the mark of the beast!
Verse 14: "And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by means of the wonders that were given to him to perform in the sight of the beast, saying to those who dwell on the earth that they should make an image for the beast, which had the wound by the sword, yet, was alive." Let's make an image for our 'god.'
Verse 15: "And he was given power to give life to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast also could speak; and he causes everyone who will not worship the image of the beast to be killed."
There's a foretype of this back in Dan. 3: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego! Nebuchadnezzar was a type of the beast and he built this great image and everyone was to bow down and worship it. If they didn't worship it, they were cast in the fire. You know what happened, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fire and nothing happened to them.
Verse 16: "And he causes all…"—each and every one; talking about a worldwide thing! If you have a worldwide economic thing, a worldwide bank, worldwide government:
- What are people going to do?
- What would you do if you had no money, no means of barter?
We wouldn't last more than a few days! Even if you have your cellar stocked full of food. Someone might say that they have gold and silver saved. Yeah, they'll be on the lookout for it. As soon as you try and buy something with it, you're going to get arrested. They will have police everywhere; the system will be everywhere.
Verse 16: "And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, to receive a mark in their right hands, or in their foreheads so that no one may have the ability to buy and sell unless he has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name" (vs 16-17). The or means in the sense of 'and.'
Do we have a numbering system today? Yes! If you wrote a check for an offering, you have on your check a number. On the bottom of the check you have all of those numbers. Probably also the same in your wallet; you've got credit cards and debit cards.
{note sermon: The Mark of the Beast is Here with Digital Angel} They could insert it in the shoulder. They didn't want to put it in right shoulder so they could say that 'this is not the mark of the beast.'
However, they now know that that can cause cancer, so they're working on other things to make it even more effective. They can tattoo it on you! They can detect it by GPS anywhere in the world! So, you can see how it can include all. 'It won't hurt; you won't even see it!' But it's coming! When that happens, all hell is going to break loose! Then Christ has to intervene.
Rev. 6 is when—beginning with v 3, the second seal—the red horse is when the Tribulation begins. Then we have famine, starvation and martyrdom! All of those things come very rapidly, one after the other.
After two years of this an event is going to happen that is going to startle the world. This is God's answer to the whole thing. This is the beginning of the return of Christ. He doesn't come in one fell swoop day. The world is given a warning, and what a warning it's going to be! It's not going to come secretly, it's going to come demonstratively and the whole world will know it!
Revelation 6:12: "And when He opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as the hair of sackcloth, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its untimely figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the heaven departed like a scroll…" (vs 12-14).
Just imagine this event taking place worldwide. We find in the book of Haggai that God says He's going to shake the heavens, shake the earth and shake the sea! When that happens that's going to be some event. This is a whole worldwide event!
Verse 14: "Then the heaven departed like a scroll that is being rolled up…"
What an event that is going to be! You look up in the sky and it's something you've never seen in your whole life. There's a Greek word for it: 'hapax legomenon' meaning one time!
"…and every mountain and island was moved out of its place" (v 14). God created them and now the manifestation of His anger is coming.
Verse 15: "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the powerful men, and every bondman, and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him Who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of His wrath has come, and who has the power to stand?'" (vs 15-17). No one!
- What do we hear a lot of talk about today? Invasions from outer space! Aliens!
- Do you know that we communicate to aliens? God the Father and Jesus Christ!
They are aliens to this world!
Start talking about the true God the Father and the true Christ and it gets them all upset! We have protection from aliens called angels! Have you ever had a intervention in your life that you knew that it had to be an angel that did it, to save you? Yes, indeed!
What's going to happen here? When the heavens shake, the earth is shaken, the sea, the dry land and everything, and the heavens roll back as a scroll, what are they going to see?
Matthew 24:26: "Therefore, if they say to you, 'Come and see! He is in the wilderness'; do not go forth. 'Come and see! He is in the secret chambers'; do not believe it."
There are going to be many people saying that Christ is here, 'This man is Christ, that man is Christ.'
- How is Christ going to be manifested? The heavens are going to roll back as a scroll!
- Where is Christ right now? In heaven at the right hand of the Father!
That's Christ's intervention!
What is going to be there that the world is going to see? It's going to be a phenomenal thing! They're going to be convinced that these are aliens.
Verse 27: "For as the light of day…"—the sun! This answers the question as to why Christ is called 'the Sun of Righteousness' (Mal. 4:2[transcriber's correction]). He's going to appear as another sun.
"…which comes forth from the east and shines as far as the west…" (v 27). The KJV says 'lightning,' but it's not lightning, which goes up and down east and west, north and south. The only thing that shines from east to west is the sun.
"…so also shall the coming of the Son of man be" (v 27).
When the heavens roll back as a scroll, it's going to reveal a new sun out there in the heavens. In the past I've said that it comes closer and closer to the earth. I think that men become complacent because it stays out there. If this happens just before the next to the last Pentecost, then before we come to Trumpets we have three and a half months. What happens in that time, men see it and they get used to it; they begin getting their armies together and we'll see how that works.
Verse 29: "But immediately after the tribulation of those days…"—the Tribulation against Israel; the Tribulation against the rest of the world continues!
"…the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken…. [tie in Rev. 6] …And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (vs 29-30).
That is going to come down to the resurrection, which we know, as we go in time, happens at the seventh trump, but not on the Day of Trumpets! That happens on Pentecost.
- Pentecost—the 144,000 are sealed, and the great innumerable multitude are sealed
- one year later—the next Pentecost is when the resurrection occurs
In the space of that one year there's going to be that sun out there—the sign of the Son of man—and then just before the resurrection it's going to come down into the clouds and there will be this big Sea of Glass.
So, on the last Pentecost is when the resurrection will occur. All the saints will be raised from the dead. I've often thought that God is going to let the whole world see that happen. What is going to be their reaction when they see that happen? That's at the seventh trump! When all the dead are raised, they're going to say that aliens are here:
Look they're body-snatching, people are coming out of the graves. What's going to happen if they come back to the earth? We better fight against them!
That's how we end up with the Battle of Armageddon!
While we're on the Sea of Glass we'll be there from Pentecost to Trumpets. Then again the trumpets are going to blow on the Feast of Trumpets, a war feast!
But on the Sea of Glass prior to that, we're all going to receive our reward and our instructions as to what we're going to do. I believe that we're all going to be resurrected and have the same language. We won't need interpreters. Can God put a new language in our new spirit brain? Yes!
- Why would He not do that?
- Haven't we been faithful? Yes!
- Does He love us? Yes!
- Has He called us to do what He wants us to do and rule with Christ? Yes!
We all have to have one language to know what's going on, otherwise, we'll have a Tower of Babel up in heaven, up in the clouds.
The marriage of the Lamb is going to take place, and then we're going to come back to the earth on the Feast of Trumpets and that's going to surprise the world!
From Pentecost to Trumpets the seven last plagues are poured out. After they see the resurrection take place they're going to say that they all better get together, 'we better fight this enemy from outer space.'
So, all the armies will gather! Rev. 16 shows the seven last plagues, and they really are poured out. Read that!
After all of this has taken place, then we come back to the earth, and this day, the Feast of Trumpets, pictures the beginning of the Kingdom of God on earth ruled by Jesus Christ and the saints! Remember what Jesus said when Pilate asked him:
Are you a King?' Jesus replied, 'To this end I came and to this end I was born. But My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were of this world then would My servants fight.
Now we're going to fight! It will be a fight, and He's preparing us for a fight, and it's going to be a tremendous victory. It's not going to be one with any risk of loss.
Revelation 19:11: "And I saw heaven open; and behold, a white horse; and He Who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He does judge and make war." Everything on this earth has to be changed!
- every government
- every institution
- all the idols have to be destroyed
- all the false religions have to be gotten rid of
- all of the wrong laws of man have to be taken care of
That's going to mean a great reduction in the population of human beings that live on over into the Millennium. Here's Christ:
Verse 12: "And His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written that no one knows except Him. And He was clothed with a garment dipped in blood; and His name is The Word of God" (vs 12-13). That's an important statement there, isn't it? Where do we find this?
John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Revelation 19:14: "And the armies in heaven…" That's us, now in the armies of the Kingdom of Christ!
All kingdoms of this earth—all nations, all people, all languages, all tongues—now are going to come under the rule of Jesus Christ and the resurrected saints! That's how God is going to solve all these problems! But He's not going to do it until the set time that we have in the prophecies.
That ought to make us feel really great that all the problems and difficulties that you see in the world today, and see on the news, we're going to solve. That's why we have to have the character of God. It takes character first. Then you can bring the solution.
Verse 14: "And the armies in heaven were following Him on white horses… [we have to have quick riding lesson] …and they were clothed in fine linen, white and pure. And out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He might smite the nations; and He shall shepherd them with an iron rod; and He treads the winepress of the fury and the wrath of the Almighty God. And on His garment and on His thigh He has a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords" (vs 14-16). This will end all the rebellion and false ways of men!
Verse 17: "Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, 'Come and gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God.'"
Just think of it, when we're coming down from the Sea of Glass—we're on our horse, we're all organized, Christ has told us what we're going to do—Christ has His secret weapon that melts all the flesh off the armies that are opposing Him. It just falls right off! All the birds, buzzards, eagles, ravens, cranes and storks will be gathering around huge swarms of great flocks of birds, and we're going to come down in between them to the earth.
Verse 18: "'So that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of chief captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, and small and great.' And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together to make war with Him Who sits on the horse, and with His army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked miracles in his presence, by which he had deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Those two were cast alive into the Lake of Fire, which burns with brimstone… [a special present for them] …and the rest were killed by the sword of Him Who sits on the horse, even the sword that goes out of His mouth; and all the birds were filled with their flesh" (vs 18-21).
So, the next time you watch a special on vultures and buzzards and things like that, and you see them eating these carcasses, just take that and multiply it in your mind a million times over, and that's what you're going to see.
The first order of business after that, you have to bind Satan the devil, and that's what happens next, and that's why we have the Day of Atonement.
For whatever I left out of this, just listen to any other sermon for this day, the Feast of Trumpets, and it will fill in some of the other things. I can never give the same sermon twice in the same way.
Scriptural References:
- Genesis 4:7
- Leviticus 23:23
- Daniel 11:40-45
- Matthew 24:10-15
- Revelation 11:1-4
- Matthew 24:15
- 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12
- Matthew 24:15-21, 15, 21-22
- Revelation 13:1-9, 11, 14-17
- Revelation 6:12-17
- Matthew 24:26-27, 29-30
- Revelation 19:11-13
- John 1:1
- Revelation 19:14-21
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Genesis 15
- Revelation 2 & 3
- Zechariah 3
- Matthew 4
- Daniel 3
- Malachi 4:2
- Revelation 16
Also referenced:
- Book: Lord, What Should I Do? by Fred R. Coulter
- Sermon Series: Daniel/Revelation with charts
- Sermon: The Mark of the Beast is Here with Digital Angel
FRC:bo
Transcribed: 6/12/20
