"Wherefore the scribe, who is trained
for the Kingdom Of Heaven, is like the householder,
who goes into his treasury, and brings forth,
what is new, and what is old.
Mathew 13:52
Chapter I
7777 – Warning Milestones
The Beginning
Maybe I am not too bright.
For nearly forty years I have been wandering in a spiritual wilderness.
Books upon books, history ancient and modern, art, politics, philosophy, oh
yes, lots of philosophy, religions, pre-religion, new religion, biography and
autobiography, on race and creed, fact and deed, fiction and fantasy, theology
and micro-biology, the gobbledygook of every book leaves me student of all and
master of none, bewildered, confused and nowhere nearer the truth, I thought
that I would find in youth.
I realize that every
thinking person at some time, must ask themselves "Why am I here?" I decided
therefore, to give it one last try; to go through the vast storehouse of
remembered and half remembered useless information hidden in the tiny recesses
at the back of my head, otherwise known as a brain.
"Back to the drawing
board", I've heard other failures say. Taking their advice that's
exactly where I went. Back to the beginning, all the way to creation.
The authorative book on this subject of creation is the Bible; never be
without an authorative book, scholarly authors use them all the time and quote
from them endlessly.
Now it seems that at the
time of creation there were two great forces in power in the void. One
is God the master of Light and Truth and the other is Satan or Devil, master
of Evil and deceit. Like all good deceivers, Satan has many names and it
is hard to know which one applies at any one time.
I have it on good
authority that the Bible, sometimes known as the Holy Bible, was written and
inspired by the first named, God. If that is true, where then is the
book of the Devil? A reasonable question, I thought, from a person of my messy
education. Wrong again. It seems that part of the design or skill
of the devil is that of usurping the labor of others to his own credit and
glory. Fiendish in fact. To prove what I say, just take a few
minutes and read some of the Bible. Don't try to take it all in now,
just fast read some of it. You will notice a common theme or thread
running all through it from start to finish. Although this book is
inspired and written by God and of God, it is full of the works of the Devil.
Now these two are either very good friends or extreme enemies. I think
it is the latter; I have an instinct for these things. They seem to be
engaged in a long battle of wits which is not resolved until the end.
And even then when God has won, and you are planning to back the winner you
will get cold feet because you begin to wonder if the devil has pulled another
con trick and is the real winner after all. There is an answer to that,
which we will come to later.
The big preoccupation with
most present day commentators of the end times, is with the last book in the
Bible known as the Revelation of God, to his Son Jesus Christ, to give to His
servants. That's understandable; it's the book that tells us how we
shall be saved or how we shall die. It is said the choice is ours, we
will just not be told when it will happen. Sounds reasonable to me, so
long as we have all the facts before we make our choice, and I am assured that
all the facts we need are right there in the books in between. It
strikes me that the book that is most neglected and overlooked by
commentators in all this "latter day" analysis, is the first one, the first
book of Moses, better known perhaps as Genesis. It has all the
characteristics of the last book, an unreal quality, and it's prophesies are
almost totally ignored. Let's take a careful look at Genesis, if for no
other reason than that no one else seems to have lingered here with much
perception.
The First Milestone – Gen. Ch. 1
The first five days, God
is busy creating a wonderful environment. I don't think He intended it
to be spoiled, but with the Devil's help, we have done a pretty good job.
I'm beginning to like God already. However, the next day is the
interesting bit. On the sixth day, along with all animals and things
that creep on the earth, God created man in his own image, male and female.
Be fruitful and increase in numbers; fill the earth and subdue it. (Must
have seemed like a good idea at the time.) Rule over the fish of the
sea, birds of the air and every living creature that moves on the earth.
(Does that include power over Satan when he's home? He is a living creature.)
He gave all seed bearing plants on earth and all plants that bear fruit for
man to eat. He supplied all green plants for creatures to eat.
God took a good look at all this and decided it was good.
On the seventh day (now
this is not just interesting like creation, this is important) He rested from
all his work and He BLESSED the seventh day and made it HOLY. I hear
you, nothing new in that. We already know, that number seven means
perfection completion. All right, so you know. That saves me from
having to tell you. But what is more important is that made it Holy.
Do you know what Holy means? From the loud silence, I take it the answer is
you are not really sure. Well I'll tell you: dedicated to religious use;
consecrated; sacred; spiritually pure; sinless; saintly; regarded with, or
deserving deep respect. Did you get all that? No, nor did I, until I
looked it up in the dictionary. Can you pick out the important one?
There it is, right between spiritually, pure and saintly. "Sinless."
That's it, that's the important one. We have not seen Satan yet, but
God knows he is there, hovering, scheming and waiting. So he has put up
the stop sign for he knows sin is coming. Go no further, keep off the grass!
This is marked number seven. BE WARNED! This is the meaning of number
seven throughout the Bible, BE WARNED, sinners walk this way only. Now
Satan knows, God will not attack him directly, or he does not think so because
the ways of God are Holy. But then Satan is not going to push his luck
either, because powerful as he is, he does not know all the ways of holiness,
and I suspect that on a one to one basis with God, Satan did not give much for
his own chances. No, it's better to be subtle and cunning and wait his
time. That's his strength. Work from the inside. Satan the
original insider; there is a few more of them walking the earth now.
The altruistic (those who
do not wish others to be deceived) among you may say, "but all this does not
qualify number 7 to be unique, if Moses wrote Genesis, he just arrived at
number 7 naturally with the seven steps of creation, or he divided the story
of creation into seven parts and called them days". Well if you are not sure
Moses wrote this on God's authority, let us look at what 'man' says about
seven days in a week. The Encyclopedia Britannica states, "the week of
seven days is an entirely artificial division of time and cannot be
correlated with any astronomical or natural phenomena". In other words
nothing in the universe visible to man, can account for the choice of seven
for the number of days in the week. Like most of God's more obedient
servants throughout the ages, Moses was a simple, almost timid man. On
his own admission, a poor speaker, afraid to talk to large crowds, he was not
pushy or a lover of the limelight. But he was obedient to God. He
could never have dreamed up number seven. If left to choose the number
of days for a week, he would have chosen a more natural division of time.
The divisions of time in those days were governed by the seasons, the sun,
moon and stars, even the comings and goings of animals. The Assyrians
"chose" 6 days for their week, the Incas 10 days, the Romans 8 days, but
Israel was "given" 7 days by God for very good reasons. This
"un-natural" number of seven is chosen by the Creator, it has great
significance throughout the Bible and consequently for us. It marks the
path of faith from beginning to end. Jesus Christ made no bones about
how difficult and narrow the path is. Like any road it is signposted
through the dark valleys and stony mountains with God's number 7. He
that has eyes to see ... let him see.
Enter Sin
The story of the serpent
and the fall from grace of Adam and Eve is well known and easy to understand,
except for these points that I would make. God said to the serpent
"cursed are you above all the livestock, for all the days of your life."
Notice that God did not
curse the serpent, the serpent had cursed himself by his own action.
God goes on to say "And I will put enmity between you and the woman and her
offspring" ... God here is clearly stating His own action in the affair.
To Adam He said, "Because
you listened to your wife and ate from the tree which I commanded you not to
eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will
eat from it all the days of your life".
God here has not cursed
Adam, but Adam, by his action has cursed the ground; he has accepted
responsibility for it by his disobedience, and God's future help to him must
now be got under different conditions, God can no longer take the toil out of
it for him, Adam now has knowledge (without full understanding) and the toil
will wear him out and he will die.
Satan has pulled off a
master stroke, in one move has cursed the snake, and made it an enemy of Eve's
offspring; he has cursed the earth, brought toil and death into man's life and
started to open a gap between man and his God, the Creator. Not a bad
day's work from Satan's point of view. The only thing God would do,
because of His wisdom, was to cause woman to suffer pain in childbirth thereby
causing her to cleave to her husband and be ruled by him. In other
words a woman would obey her husband without question as Adam obeyed God
before the fall from grace. As long as there is love between them this
will remain true. A union between man and woman without love cannot be
made (recognized) in heaven.
This is probably much
easier for a woman to understand, than a man. In any ease, a woman's
pain in childbirth is a blessing for man.
If this was a sporting
contest, the judges would have to award the first round to Satan.
Crime & The Next Milestone
Eve conceived Cain and
later, Abel. How many times have I read this story and never understood
its far reaching significance? If you are not familiar with the story, I would
suggest you read it without delay, carefully, Gen. Ch. 4 vs.1 - 16. Do
not read what you think it says, do not read what you want it to say, read
only what it says. Vs. 10, The Lord said to Cain "What have you done? Listen!
Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under
a curse, and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your
brother's blood (from your hand). When you work the ground it will no
longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the
earth."
Again, as with Adam, God
did not curse Cain. He tells him he is under a curse. (from his
own hand by his own action). When Cain complains to God that, "it is too
much to bear ... I will be driven from your presence ... and whoever finds me
will kill me .... Cain, the murderer of his brother, realizes that he
can no longer talk with God face to face. He can no longer farm,
which is his love, and is afraid he will be slain. God in His great love
for Cain (mankind), does not kill Cain, does not curse Cain, but does protect
him. God curses any one who slays Cain with a punishment Seven times
greater than Cain's. The magnitude and implications of such a curse are
beyond my imagination. The meaning it has for me is clear, the path of
the sin of murder takes man away from God and endangers his soul, makes him a
wanderer in the (spiritual) wilderness and all its dangers (demons).
Only Cain had Devine protection, but a man who kills for VENGEANCE, is under
God's curse. It does not bear thinking about. God's curse is a
Holy statement, a warning, and He marks it with the number 7.
The Third Milestone and a Horrific Prophesy
The seventh male from
Adam, the firstborn of man, is one by the name of Lamech. The sixth son
of sin. He had two wives Adah and Zillah.
Gen. Ch. 4 vs. 23 Lamech said to his wives "Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words, I will kill a
man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged
seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times."
Suddenly, out of the dull
lines of genealogy comes this startling and at first glance, useless piece of
information. Look closer and understand its real meaning.
God's new Jerusalem is
referred to in the bible as the bride or wife of God.
Rev. Ch. 21 vs. 9 "Come, I will show you the
bride, the wife of the Lamb." And God's people are referred to as a
bride.
Isa. Ch. 62 vs. 5 "...as a bridegroom
rejoices over his bride, so the Lord rejoices over you".
Hosea Ch. 2 vs. 16 "...you will call me "my
husband..."
God also declares "I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end".
Here Lamech is calling on
God's chosen people Adah arid Zillah, A to Z, Alpha and Omega, "listen to me"
he calls. Wives of Lamech, he repeats. Is he God now, to call in
this way on God's chosen people? Has he married God's bride?
"I will kill a man for
wounding me." Did Christ's ministry wound him? He is prophesying the
death of Jesus Christ, he promises to kill Him. In some translations he
says "I have killed..." in the past tense, "a young man for injuring
me." Christ was only 33. We are not told much of what Christ had to
suffer during His short time in Hell, except that, "He overcame the devil".
Did he then have to fight the Beast, and win by dealing the Beast a mortal
blow from which he was/is miraculously healed? The wound could not be allowed
to kill the beast on earth, or the Son of God would be guilty and subject to
God's curse turned on Him in the last two lines of this satanic prophesy;
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.
But Christ killed the
beast in Hell, his curse cannot work there. The Lamb after he himself
had been killed on earth, overcame Lamech with a deadly wound, which God
allowed to be miraculously healed. God instructed Moses to write this
down in the book of Genesis so that we might know and understand how the
Beast, the Anti-Christ, got his wound and Who gave it to him and when, and
also the name of the beast, Lamech. And He marked it with the number
seven, that we might be warned and know the way.
God turns the tables on
Lamech the Beast, later on, when we read in Daniel Ch. 9 vs. 24.
Seventy weeks of years are decreed (Daniel is talking to the devil here) for
your people and your holy city to finish your transgression, to put an end to
sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to
seal up vision and prophesy and to anoint the most Holy.
In the last days, Lamech
the beast, alias the chosen gone astray, will be slain, not by God, from Whom
he sought to defend himself by threatening God with the curse of Cain,
seventy-seven times, but will be slain by his own followers, the chosen gone
astray, who will turn on him in the last days, after the abomination has been
set up in the temple.
But we jump too far ahead,
I apologize for my impatience. Let us return to the path of the
milestones of God and find the next one along the way.
The Fourth Milestone and the Flood
Eve conceived again and
bore a son and called him Seth. The seventh from Adam in this line, the
sixth born, was Enoch, cousin to Lamech, the prophet of Satan. As
Lamech was evil, so Enoch was Holy. Enoch's son was Methuselah, famous
as the oldest man who ever lived; after his birth, Enoch lived for 300 years
and all those years he walked with God. He did not die; he was not, for
God took him. As Lamech was the voice of darkness so Enoch was light.
There could have been as much as 200 years between them, but by generations
they were cousins. One wonders if they ever met.
See Figure 1
Methuselah's first born
was Lamech. Is this a rare touch of humor from God or may be
Methuselah, to give him the same name as his great uncle? This Lamech, was a
God fearing man but he was aptly named for the part he had to play in God's
scheme. Gen. Ch. 5 vs. 28, When Lamech had lived 182 years, he became
the father of a son, and he called his name Noah, saying, "Out of the ground
which the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and
the toil of our hands".
Maybe this old man fancied
himself as a prophet, or perhaps it was wishful thinking or perhaps he just
had the wrong name, but he was wrong on two counts. God did not curse
the earth and Noah would not bring them relief from the toil of their hands,
unless you call total extinction relief. No the really important fact
about this Lamech, was the age at which he died, 777 years, as Lamech the
anti-Christ will die at the time of God's great number.
In those days, men
reckoned the ages by the age of man. At important occasions like births
and deaths there was always one who could memorize and recite the names and
ages and deeds of the ancestry of the person concerned, with great accuracy
and order. So it is in this division of time, or calendar, that we find
God's warning milestone, "in all the years of Lamech, 777". The warning of
the most traumatic event in the history of the world.
The perceptive people of
that time must have recognized the significance of this, versed in the names
and numbers of the generations as they were. God's chosen people had
incurred his wrath. Instead of keeping to their own tribes of God's
chosen, they were marrying and being given away in marriage to these other
people (a case here for the Darwinist?). "...some of their daughters
were fair...". With this "inter-marrying" the chosen were being led away
from God, and the violence and evil were increasing with the population
explosion. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?) Giants were being born,
both physically and intellectually. These were the great leaders and
warriors of ancient legend. At least they were still legend in the days
of Moses. God decided there was no saving them, they would not listen.
All except Noah, for Noah pleased God. God gave Noah his instructions
concerning the Ark. Five years after the death of Noah's father, Lamech,
at the age of 777 years, when Noah was 600 years old, the rain started to fall
and God shut the door of the Ark. The people, enjoying their lives of
peace and plenty and evil behavior, were swept away.
Towards the End Times
I am not going through the
whole Bible as a commentary of the number 7. That is not my purpose.
The aim is to establish the vital importance of its use, wisdom, and guidance.
It is enough to say that the most important occurrence in the Old Testament as
I have pointed out on page 6, the prophecy of Daniel Ch. 9 vs. 24, where it
takes the 7 times curse of God on any would-be slayer of Cain, added 70 times
by Lamech the antichrist, to defend himself against Christ, God tells us
through Daniel that this will be the division of time to bring the chosen
people of God to redemption and the new Jerusalem, and to the Anointed One.
Seventy- weeks of years. This is so well known and so much has been
written on it, that it needs no further comment from me. It is another
milestone on the path of light and truth.
The more I follow this
trail of milestones, the more insights and perceptions are thrown up, the more
profound become the simple statements of truth in Christ's teachings.
They take on a greater depth and clarity of meaning than I ever saw before.
I sometimes feel I could write whole books on any single one of them.
As I searched the book of
Revelations, for some of a warning of its time, I found many sevens, each one
a warning of the horrors they announce, but nothing to indicate a warning of
the time itself. As Christ said "...no one knows but the father...".
But it is not the hour, the day or the year that I seek, but that period when
I could tell people, "this is definitely the dying years of the world, this is
the last chance to come to terms with God". Most of today's commentators of
the Revelations say this is so. Their faith tells them it is so, their
reading of the world's condition tells them so. People listen, then find
arguments to convince themselves that it is "over reaction", "things are not
as bad as they seem." "These commentators are just Jesus freaks." The
more people they can get to agree with them the safer they feel. The
scoffers will increase as more and more people read about and talk about the
end times.
A warning milestone of the
end times will give comfort and support to the believers against this rising
tide of disbelief. Something of solid logic, not vision, not prophesy,
not some anonymous writing on the wall, not black magic mumbo-jumbo, but clean
simple logic and simple arithmetic.
The Last Milestone of God
The nearest we can get to
the end times is today, because we live in the present, not the past or the
future. So I started today, October 8, 1983. You may have noticed
that each milestone warns of a change in the times of man. In ancient
times there were no calendars so we must look in the generations and the
divisions of man. Today we have calendars.
According to the bible's
teaching the end will come when the chosen are returned to God in the last, as
yet, unfulfilled 7 years of Daniel's prophecy. This will not happen
until the "times of the Gentiles have been fulfilled". Therefore we must
look for a place where three things meet,
- The time of the chosen in the Jewish calendar.
- The time of the Christians in the Christian calendar.
- And God's number 7.
Where all three meet, is
the milestone, if there is such a point. I started with 1983, and placed
it at the end of a horizontal line. Above it I wrote 5744, the Jewish
year. At the other end of the scale I wrote 2033, the anniversary of the
resurrection of our Lord. I added a Jewish date 5744 (this year) to a
Christian date 2033. It equals "7777". I wish I could put that up
in big neon lights. A number fit to make Satan tremble. I don't
think Satan likes me anymore. Of course the span of years on my scale is
50 years, so the rest is easy. See Figure 2.
Add 1983 to 5794 and you get 7777. Go halfway along the scale to the 25
year mark and you get 5769 + 2008 = 7777.
There is our final
milestone, the year 2008. Do not ask me if this is the end or the
beginning of the Tribulation. You heard Jesus, "only the Father knows".
The actual day could be in three hundred years time, but this is definitely
the last milestone, there cannot be another one until the #77,777, could on
the scale of years.
We do not know when Noah
began to build the Ark, but we do know that the Flood started when Noah was
600 years old, 5 years after his father died the age of 777. They that
could "see" had 5 years warning, they took no notice and died.
Mathew Ch. 24 vs. 36 Jesus said; "But of that day and hour
knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
But as the days of Noah were, so shall also be the coming of the Son of man.
For as in the days of Noah
before the Flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, until the day that Noah entered the Ark. And knew not until the
flood took them all away; so also shall the coming of the Son of man be.
It is written that the
anti-Christ will gain control through peace, by bringing order in a time of
peace as in the days of Noah....
I beg you not to wait until the door of the Ark shut.
Christian Calendar
Final Warning
Minestone
Chapter II
The Experience
One of the things about
the book of revelations that surprised and impressed me, was the factual
unemotional way in which John reports every he sees. But to think that
John is unemotional and untouched by it all is wrong. The lie to it is
shown in his only outburst when he weeps when no one worthy comes forward to
open the seals of the scroll.
To discover something
enlightening, concerning God is a very uplifting experience to say the least.
I would have understood if John's account of the Revelations had been
embellished with his own emotion and joy of the experience he went through.
It was with this in mind that I wrote the first chapter of this book, and
tried to remain factual and objective as was John, in Revelations.
Please do not misunderstand me, I do not wish to imply that what I have
written is remotely in the same league as the prophet John. Although a
nominal Christian all my life, it is only in the last few months
that I have begun to find out what Christianity is all about. To be able
to pray to God and have a reply every time, some almost immediately, some
answered even before they are properly formed in my mind, is an extraordinary
and indescribable experience. Every time my path ran into a dead end, a
prayer opened the way again. To say that what I have written in
the first chapter of this book, has never been thought of, seen or understood
by anyone else before, is naive. The first ten wheels were
probably all invented at the same time. But the conclusions that I
have come to, are my own, my only help coming from prayer. Now if
what I have just said is true, then someone up there has taken an awful lot of
trouble to make sure I understood, and if that is true, what I have written is
meant to have meaning for others. The discovery of the last milestone
came so easily at the end, I literally jumped for joy. I was like a dog with
two tails. I laughed and cried as if I had just given birth The last
milestone is the only one that is not written in the Bible. Then how can
I be sure it is true?
I can be sure because the
Jewish calendar does exist, and the Christian calendar does exist, and the
figures do add up, and equal the mighty number 7777 of God. All this is
reality. Unarguable, logic and simple arithmetic. It exists, it
is. And everything that 'is' is God's and created by Him. For me
personally the most convincing argument is that as I prayed at each step
along the way, the answers flowed back free and clear. The spiritual
uplift of such and experience cannot be described, it has to be experienced.
If a sinner of long
standing such as I can do it, anybody can. It's much easier than giving
up smoking, that's for sure.
I have prayed to God, that
if what I write is not the truth, then it must not be published. So if
you are reading this now from a published book, you can be sure and believe.
Wait a minute, what if your publisher is an unscrupulous servant of Satan, and
prints your book to fool people into believing it is true? The answer to that
is simple, faith. If I pray to God and ask for His control of this,
there is no way that Satan or anybody is going to change it. I am not
making a very good job of describing my experience here, its in danger of
becoming a confession. Perhaps this is not the place for it. If
any reader wants to know more of my experience then write to me, because now I
want to talk about something else.
Chapter III
From Genesis to Eternity
This chapter is the most
difficult to write and the most difficult to understand. You can believe
me when I say it took a great deal of prayer and more than one answer before
the light went on and the truth sank in.
I will try to keep it
simple without losing the subtlety and the thread.
To understand the end
times and Revelations you must first understand the message of Genesis.
God did not write it as a piece of light entertainment to get you started on
the bible. Its simplicity belies its deep and far reaching meanings.
I have read most of the popular and current books on this subject, with avid
interest I might add, and yet almost to a man, or woman, they totally ignore
Genesis; except for a passing mention of the flood. They naturally
concentrate on the prophets, apparently ignorant of the fact that some of the
greatest prophecies are in Genesis.
I should not be so hard on
them; their books have inspired and informed me and helped to lead me to this
effort, and I hope it is worthy of them.
Step by Step
Establishment of the
SEVENTH day, a short period of time that was ordered by God and made
'sinless', a time in which Satan could not act effectively.
Adam, the first man on
earth, created by God, not born. In about 5 minutes flat, Satan was
under his skin. Poor Adam had no chance. It's at about this point
that I begin to suspect that God has an ulterior motive in putting man on
earth. Could he be 'sucker bait' to lure Satan into a trap. If
that is true then I am all for it. Satan may be a wily old bird but he
just cannot pass up an opportunity to destroy something God has created.
You can almost hear him saying, "you set 'em up and I'll knock 'em down".
Perhaps what he did not realise for a split second, and then it was too late,
that he had just bought a one way ticket to perdition on a non stop train.
Now that there is no going back he is really going to cause trouble. His
power is awesome and he knows how to use it.
God's Move
God does two things.
No, three. He sends the snake off with a promise of "no legs forever",
and a warning to watch out for Eve's offspring because they are not going to
like you. "They...crush your head..." (Mortal wound of the anti-Christ).
He tells Adam and Eve they
have got to move house out of the garden, because they have stolen knowledge,
and because of this the ground has gone sour on them, and their nakedness
makes them ashamed of themselves.
The third thing is that
Eve will suffer pain in childbirth, which will cause her to be loyal to her
husband. These may appear to be small everyday things to us now, but I
get the distinct feeling that God is thinking way ahead, I am almost beginning
to feel sorry for Satan. The bait is now out in the big wide world and I
can almost hear the slobber dripping from the jaws of that big bad wolf.
Adam and Eve, with their new found knowledge, overcome their new found
shyness, and produce Cain, the first man ever to be born on earth. Soon
another son is born and they name him Abel. We all know the story.
Satan's Move
He does not waste any
time, this game is limited and he wants to make as many moves as he can before
he goes under. He still nurses a foolish idea that he might possibly
win; if he can just get God to lose his patience; fat chance. Anyway he
sows the seed of jealousy in Cain, Cain reacts as predicted and becomes the
first murderer as well as the firstborn. Abel could not be
tempted, he had that sickeningly childish loyalty to God. Not Cain,
though, he was just right, fierce, independent, demanding the top spot.
He would have trod on his Grandmother if he had had one. Serves him
right, he's all mine now. Four down, none to go. Your move.
God Gets Tough
God takes Cain aside, and
pretends not to notice that Satan is listening. As much as I love you,
you Cannot stand in My Presence again, you know that, and you also know that
like your father you have turned the earth sour, and you are not designed for
eating thistles. You know what violent death means and you are afraid
someone will do it to you. Well at least you can be protected; I put
this mark on you so that people will know who you are, and any man that kills
you will suffer 7 times the punishment that you bear. Off you go and
wander round the land of Nod and try and stay out of
trouble.
Of course God knows that
Satan will be off after Cain waiting to have fun with his offspring, and
anyway there is the germ of a very nasty idea beginning to take shape in the
mind of Satan.
Satan's Move
Not so quick off the mark
this time. There's that hated number 7 again. Damned perfection.
The seventh generation could be an impossible barrier. I think I
will leave this game for a while and concentrate on the land of Nod. I need a prophet
to counter the Messiah that I know is coming.
And as Satan worked deeper
into the growing of Cain, Adam and Eve had another son named Seth. The
line of Seth flourished with long life. Enoch was the sixth son of Seth
and God loved him because he walked with God, and while the six generations
before him including Adam and Seth still lived in great age, Enoch left this
earth. He did not die, for God took him.
Meanwhile somewhere in the
wilderness to the east of Eden, Enoch's cousin, of the line of Cain, one named
Lamech, the sixth son of sin, was prophesying for the devil, for he is the
chosen one of Satan.
As it is written by God's
servant Moses, to expose the evil cunning of Satan, Lamech addressed his
wives.
"Adah and Zillah, listen to me",
(as in Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, but A to Z, places it in the
latter days; those of God)
"wives of Lamech, hear my words"
(Israel, the bride of God, God's unfaithful wife is now the wives of Lamech
and will listen to his words.)
"I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me"
(With the help of the unfaithful wife, Lamech will cause her to crucify her
own son). He implies that his action was self defense but we know that
he received his wound in hell when he was overcome by the Messiah, our Lord
Jesus Christ. This is how the anti-Christ got his wound, this was when
he got his wound, and this was why he got his wound. Who else could have
the power to inflict a mortal blow on evil, on the false and deceiving evil of
Satan's weapon against Israel and mankind, but our Redeemer and Saviour, Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. His curse of 70 times, the curse of
God on Cain's would be slayer, was null and void for he had already killed our
Lord. The anti-Christ was not slain on earth but in hell, therefore his
curse has no value, but he murdered Christ on earth, and must pay the price in
full to God. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. Amen. The
mortal wound of the anti-Christ is miraculously healed, though he is dead, yet
he shall live until the will of the Lord God Almighty is fulfilled, and his
chosen people are redeemed and made holy in the very last days. As
Christ said to his disciples "the first shall be last and the last shall be
first".
In spite of all the words
we write and all the argument we use Satan will still come forward with his
beast and false prophet, and such is the fickleness of people that they will
forget all they have learned. They will push God aside and follow
the beast and his prophet and even worship him. The beast is dead,
even though he walks, he is dead. Would you worship a corpse? There will
be people who will see his flesh rot before their eyes, and then they will
know that only God is the Truth. But then it will be too late, the door
of the Ark will be shut, the door to heavens closed.
The Battle Goes On
It may seem a little
confusing to you that I skip from Genesis to the end times and back again, but
it will help you to understand better if you remember that in the nether world
of Satan and in the heavens of the angels time is not the same restraining
factor as it is in this physically restricted world of ours. It is
restrained by power rather than by the clock.
To get back to our game of
move and counter move, we left Satan in the land of Nod, he has successfully
appointed himself a false Christ and kept fairly clear of the line of Seth.
Now before Enoch was taken by God, he had a son named Methuselah.
The oldest man who ever lived and is ever likely to, the way the world is
going. He died about the time of the flood, I would like to think it was
the week before, I could not imagine the poor old chap being drowned.
However, he also had a son, first of many, I should imagine, and whether it
was a whimsical sense of humor on Methuselah's part or an inspiration of God
the boy's name was Lamech. I feel sure it was God cocking a snook at
Satan. Be that as it may, Lamech was to play a vital role in God's
scheme. On second thoughts I do not think it was humor on God's part
because He was not very happy with the way things were going in the world.
Satan was having a field day. He had the Sons of God marrying all sorts
of no good people and giving their daughters away in such marriages too.
Violence and evil were everywhere even though it was a basically peaceful and
prosperous time. Satan was getting too much of an upper hand and God
decided to put a stop to it. He told Noah, who pleased God, to build the
Ark and you know the rest of the story better than I do. But do not
forget Lamech died aged 777. That put the chains on Satan. He
usually enjoyed a good piece of destruction, but most of what was being
destroyed was his kingdom of evil and that would take time to replace.
He could not do much to stop it, the perfection of God's 777 was on it,
giving 5 years warning. As in the days of Noah so shall the coming of
the Son of Man be.
Summary of the Game
- God chooses 7 as a barrier to
Satan.
- Satan counters, with an
anti-Christ named Lamech and 77 to defend himself against God.
- God wipes evil from the earth by
using the name of Lamech and 777, to bring the Flood and destroy all Satan's
works.
- Lamech fulfills his prophesy and
slays Christ on earth, but Christ slays Lamech in hell. Lamech's curse
of 77 is wiped out.
- As in the days of Noah, God will
use Lamech again, with his wound miraculously healed, to come to the final 7
years of the prophecy of Daniel, the trial of Israel, until that day when the
warning time of God's mighty number 7777, warns of the glorious day of
completion and control of evil.
GAME, SET AND MATCH TO GOD.
Chapter IV
Understanding the Effect of Prayer
I prayed to God through
Jesus Christ and asked to be shown the truth concerning the seals, Revs Chapters 6 &
8, a light so that I might see and recognize the times for what they are.
I told the Lord that I am confused.
As I finished praying, I
opened my eyes and saw a man's arm reaching into the charred timbers. His
hand withdrew a Bible; the paper marker in its pages was charred and still
smoking. The man opened the Bible at the marker and I was able to read
over his shoulder; and I read,
"I
looked, and behold a pale horse..."
It is Revs chapters. 6 vs.
8 .... The opening of the fourth seal by the Lamb of God.
To explain this; when I
opened my eyes, I was looking directly at the television which was on, but the
sound turned off, and the scene described above was taking place in the film.
It seemed too much of a "co-incidence" that my eyes should open at just that
moment, especially when I tell you that finished my prayer by repeating the
Lord's prayer As I said, "amen," I realized that I could no remember having said
any of the prayer after the words "Give us this day..." So I went back and
repeated the prayer carefully from "give us this day...". If I had not
done this I would not have opened my eyes at precisely the right time to catch
the scene. I have wondered since, why my mind went blank for half of the
Lord's prayer. A "co-incidence" is the answer that usually explains away
these happenings, but I dearly wanted it to be my prayer answered; even so
quickly; even if I did not as yet understand the answer.
The usual definition of
co-incidence is two or more "incidences", "things", or "happenings" that meet or
occur at the same time in some remarkable way, no apparent reason. Now
without a logical explanation they are listed as accident or co-incident.
The trouble with this is that if you must have a logical reason for everything
before going further, life becomes very dull. With such an attitude, man
would still be living in caves. The cause of remarkable, but
unexplainable, occurrences can be debated forever in order to deny belief, but a
heartfelt instinct, a recognition should never be denied.
Edison once said, that a man
who would declare his conviction, and as his listeners laughed, would loudly
restate his conviction, even though he had no proof, but later is proved to be
correct, is of the stuff that genius is made. What he was saying was that
intuitive knowledge must come first, then the courage, then the theory, then
proof, then advancement.
The one ingredient that
makes our man of conviction different from his fellows is "faith", in himself,
and in this case, his intuitive instinct. Without this faith, each one of
us is a semi vegetable. It does not matter what we are or how
important we might consider ourselves, whether dustman, lawyer, housewife,
gardener, scientist, or whatever, we must have faith to do our chosen task well.
A man whose occupation takes him to the limits of his physical or mental (or
both) abilities is not a vegetable. All his senses are alert, his
adrenaline is flowing, his awareness is heightened way above normal. He is
"living". This applies equally to an astronaut or gardener, a soldier in
battle or a truck driver; if he is operating at his utmost concentration.
The vital ingredient, of
course, is faith in ones own ability to do the best, to do it a little better
than you have done before. If someone does it better than you without
really trying, it does not matter. You know you did the best you could,
therefore you have kept faith with yourself, the other fellow did not because he
was not "really trying".
If faith is the important
ingredient in everyday life, then how much more is it in your religious belief.
Anyone who has had a prayer answered (and that is meant literally) will know
what I mean by faith. Those who have never had a prayer answered, just do
not have the needed faith in God's will. How often have you been deeply
troubled and prayed and the prayer has not been answered? You only prayed
because you were troubled, you would not have bothered otherwise. I know
this is true because I have done it myself. The Christian way is simple
and uncomplicated. Millions of words have been written on the teachings
of Christianity, and what should be simple becomes more and more complex.
Christ teaches an "attitude" to life, adopt that attitude, live it in your
everyday life, quietly without fuss, and your prayers will always be answered.
The prayer and answer already mentioned at the beginning of this chapter is not
unusual, fast certainly, I have sometimes had to wait as much as three or four
days. As Christ said, "...ask, and it shall be given to you...", He also
said that sometimes we must be patient, for a prayer will be answered in God's
time. Try it, you have every thing to gain. If you do not, you have
everything to lose. God wants to answer your prayer, he is waiting for you
to ask. Talk to others about it. You can talk about God in a casual
everyday way. Its not some big ceremonial thing that can only be done in
church. Christ's church is ultimately in the hearts of men.
Try to keep God in the back
of your consciousness all the time. Pray that if you should forget Him, He
will not forget you.
I have not reached the top
of the mountain yet, I am still in the foot hills. Martin Luther King, in
his now famous speech, said he had reached the top and seen over the other side.
You could hear the joy in his voice. He could not wait to tell you about
it. He knew the bullet was coming and it held no fears for him.
The early Christians, fed to the lions, in the Roman arena, felt no pain.
They died quietly praying. Christ took them out of their tribulation.
Those that lost their faith at the last moment, and ran screaming, trying to
escape, died screaming. Many of the spectators noticed this phenomena, but
did not understand. Today the Gospels are written, and available, we have
modern communications. We have no excuse not to understand.
Chapter V
Revelations Up to the Last 7 Years
The answer to my prayer,
indicated the fourth seal. (See Rev. chapter 6.) "And I saw, and
behold, a pale horse, and its riders name was Death, and Hades followed him; and
they were given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with
famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth."
To understand this better,
perhaps we should start at the beginning of Revelations. God already knows
if we shall succeed or fail to understand this message, but like children we
must learn, succeed or fail by our own efforts.
What John is describing in
Revelations is what he saw, in his own words, with the knowledge available to
him at the time. God is satisfied with that description, knowing that it
will be understood by each generation according to their own times. You
may he sure that God did not intend for it to be a riddle. It is a
communication to Christ's church, and meant to be understood. Therefore we
should not concern our selves with what it might have meant to a reader 1,000
years ago. What it interprets today, is what it means today, and is how it
is meant to be understood today, its essence is the truth we must understand.
Revelations begins with
John's statement that, Revelations is a description of what is to take place in
heaven and earth in the future. It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ
given to him by God to "show His servants what must soon take place".
The first part consists of a
letter to each of the seven churches of Christ, charging them to correct their
mistakes and to follow Christ's teachings faithfully. The seven churches
are Christ on earth, they represent His completeness in the number seven.
Therefore the charge is to prepare themselves, each individual member, to
prepare themselves to meet God. Whether you die before the end times
or not, does not matter, the same rules apply. It is the final examination
which you are taking in this life. God will take care of the
children: if you are not a child, then become one before God. Pride in
your own importance and cleverness, is pathetic in the eyes of God.
Be wise, for wisdom will make you humble.
Many people are put off by
the ravings of the hellfire Evangelist. His methods smack of
sensationalism. Rather like modern television advertising. We
know that adverts stretch the truth and if God's message is presented it the
same way, in our minds it implies that the speaker is misinterpreting God's
message and distorting the truth. So we tend to back off and not to pay
too much attention; our belief in God turns inward and becomes a private thing
not to be talked about in public. I beg you to look for other Christians
and talk to them. The true Christian has dignity and peace, he is not a
ranting salesman Christ is not an exaggerated, hysterical idea, but a cold hard
statement of the pure truth of God. Acceptance of it brings the warm
welcome of love and forgiveness. These are the simple requirements of you,
to be received into heaven – As Jesus put it, "Accept, be patient, be faithful."
It costs you nothing except some small changes in your attitude to everyday
life, which will enhance your life and well being, and for those around you.
If you wish to become an
active evangelist you may suffer persecution and even death, such martyrs are
promised a crown in heaven. Many people have given their whole life to the
church and never saved a soul. Others have had congregations of millions.
But if one simple soul, one humble person, turns one other soul towards God,
then his reward in heaven will be as great or even greater than the one who
preaches to thousands.
A prince of the church here
on earth has to achieve so much more than the humble believer. As Christ
said, it is easier for the poor and humble to the Kingdom of Heaven than for the rich
powerful.
So Christ's message to the
churches (that's you), is to ask God for forgiveness, walk in His ways keep
faith with Him. Simple. When your time comes to leave this earth,
whether in the fullness of years or before, there is only One, who can bring you
Comfort in the loneliness of that moment. Be sure He will be with you.
The Four Living Creatures
After the messages to the
churches, John describes what he was shown. He was shown the throne He who
sat on it, and all the glory of it, and the praise to Him on the throne by the
four living creatures which stood around the throne, and by the 24 elders that
wore crowns and sat on thrones around God's throne, and bowed down to God and
cast their crowns at God's feet as they praised Him. (Rev. chapter 5)
The 24 elders are not hard
to understand. They are kings who will reign with God's authority.
Their crowns are that authority, and belong to God. The glory of God on
His throne is beyond description John does his best. The four living
creatures are different. John's description of them is detailed and quite
specific. Their unusual appearance does not make them so readily
understood, therein, I believe lies their importance.
What John is describing
sounds like something out of science fiction. Remember though, that he
describing faithfully what he sees in his own words He has no reason to
exaggerate or to lie, quite the contrary. God chose John for his honesty
and faithfulness. The first living creature he describe has "...eyes all
round...and a face like a lion...". What he saw was not a machine,
but a living existence. With eyes all round simply means, "all seeing" and
a face like a lion implies that the being has the aspect or qualities of a lion.
To man, a lion is as the king of beasts, feared and respected. He
seldom hunts, the lioness brings in the food, but he first (first fruits are his
due) then the lioness, then the cubs. It may seem a bit selfish, laying
all day, then taking the best of the food. But it is his territory, his
domain, nothing moves in it without his forbearance. He is a loving father
and for all his voice like thunder and ferocious aspect, his patience and
tolerance of his children is endless. So the first living being shows us
an aspect of God He wishes us to see. If you understand the nature lion,
you know this aspect of God.
What I am about to say, most
of you have experienced or have seen. You are driving your car a certain
street, past a certain spot, when a dog runs at you barking ferociously as if to
bite the tires off your car. What is your reaction? "That dog should be
put down, or chained up, its dangerous." Take the time to observe him.
You will it that sometimes he totally ignores the traffic, it roars past
unmolested. Watch again closely the next time he attacks a passing
vehicle, if you look carefully you will invariably find children playing
nearby. The dog instinctively feels that it is his duty to protect
them. Your roaring, fast moving car, he sees as danger to them. He
is not so dumb. You are. You would have him destroyed because he
imitates the lion. Would you destroy the lion, for the same reason?
The lion personifies one aspect of God, would you chain up God or destroy him?
If the answer is en I am talking to the devil. God gave man dominion over
the animals, but he expects you to do more than just "know" them.
Knowledge on its own is a useless commodity, but tempered with understanding in
the Spirit of God, it becomes "wisdom". Be wise, if children are near,
drive past slowly, the dog will still watch you with suspicion but he knows the
difference between a fast moving dangerous car, and a slow moving one. You
will have acted with wisdom and understanding and God will know. Instead
of calling for the destruction of dog, you will know its value; one of those
children might be yours.
So the first living being
communicates the idea of God as an all seeing King, a loving and protective
Father, who requires his just deference paid him (first to eat), and his
terrible power strength respected by all.
The second living being,
is again described a "eyes all round", "with a face like an ox...".
The ox is an animal of great patience, and great strength it works quietly and
steadily, slow, very slow to anger.
That's simple enough to
understand, but keep in mind for it has importance when it comes to opening of
the seals.
The third living being
is not "LIKE a man" but "HAS THE FACE OF A MAN". In other words God is
part of man and man is part of God. Man has the aspect of God, man is like
God (and God created man in His own image).
So the third living being is
that aspect of God which is man.
The fourth living being
is all seeing, as the other three, and is "like an eagle". To
mankind the eagle is the king of birds. His domain is the breadth the
heavens, he moves swiftly, with majestic power and grace. He is the emblem
of nations. He lives inaccessible places, his "eagle eye" sees everything
that moves, and he is king of all he surveys. We know that the eagle
himself is not quite that great but the poetic inference can be readily accepted
These are part of God's nature which he wants us to recognize.
The four living beings then,
represent the part of God's nature that he wishes us to keep in mind when
reading the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
-
King of the earth...like a lion.
-
Endless patience...like an ox.
-
His spirit in man...face of a man.
-
King of the heavens...like an eagle.
Chapter 5 Revs, is the
prelude to the seven seals. Read it and you will understand what I say.
John sees a scroll or book in the hand of the one who sits on the throne.
There is a call for someone who is worthy to undo the seven seals and open the
scroll. John knows that this must be done before God's will can be done on
earth. It is what he is longing for. When no one answers he
begins to weep. The awful thought that God's will cannot be done because
no one is worthy to undo the seals is too much for him. An Elder
speaks to John and tells him not to weep for there is One who is worthy.
And John sees a lamb standing by the throne, a Lamb that has been slain but
lives, with seven horns and seven eyes. The Lamb is Christ, the seven
horns are His churches established on earth and the seven eyes are the Spirit
of God in those seven churches sent out through all the earth.
In the next part John sees
the Lamb take the scroll the seven seals and a countless number of angels, the
four living creatures, and the 24 elders, all bow before the throne and praise
with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb".
The 24 elders carry harps
which represent the praise of those saints awaiting resurrection and golden
censors which represent the prayers of all those saints still living, you and
me. "How can this be?", you might ask, "I only found out about it a
minutes ago". "How could my prayers have been offered too". Do
you think God is limited by time? He knows who's names are written in the book
of life; your name is in the Book of Life, you only have to make sure it stays
there, make sure the letters of your name do not begin to fade, as they fade
from the mind of God. Mine must have been getting very faint, but now they
get stronger every day. "You know me", the man said to Jesus on judgment
day. "I spoke to you when you were alive on earth". "Your name is
not here in the book, I don't know you", said Jesus. And the man went with
the goats into the eternal fire. Be sure that God remembers you.
And the four living
creatures said "Amen" and the elders fell down and worshipped.
The four living creatures
are the voice of God, saying "so be it".
Chapter 6 Revs
I have read this chapter
over and over because to me this is the most important chapter in Christ's
revelations for Christians. I have prayed for the understanding of it, and
for guidance in writing about it. As I already said at the beginning of
this chapter, my most crucial prayer concerning the seals has been answered.
I did not have to wait, it was answered immediately.
Now it is very important
that you understand what I am about to write. I will write it as simply as
I know how.
1st Four Seals
The first four seals deal
with conditions on the earth. Conditions that begin as the first seal is
opened. Why should they be delayed? To be opened in the future from now
would not make them new. This world since the time of Christ's
resurrection is a continuous story described in the first three seals. I
do not believe John saw all this in some visionary dream, what he was being
shown was far too important for that. He said he was carried up to heaven
in the spirit, and I believe that that is exactly what happened to him. He
was invited to a meeting of the board, if you like, with orders to write down
what saw and report to the churches, clearly and in detail. The first four
seals concern the Christians not the Jews. The Jews have not ruled
anything since the last captivity until 1948. Since Titus destroyed the
temple, about 70 A.D. There is God's number of completion again,
completion and therefore beginning. I believe it was about this time that
the first seal was opened.
John saw the Lamb open the First seal. Then the first
of the four living creatures spoke. This you will remember is the one
"like a lion". With a voice like thunder, (the voice of God) "come" and there
came one riding on a white horse with a bow, and a crown given to him; and he
went out conquering and conquer.
Now some commentators say he
is Christ. Christ has already conquered. He overcame Satan in hell.
No this is an earthly king, His crown is his authority or 'let' by God. By
that I mean that God "allows him". to exercise his earthly power as an
earthly king. He represents all the earthly kings (minor anti-christs),
that have taken up arms for whatever reason. They all have one thing in
common they all cause blood to be shed, the blood of life that is Holy to god.
Even the blood of the meanest person on earth, is God's 'first fruits' and not
to be taken by man. It is not the anti-christ as other commentators
have it. The anti-christ is also a man, but his time not yet.
The second seal is opened. The second living
creature says "come". This living creature you will remember is that which
is "like an ox". Strength and patience. The voice of
that aspect of God.
Out came another horse which
was red, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from earth so men
would slay one another; and he was given a great sword. To tolerate him,
God needed great patience.
Think of all the Nations,
dictatorships, regimes that have ruled by force and fit this description.
However much you search, you can only come up with one Russian communism, which
fits in every respect. Their flag is red, they are past masters at
stirring the pot, supplying the arms, then sitting back and watching two sides
destroy each other, to expend their strength and wealth and youth in a pointless
conflict. Mother Russia will sit back and pretend her hands are clean.
She does not understand the meaning of lies, because any words that support her
cause cannot be lies. She is guilty of everything she accuses others of.
I am talking of the fanatics and their ideology that rule in Russia, who talk
peace and believe in world domination by violent revolution. (There are
also many Christians in
Russia and the countries they persecute.) Their days are numbered, their
end is prophesied. But at this time they are a reality, and are 'let' by
God, according to the second seal, and God's patience.
The third seal is opened. And John heard the third living creature say
"come". You will remember that this living creature has the face of a man.
I said that this was the voice and aspect of God in man?
And I saw, and behold, a
black horse and its rider had a balance in his hand. A voice was heard
seemingly from the midst of the four living creatures, saying, "a quart of
wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, but do not harm
the oil and the wine". The unusual thing about this one is that the voice does
not come from the living creature but seems to come direct from God himself.
Its almost as if the command concerning the oil and the wine is an after thought
and God wanted John to be sure to note it down. Or it is a prophesy of
God, through man?
This seal describes exactly
what we have today in some parts of the world. Ask anyone in Mexico,
including those in government and they will tell you. It is
inflation. A loaf of bread for a day's wages. In U.S.A. and
Europe at this time there is a glut in wine. Not to mention Europe's
perpetual butter mountain. You cannot feed children with wine, but adult
cannot afford bread for his children he can still buy wine and drown his
sorrows, don't tell me these seals are in the future, they are here NOW.
When I prayed for the wisdom
to see, and to ask if my interpretation was right, and was another seal about to
be opened, my prayer was answered clear-the fourth seal. This is today,
November, 1983.
When he opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth
living creature say "come". And I saw, behold, a pale horse, and his name
was Death, he was followed by Hell; and they were given power over one fourth of
the earth, to kill with sword, and with famine, with pestilence and by wild
beasts of the earth.
Add to the inflation so
prevalent throughout the world today, the drought and poor harvest throughout
the third world and you have a short fuse to disaster. 22
sub-Saharan countries of the African continent are on the point of starvation
TODAY. (See page 4 Herald Tribune Nov. 9, 1983.)
People have already started to die of starvation in Mozambique. This
is only the thin end of the wedge, one fourth of the world already faces
starvation. Starvation means death on a large scale, and plague and
pestilence follow naturally. Hell follows Death. The
breast of the earth we have not seen yet, at least not enough to cause a stir in
affluent societies. Last week's report on the earthquake in Turkey
is significant. "To the general misery of the survivors living in
temporary shelters in freezing weather is added the threat of packs of hungry
wolves coming down from the mountains." An isolated incident? The
fourth seal has only just been opened. In the last nine days there
has been an earthquake in Turkey, China, Belgium, and Italy. Add
these to the death and misery being caused by war and conflict around the world,
and the picture is already pretty grim. The horrors of Biafra will look
like small change to what is on the way, and is already coming into sight.
You will remember that the living creature that introduced this fourth seal was
the one "like an eagle". "... and the birds of the air will feast on the
carcasses of the dead..." This is prophesied for the very end, but it fits
very aptly here. I hope I have painted a horrific picture here, because it
will be far worse than I can describe. There will be confusion around the
world and among nations. Civilization will just not be able to cope with
it all. This sets the stage for the anti-christ. Sword, famine and
pestilence hand in hand and are not strange occurrences on this earth, but watch
the news media for reports of the strange, the deaths of people from attacks by
wild beasts of the earth. Not just feeding on carcasses, but actually
killing people.
The FIFTH seal, is not introduced by a living creature and takes place in heaven. It is
the saints already dead, who are begging the Sovereign Lord to judge and avenge
their blood on those who dwell on earth. Then each was given a white robe
and told to wait a little longer until those saints who were still to come, were
killed, as they had been. That will be at the end of the seventh year (I
will come as a thief, at the 6th seal of scroll. Revs. chapter 16 vs. 15 (see
figure 4)). Great Tribulation period, for these saints are Jews who accept
Christ and die in his name during the tribulation. (The first shall be
last and the last shall be first.)
There is only one more seal for Christians, the SIXTH.
"When He opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became
black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars fell from the
sky like the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale; sky vanished
like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from
its place."
This is the sign in the
heavens spoken of by Christ to his disciples.
Mathew 24 vs. 29; "Immediately after the
distress of those days (the 1st four seals) the sun will be darkened, and the
moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly
bodies will be shaken."
At the same time the Son of
man will appear in the sky (not on the earth) and all the nations will mourn.
They will see the Son of man
coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and glory. And He will send
angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four
winds, from one end the heavens to the other.
This is the RAPTURE.
This is the beginning of seven year period of great tribulation.
With the removal of Christ's
church from the earth is also the removal of the Holy Spirit with them.
This leaves the way clear and unrestrained for the anti-christ to move in.
God has gathered up his nuggets of pure gold, now he will cast the impure ore
into the furnace to extract the last drops of precious metal. Most
of it will be dust and dirt but those last few drops will be the most precious
and pure the earth has ever produced and will be set up high in God's kingdom.
They are the last and they shall be the first. They are God's chosen.
To them return the Spirit of God.
Chapter VI
Revelations – As We Are
Safety
The drowning rat, in the
flood, will cling to floating log. He can see safety, solid land just a
few yards away; so near and yet so far. He looks with longing and hope at
the solid land, and then with terror at the boiling water around him.
"Hang on" he tells himself, "hang onto what you have". So He hangs on, is
carried over the rapids and drowns.
The moral of that is obvious
enough. But we never apply it to ourselves somehow, its always someone
else. When a baby feels insecure, it cries. A dummy tit in its
mouth pacifies, gives it a feeling of security, all is peace again for a while.
We all have our dummy tits, the drunkard when he can no longer face the world or
cope with it, sucks on a bottle, it's the same thing. "But I'm not a
drunkard", you say, "never had a drink in my life". Well good for you, but
you still have a dummy tit; take a close look your self, see if you can find
your dummy tit. Where do you run when you are worried, when your
peace is threatened? Do you polish your car? Go fishing? Smoke pot?
Run off for a chat with your friends? Clean the ashtrays for the third
time this morning? Get your hair done when it doesn't need it? Visit your
Doctor and blame your back? I could go on forever but I think you get the
idea. The log we cling to, our safety in troubled waters, is the thing
that we associate our own personal security with, it's our own personal dummy
tit. Now, you might say, if that's true, then we are in fact the rat
clinging to the log, and the log goes over the.... Right first time.
But that is life, isn't it? From the wino with his bottle to the rich man
with his banks and factories; if we are all going over the rapids, what's the
point? Let me tell you a little story to illustrate it better.
An important young lady, who
lived in a beautiful apartment in the smart end of town, received notice from
her landlord to quit. The shock was terrible, panic fear, anger, what
would her friends think?
Where would she find another
place like this? Her world was falling apart. Her friends, that's it, they
will help, they will find me a new place. Dummy tit, suck, suck, suck.
Later that week the same
young lady was appearing as guest on a TV talk show. Two men who had
worked together and been friends for years happened to be watching the show
after a long hard day. You see, they were ideas men, they kept the nation
supplied with ideas and often watched their ideas taking shape around the
world through the television media.
George was sifting
comfortably and Jack was getting a fresh drink for them both. "Hey Jack,
take a look at this, I've not seen this show before, it must a new one.
Interviewer: Welcome young lady to the show. I understand that you were recently
evicted from your beautiful apartment at the smart end of town. What was
your reaction to that?
Young Lady: Well, my God,
it was terrible, I was so put out.
Interviewer: I
notice you use the expression 'my God'; what does that mean?
Young Lady: Well its a
phrase we use sometimes, when we are shocked or frightened or something like
that.
Interviewer: You
mean like a swear word?
Young Lady: Well no, not
exactly. (Worry is beginning to show on the face of the young lady.
"What is this creep driving at, is he trying to threaten me, my friends or my
new home?" Dummy tit, suck, suck, suck.)
Interviewer: Then
you are really calling on this person God to help you?
Young Lady: Well no, not
exactly. You see in olden times (my God, this creep is dumb) people would
ask God to help them because they were not too bright, an they didn't have nice
homes and nice friends like we have now, and I guess it just stuck like an old
habit. (Dummy tit, suck, suck, suck.)
Interviewer: So
what you are saying, in fact, is t] it really is a swear word.
Young Lady: What is with
you? I don't have to sit here and take this crap. I'm leaving.
Interviewer: Indeed
you are. Goodnight. And the rat, clinging to its log sailed over the
rapids to its doom. God stood up, switched off the lights and closed the
studio door behind him.
Ideas
You have already met me, my
name is Jack. You remember me and George were watching television?
Okay, well what I want to tell you is that me and George are ideas men, I think
I already told you that. The problem is, we've not been having too
many good ideas lately. I don't really understand it because I am a
confirmed dummy tit man, suck suck, suck, I live right, you know what I mean?
But right now we need ideas badly. The ideas of yesterday are the
realities of today. Today's ideas are the future, and unless George and I
come up with an idea there won't be any future. You see, we had a good
thing going, everyone had their own personal dummy tit. It was great.
Everybody was happy. But it seems there were a lot of people over that
other side of the world somewhere who didn't have enough dummy tits to go round.
Well we tried to send them some but you know how it is, we did not really send
in the first place and then some got stolen on the way, in fact a lot got stolen
when they arrived. Can you believe that? Well it seems one of their ideas
men got into a pretty powerful position and decided they would build tanks and
warships and guns go and get some of those dummy tits. So we built our own
armor and fought back and when smoke cleared and it was all finished there were
not too many dummy tits to be found anywhere. Well, we seem to have got
over that but we don't want it to start all over again. How to stop it,
that's the trick. What we need are new ideas, or old ones revived,
anything so long as its an idea. I don't mind telling you I'm worried.
Here's George now, he's a confirmed dummy tit man like myself, did I tell you?
Maybe he can come up with some original idea.
Me:
You got any ideas to get us out of this mess George?
George:
I think I have a long shot, Jack, a very long shot, but we have nothing else so
we had better follow it up.
Me:
Tell me, George, tell me.
George:
Do you remember that interview we watched on the television, you know the one
where that young lady walked out and the interviewer gut up and switched off the
light? Well that young lady may have been a dummy tit person, but I get
the distinct feeling she blew it, but there was definitely something odd about
the interviewer. He knew more than he was saying; than strange
question he kept asking. He seemed so supremely confident and
knowing. And the way he put out the light and shut the door, it was
so, somehow, final. I would sure like to talk to him, I feel he may
have a few good ideas.
Me:
Lets go and find him then George, it should not be too difficult.
LATER...
Me:
Here we are George, this is the place, this is the interview room alright.
See, there's the cameras and equipment, the chairs they were sitting on.
Where is the door George? No, not the one we came in by, the one he went
out by. It should be just about here; that's strange.
George:
There is no sign of a door there, Jack I told you there was something different
about that man.
A Voice:
Good Morning Gentlemen.
We both turn, startled. I recovered
first, George is getting a bit old. This fellow came in so quietly
and was standing right up close.
Me:
Good morning, we didn't hear you come in. I'm Jack and this is may
colleague, George.
Man:
I'm pleased to meet you, though you are a little late.
George:
A little late? You were expecting us? I know there was something odd
here. What is your name, I don't think we have met before?
Man:
I don't really have one, but you can call me Angel.
George starts to giggle, he's getting nervous.
I tell him to get a grip on himself.
Me:
We would like to have a few words with that interviewer who was on the show the
other night. You see we are ideas men and we fell he may have some
ideas we could use. We have a few problems.
George:
We have had these problems a long time now and I just felt, when I saw him, that
is...
Angel:
Yes, I know. You can't see him now. However he did leave
this book for you. He said you will find all the ideas you need in
it.
Me:
That is a hell of a big book to read and we don't have much time.
Its ideas we want, ideas for the future.
Angel:
I assure you all the ideas you need are in that book. You must read
and understand them. I agree you haven't much time, how much in fact
no one knows. I do have it on good authority that there is not much
left and that's all I can tell you.
Me:
What do you think George?
George:
I think we had better start reading. We don't have much choice.
George and I, we read that
book and we argued about it, and eventually we had a pretty good understanding
of it. Sometime later I saw that interviewer on TV again.
You'll never guess who the special guest was. Oh, you guessed; yes it was
George. You must have read the book. Did you see the smile on
George's face as he went through that door? I am glad he found that door again.
Hope I do too, George said I will and when George gets a feeling he is usually
right. What worries me is all those people who have not read the book and
all those who do not know what is in it. I will have to do something about
that, not sure how, but I'll think of something. I get lots of good ideas
these days.
If you are still on the log,
you had better get off it now. How? Very simple, spit out your dummy tit.
Stop polishing the ashtrays, forget the fishing rod, let the factory run itself
for awhile and do something useful, if the market drops and you lose money, go
out and celebrate. Does all this sound crazy? What I am saying is, not
only should you not covet the possessions of others, you should not covet
your own. If you want to go fishing, great, but go because you want to
enjoy it not to escape something you would rather not face. If you stop
worrying about your shares, they will start to go up. Polish the ashtrays
only because they need cleaning. Do only today what God requires of you,
for tomorrow is God's and has not yet been given to you. Do His will, not
yours. If you have any doubt about what God's will is for you, then do
only what you know to be right, morally right. The first few steps are the
most difficult and uncertain, but once you get the rhythm, you will take several
steps before you stumble off the path, and each time you stumble you will
recover quicker than the last. Treat tomorrow as a gift from God. In
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, "Accept, Be patient, be faithful".
Chapter VII
Israel & Islam
To try and put the events
described in Revelations in a continuous chronological order, is an almost
impossible task. Some chapters cover the whole seven years, some only
parts. Some chapters run into the next one, some describe events taking
place in heaven, which are not always easily related to the parallel events
taking place on earth. Perhaps it can be put in an understandable order,
given time and patience. The great danger is "taking away, or adding to",
what John has written down. It sometimes seems as if someone dropped all
the pages, then copied them as they were picked up, and divided them into
chapters without any real understanding of the meaning of the words.
Perhaps it is better left that way.
I believe that the first
five chapters are already past and yet present; and further, we are in the time
of the 4th seal of the scroll of chapter 6. Revs.
The sixth seal will bring
the "rapture" and then the 7 years will begin. If you read the description
of the scene in heaven in chapter 4, and compare it with the same scene
described in the latter half of chapter 7, you will notice that the only
difference is that there are now worshippers of all nations, tribes, and
tongues, before the throne, that were not there in chapter 4. These can
only be resurrected saints and the raptured church of Christ; (those who have not
died). The fulfillment of "the times of the Gentiles". The next
seven years are the years of god's people. God will reclaim and remarry
His "unfaithful wife". Israel will be redeemed. Evil will chained
until God chooses to remove his power for ever.
Persecution of the Jews
God has declared loud and
clear that he will pour out His wrath on those who persecute His people.
No matter what crimes they commit, no matter what evil they do, we must suffer
them. They are God's own children and only He may judge and punish them.
All who give help to God's people will receive God's blessing. If you help
them it must be because you love God. History bears out the truth of this.
God has punished His people cruelly down through the ages, for their
unfaithfulness, and those who have fought their cause have come up triumphant.
The truth of God's promises concerning them has been repeated over and over
again, and it will continue that way to the last day. The fate of the
Christians is plain, the fate of the Jews is plain, but what of that other
great Judaic-Christian religion, Islam? Where is their place in all this 'end
times' prophecy? At present they are the world's most ardent opponents of the
Israelites. Will they suffer God's wrath because of it?
A Place in the Wilderness
These 'other' sons of
Abraham uphold the laws of God, "the one God, Allah", with a fierce dedication
and faith found nowhere else on earth with such singular unity. Whether
their beliefs are right or wrong, whether their path to God is right or wrong in
the eyes of Jews or Christians, they will not be turned from the ways and laws
of behavior that governs their lives as given to them by the prophet Mohammed.
And that is the will of God that it should be so. God has preserved them
through history so that they may fulfill His purpose in His time. If they
were all to become Jews or Christians, God's prophesied purpose could not be
fulfilled.
God has given their nations
great wealth, modern cities, hospitals and schools. God has been good to
them and showered them with gifts because of their faith. Please do not
misunderstand, as in all nations creeds, they have among them those that pay
only lip service to the religion and law and reap the benefits from God, earned
by the faith of their brothers. But as every man on earth from creation to
the end, they will have to answer, to God for their deeds.
In the early days of this
century, the Arab people were split in tribes, and the loyalty of a man was to
his tribe. Tribes would ally against other tribes as long as it suited
their purpose but basically they remained in many small groups, nationally
divided. At the end of the Ottoman empire, strong leaders emerged from
them, and in a short half century they have established clearly marked national
boundaries, cohesive government and enforcement of the religious laws of Islam.
Although there is still international conflict among them, their leaders are
daily calling for peace, conciliation and unity among all Muslim peoples.
The astonishing speed with which history is pulling them together is a sure sign
of the will of God at work to ready them for their role in the 'end times'.
Revs. Ch. 12 vs. 6; The woman fled into the
desert, to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for
1,260 days.
The Muslims say that when
the Jews reach Medina, where Mohammed first established Islam, the end of the
world will come. In that time the Jew and the Muslim will be brothers
again and will give comfort to each other. The army that the beast sends
after them will be swallowed up.
Revs. Ch. 12 vs. 16; But the earth helped the
woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed
out of its mouth.
The devil knows that it is
God's safe place for the woman (Israel fleeing from the beast), and will do all
in his power to usurp and corrupt its people and leaders. In 1978 a man
and his followers, a man who claimed he was the Mahdi (saviour) took over the
Holy Mosque of Makkah with violence and great bloodshed. He and his
followers were overcome, and many were executed afterwards for the murder of
innocent worshippers and the martyrs of Islam that overcame them. This
false prophet came to proclaim and establish a new era and abolish the age and
teachings of the prophet Mohammed. I suspect there are many of his
followers still waiting in secret for him to try again. If he does he will
fail again, for God's will shall always triumph. But if and when he does
try again, we will know that the time is getting nearer. Watch the news,
be patient, and keep faith.
Understanding Islam
Possibly the best way to do
this is to relate Mohammed's own words on this subject in a letter he wrote to
the King of Abyssinia.
A letter from the prophet
Mohammed, founder of Islam, to Negus, King of Abyssinia.
"Peace be on him who follows
the guidance." "After this, Glory be to Allah besides who there be no God, the
Sovereign, the Holy, the Peace, the Faithful, the Protector. I bear
witness that Jesus, the son of Mary, is the spirit of God, and His Word, which
He cast into Mary, the Virgin, the good and pure, so that she conceived Jesus.
God created Him from His Spirit and His Breathing, as He created Adam by His
hand and His breathing. I call you to God the Unique, without associate,
and to His obedience and to follow me and to believe in that which came to me,
for I am the messenger of God."
In this letter Mohammed does
not demean Jesus be re-iterates the basis of Islam, that only one God may be
worshipped and that is Allah.
Although this may rouse the
indignation of Christians and even contempt for Islam, do not fall into this
trap. Islam is the Will of God and an important part of His plan for the
overthrow of Satan in the last days.
Chapter VIII
The Light of the Prophets
If you are a Jew you must
learn and live the lesson that God has repeated so many times through his
prophets. God does not teach with paper and pen, but with life.
Israel, look at your history, your examination papers are marked with the blood
of your people. Each time you fail your examination God in His
disappointment scatters you and sends you to exile, in your suffering He hears
your prayers, and brings you home again, and each time He does it you feel
righteous and you start to strut like a peacock. You forget Who brought
you home, you forget Who your Father is. How many times must you destroy
Jerusalem, how many times must you suffer tribulation? When God sent you His
only Son, He walked this earth, He was of your blood, the Lion of Judah, the
Root of David, He brought you the gift of life not the sword, and you murdered
Him by the hand of the Gentiles. You were full of your own righteousness
and your own law. You strutted like peacocks. Once more you incurred
the Wrath of God, once more you broke His heart. Once more He had to bring
down His own curse on the slayer of Cain, on the heads of His own children, the
people he loved. Once more He has brought you home, and established you in
the promised land, and once more you will turn from God and follow Lamech; the
beast; the murderer of our Lord; the destroyer. But this time it will be
different. God will not scatter you among the nations, but will bring His
wrath and anger on your heads, in your holy city which is a harlot in God's
eyes. The certainty of what I say is written in Isaiah, the word of God.
Isaiah Ch. 46 vs. 8; "Remember this, fix it in your mind, take it to
heart you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me;
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what
is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all
that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far off
land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring
about; what I have planned, that will I do.
In 1948 C.E. God once
more began to bring you home; you have 70 years at most to learn the lesson your
fathers would not learn. Many of you who read this will see the Power of
God poured out, many will see the false messiah that your leaders will follow.
Be sure you recognize him too, for he has already been slain by the Lamb of God.
Know who you are, and be sure God knows too. You were the first and now
you are the last. From the last God will make you first again. Only
God can judge you, be sure He knows your name.
Sons of Ham
Since the day when Noah lay
drunk and naked in his tent, and his youngest son walked in and saw his
nakedness, the Sons of Ham have suffered the curse of Noah. Poor Ham.
The dupe of the devil. Since that day, how many times has the world seen
conflict over the Jewish people. Because nations take sides with the
Jewish cause, and so come in conflict with their brothers, and because nations
have persecuted them, other nations have gone to war with their brothers to end
the persecution.
God has led the sons of Ham
by the nose, like a donkey, in the affairs of his chosen people, because the
sons of Ham did not know God. He has made them conquerors of Judah and
benefactors of Israel, always their servants, for they are God's and we are all
servants of God.
Jesus came to redeem the
people of Israel, they would not listen. While He was still in His
ministry to the Jews, He was one day traveling on the road with some of His
disciples, when a woman spoke to Him. She begged Him to heal her child.
Although her child was still at home, she knew Christ only had to say the word
and her child would be healed. At first Christ ignored her. His
concern was for the chosen people not this daughter of Ham. His disciples
asked Him to send her away or she would plague the life out of them for the rest
of the journey. But Christ could not bring Himself to send her away.
In those days, her people were considered as less than animals by the
Jews. Christ in essence, said to her, "Does the servant eat at the table
of his master and of the same food?". The woman understood Christ's question
and His reason for saying it. Her great faith gave her the wisdom to
answer the only convincing answer possible. "Even the crumbs of the
masters table may be eaten by the dogs." How full must have been
Christ's heart at that moment. "Go home", said Jesus, "your faith has
healed your child". To me this is one of the most beautiful stories in the
Bible. This woman came from a society much like ours today. A
society of idol worshippers, people who will do anything to climb the ladder,
who will work all their lives to educate and equip their children to climb the
ladder, how to tread on the other fellows face and come out on top. This
is epitomized in common phrases like "I've sacrificed everything for you".
"Behind every successful man is a strong woman". These are well known
sayings today, yet people generally do not realize the truth of them.
They mean that people are constantly conniving, scheming, bending the rules to
achieve their ends and cynically consider anyone who does not, to be a fool and
'not quite right in the head'. Putting it mildly, that is the world today,
and putting it mildly that is the kind of world the woman who met Christ on the
road came from. Yet she did not need to have the lesson explained, unlike
the disciples who had to have the lesson explained and spelled out before they
understood; over and over again. This woman and her action fulfilled God's
faith in mankind that he had placed there at the beginning of time. She
and a few like her set the wheels turning for Christ to ask God for the
Gentiles and establish His Church. In Christ's time there were so few and
time was so short, today the few are numbered in tens of thousands but they are
still a few. With the faith of one crumb from the Master's table, their
numbers will become as countless as the stars in the sky, but the time is again,
short. The Christian faith is the simplest ever, it demands so little of
you. Ask forgiveness for your sins, then accept, be patient, and keep your
faith. That's all. If you have accepted Christ you do not have to
worry about the end times, when it is coming, the reasons and why's and
wherefores of it all. Just live your life the best you know how, the way
good people have always done. But if you are a trouble-maker like me, you
will want to dig into every dark corner you can find, you will want to see
everything God will let us see, you will want to show others the faint path
among the sharp rocks. Once you have felt the extraordinary realization of
the presence of the Holy Spirit, everything else pales, except the obsession to
share it with others.
Well for those who want to
see deeper, to string together what is already known until the picture comes
clearer into focus. Read on.
God's Lesson Repeated
When you read the prophets,
particularly Isaiah and Jeremiah, the most striking thing about their
books is the constant complaint of God to His people of their total disregard
for Him. No matter what He does for them, they behave like spoiled
children. They are the King's son and they know it. They have always
had the teaching and the knowledge of God, so you might say they have no excuse.
Since the days of Christ on earth we Gentiles have had the same knowledge and
teachings of God, and we are no better behaved than His chosen people. God
has promised us eternal life, but we will not know if we have won or lost until
the day of the resurrection. God takes nothing from us on this earth.
His chosen are different. He gives to them on this earth and because of
their sins He constantly takes away from them on this earth. So often is
Jewish history repeating itself it is in danger of becoming boring. Try
and put yourself in God's position. He has been contending with this
problem since before the creation of Adam. If Satan could corrupt the
angels of heaven, God had to have something more powerful than angels to use as
a weapon against Satan. You guessed it, you are it! See how much faith God
has in us. How do you feel now? Not too clever, I expect. Perhaps
you feel that if you had known this sooner, you could have done a better job.
Well that's the whole point, the fact that you know it now means that God is
winning.
Even if you are a confirmed
disbeliever in God, the fact that you have read this book means you have been
influenced. Even if you shout as loud as you can that this book is a load
of old rubbish and does not influence you one bit, you know that deep down, no
matter how much you deny it, you will think about it. It will keep
surfacing in your thoughts, it will not leave you alone. Throwing this
book at the wall now will not help you. It's too late. If God
has not got you yet, Satan has lost you.
Lets get back to history.
I was saying that, what God gives to His chosen people, He takes away.
Then he turns them over to their enemies for a while. After a
generation or so God relents, their suffering hurts Him so much that He brings
them all back again, clean sheet, start again, and sure enough they do.
It seems like Satan is 'visiting kin'. Then the whole process starts all
over again. This time God is way of the game. Let us take a closer
look at the cycles of punishment and forgiveness. Dates are hard qualify,
but who is going to quibble about 6 months either way at a time like this.
Israel, so we are told were
taken into captivity to Babylon about three times. The King of Babylon
replaced the exiles with his own people in Israel, where they settled down and
commenced to worship their own gods. If that was not bad enough in the
Holy Land, they caused the remnant of God's people to do the same. God got
a little upset at this so He sent wild lions to eat these heathen worship.
Well they got the message and sent a message of their own to their king telling
him they were being eaten by lions for not worshipping the God of the land they
were in. The king promptly sent back, out of exile, some of the High
priests of God to put things right. This worked for a while until their
worship degenerated into lip service to God and plenty of idol worship on the
side. It was probably a case of I'll scratch your back if you will scratch
mine, if you want to eat. Anyway God got mad again and caused the king to
take a few more into exile, for this and other reasons. After a very long
time, God sent a message to His people in exile through His servant Daniel to
inform them that they were going home, Jerusalem was to be rebuilt and His
people must make atonement for their sins and prepare for the end of this game
and this evil world. It was decreed it would cover a period of seventy
weeks of years. Well 69 weeks of years passed, up to the day our Lord was
declared the Messiah by the people on the road into Jerusalem. While the
holier than thou hierarchy of the Jews had seen our Lord dead and safely out of
the way, they were now looking for the 'real' messiah to come with a big
sword and drive the Romans out. They were looking for the completion of
Daniels final seven years. They could not believe that God would have a
change of plan without telling them. But as we know now, God did not have
a change of plan at all. These wheels had been set in motion before man
was created, only did not fit in with what the Pharisees thought best. One
wonders, if Jesus, after His ascension out of hell, had gone to preach in the
temple again, if the Pharisees would not have arrested and crucified Him again.
The sad thing is, they probably would have. Earlier in this book I
referred to the Flood as the most traumatic event in the history of the world,
well it was, at the time, now it had been superseded by the Crucifixion of
Jesus. From this time to the next destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
is approximately 37 years, (a generation). The Jews were flow scattered
throughout the world. Their last great tribulation was in Europe at the
hands of our mini anti-christ, Hitler. There was considerable persecution
in between, in various ways and places, but this was the big one. They
called the film the Holocaust. Prophetic? 6 million Jews died, if I recall
correctly. No one will ever know the exact figure. Of course there
were many non-Jews caught in the middle too. If the curse on Cain's slayer
applies here one wonders how many have still to die. Israel was
re-established in 1948. The destruction of Jerusalem was 70 A.D., so if we
subtract 70 from 1948 we get 1878. Now we can say that 1878 is the number
of years of the last exile. Be that as it may, the crucial question is;
How long will it be before Israel again brings down the Wrath of God on
themselves as Revelations tells us they surely will? The last seven years to
completion.
To quote JESUS;
"...only the Father knows..."
"...when the fig tree puts
forth its buds..."
"...as in the time of Noah...."
We have only history as a
guide to measure the future and in this case that is a very audacious step.
God has told us that 7 years
will be the measurement of the end. How long from 1948 to the beginning
of the last Tribulation of His people? the last time the silver goes into the
furnace for the last purification.
Christ said that this
generation will not pass away until all this has been fulfilled. It
takes 3 score & 10 for a generation to pass away–
1948 + 70 = 2018.
We are in the warning period
now, 1983 to 2008. How long from God's mighty number 7777 in the year 2008
(5769) (they start together), do we have to wait. Conditions
in the world at that time will be plain to see and understand.
If we listen to history, and
take a year as a year then 1948 plus 70 brings us to the year 2018. Is
that ten years warning? 2008 ten years before 2018? In Noah's time it was five
years warning. We can only hazard guesses from now until the first
trumpet. If God meant it to be revealed, Christ would have told us.
Instead He told us that He would come "...as a thief in the night...". All
we can know for certain is how to behave, how to be ready.
It has been said.
Now the choice is yours.
Act.
Epilogue
To enter heaven needs but
the trusting innocence of a child. Earthly wisdom and knowledge make it
very difficult to enter heaven. For then the pleasure and power of this
material world must be denied, the temptations overcome, under any circumstance.
Only then can a wise man become a saint, and enter heaven with the innocent.
Pray for help, every day, and you will not be denied. The responsibility
of knowledge and power are enormous, whether you lead a country, a family, or
just your own actions. We educate our children, we give them knowledge, we
teach them the effects of money and power, we teach them to win, but we do not
teach them the way back to innocence, the way back to heaven. Neither do
our churches. Too many pay lip service to God, and are full of hypocrites.
You are the church. The hypocrites among you, wake up. Your time is
short. Do not use your power wisely, use it in the light of the love of
God, or it will be taken from you; after that there is no forgiveness. If
power is taken from you by evil men because you acted in the Light of God, you
will be redeemed, you will have won a great victory and God's love and power
will never forsake you. In earthly adversity, your heart will be full of
the joy of God and the hypocrites will not understand. They will whisper
and laugh at you, but their hearts will be full of fear.
PART 2
Chapter IX
Prepare the Way
Just as the prophets of old
foretold the coming of Christ, so the same will apply to the antichrist.
Just as John the Baptist came to prepare the way and to baptize Jesus, so the
false prophet will come to acclaim the antichrist to the world and to initiate
him with the number of the beast in a public ceremony. As John wore skins
and ate wild honey and herbs of the wilderness, so the false prophet will be
humbly dressed, and will eat a suitably humble diet, and will proclaim the
antichrist and officiate at the ceremony. People at the time will not
recognize the imitation, except for a very few, who will start to question, and
then in growing fear will turn to God. From then on, the imitated roles
will be reversed. Where Christ had few followers, taught gentleness, and
was persecuted by the church, antichrist will be publicly endorsed by the
church, will organize, secretly, the ruthless persecution of dissenters, will
rule the whole world in the very manner that the Jews expected Christ to do in
His first coming. In the confusion following the Rapture of Christ's
church, the antichrist will bring order out of the chaos, and peace out of
trouble. The world we know today is rapidly approaching the physical and
mental state for these conditions to take place.
We have the world wide
communications necessary for the antichrist to get his apparently benevolent
message to everyone.
We have TV programs which
influence and condition our thinking and "acceptance" of civil and moral
standards, which suits the purpose of the antichrist.
We have a world situation,
where smaller nations are increasingly dependant on larger nations and groups of
nations. In other words, an increasing tendency toward centralized control
of the world.
We are rapidly reaching the
point, where fourth of the world will begin to starve, with all attendant
misery. Aid from the affluent West will not begin to offset the chronic
situation of the so called "third world", most of which is geographically
situated in the southern hemisphere. The book of Revelations describes
exactly this situation in Ch. 6 vs. 7. Its on our doorstep now and could escalate in a
very short time. The first sign is the enormous bankruptcy of the third
world which is here now.
The temple must be rebuilt
in Jerusalem. I read recently that the experts have calculated that the
temple can be rebuilt on its original site, without disturbing the mosque which
presently stands on part of the site. The temple can be built after
"takeover" of the antichrist, after the rapture of church.
The Cancer of the North
1984 is here, but George
Orwell's Big Brother is not. At least not on any scale to disturb
the affluent west. Big Brother is the antichrist, George just made no
attempt to anticipate the date, which only God knows.
His story "Animal Farm" is
probably better known and is certainly here and in action today on a large
scale. Those living within its confines, who have the courage to speak up
against the ruling pig. are not just killed anymore, they are placed in
special institutions, where they are drugged into living vegetables.
Their minds and intellect are taken away. The pig will tell his sheep that
the dissenters are insane and always have been, and are being taken care of in
hospital to protect society from them.
Our leaders talk to the pig
and negotiate with him and make treaties with him. It's laughable.
You can not negotiate with the pig. The pig cannot recognize a lie.
To the pig, a lie is any word spoken against him and his ideology. It has
nothing to do with opposition to the truth.
In a world of free speech,
it is hard to understand a society that will exile a man in his own country.
Oppression, deprivation, and degradation, are words so often used that they are
in danger of losing their meaning. For those who suffer these conditions
in the lands of the pig, the daily agony is real, very real; wearing down the
body and mind until it is a minute by minute, superhuman effort to keep the weak
spark of spirit alive. The pig knows the danger of the tiny spark; it may
grow into an all consuming fire. So with drugs and other means, he removes
the mind and snuffs out the dangerous spark of independent spirit. He
removes the mind, the memory, destroys the intellect, commits living murder.
The pig no longer simply sheds the blood, now he murders the spirit.
Red communism is the
antichrist ideology, it promises the downtrodden, relief, and a real place in
the world; equality. Red communism, alias the pig, is the father of
violent revolution. They will tell you that revolution means the overthrow
of Capitalist, Imperialist subjugation of the people. What they do not
tell you, is that when they have succeeded, they replace the capitalist tyranny
with total tyranny. Complete subjection to the state and ideology of the
pig. Total abolition of freedom of choice and freedom of speech. The
only completely free choice a person has in this world, is recognition of God.
This is totally denied to all citizens of the pig.
The greatest strength of the
pig is also his greatest weakness. People. Remove the people and he
has no power. They build walls to keep their people in. Their people
risk their lives to escape from their own country. The pig exploits
conflict in other nations, in order to expand his sphere of influence and
control, and so the cancer grows. He does not want nuclear war; nuclear
war removes people and decentralizes power, which is the foundation of their
existence. No, the nuclear arms race is a ploy to undermine the strength
and wealth of the free world. They afford it at the expense of their
people. There will be no nuclear holocaust until the last day, a time
chosen by God, not by man. To talk otherwise is futile and only serves
their purpose. They will be much more interested in persuading the West to
reduce their conventional forces and weapons.
They will support conflict
in other nations, (Revs. Ch. 6 vs. 3) .... will cause men to slay each other....,
they have been doing it since 1917, supplying the arms and training but never
getting their own hands dirty, just so long as they can put their puppet in
power. If their puppet begins to think for himself they eliminate him, as
they did in Granada, until the U.S.A. stepped in. As they did in
Yemen, as they did in Afghanistan and many other places. Afghanistan is
the one exception where they actually got their own hands dirty and used their
own men. They must want Afghanistan very badly. The British Empire,
at the height of its military power, could not subdue Afghanistan. The
reasons were geographical, and still apply. Communism will not subdue it
either; thank God they cannot see it, may it always be a thorn in their side.
The free world cannot
conquer the communist world, even if it wished to do so. It can only
contain it, stop it spreading. It will not be stopped by force, only
delayed. The Rapture will create the conditions in the world, for the
antichrist to achieve, in a very short time, the "Big Brother" situation in the
West, which Russian communism has struggled to achieve since 1917 and failed to
do.
The Cancer of the West
The only effective weapon
against Communism, is to bring their people to believe and trust in God.
This also equally applies in the West. God fearing people of all
denominations, to elect God fearing leaders. Naive? Well mostly, yes,
while a nation can Elect a God fearing leader,
many of our captains of industry, financial managers, and institutional leaders,
are not elected at all, but their influence is enormous. Among these are
the "hidden behind the scenes" manipulators of power in the so called "free
world". Some are even respected household names. Their aim is
control of the free world, their religion is power. Ultimately, for this
world, they will achieve their aim, and the communist world will be their
partner, under the influence of the antichrist. They are already hard at
work and well organized, and have been for a long time. Just as by a thin
stream of water, filling a bottle, the level rises suddenly and rapidly in the
neck of the bottle, so their power and control over the world will rise rapidly
at the approach of the antichrist and the tribulation of the end times.
The speed and effectiveness of this rise to power will be so fast, decisive and
bewildering, the public will be confused and at a total loss to do anything
about it. Their plans are well advanced, now.
Your Position
Recognition of the
antichrist and the effects of his influence, although difficult, is easier than
recognition of him in ourselves. To fully oppose him and his works in the
world we must first recognize and defeat him in our personal lives.
With all this gloom and
impending disaster, this relentless spiral down into a world dominated by evil,
you may be forgiven for thinking, "why bother, why not just give up, and give
in?". Well, this is what you are expected to do, it is, in fact what most
people will do, because "they" know, that that, is what you will do. Most
of you anyway. Especially if you do not believe in a Creator, an Almighty
God, who holds you personally as one of His most treasured possessions, and if
you have shut your mind to any persuasion of it. Then you will give up,
and give in. But if you are willing to listen, then there is more than
just hope; there is salvation.
If we are not to just give
up, and give in, what is the simple answer? How must we behave in our day to day
lives, in the face of a world going faster than ever before in history, and
still please God with our behavior? The simple answer is to follow Christ's
teaching and apply it in our everyday lives. That not only sounds pompous
it is over simplified. Today we are all subject to the "conditioning" of
the world we live in. To give an example, people in the U.S.A. think
that the whole of the Middle East is a raging inferno of guerilla warfare
instead of one small area in Lebanon. It's the same in
Britain. "Don't go to the Middle East, its dangerous", and the very next day,
a few miles a bomb goes off outside Harrods in London. Who is
confused? How can one make judgments on such ill conceived ideas? We have
the same distorted perspective of our own lives in relation to the present world
and to God. So, how can we begin to estimate what the future will bring
and how we can keep it in its true perspective?
The first thing we must do,
is to take a close look at our own values and behavior, and recognize the areas
where we are being deceived, and misled; to learn to recognize the 'normal',
everyday, 'accepted' behavior, that is really totally opposed to Christian
Teaching. Before we can do this, we must bring back into use some personal
qualities (that everyone has), but which have been laying dormant through lack
of use. 1900 years ago men used these qualities far more than we do today;
so much for the advancement of mankind.
The five qualities we must
revive in ourselves are:
-
Awareness
-
Acceptance
-
Grace of God or Righteousness
-
Perception
-
Use of Prayer
Awareness
How often have you driven
home from your place work, and cannot remember any part of the journey? Lets say
there is six sets of stop lights on way home, can you remember how many were red
and how many were green? Can you remember the heavy the traffic was? Can you
remember what you were thinking about as you drove? It's a bit like dreaming,
isn't it? Your train of thought starts somewhere then meanders from one thing to
another, and ten minutes after you arrive home you cannot remember a single
thing that you were thinking about, or at least only disjointed bits and
pieces. Things you remember when you get home are usually rigs you forgot
to stop and do on the way home. We all do it. Preoccupied minds.
The change of pace between work and home is the cause, perhaps. That
journey home is a no-man's land of mental vegetation. But it does not
really stop there, there are other periods in the day when we operate
mechanically our minds in low gear. As kids at school we knew it as 'day
dreaming'. You may think that you lose it when you grow up, but most of us
do not. If anything, it increases, we just do not recognize it easily
because we no longer have a teacher there shout, "Hi, you there at the back,
wake up!"
We spend very little time in
high gear, just enough to earn a crust. We are usually content let others
do our thinking for us, organize our live, entertain us, make laws for us,
persuade us how spend our money, which deodorant to use, what eat, what to wear,
and on, ad infinitum.
When did you last make a
free choice in you life. If we could all make a really free choice the
roads would probably be full of Rolls Royces and Cadillacs; Datsun would be out
of business. So you see the constraints of this world on our lives makes a
really free choice almost impossible, except in one thing. That is your
personal choice to go with God or against Him.
Take a piece of paper and
make a realistic list all the things in your life that you would like change,
both large and small. The list requires absolute honesty, and no item on
it should be to detriment of others by its change. The effort to change
them requires investigation of every possible avenue to make the change.
When you have decided on the right course of action, the change itself may
require planning, mental effort and strength of character. So, do the easy
ones first. Your life will change, of course, and each change will be a
victory, and an awakening of your AWARENESS. You will become more aware of
the world around you, and as your awareness increases, you will see yourself in
a new perspective. You will take a greater interest in a wider range of
aspects of your life. You will begin to understand more of the everyday
world around you and what life is really all about. You will become more
critical of yourself and the world around you.
What has all this got to do
with the evil in the world, the end times, and the antichrist? Well if you have
yourself in true perspective, you are harder to fool, harder to condition or
brainwash, and most important of all, harder to deceive.
Having said that, it is also
true that we will continue to be deceived no matter how much we are on guard.
These small, everyday deceptions are the most dangerous, because they soon
become "acceptable" and part of our everyday lives. It's not long before
the lies get bigger, gradually, imperceptibly, and become accepted as 'normal',
and so on in easy stages, until we arrive at the ultimate lie, the antichrist,
and even he, will become acceptable to the people left on earth. This is
not fantasy, it's real, it's happening now. The antichrist is already
interfering in your life and in the lives of the ones you love. It is
inevitable, we cannot stop it, it is prophesied, but we do not have to make it
easy for him. If you do, you will be held accountable. If a bank
manager embezzles the money placed in his care, he betrays his trust and is held
accountable. Likewise, you have been given free will or choice. It
is a very valuable commodity, how you use it is a trust. You betray that
trust and you will be held accountable for it. It is best expressed in the
words of Christ Himself; we can read in;
Matthew Ch. 7 vs. 21: Not everyone who says to me,
"Lord, Lord", shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will
of the Father, who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, "Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and
do many works in your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew
you; depart from me you evildoers".
What Christ is saying, is
that anyone can claim the good deeds described above, and be telling the truth,
but this is not enough. They could truthfully do all those things
and still be agents of the devil trying to con their way into heaven.
Christ will know, because unless a person has committed himself to Christ,
unless he has invited Christ into his heart without any conditions or
reservations, Christ will not know him.
So, your opposition to
deceit, beginning with the smallest deceits in your own life, is the beginning,
the first practical way of improving your life, and gaining recognition by Jesus
Christ on the final day. Be assured your turn will come, you will have to
face Him. Does He look straight through you as if you were not there, or
does He smile at you with warm welcome as an honoured guest? On that day it will
be too late to make the choice. Do not let Him say to you those dreadful
words, "I never knew you", for they will be the last thing you will ever hear in
comfort. Your awareness must start now.
Acceptance
Most people I talk to about
Jesus Christ, are shy of the subject. They want to talk about it, but they
look at you half embarrassed as if they suddenly see a dangerous potential holy
roller, who is going to stuff the Bible down their throat and then ask them for
money. What's the reason for this attitude? Perhaps they are afraid of
you. Perhaps they fear you are about to reveal their guilt to themselves.
Their confusion increases; you had better come up with something quick and
effective, or the mental wall goes up, and from then on they become a very hard
nut to crack. Their final statement on the subject is usually something
like, "I was brought up a Christian, but I'm not sure that there is a heaven.
When we die, we either go up there, or just go to sleep and cease to exist".
I have heard this so many times, you would think they had all listened to the
same preacher. The subject of the conversation is pointedly changed as if
to say "I do not wish to talk about it anymore". These are the people, and
you may be one of them, for they are many, who are in the greatest danger.
Not from anything around them, but from themselves. A closed mind serves
only the things you fear most. To hear the arguments first, and then
accept or reject, surely that makes sense. If angry irritation is rising
in you as you read this, then my guess is right, you are on the verge of
throwing this book away, and becoming another hard nut. You will not
though, for the following reasons:
- No one knows you are reading this.
- You have a nagging doubt that you
might just possibly be missing something.
- The Grace of God is working for
you.
Now a. and b. you can easily
agree with, though you would not necessarily admit to it in public. But c.
is just the kind of statement that gets right up your nose. If it does,
then it will always get up your nose until you understand what it means, and you
will not be alone. Many practicing Christians do not know what it means.
The idea of a God sitting up
there above the sky somewhere is a bit of fantasy to rival the Wizard of Oz.
It is very hard to relate such a concept to the cares and woes of everyday life.
He does not really have much to do with your life, does He? In fact if you tell
the truth, He does not occupy much of your life or time, at all, does He? If it
is any consolation to you, I cannot remember when I last went to a formal
church service either. I can hear you say, "So where do you get off,
preaching to me?". Well I am not preaching to you, you are reading this book of
your free will, you do not even know me, but I know you, don't I?
Anyway, let's get back to
God; you use His name just about everyday, but you have not given Him a serious
thought for years. "What will be, will be", that is your attitude, right?
Well think about this; your
life, your family, your every possession, your leisure, your entertainment, your
comfort, your home, everything you know or can know, is a gift, is a gift given
to you by the Grace of God. There is not one thing in this material world
that you have done or achieved that you have done on your own. A man might
say "I started life with nothing, I was poor, and now I have a beautiful family,
a beautiful home, money in the bank. I am a self made man". I would
say to that man, "you have done nothing except by the Grace of God". God
knew, before the world was formed, exactly when and where and how many times in
your whole life that you would pick your nose. There is nothing you can do
without God, except to turn your back on Him. Turning your back on Him,
does not mean 'not attending' church. It simply means abusing or misusing
the gifts that God has given you. Now if you think that by ignoring God,
staying away from Him, keeping a low profile, staying in the back of the crowd,
as it were, so that He will not notice you; if you think that will ease your
conscience, you are right. God is not going to pick you out of the crowd,
and strike you down with a flash of lightning. You can breathe again your
secrets are safe, for a while. Not only will God not notice you, but He is
beginning to forget you, and as He forgets, the letters that form your name in
the Book, are beginning to fade away. In which case, on the final day, you
will only hear those dreadful words, "I never knew you".
God is not threatening us
with death, we are already drowning. All God is doing is calling you "Hey,
I am here, grab this rope and I will pull you to safety". But if you
cannot see Him, or admit that He is there, or take hold of the rope and accept
that He is there, then you will drown. God will not have drowned you, you
will have drowned yourself.
He cannot forgive you and
save you unless you recognize His existence, and ASK HIM TO.
Personally, I have not been
one to give much credence to hellfire preachers, and what they say, but (and
it's a big but), it is not the first death you have to worry about, it is the
risk you take of the second death. It could be a very rude awakening
from the first gentle sleep.....Take heed.....the more understand, the more you will
be given....
Righteous (Un-Self-Wise)
Righteous is a word not
heard too often. Not too people know what it means, so they do not us it.
Self-righteous is far more often used, we associate with self important;
pompous; big headed. Self-righteousness is pretty common in the world
today. That means that just about all of
us suffer from it. A good example is our self made man, with his, "I did
it my way", attitude. The average dictionary will define righteous as
'just; virtuous; morally upright, Most of those definitions are almost as hard
understand as the word righteous itself. They sound almost as pompous as
self-righteous. If, instead of trying to list the meanings of righteous,
the dictionaries simply said 'the elimination of self' would have defined
righteous. To be righteous, to eliminate "self".
There are religions today
that concern themselves nothing but self. They will turn their minds
inwards to the self, to gain control over their mind and body, to tune in with
nature, to improve their span, to improve their health, to control their bodily
functions to extreme lengths. They can perform feats of stamina,
endurance, self healing etc., that leaves an onlooker marveling in wonder.
What I would like to know is, what good do they do for other people? The
answer might be, "We can teach others to do the same, to be masters of their own
lives, to fully reach the heights of mental power". So now we have many
self contained, self controlled, self tuned, self important people, all suitably
impressed with their own mastery of the self. Now my question is
multiplied by the numbers of these mental and physical adepts. What good
do they do for others? The answer to that is, 'NONE'. But achieve their
uselessness to mankind, you do have to spend long years in the rigid discipline
some ancient religion; you just have to be the normal, average person of today.
We make sacrifices, certainly we do, we sacrifice our time and money for all
kinds of things, every day, and spend the rest the time telling everyone about
it. "I've worked fingers to the bone...", "I worked nights for them to
go...", "Haven't had a holiday in years", "Why if it wasn't for me...".
You could make a whole list of these familiar phrases. Why is the list so
long, why are they so familiar?" It's because people love to indulge
themselves. Even their self-sacrifice is outweighed by their
self-indulgence, and self-concern. We teach our children how to be
successful how to climb the ladder, how to be competitive, to win, how to beat
the other fellow, but we do teach them how to regain their childlike innocence,
we do not teach them the way back to God. A few will find their own way
back, and an even small few have never got lost. Some will have their eyes
opened, understanding will dawn in them and will practice what they see.
Sadly, most will chose to not see. They will continue to sing the song "I
did it my way". Occasionally you will hear someone say, "I owe all
my success to....", but you will I ever hear them say "I was able to do this by
Grace of God". "I owe it all to my coach", or ".... wife", or "...the
producer" or ".....myself?". The truth is it is all owed to the Grace of
God.
If you do something
dishonest, crooked, sinful and you consider that you are very successful at it,
you are still only able to do it by the Grace of God. This does not
mean that God condones your dishonesty, it's quite the opposite. He gave
you gift of free will, and He will not take it from you in this life. When
you misuse it, you abuse the gift, you abuse the power it gives you, and you
abuse the One who gave it. If you know this and do nothing about it, you
will not share in the Rapture, which is the first resurrection.
Revs. 20:6. Jesus
says:
Blessed and Holy is he who
shares in the first resurrection; over such, the second death has no power, but
they shall be Priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand
years.
Far fetched? So unrelated to
your everyday life you just cannot imagine yourself as a priest of God? If I
told you it was easy, you would laugh. Well, it is easy, so go ahead and
laugh. When you have finished laughing think about this. Every small
decision you make can lean toward good or toward evil. Most people would
agree with that, but they would want it qualified. "Good for who, me or
the other fellow?" There is your first mistake. That is the wrong way to
look at it. You must remove the 'self from self-righteousness before you
make a decision. God loves the righteous, He knows the righteous.
So the decision is easy. What is good for the other fellow, is the only
way. It takes some getting used to.
Sometimes it looks, on the
surface, as if you are hurting the other fellow, to your own advantage, and
sometimes you appear to be helping the other fellow, and any other combination
between these two extremes. To an onlooker it may not be always apparent
that your decision or action leans toward the good and away from evil, but you
know. You know that if you have removed all selfish motives from your
actions, then you know that the Grace of God is on your side, and you will
succeed. If you can remember to apply that attitude to everything you do
(it takes a little practice at first), then you know that the fantasy of being a
priest of God will become a reality. God has promised it.
O.K., lets, suppose you want
to join this very exclusive club. And it is very exclusive. You
cannot buy your way in, or bribe your way in, or con you way in. Family
background is useless, and that means 'family' in any language. Being a
'good churchgoer' will not guarantee you a place. Your membership
application will be judged on the way you use the power He gave you, on the way
you use your free will.
If you have one coat, and
you find a man 'suffering' because he has no coat, give him yours. If he
'suffers' from hunger, and you have one piece of bread, give it to him. If
he is sick and 'suffers' discomfort, visit him and bring him comfort. If
he 'suffers' because he is outcast, give him fellowship, but do not judge him.
This is the teaching of Christ. Do not let conventional behavior, and
accepted standards turn you from it. Ignore the scoffers and pointing
fingers. Ignore the whispers and the fear, for whisperers are always
afraid, and spread their fear by whispers. This is the way into the club.
There is no membership card, no membership number, no initiation ceremony, no
secret handshake, only the narrow path to God through Jesus Christ.
Do you ever wonder what it
would be like to be the boss? You see his wealth, authority, status, fringe
benefits; do you wonder what it would be like to have all those things and that
life style? You do not see, of course, the worries and problems, you do not see
his soul searching before making a far reaching decision, that may effect the
lives of many people. (There are still some bosses like that, believe it
or not.) You do not feel the weight of his responsibilities; that is not
part of the dream. You see only the benefits and high living standards,
and know that it will never be yours. You are what you are by the Grace of
God. Even so, the little decision make everyday, can have far reaching
consequences for you and many others, for if you make those decisions in the
light of God's grace, no matter how small they are by our standards here on
earth, you will easily achieve the exalted position that God has promised us.
Not because you want the fringe benefits, but because what you do pleases God,
because you are righteous.
Perception
Is, the ability to see with
understanding. It is often mistaken as a gift enjoyed by a talented few.
It is not so, perception merely divides those who open their eyes and see what
is plainly there, and those who are too lazy to. Those who see and
understand, and those who see and do not want to understand, they are quite
comfortable as they are, thank
The average person will not
use his perception, will not see what stares him in the face. He sees
image, the surface value, but does not see the depth and meaning. Its too
much effort. He wants watch and have his senses filled with the least
mental effort. If you try to hypnotize him against his he will giggle, and
rebel against the thought of someone else controlling his mind and actions,
controlling his free will. Put a television in front of him every night for
years on end and he will settle down comfortably and allow himself to be slowly
hypnotized and steadily conditioned into changing his opinion of life in
general and his moral standards particular. He becomes conditioned to
killing and spilling of blood, sensuality, bodily functions, all the
unspeakable. In ten years he has not noticed the change. He still
believes that he and his standards are the same they have always been. He
has no perception. If you tell him, he does not want believe you, he feels
belittled. He is conditioned to believe in what he can see and relate to,
the media and everyday life. He accepts. Fifty years the moral
standards of the media could be described as 'Victorian'. Now fifty years
later, anything goes, nothing is left out. It is done in the name of
art or good taste. For fifty years the antichrist has slowly hypnotizing
and conditioning the general public. That's right, the antichrist, his
influence already at work, interfering in your life. The scene is being
set, the conditioning, the state of acceptance of the mass of people, is
ripening, almost ready. This is what God means when he tells us that in
the days he will cause men to have a veil over their eyes. If they are not
willing to see, he will let them blind. He has said all He is going to
say, He sacrificed all He is going to sacrifice, His Son. If it is your
choice to go to the pit, then Amen.
In all the fictitious violence
and bloodshed, the good guy still always wins, even though he too, is a
murderer. This is conditioning of the public to to idea that you can kill
and shed blood violently still be the good guy, the hero, the 'Saviour'.
That describes, almost perfectly, the antichrist. When the antichrist
appears, he will not have horns pointed teeth, and hypnotic eyes; he will be the
good guy', and because of the lack of perception of general mass of the people,
and their careful mental conditioning over a long period of time, he will be
'accepted' and looked on as a Saviour. He will be a man of humble origin,
like Stalin, or Hitler, or Christ. He will imitate Christ, and people will
not see what is behind the picture before them, subliminal suggestion,
unknowingly seen and heard and absorbed into the subconscious.
He may not walk the earth
yet, but his work has started and is well advanced. It is already
affecting and interfering in your life and the lives of your loved ones, right
now, His way is being prepared. Be watchful, be perceptive, oppose and
shun anything, even the smallest that leans toward evil and deceit. Act
not for yourself, but by the Grace of God, with gentleness and charity; do not
judge, but teach.
Job 28:28 ... And unto man He said,:
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, that is
understanding.
To understand God is to
perceive Him; departure from evil will lead you to this, but it may help to
speed you on your way if you read what God says about Himself. He speaks
not out of vanity, but with a desire for man to understand and know the meaning
of God and what He intends.
It is probably best expressed in this passage from Isaiah 46:9, where God says:
Remember the former things,
those of long ago; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end
from the beginning, From ancient times, what is still to come. I say; My
purpose will stand, and I will all that I please. From the east I summon a
bird of prey; From a far off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have
said, that I will bring about, What I have planned, that will I do.
Prayer
Jesus Christ tells us that
no one can approach God except through the Son, Jesus.
A favorite, or common, cry
of those who suffer the agonies and indignities of this life, when maybe the
lives of loved ones are cut short, or nothing goes right, is, "Why does God
allow this to happen; if God is almighty, why do children die of starvation, why
do innocents die of incurable diseases, why does He allow so much evil to
flourish in the world?" The simple answer is that He is not there for anyone
who does not call on Him through Jesus Christ. The people who pull their
hair and weep and rage are those who never think of God until disaster strikes
them. They lack understanding and turn their backs, they go their own way,
then expect everything to be given to them. They still do not understand
that they have been running in the wrong race. You cannot run in the
devils race and expect to win the prize of God. If it is so easy to
understand the devils story and method, why is it so hard to understand God? The
devil would have you believe, that everything that is normal and everyday, and
accepted practice is good, and everything that is abnormal, is bad. Yes,
read that sentence again, it is not miswritten. Is it normal for men to
copy Christ? Of course not; you would have trouble finding anyone who comes
anywhere near copying Christ. If we do not talk to God through Christ, we
will not begin to understand God. Job 22:27 says:
You will make your prayer to Him, And He will hear you; and you will pay
your vows. You will decide on a matter and it will be established for you.
Just read that a few times
and let it sink in. Since the days of Job, Christ has been crucified and
resurrected. After that, things changed a bit. Because man had
become so evil, God would not allow man even to speak to Him. Instead He
appointed Jesus to channel our prayers to God. A long time before Jesus
walked the earth, He gave both Jew and Gentile into the care of Christ, as is
apparent from this passage from Isaiah 49:6:-where God says, to Christ,
It is too small a thing for you to be my servant; to restore the tribes of
Jacob, and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a
light unto the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.
The statement made in Job
about prayer, still stands. If you call on God, through Jesus Christ, "it
will be established for you". If you think this is just crazy fantasy,
then why do you fear death? The fear of death is real. Those who believe
and have faith in God through Jesus Christ, do not fear death. If fear of
death is not crazy, then neither is the Grace of God. So if everything
goes wrong for you and you find yourself weeping at your loss, then you have not
talked to Him for a long time. If you do not talk to Him, how can He help
you? How can He Know you? Remember the words, "1 never knew you". Stop
scoffing, stop being mealy mouthed, get rid of the sarcasm, the cynicism, let go
of your self interest, stop suffering, ask and it is yours.
The Only Effective Wand
Since time began, man has
searched for the elixir of life, the magic carpet, the magic lamp, the magic
formula, the magic this and the magic that. He is really searching for
freedom, excitement, joy, power, wealth, anything to improve his miserable lot,
the easy way, without work, without responsibility. I do not mean the kind
of dreams that lead through hard work, to produce benefits for mankind, but the
kind of dreams that lead to wealth and power by any means. The kind of
dreams that overcome the realities of life by force, at someone else's expense.
Power, once achieved, becomes the magic wand, the open Sesame to all the
holder's desires. Only a relatively few people ever achieve it, and I have
never heard of a single one ever being happy; more wants more. Prayer is
the only effective wand, no wand of man-made power was ever so great. The
real beauty of it is that the power of prayer is open to everyone.
Even the smallest, meanest, most insignificant human. Power beyond the
dreams of power mad kings. Solomon with all his wealth, splendor, glory
was not satisfied, it took the power of prayer to God to bring him real
fulfillment. You do not have to be Solomon to use and benefit from prayer.
It change your whole life. You will not get ulcers because you will not
have the worry that causes them. The richness of your life will grow with
every pray that is answered. The wonder of it is incredible.
Now all this will sound like hogwash to anyone who never had a prayer answered.
I thought the way. But it was talked about so much, and had been for
centuries, that I thought it worth investigating. So I read all the
authorities on it, that's the prophets and Christ Himself of course. It
sounded good, but I had prayed before in my life and nothing happened. The
more I read the more the truth came through. I had prayed the wrong way
for all wrong reasons. I had not changed my ways or attitude. I
realized that I had wanted my cake with jam on it, without even saying please.
It's a wonder God's voice did not say 'clear off', or words to effect.
Well if you learn to pray the right way for the right reasons and live by those
reasons, you can have your cake with jam on it, no problem. But it will be
different cake and different jam. Believe me it works, it is incredible.
Sometimes the prayer is answered almost before the words are formed in your
mouth. The longest I ever had to wait was four days, and that was only
because I was too stupid recognize the answer the first time and had to shown
again a different way, then the first answer became obvious.
How to Pray
Christ said pray privately,
not in public, you not have to impress anyone but God. Go into your
private place and close the door. Now if you are not used to praying, the
next bit may make you feel silly. Get down on your knees. The
feeling of silliness will pass as you get used to kneeling. Better still
put your face on the floor too, it stops you worrying about being on your
knees. Now think about the problem you wish resolved, even if it sounds
impossible. The next step is to imagine you are opening the door, and
Jesus Christ stands before you. Invite Him in, and He will be there.
You will be aware of His light and warmth. Ask Him out loud to forgive you
your sin. Ask Him to stay in your heart and home. Tell Him your
problem, out loud, once, clearly. Hold Christ in your heart. Do not
be surprised if you suddenly begin to weep like a child that has found safety
from fear, the Holy Spirit has this effect sometimes. Get up and go about
your business. Put the problem out of your mind, you no longer need to
keep chewing over it in your mind. It is in good hands. It will come
to pass or you will be shown the way. Keep God in the back of your mind
all the time as if He is looking over your shoulder, which indeed He is.
If you forget and sin, do not despair, as long as you are trying your best and
improving each day, keep God in mind and call on Him even if only to say 'thank
you', then the Holy Spirit will not leave you.
Think back over your life,
and try to list all the sins you have done, you will start to remember sins that
you had forgotten, things you would not admit to in front of family or friends.
About half way through, or less, you will stop in horror. Do not worry,
God already knows them all, you only have to ask forgiveness once. Do not
desert Him and He will never desert you. After the realization that the
first prayer has been answered, there will be no stopping you. You will
not need 'signs' or 'proof' of God's existence. You will know. No
power on this earth will ever change your mind. Your awareness of the Holy
Spirit in your life is a revelation itself. You will wonder how you ever
managed to live without it. This is the truth. It is that simple, no
mystery, no ceremony, no magic, no nonsense. I know. Just honesty
and understanding between you and YOUR God.
When you achieve this happy
state, and it can take as little as five minutes, life will change for you
somewhat. There was a time when you would have bowed to the opinion of
your friends, not wanting to be set apart from them, fearing their scorn or
contempt. Afraid they would think you a fool. But now you will know
that it was foolish to think that way. Life is suddenly full of hope and
new possibilities. You will change and delight in the changes. Does
this section on How To Pray and its benefits, sound like the mouthings of a
prophet of doom, a Jeremiah?
The end times means the
coming Rapture, the end of misery, the end of death, the end of pain, the end of
tears, the end of worry, the end of Satan. It's a time of celebration, a
time when all believers are on the winning side forever. If you believe
only in the inevitable 'Big Brother.' state on earth, if you think that man can
survive on earth without war, if you believe man will live on earth and not fear
death, without the coming of Christ, then you will surely suffer all those
things and the smoke of your agony will rise to the sky for ever.
There is only one path, it
is narrow and faint and strewn with sharp rocks, and it climbs always upwards,
but the higher you go the easier it gets. There is no other path.
Chapter X
More
If you have got this far,
and understand the message of this book, and found benefit and comfort in the
message, then you will want to know more. Your mind will be full of
questions. If it is not, then take your time and practice a little, get
the attitude right, have patience, it will come.
If on the other hand, you
have said your first real prayer and know the answer, then you will want to know
more about God and His intentions for the world. Well, it is all written
repeatedly in the Bible, both Old and New. There is no other authority.
Until you learn how to read it properly it is just words describing a series of
events, particularly the Old Testament. Now you can begin to read it with
new eyes. A story that might be familiar and often read, will take on new
significance as you read it now with your eyes 'open'.
There are many books today
on this subject; many have valuable insights into the days that are coming.
There is a growing awareness of the hand of God in the affairs of men.
Even the unknowing are making comment on the increasing chaos and anarchy in
the world. Since the ascension of Christ, people have believed His coming
to be imminent. They have believed the evils of their times to be a sign
of the end times, and yet it has not happened. Why should today be any
different? Today we have the light of 1950 years of history to evaluate.
Today we have communications. Today we have accurate statistics to show
that about ¼ of the earth's population is on the verge of starvation. This
is the beginning of the conditions described in the fourth seal of Revelations.
When the prophets of old made their statements to the people, all that the
people understood was, that they were prophesying doom and death. Even the
prophets themselves sometimes did not understand the full meaning of their words
Today, with all our education, communication, virtually no language barriers,
our knowledge of history, our literacy, our technical knowledge, deeper
understanding of the universe and how it works, with all this, the meaning of
the prophesies is lost to most people on earth. How can this be?
Even unbelievers admit the truth and accuracy the prophets in those things that
have already taken place, but deny that other statements made by same prophets,
will come about. Is it because the prophesies predict and promise the most
traumatic upheaval the world has known since the flood? They are quite
willing to believe that man will waste himself in a nuclear holocaust.
Some will even spend their lives trying to prevent it, and yet they cannot
believe that it will only come when God 'allows' it. Their struggle
for stability and control of that dreadful weapons is futile but inevitable.
Whatever they do, will not stop it taking place at its appointed time.
As God promised, a veil will cover their eyes and will not be removed until
Satan's days are very short. So, blessed indeed is he who's eyes are open
today and understands the words of the prophets.
Read Isaiah Ch. 29 Vs. 9 to 12; Take a closer look at the
world around you. What appears to be good on the surface may be evil, what
appears to be noble may be ignoble, what appears to be an advocate of Christ may
be an antichrist. They will tell you that Jesus Christ was only a prophet
and healer, a forerunner of the real Messiah that is still to come. There
are many cults with 'Guru's' and 'Masters', which sprang up in the and 50's and
60's, well they are still going strong. They joining together in a network
of New Age and New World societies. Their teachings parallel the teaching
and prophecies of God and Christ, but they are of the antichrist. They
teach brotherly love and and peace, and plan world control. Many of their
workers are sincere and misled, their eyes are veiled, they do not understand
the words of the prophets, the word of God. Today they only alienate
parents and children from one another, and brothers and sisters from each other.
In the not too distant future it will go a step further, as their power
increases, it will begin to come about as prophesied in
Luke Ch. 21 vs. 16: And you shall be betrayed
both by parents and brothers, and relatives and friends, and some of you shall
be put to death.
We know that this has
already happened on a large under Stalin, but "we are not Communist, it cannot
happen here". Don't you believe it, there are many ways to skin a cat. If
you think it cannot happen in your lifetime and it really has nothing to do with
you, just remember that to God, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand
years can be as one day. God is not 'governed' by anything, least of
all man's division of time. It could happen tomorrow. If all this
talk is depressing you, you are forgetting who you are. You are God's.
Follow the teaching of Christ, and as He commanded, "...accept, be patient, be
faithful...".
None of this promised
punishment of God need cause you to fear, it will not touch you, because Christ
will come for His church, that's you, before it all begins.
In Job Ch. 5 vs. 19 we
read:
He will deliver you from 6 troubles; in seven, there shall no evil touch you.
This, I believe, is a direct
reference to the 7 seals of Revelations; the seventh seal describes the Rapture
of Christ's church.
Earlier chapters,
particularly chapter one of this book, deal with the importance of God's number
7. It is used by God, in His word to man, continually throughout the
Bible, but never more so than in the book of Revelations. It begins with
Christ's messages to the seven churches. This is followed by Christ being
judged by God, worthy to open the seven seals of the scroll which is written on,
on both sides. This means that the scroll is the trigger for the
beginning of events that God has decreed will happen to man and the earth and
the last 7 years tribulation for His chosen and the destroyer's end. The
seven seals decree all that will happen in the world, between Christ's
resurrection and the rapture. They concern only His church. After
they are fulfilled, the last 7 years of tribulation of God's chosen begins.
All must eventually become believers in Christ or die. As those 7 seals
are opened by Jesus, one by one, the effect of them is decreed and inevitable
and will happen. When you consider that Christ was resurrected and found
worthy, 1950 years ago, by man's division of time, and you read the prophecy of
each seal you will realize that we are approaching the enactment of the fourth
seal. In fact the foundations for its materialization have already been
laid, the conditions are right. How long it will take to be fully
realized, no one knows, but when it is, look out, be ready, because the last
three seals are not announced by one of the four 'living' creatures, the last
three take place in heaven, and can take place in the twinkling of an eye, the
timing of them is not governed by man's division of time. The prayers of
all the Saints, on earth and in heaven, are beseeching God to bring that day
quickly. If you add your prayers to theirs, the day will come that more
quickly. There is a very good chance that you may be alive on earth and
see the day when you will step straight into God's Kingdom on earth, straight
into Everlasting life. Fantastic? Of course it is, everything about God is
fantastic. Did you expect it to be ordinary? The antichrist would have you
believe that it will take place naturally, on earth by the agencies of men and
in the time of men. The sad thing is that so many will believe that,
because the majority or most people are 'society', and therefore what is normal
to society is deemed by man to be 'good' and what is considered abnormal by
'society' is deemed to be bad. That is, with a few exceptions, a falsity.
That is the 'veil' which God has allowed to cover the eyes of man.
If you love your child more
than you love God, then you make a god of your child; that's idolatry. If
you love anything at all to the exclusion of God, you are an idolater.
Idolatry did not pass with the pagan religions and gods of the ancients, it is
stronger today than ever it was. How can someone, in a time of imminent
death and disaster NOT run to the defense of his child? To do otherwise is
unthinkable. Jesus said "If I know you and love you, then show your faith
in that love, for if I love you then how much more will I love those that you
love". "If you, in your love for me, cry to me for help, forsaking all
others, then you shall be saved, and those that you love will be saved also".
You cannot do more for your child than Christ can, your child belongs to Christ.
When God commanded Abram to
sacrifice his son on an alter, Abram did not hesitate or question. He and
his son were saved. If in a time of great danger a man were to pray
instead of looking to the safety of his son, people would say, "you fool, do you
not know the lives of yourself and the son you love, are in danger? Do
something.". It would be very natural, they would consider the man 'abnormal',
and indeed he would be, by today's standards. But, abnormal or not, he
would be right in the eyes of God, and those that chastise him, would be
idolaters.
When Christ told his
disciples that He was about to die, Peter cried, "no, I will not allow them to
take you". Jesus turned to the rock on which He built His church, and
said, "Get thee behind me Satan".
Now if you can understand
that message, and live with it every day, and act on it when the time arrives,
if, God forbid that it should, then you pass the test with flying colors.
Think about carefully, weigh it in your mind while there is time. God's
love is absolute, and yours must be also. If after you have weighed
it in your mind, you afraid, and you put off the commitment until a later time,
you are lost, you will never make that commitment. Or if you say, "that
every thing written this page is rubbish", then I bid you a sad farewell because
you belong to the earth and the and the antichrist and you will never leave it.
I have a son, he understands
this message and agrees, in fact for all his youth, he would be quite happy for
it to happen now, never mind tomorrow. In children and youth lay the
greatest hope. If it were not for them God would not bother, I think, for
the eyes of the elders are veiled. What kind of world do our children have
to look forward to, does anyone ever stop to ask them?
Chapter XI
Which Church Are You?
In chapters two and three of
Revelations, Christ sends, through John, a message to the angel of each of His
seven churches. Each of the seven messages contains praise and criticism.
It is the criticism we should take a close look at. The seven churches
named are, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira,
Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicia. Each one has its own character of virtues and
faults. In those days, the seven churches were scattered over the then
known civilized world, which today is a relatively small area of the civilized
world. If we consider them as seven seeds planted in the same plot of
earth, whose growing branches and vines, intertwine, and spread out over the
whole of the garden, to every corner of the earth, then each of us belongs to
one or other of the original seeds. It does not matter by what modern
denomination your church is known, your church, by its works, and the works of
its members, belongs to one of the original seven churches of Christ, grown from
the seed He planted. To know which is you and to which you belong, you
must study the words of Christ to each one, and you will know in your heart
which one applies; be sure that one of them does. Christ also knows what
is in your heart, so you must be honest with yourself and admit and correct your
faults. When you have done this then you must bring others to 'see', by
your words and example, by teaching, not by judgment and condemnation. To
save, not to destroy. To bring into your house not to cast out.
It is for you to read the messages, to 'see' and understand and decide on your
action. These messages apply to all Christians in all times. The
importance of these messages is total; to Christians on this earth who hope for
salvation, they are the Last Word of God, to them.
Somewhere, earlier in this
book it was stated, "beware to whom you give your loyalty". Many give
their whole self to their church quite nobly, because in doing so they feel they
are giving all they can to Christ. If you are one of those, perhaps you
should take a close look at the leaders and elders of your church. If you
are a leader or an elder, take a closer look at your own actions and motives and
those of your peers. To establish and maintain a church and have it
flourish, does not necessarily mean that Holy Spirit abides in it. For a
church leader, the very nature of his position can blind him to the attitude of
the Pharisee or Sadducee, in himself. Then there are those diligent people
who seek high positions in their church in order to enhance their position in
their local society. Their real interest is not in the congregation, but in
their own position in the congregation. Christ calls them 'hypocrites'.
Christ chastised and upbraided certain of the Pharisees and Sadducees, because
of their total preoccupation with the law and the temple to the exclusion of all
else, including God. They read the prophets every week to the
congregation, and did not understand the meaning, did not know the prophets were
talking about them. The words of the prophets are exactly the same today
as they were then, time has not changed them. Has time changed the
preachers? Has time changed your preacher?
Sadly, too many churches
today honor their organization more than God. They go through all the
motions and pay lip service to God. The wealthier they become the worse it
gets. Power becomes the rule of the leaders, and the light they should
provide, no longer shines and touches those that need their help. Like
all good organizations, they will quote you chapter and verse, all their good
works and charities. Lip service. Did you ever hear a parson or
priest say, "we" are not doing enough? You are more likely to hear him say,
"you" are not doing enough.
A friend told me about a
church that will not let you in to the service unless you wear a tie. Can
you believe that? Maybe he was not telling the truth. But it could be
possible. Why would he lie? I thought it was only certain nightclubs that
had that rule. Perhaps there is not too much difference between nightclub
and church in this case. Maybe the powers that be, in the church, own the
nightclub.
If you stand at the door of
your church, just before service starts, and a 'wino' reels up to you, only able
to stand on his feet, and perhaps he mumbles something and the only word that
comes to your ear is 'God'; what would you do? You must remember, that he
stinks, I mean, really stinks, his hair is matted, his clothes are ragged and
filthy with dried vomit, and drool runs down and drips off his chin. Is
this description repulsive enough? The worst thing about him, the thing that
stuns the senses, is his smell, his skin may be peeling with dehydration to
expose raw flesh beneath, but its his smell, which is quite distinct at ten
paces to windward in a thirty knot squall. Again, what would you do?; you
heard the word "God"; is this a dying man with the last dregs of intelligence,
desperately looking for redemption? What are you going to do, chicken out, and
call the police? Send him away? Or are you going to be a good Christian, take
him and wash him, burn his filthy rags and clothe him, get him medical
treatment? In other words do everything in your power to save him. Later
when he is cleaner and recovered enough to walk unaided, and his speech is
almost articulate, and before inviting him to the next church service, you might
be curious enough to ask him, what it was he said to you on the church steps
that day. His answer will probably be, "I said, will you give me a dollar
for a bottle, for the love of God." Would your actions have been different if
you had heard every word he said, instead of just the last one, 'God'. He
will pass on his way, most likely back to where you pulled him from, but Jesus
on that final day will say to you, "there is your name, you gave me comfort when
I needed comfort, welcome". And your name will be 'comfort'.
To get back to the subject
of the churches; if, at an odd hour of the day you can find a church that's doors
are not closed, and you may feel troubled about something, so you enter the
church to pray or rest a moment or two, it will not be long before you see some
church official or member 'hovering' like a head waiter. The first thing
that comes his mind is a realistic suspicion that you may be thief on the
lookout for easy pickings. (Perhaps you are not wearing a tie, but then,
clever thieves dress respectably.) This suspicious reaction attitude is
'natural' enough. (Natural means 'of the earth' or 'of the antichrist'.)
If there is anything in your
church worth stealing, that is no reason to lock the doors. Let it be
stolen; if the devil covets it, God certainly, does not value it, if He does
value it, no power on this earth can steal it, it will be safe, otherwise it has
no business being in His house.
How many churches can you
recall that appeal large sums of money to repair, extend or refurbish the
building? There is nothing wrong in that, unless a disproportionate amount
disappears in 'administrative' costs. It's the same with large sums
gathered for charity. Be watchful. Church is the place for teaching
the way of Christ and for praising God, not for housing the finest organ in the
county. If sounds puritanical then all strength to the puritans,
A friend, who has regularly
donated money to three or four churches, visits those churches when home from
his travels. Recently he became angry at their attitude, towards him and
to their responsibilities. He found it a little difficult to express
and put into words what he felt. He had begun to feel, to put bluntly,
that he was being "taken". Although his earnings are considerably more
than those of church leaders concerned, he noted that their life style appeared
to be considerably better than his own or that of his family. In spite of
these negative thoughts, he continued to send his donations. One day, he
confided all this to me and asked my advice. A year ago I would have given
him the normal attitude answer, "if that's your thing, my friend, then be my
guest, indulge yourself; but giving away considerable sums of money is a mugs
game". A fool and his money are soon parted, or words to that effect.
But today the answer was
different, I advised him to cut out the donations, abruptly, with a simple note
stating only that he did not intend to make any further donations. Then
await the replies. He had always been a financial pillar of these
churches, a good touch in time of cash flow problems. "What do I do with the
replies", he said. My answer was, that if their reply was the whining,
begging variety, which might also admonish him for dropping his support, by
reminding him of what God promises for those who backslide, then his original
negative feelings are justified; shake the dust of those 'churches' off your
feet.
If he should receive a
letter imploring him to reply, asking him if he is in difficulty and needs help,
if their concern is for him and not their bank balance, then they are Christian;
give them in return.
Adopting a Christian
attitude towards every day problems of life and people can bring some
surprising changes in your behavior; it can be very exhilarating, something
like instant wisdom, so be careful, do not lose your perspective. It's
like driving a powerful car for the first time, you do not at first realize the
power and speed at which you are traveling. It takes awareness and
selfless motives to keep your perspective, and recognition of the hand of God
when you see it. A friend told me a story which illustrates this pretty
well.
John was a farmer, who lived
alone in a remote farm on the side of a valley. One day there was a great
storm and the valley began to flood. Pretty soon the water was up to the
porch, but luckily a boat came by and asked him if he wanted help. "No
thanks, I think I will put my trust in the Lord", said John. Soon the
water was waist deep, so John climbed onto the roof of his house. He was
spotted by another boat that came to his aid. Same reply, "thanks, but
I'll trust in the Lord". It was not too long before John was perched on
the very peak of the roof. A speck in the distant sky grew larger and took
the shape of a helicopter, John now ankle deep on the top of his roof, waived
them off, they could not hear what he was shouting, something about the 'Lord'.
By the time John had to start swimming, it had been a long day, John was tired
and a poor swimmer; it was not too long before he drowned. Passing through
the pearly gates, he stopped to speak to St. Peter. "I've been a
good Christian all my life, and kept my faith; why did God not save me?" Peter
replied, "He sent you two boats and a helicopter, what more did you want?"
So learn to recognize the
'act of God', and if you have wisdom by the Grace of God, do not start to
believe that it is you who are wise. If you think the wisdom comes from
within yourself instead of from God, you will become drunk with your own power.
Drunk with power is a strange but quite common phenomena, and is described quite
clearly in; Isaiah Ch. 29 vs. 9, and the consequences:
Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves, and be sightless; be drunk, but not
from wine, stagger, but not from beer. The Lord has brought over you a deep
sleep, He has sealed your eyes, he has covered your head.
In other words, a man drunk
with power and his own cleverness, is blind and deaf to his own stupidity, just
as a drunk does not know he staggers. This is the way of a self-important
people.
Chapter XII
For Those Who Mourn
This chapter will be
depressing to start with, because it will bring the readers mind to bear, the
hollow empty ache of a loved one gone; on heartrending plight of a young
sufferer of incurable disease, or handicapped body; on the injustice nature has
brought to bear on the good and innocent. It is not necessary to describe
histories, you the reader, know them better than anybody. In the hour of
deepest grief, you will "Why, why did God allow this to happen?"
We try to comfort the
bereaved with words, cannot comfort, often stupid words that only serve to show
our inadequacy and lack of understanding in the face of such deep grief.
It is better to silent. It is better to weep with the bereaved and say
nothing, that at least shows sympathy.
Whether the moment of
deepest grief is still to come, or has passed, or if you must watch the
heartrending struggle of a young one, oppressed with the abnormal, with a body
that denies a 'normal life, the question with no answer, is always, "why?"
You may read the greatest
minds, you may to the wisdom of ages but you will find no relief, no
satisfaction, no answer, without the eyes to see, understanding. The
normal reaction is to blame God.
If God is Almighty, why does
he allow, the 'plan crash, the train crash, the burning house, the explosion,
the exploding mortar bomb, the heart attack, thalidomide babies, industrial
diseases, illnesses from the increasing pollution of our environment?' How long
is the list?
They all have one thing in
common; the hand of man. Even the disasters, described by the insurance
companies, as 'acts of God', earthquakes, floods tornadoes, volcanoes, can be
avoided if man uses his God given intelligence to avoid them and protect
himself. Even then the death toll of 'natural disasters' is a spit in the
ocean compared to the deaths of man made disasters. God gave us
intelligence and above all a free choice, to defend ourselves, but even more He
gave us the avenue of prayer. Prayer brings knowledge of God, and brings
knowledge of you to God. Voices of angry protest will be raised,
reflecting the bitterness of loss, "I've heard all that waffle before, don't
give me any of that prayer garbage, I've prayed and prayed and nothing happened,
there are no miracles, there is no God, if there were, this would not have
happened". This is a normal everyday reaction to a normal everyday
occurrence in a normal everyday world. The angry outraged voice again,
"What do you mean, 'everyday occurrence', my husband is dead, I have two small
children to bring up and one of them is handicapped, and you tell me it's an
everyday occurrence?" What else is it? It's happening every minute, somewhere.
As man increases so does evil and so does the disasters in this world. Why
would Satan bring disaster on his own? He will visit the good to bring your
anger down on the Saviour, who does not seem to save. You can almost hear
him saying, "where is your Saviour now?". He implies that he has taken the one
you lost; he has only the body, the empty shell, none of the spirit. It's
not the one you lost he wants, it is YOU. If he has you blaming God, he is
already half way there. If your loss has destroyed your faith in God (what
little you had), if he has destroyed any belief you might have had in God, he
has destroyed you. And that is his aim. He would have you believe
that only the beautiful people, only the fortunate people, are blessed.
Well if you believe that lie, you will believe anything, and spend the rest of
your life crying "why".
Why, then does the Saviour
not save? It comes back again, to 'free will'. God gave you it and He will
not take it back, not while you live. He waits for you to make the choice,
by giving you free will, He made a statement of faith, His faith in you, that
you would make the right choice, then told Satan to do His worst. Read the
book of Job, it describes you, you are Job. When the ache of grief has
eased a little, read about yourself in the book of Job. All the works of
man assist Satan in his aims, he will make good appear evil and evil appear
good, he would even deceive the saints. Nothing is too small for his
attention, he contaminates everything. There is only one thing he cannot
touch and that is your choice of God, above all else and in spite of all else.
By Christ's example we know that injustice is of the earth; not of heaven and
God.
When God first revealed
Himself to man (he reminded us of it when He said "Remember the former things of
long ago."), He started with Adam. It does not matter if Adam was a real
person or not, Adam represents the first man on earth that had knowledge, more
than all other animals, the first creature of all God's creation, to cause chaos
in God's divine plan. With the enormous power of free will, man could now
think himself able to challenge God and His design. God allowed man this
power, and the time on earth (life span) to come to terms with it and the truth
of it, or not, as man should choose.
What use to God is a robot
that obeys unquestioningly every command? God needs a 'robot' that can love
Him, to bring Him fellowship, on which He can pour out joy and abundance and
never spoil. Such is the Spirit of those deprived in this world, those who
are cut off too early. For us left behind, blindly calling for 'justice'
in our grief and misery, the understanding has not yet dawned. We fail in
our sudden adversity, to achieve the sweetness of the glorious spirit of the one
we have lost. We recognized it in them, the spirit of God, and we loved
it; when it is taken away we grieve like a spoiled child, we cannot be consoled.
Until we realize, that it was not the body of the person that we lost, but the
spirit that was in them, we will not come to understanding. We have had a
small glimpse of heaven, and weep when it passes. Weep not for the child
or the crippling disease of the good, but weep because the Spirit is not in you,
until you make your choice; put chaos and grief out, and invite the Spirit of
God in. God is waiting patiently, while you waste time crying "why".
He is hoping you will see, and remove the destroyer from your life for good.
Do not judge "blessed" by what is beautiful or ugly, by what is healthy or
diseased, by what is normal or abnormal. The only ones "blessed" are those
who choose God, and honor Him with their heart and prayers. In your
moment of grief and pain, turn to God and thank Him for your blessings, it will
bring you comfort, and is the only way to keep what you think you have lost.
Why The Antichrist Cannot Win.
A committed Christian knows
where he is going. This is not said with self satisfaction or complacency.
His task demands high standards of behavior and spiritual integrity. His
daily tribulation is this mortal life. It is a time of patient waiting.
Some will pass through with ease and little hardship, some will be at the other
extreme, in torture, both physical and mental, to death, but for all Christians
the requirement is the same.
From the death of Christ on
earth to the resurrection of the church, the Rapture, is the time of the
Gentiles, the time of the seven seals of Christ, described in Revelations.
Whatever age a Christian lives in, in this era of the Gentiles the rules are the
same. Through the time of the Gentiles, the Christians that have been,
are, and yet to come, all have one thing in common. It is an attitude to
life and God, through Jesus Christ, the Saviour, the Messiah, that is common to
all of them and binds them together, in spite of all their cultural differences,
nations, tongues, and customs. It is a condition of the mind and the
spirit unequaled by any other institution of man in all of man's history, their
numbers are countless, who would dare say that after all this time, they are
wrong.
Those who believe in chaos,
because of their evil, will cause God to allow one to arise, one who believes he
can be greater than God. The antichrist will strive to emulate Christ and
the institution of Christianity, but because of Christianity, he will fail, in
fact he never can win. Even knowing this, people will still follow him,
because they want to believe his promises of peace on earth, and when, in fact,
he will seem to bring peace, they will be convinced, thoroughly conned by the
'good guy' image.
'Believing' Christians, who
are raptured out of this earth, will not be subjected to the horrors of the
tribulation. This final seven year period, the last seven years of
Daniel's prophecy, is when those left on earth will follow the antichrist and
accept his mark or number on the hand or forehead.
This mark will be tattooed on
the hand, but be invisible to the naked eye, when the hand is passed under a
special scanner, at a supermarket checkout for instance, the cost of the
purchases will be deducted from your bank account by computer. Every
transaction you make, buying and selling will be controlled this way.
Without the mark you cannot buy or sell, get a job or do any of the countless
other things involving money. This number which each person has invisibly
tattooed on the hand will incorporate the number of the beast 666. There
will be no more credit cards, this tattoo number will be the only credit card
you will need, it cannot be lost or stolen or forged. What a good idea.
Yes, and it gives the antichrist complete control over every soul who accepts
this mark.
Revs Ch. 13 vs. 16: Also it causes all, both
small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the
right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy and sell unless he has the
mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls
for wisdom; let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it
is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six.
Revs. Ch. 14 vs. 9: And another angel, a third,
followed them saying with a loud voice, "If any one worships the beast and its
image, and receives a mark on his forehead or his hand, he also shall drink the
wine of God's wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of His anger, and he shall be
tormented with fire and with sulphur in the presence of the angels and in the
presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and
ever; and they have no rest, day or night, these worshippers of the beast and
his image, and whoever receives the mark of its name."
The technology to achieve
this is already available, and its introduction and use is already being
advocated by national leaders, either knowingly or blindly. Hopefully it
will not come until after the Rapture, but if it should come before, then you
have read this and you know what
to do. If it comes into force after the Rapture, and you are not raptured,
then you will be forced to take the mark or be cut off from society, then
persecuted, then sought out, betrayed and killed. But those who think it
is a good idea should read again the excerpt from Revelations quoted above.
Cable TV is another part of
the tool that will be used by the antichrist to control you. Already in
the U.S.A. you can order groceries and charge your account by T.V.
or make phone calls, etc. all through the computer. We are already
on our way, ripe for the picking. Just as the Bible says, 'as a man will
pick and eat the first ripe fig on the tree'; so the antichrist will pick and
eat a world, who's population is ripe and ready. By the time they find out
it will be too late.
Only God knows when, but as
the prophets declared and described the signs of the approach of the end times,
so we must understand and be ready. We are in the warning period of God's
mighty number 7777, the last milestone. I pray that I see you there.
See Figure 3
Bougainvillea
The vine had lost its glory,
Its abundant flowers were gone.
No more to evoke
Admiration for its beauty.
Even its leaves were
Withering, and many fallen.
Only its shape remained;
Its skeleton, starkly filling space,
A mockery of its former self.
Its roots were nourished,
It was not old; then why
Should it die?
I touched its crackling leaves,
And gently held its stem where
Only thorns remained,
And blessed it with the Spirit,
And the Will, to whom it belonged;
To make it once again,
A gift, a glory,
Reflecting Him, by my faith.
Now its leaves and flowers are
Once more flourishing.
It is reclothed in a new coat;
But there, each flower, though many,
Are small and mean in size;
They cover all the branches, and
Every twig, but like a glove
That fits too tight.
I would that they were full,
And large as so before.
Perhaps, because that by
My faith, they are reborn,
Their meaness reflects that
Faith of mine, that covers all,
And yet is still too mean;
Not yet full.
Therefore to pray
For greater faith,
That in its growing, the
Vine will flower with large
Abundance, never again
To threaten a passing glory,
But remain forever blessed.
For I am also the vine.
This World Of The Antichrist
When the noise of peace is celebration,
It feeds the soul and compliments the heart.
But when the sounds of peace are confusion,
And hysteria, without reason, serving only
To pretend and deceive, an imitation
That hides the fear and worry of daily life;
Then its sound is as the din of war.
It wearies the flesh and dulls the spirit,
Rewarding the heart with despair
As told by the prophet, Zechariah;
The antichrist, will not care for the helpless,
Nor feed the hungry, nor heal the sick,
Nor guide the straying youth;
He will undermine your prosperity,
By tearing away the very foundations
Of your wealth.
In a time when peace is as
Clamorous as war,
When wealth brings no comfort,
When food is abundant
But many starve;
When life is sweet to taste,
But the price you pay turns your stomach;
When the sword of the tongue and pen,
Bring no victory, and truth is for fools;
Then you know the antichrist rules
And his time is short;
For the future is Christ only,
And those that endure in Him.
The Old World
An ancient ruin,
A monument to past years
hopes
Come down, and lost in time.
Each dusty slab
Evokes a sadness,
Deep and far away,
Of something once
So close and real.
An earthly knowledge
Long forgot,
But still remembered
By the soul.
Streets and homes
And fleeting lives,
Raucous shouts and shrill cries,
Filling nought but space,
With silent echoes.
A wild vine
Its torturous growth
Cut off, amid the
Tumbled walls.
No more its pretty
Flowers and fruitful
Seed to shed,
Now stunted
By the poisoned winds,
That pull the loamy
Mantle tight,
Shutting out the
Fading light
No eye will see
Or heart will love,
That invisible thing
Nor remember.
Understanding
Old and wise;
Not so much in years,
But of this world.
Having tasted
All its cups.
My mouth is dry as dust.
Having listened to its song,
Too long
My head hurts.
Having watched its
Many wonders
My eyes burn and ache.
What purpose now is
Skill or intellect?
How can life
Be praised, what good its
Labor?
Where all the hopeful
Dreams of youth,
When all the lessons.
Learned, and wages earned
longer count
Of any worth.
Not knowing how or when
Not knowing why,
One prayer was all.
One desperate cry,
And I am blessed.
No words, express the joy.
No thirst, or hurt
Or ache,
Can endure
This all pervading
Power,
My safe place and comfort.
For I am a child again,
Safe in His hands
And He will always be,
And is, my Father.
Chapter XIII
Touching
Touching describes the
condition of two physical bodies, normally unconnected, coming together to a
point where they are just in contact. The bodies may remain in contact for
a long time, or touch for a fleeting moment.
In human relationships, a
gentle touch can express a love and oneness that words can seldom equal.
In the story of the woman,
who had been hemorrhaging for many years, and who, in spite of the discomfort
of the heat and dust, and the push and jostle of an excited crowd, managed to
get close enough to the stranger, a man she had never met, and just barely touch
the hem of His robe. This remotest of physical contacts was enough to heal
her affliction, as Jesus Christ turned and spoke to her. Her role as the 'toucher',
expressing love and faith, was reversed as Christ the receiver, became the
giver, the healer.
So it is in everyday life;
the giver of gentleness becomes the receiver. When such gentleness is
given and received in the Spirit of God, it brings comfort and healing to both
giver and receiver, it blesses both.
When this expression of
touching loses its gentleness it passes through stages of expression, from
friendliness, love, competition, anger, violence, to brutality and lust.
There is one further stage. The worst. When brutality is expressed
without any redeeming reason or passion. This kind of brutality, has in
recent years (I cannot speak for history), become the hallmark of the hero and
anti-hero alike. For whatever cause they act, depends on the sympathy of
the viewer. Otherwise they are exactly the same. The minutely
planned and practiced, nerveless, cold, ruthless ability to kill and overcome
the opposition, efficiently and with great skill, is the very quality for which
the hero is admired and the anti-hero is feared. Whether it is a nation,
an army, a group or team, or an individual; between them and their adversary,
passes no redeeming spirit, only the aim to destroy. Their minds and
bodies become extensions of their weapons, programmed and conditioned.
Why are they admired so
much? Do they really express strength and courage? Are they aware of the
admiration of lesser mortals? Why do so many people identify with their apparent
skill and invincibility? A simple handshake between two strangers expresses
more strength, courage, and admiration than all of these.
In gentleness there is all
the strength and power of love. In force there is only brutality and fear.
Fear is an emotion which shows the lack of understanding and faith in God, and
can only be manifest where God is not in the heart of the oppressed or
oppressor. That same understanding and faith that was expressed by the
woman who touched the hem of the robe of Jesus Christ. Understanding,
which you can only find in the company of the gentle; those who shun all things
violent. Retaliation kills faith, and its reward is despair, whether
perpetrated by force, intimidation, or simply with the words from your mouth.
Righteous indignation in the face of injustice, is just violent words, which aim
to destroy. True righteousness has no indignation. Never look for
revenge, for revenge belongs only to God, for God's word IS the last word.
Matthew says, in Ch 10 vs 28:
Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear
Him who can kill both body and soul in hell.
Most of our modern
entertainment is through television. Its content becomes progressively
more violent as the years pass. Television is here to stay, and will
continue to feed us with the lowering moral standards of this aging world, both
sensationalist non-fiction and all the fictional violence, lust, and greed that
imagination can twist into a story, to satisfy the jaded taste of the masses
being slowly but surely conditioned to acceptance of all that is inhuman and
opposed to God.
Social injustices are
increasing, and increasingly provoke violence, particularly in the so called
'third world'. With greater regularity, this violence is spreading like a
rash into the affluent world. Terrorism and guerilla war, no longer
confines itself to the small backward country, where power goes to him with the
most guns; it now appears in almost every country, any feeble excuse is enough
for it to go into action. There will come a day when an excuse will not be
necessary. Mankind will be in a sorry state on that day. Once again,
God will send the king of Babylon to lead the blind away from God's Holy
covenant; and most of the world is already blind. This time it will
not just be Israel, but the whole world and everyone in it. The time is
coming as rapidly as the world population increases. Search out the
statistics and see how rapidly the world population has increased in the last
twenty years. The blindness increases with the population explosion.
God's word is indeed becoming a voice crying in the wilderness. People
want their comfort, leisure and pleasure now, not a promise in the future in
another world. That is the blindness. To have a good marriage, a
nice home in a respectable neighborhood, well mannered children, go to church,
pay your taxes, love your family; all this is great, but it is not enough.
While you strive to gain these things, and when you have them, to jealously
guard them, implies a nature that puts these things (and most people do), above
all else, including God. If this description fits you, then you are a
worshipper of idols. Think about it. Because it is what most
people do, does not make it any better in the eyes of God. When anarchy
and terrorism move into your neighborhood, you will not know how to handle it
if you do not know the word of God, and live by it.
Each of us, both high and
low, make many decisions ever day, but how many of us refer to God before we
make a decision? Before making a decision, we always consider how we will profit
or how our best interests will be served. Next time, and every time, you
make a decision, imagine that God is sitting beside you marking off your actions
like a silent invisible examiner. If you have any respect for yourself,
you will have respect for this invisible examiner; your decisions and actions
will start to change. People who know you will begin to comment on your
surprising behavior, because to people who know you, you have always been
predictable. They will begin to criticize your actions and decisions, even
calling you stupid. But real friends, those who understand God, will come
closer and give encouragement. The golden rule when making these
decisions, was given by Jesus, when asked by the Pharisees, what He considered
were the most important laws of God, to which Jesus replied, "Love God above all
else, and your neighbor as yourself". So you should keep this in mind,
and an awareness of God's presence, when you go to the store, to buy a dress,
with money your husband cannot really afford, simply to put Mrs.
So-and-so's nose out of joint at Church next Sunday. You see how small
decisions can determine whether you 'walk with God' or not. A hundred
times a day we deny God and His existence in the things we do and say, and
because of this psychiatrists grow rich. With God in mind, there is no
confusion, decisions are easy and ulcers are things other people suffer from.
Some decisions you make will not bear fruit for a long time and will appear to
others as a mistake, but you know that if you made it in the Light of God, it
was right and will always be right, but you will have to endure the criticism.
This is what Jesus meant when He said "....be patient, and keep your faith".
We cross the paths of many
people in our lifetime, we 'touch' them. How do they remember you? With
affection or dislike? How did you touch them? What you touch with love cannot
hate you; suspicion perhaps, through lack of understanding, but the sharp edge
of hate will be dulled. The only people who should ever regret meeting or
knowing you, are those who do not know God and refuse to recognize His existence.
They will leave you with confusion in their minds, or resentment because you
confound them, or mirthless laughter at your foolishness. Only the out and
out evil will hate you because they have no answer or weapon against the love of
God.
The greatest mystery in this
life is the knowledge of the Love of God, shown to us through Jesus the Christ.
Now that sounds like a contradiction. How can it be a mystery, when so
many people know about the Love of God? Like most knowledge, clear and
understood when first learned, its clarity fades, its definition becomes blurred
and its truth distorted and misinterpreted, as time passes and the
knowledge itself falls into disuse. In Rev Ch 2, Christ's message to the
church of Ephesus, He praises their
patience and endurance in His name, but chastises them '...that you have
abandoned the love you had at first.." What Christ is saying is you are doing a
good job, but you have forgotten why you are doing it, you have forgotten the
reason for doing what you do. The job itself had become more important
than the Love of God which inspired it. Christ reminded them that if they
did not correct this situation and remember who they were and why they were, He
would "...remove your lamp stand from its place..."
When we neglect the Word of
God, His love becomes a mystery again, to many, and probably to most people.
If we do not keep the knowledge of the LOVE OF GOD ABOVE ALL ELSE, clearly in
our hearts and minds every day, to govern everything we do, then it will remain
a mystery to us and we will lose the key to eternal life when we change from
this earth. Stay in 'touch'.
Chapter XIV
Looking For Truth
Truth is the use of
knowledge of facts, that when brought together in a design, form an "honest
concept".
Because nothing is perfect
or lasts forever in this material world, an honest concept, with care and
attention, will last for a limited and useful life.
An engineer will test his
machine exhaustively, in all possible conditions, to ensure that the knowledge
that went into its conception and design, is true. Therefore his machine,
under certain constraints and conditions, will perform through a useful
lifespan.
If the knowledge used is
incomplete, misunderstood or misapplied, the design formed is a "corrupt
concept". A corrupt concept will invariably, at some point in time, an
unpredictable moment, break down, often with disastrous or tragic consequences.
In all the works of man, we
recognize and accept the weaknesses, and quite happily pay insurance against the
evil day, without a thought of God before or after the event. Does a large
insurance payout after a disaster, atone for the evil perpetrated? Does the
payer or receiver, feel blessed or healed, after the payment is made? Of course
not, in fact there is often a demonstration of greed and legal infighting
before a payment is made. God's presence is not apparent in these affairs
of men. If you do not call on God, how will He protect you? Insurance is a
social evil, because its very existence depends on evil being perpetrated by man
on man, without any reference to God. Insurance payments cannot take the
place of prayer or the Grace of God. If I lose everything in a 'disaster',
how will I live, how will I survive, how will I support my family? As Jesus
Christ tells us, "...accept, be patient, be faithful...", "...does not God feed
the birds of the air and the beasts of the field ...see the lilies of the field,
how they are clothed...". That's all very well you say, tell that to my
wife and family when my house burns down. No, get down to that insurance
office and pay the premium. If that is your attitude, and I bet it is,
then you have no faith in God to take courage from, and you have lost more than
your house. How can you believe in God, as you say you do, when you do not
follow the teachings of Christ? Any man can lose everything in this life, but
what is important is, does he walk with God or does he not? If he walks with God
he will be silent and at peace in the face of disaster; if he does not walk with
God, he will be screaming and shouting, threatening, and blaming. Which
type do we see most? Yes, sad isn't it?
In daily life it is often
very hard to define the "honest concept", or the "corrupt concept", one man's
meat is another man's poison. It often depends on 'where we are standing',
how we see the truth, because we see the truth without God. In God's truth
there is only one viewpoint, This is why Jesus said "...love thy neighbor as
thyself...", because often your neighbor is your enemy; even then, God's truth
applies, it remains the same, and does not change. To 'walk with God' you
may often have to 'love your enemy as yourself'. This is apparent when we
remember Christ's words as He was dying on the cross "...Father forgive them,
for they know not...", when the archangel Michael, confronted Satan, his
harshest words were, "the Lord rebuke thee".
If you understand this, your
decision is easy, and the way 'may' be hard. But the rewards, ah, the
rewards. In Revelations Ch 1, 2 & 3, Christ states the rewards to each of
the seven churches. Few though the words may be, every word is loaded.
They must be read with care, and considered deeply.
Revelations is the last book
in the Bible, the last written message of God, through Jesus Christ, to man.
Unlike any other book, it is WHOLLY the Word of God. It is concerned only
with the future from the moment it was written. Not a word is wasted, no
flowery language, no grey areas of debate; achievement and reward, crime and
punishment, and the coming of God's Kingdom in heaven and earth. The book
of Revelations has another unique quality, for it says that, "Blessed is he who
reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who
keep what is written therein; for the time is near".
If you are a Christian and
have not read Revelations, then do so without delay, particularly the first
three chapters. If you do not you may in ignorance continue to sin, and
then will be judged by your works (as we all shall). For those who are not
Christians, you must come to acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Saviour, and
accept His love and Sovereignty, or pass into the great tribulation. In
that day there will no longer be time to make your choice. If you fear
God, then seek Jesus, now.
The great tribulation,
described in Revelations is the last seven years of this earth as we now know
it. It is the time of the last attempt of the anti-christ to wrest power
from Christ; in reality it is the period that the anti-christ must undergo as
his final punishment and death for the murder of Abel, at the hand of Cain, and
the murder of Cain through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, thereby incurring
the curse of God on Cain's slayer; seven times the punishment of Cain.
Those who live in the great
tribulation and deny Christ, though they are the last to live, will be the first
to die. Those that die in Jesus' name, for His names sake will be raised
as Saints. When we realize that the horror of this seven year period could
well take place in our lifetime, if not tomorrow, we tend instinctively to shun
the thought, put it out of our minds. That is natural and human, but not
at all necessary. Jesus makes it quite clear in His letter to
Philadelphia, ". . .because you have kept my word of patient
endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial, which is coming on the whole
world...". God will not throw pure metal into the furnace; to what
purpose? Only impure metal goes in, so that the dross may be removed and the
last precious drops gathered.
No matter what your
religious beliefs at this moment are, accept Jesus now, follow His teaching,
walk with God, and you will not suffer the horrors of that day. Your
tribulation is now, overcoming the difficulty of obeying the teaching of Jesus
every day, in this materialistic world. You will have no true peace and
happiness until you do.
The Letters Of Revelations
Each of the seven letters of
Jesus to the seven churches, can be divided into seven distinct parts.
- Location
- Authority
- Virtues
- Faults
- Repentance and/or punishment
- Reward
- Invitation to understand
Location
The seven churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, are all situated
in a relatively small area, known in New Testament times as Asia, what is today,
the western half of Turkey. The seven locations were real and existed,
and the churches which Christ spoke to were real, and their faults and virtues
were real. This was the area where the ancient pagan religions of Assyria, Greece and Rome, all met and
were practiced, this was the throne of Satan. In those days people changed
their religion and Gods like a fashion, to fit the needs of their circumstances,
desires, wealth, health, or business; or simply to be part of the fashionable
'in crowd'. There were many living in this area who were, by tradition,
Jews, who saw in this new teaching of Jesus, a forgiveness and redemption from
their feelings of guilt for not adhering to the rigid discipline of the laws of
Moses. A discipline very difficult to maintain in that society.
There would also be many Gentiles disillusioned with the religions in vogue;
"I've tried everything, and nothing seems to work", is a very familiar
statement today, and equally so in those days. For these people to
discover the power of prayer through Jesus was as much a revelation to them in
those days as it is today. As this new religion made itself felt, it would
feel the reaction of the whole broad spectrum of man's religious beliefs and
needs, taboos and bigotries. In the places where it was embraced by the
rich and powerful (often for the wrong reasons), it would flourish, but with few
sincere believers, as in Laodicea; and yet about a hundred miles away in Smyrna,
the church would be persecuted to death, because there the rich and powerful did
not favor the new religion, their existing pagan worship kept them rich through
power of fear over the people. The wealth of this new church was in its
faith only. Smyrna and Laodicea may seem close by our standards of travel
today, but in those days they were five to ten, painful and expensive days
apart; separate worlds for the average person. So this was the environment
of Jesus Christ's new church, the place He chose to set its foundation and
starting point, right in the throne room of Satan; where the new rich embraced
it as a means to establish their own power over people and the poor embraced it
for the hope of salvation it offered. Some of the rich were sincere and
gave their wealth for the furtherance of God's purpose, and some of the poor
came to benefit materially from belonging to the church.
The human nature of the
seven churches was the same in the day it was founded, as it has been through
the ages, and as it is today. This nature is foreseen and expressed by
Jesus in His seven letters to the churches.
Authority
In Chapter 1 of
Revelations, John describes the vision of Christ, who he saw in the image of a
man, the Christ Jesus, known to John in life on earth, this same image of man
that John saw crucified on the cross. John recognized the Christ Jesus, as
no other man would have, in spite of His glorious appearance. The
description of the Christ in John's vision is symbolic of all the descriptions
of Christ in the prophets. For example, in Isaiah Ch 49 vs 6.
"He made my mouth like a sharp sword" is restated in John's vision. In
fact read on in Isaiah from Chapter 46 to 56; it describes Christ, the servant,
who He is, why He is, from where He came, and what He brings.
In Ch 11 & 12 of Isaiah, is
the description of the Spirit of God, and of Him who has charge of it. No
one who reads and understands the prophets of the Old Testament and the Gospel
of the New Testament, can fail to recognise the Saviour Jesus Christ in John's
vision; or fail to recognize the authority of the Spirit of God, which He holds.
It is not the purpose of
this book to rewrite the testament of Jesus and the prophets, but to draw
attention to some of the more important truths that many Christians, sincere,
believing, witnessing, Christians appear to miss or ignore. Acceptance of
God's authority in Christ may be enough for you, but how can you witness Christ
to others if you do not understand why you believe? Christ himself said that the
blind can only lead the blind into the pit. In the introduction to each
letter, Christ identifies Himself, by a part description of Himself to be found
in John's description of Him in Revs Ch 1, and also to be found in the prophets.
That part description of Himself to that church also indicates the nature and
time of His judgment on the members of that church who do not repent.
In the letter to Ephesus, Christ describes Himself as;
"The words of Him who holds
the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp stands".
In Zechariah Ch 4 vs. 10 we read:
"These seven (lamps) are the
eyes of the lord, which range through the whole earth".
Further on in Zechariah Ch 9 vs. 9:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter
of Zion! Shout aloud, 0 daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal
of an ass.
This prophecy of God through
Zechariah was fulfilled as we know, the truth of the words are proven, and so
is the prophecy of Ch 4 vs 10, by the same king, Jesus Christ, in the
establishment of the seven churches, beginning with Ephesus.
In the letter to Smyrna, Christ describes Himself as:
"The words of the first and
last, who died and came to life." Here Christ is stating His proven
authority of power over death. He is telling all Christians of all times
that if they face prison and death for His name they will also receive life from
Him who has power over life and death. Another interesting point, which we
will come to later is that none will suffer testing for more than 10 days.
In the letter to Pergamum, Christ describes Himself as:
"The words of Him who has the sharp two edged sword".
In Isaiah and again later in
Revelations, John's description of Christ as having a sharp two edged sword
issuing from His mouth, is used here by Christ, to tell those Christians who sit
on the fence that they are not playing safe, but their works are known to
Christ, and He has the power to command by the breath from His lips the end of
whole nations and peoples. Once that command is given, it is too late to
repent. All the might and power of man, and Satan in man, can be
eliminated in the twinkling of an eye by a word from Christ. It can happen
and will happen at the time decided by God. So look out, as I said before,
the warning period began in 1983.
In the letter to Thyatira, Christ describes Himself as:
"The words of the Son of
God, with eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze".
Here Christ declares Himself
the 'Son of God'. In His ministry on earth, Jesus would never come
right out and say 'I am the Son of God'. He would say "Who do you say that
I am" or ". . .what is mine is my Father's and what is my Father's
is mine..."; "....my kingdom is not of this earth, or my servants would be here to
save me...". He needed that His disciples should believe Him to be the Son
of God by His teaching and His works. Now that His ministry on earth is
complete and His church established, Christ has been given the power by God to
bring all men to judgment and remove all evil from God's creation. These
seven letters are a command, sent by the King of Kings and Lord of Creation.
This is He, who was punched, kicked, whipped, spat on, then nailed by His hands
and feet to a wooden cross and left to die slowly. If it were you, a man,
and not God, and you were given the authority, how long would you wait to take
vengeance, and how great would your vengeance be? Jesus is indeed God, and
God is Jesus, and the only way to God is through Jesus.
In the letter to Sardis, Christ describes Himself as:
"The words of him who has
the seven spirits of God and the seven stars".
This is almost a restatement
of the introduction in the letter to Ephesus. Christ, the sole controller
of the administration of the seven spirits of God on earth, and His authorship
of the letters of command to those churches.
In the letter to Philadelphia, Christ describes Himself as:
"The words of the holy one,
the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who
shuts and no one opens".
Here in this letter, Christ
states his authority over the nation of God's chosen people, the Jews. He
states His credentials, "...who has the key of David...", and the last part is
particularly interesting, "...who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no
one opens". To understand this statement, we have to look at; Isaiah Ch 22 vs 15;
In this prophecy against
Shebna, God questions why Shebna, the palace administrator, uses his office to
serve his own ends. God commands that Shebna be stripped of his office,
and all the rank and insignia of that office, and in his place Eliakim be raised
up and made administrator over the king's house. Although we know from a
later passage that Eliakim was in deed given the office of Shebna, and Shebna
reduced to a secretary, the real significance of the passage, is in the future
and foretells coming of Christ and His crucifixion, and also that the house of
God, Israel, will also be cut off.
vs 22. And I will
place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open and
none shall shut, and he shall shut, and none shall open.
As Eliakim was made chief
administrator over the king's house, so God made Jesus, chief administrator and
judge over God's house, over His chosen people. In this letter Christ is
speaking, particularly to Jews who have turned to Christ and suffer the backlash
from the so-called more orthodox Jews.
In the letter to Laodicea, Christ describes himself as:
"The words of the Amen, the
faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation".
This description, is three
steps, and at first would almost seem to be round the wrong way, but is in fact
looking back from the End to the Beginning of this world. The Amen, means
'it is finished'; the faithful and true, is a repeat of part of the description
of Christ when He appears on a white horse to defeat the beast, this is 'Christ
the Conqueror'; here in the third part, Christ describes Himself as 'the
beginning of God's creation', a unique description, which makes Christ the
embodiment of the whole of God's plan for the development of man, Christ is,
'the beginning of God's creation'. So it would appear that the church of
the 'end times', will have the nature of Loadicea, and is Christ's concern in
this letter, and is a grave warning. Repent before it is too late, the
time is very short. The beginning is coming.
The Virtues of the Churches
The virtues expressed to
each of the seven churches, when read collectively, are the fundamental rules
which each Christian must apply to his everyday life.
EPHESUS:
Toil, patient endurance, recognition of evil men
and false apostles; all in the name of Jesus. "Also you hate Nicolaitans".
SMYRNA: Tribulation, poverty, slander of those who
say they are Jews, and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.
To Smyrna Christ prophesies,
"Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be
tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto
death and I will give you the crown of life".
This prophecy and promise is
always in the future, and will hold true at any time for any Christian who faces
prison and death for the sake of the name of Jesus, and 10 days will always be
the limit of time to be suffered. How can we be so certain of this? After
all, 10 days is a very specific and exact space of time. The answer is
simple; in the book of Job, we read of God's conversation with Satan.
Satan, the accuser, said that anyone with Job's blessings would be faithful to
God, but if he had to suffer a little he would not be so faithful. So God
gave Satan permission to make Job suffer, BUT, God put very strict limits on
what Satan was allowed to do. Through all his trials, Job did not lose
faith and proved God right and Satan wrong. Therefore we can say with
utmost confidence that 10 days is a limit put on Satan by God. God knows
the works and hearts of his servants, Satan does not, and he never seems to
learn. Each time Satan tests God's servants, he advances one step nearer
to his own destruction. Each time a servant of God dies in His name, he
helps to bring an end to evil in God's creation. This is the patience and
endurance of the Saints.
PERGAMUM:
You dwell where Satan's throne is, you hold fast
the name of Jesus and His faith, even when one of you is martyred.
THYATIRA:
Christ says, I know your works, love, faith,
patient endurance. Your latter works exceed your first.
SARDIS:
In spite of little power, you have kept the word
of Jesus and not denied His name.
LAODICEA:
Be zealous and repent.
To summarize the virtues
expressed by Jesus in His letters, it is plain that in our everyday lives we
must put the love of Jesus above all else and follow His teaching. He
tells us to hold fast to His name and His love in the face of all obstacles,
threats, intimidation, even to death, be unbending and uncompromising.
The Faults of the Churches
EPHESUS: Abandoned the love you had at first.
SMYRNA:
No fault.
PERGAMUM:
Some hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught
Balak to put stumbling blocks before the Sons of Israel, that they might eat
food sacrificed to idols and practice
immortality. (Read Numbers, Chapters 23 & 24.) Some hold the teaching of
the Nicolaitans.
THYATIRA:
Toleration of Jezebel. The prophetess who
preaches immorality, and beguiles the servants of Christ to eat the food
sacrificed to idols. Some learn what are called the deep things of Satan.
SARDIS:
You have the name of being alive, and you are
dead. Your works are not perfect in the eyes of God.
PHILADELPHIA:
No fault.
LAODICEA:
You are neither hot nor cold. You say you
are rich and need nothing, not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor,
blind, and naked.
To summarize, the faults did
not take much space on paper, but they cover a whole lot of space out there in
the world. To the church of Ephesus,
Jesus says "...you have abandoned the love you had
at first". I used to think that God helped those who helped themselves,
and one should not call on God or bother Him until you were in real trouble.
Now I know better, that kind of thinking is totally wrong, it gives Satan so
much opportunity to get in and screw things up. You must put all your
faith in God's hands. Jesus has the complete answer to everything for you.
Let Him rule your house and life; He can do what is impossible for men.
The impossible then becomes possible for you. As a small child always runs
to its father for help, advice, security, to be shown how, for comfort and love,
this is the way to approach Jesus, the way to grow and learn in Him. This
is what He was telling the church of Ephesus. They were
getting so self important in running their church, they had forgotten they were
still children. If this all sounds like the ravings of an over excited
imagination conjuring up the fantastic, then let me remind you again; there is
nothing about Jesus Christ that is not fantastic. Hold on to that first
love, that beautiful love that only a child has; as a child, put your love of
Jesus above all else, even above your own child, if you love your own child.
What can you do for your child that Jesus cannot do better? If you have not
known Christ before, I can promise you that there is a whole new world of power
and love all around you. He is just waiting for you to ask. Get that
dragon off your back; you know what I am talking about, the older you get, the
bigger the dragon gets, and the heavier he gets. No matter what form he
takes in you, his name is always despair. Get rid of him today.
I have dwelt on this one and
only fault of Ephesus, because it is the first and foremost understanding of
Jesus and His teaching. It is the open door to salvation, without it
everything else is of no importance.
In Pergamum some hold the teaching of Balaam. Balaam,
the Prince of Sorcerers, was forced to talk to his donkey, and then bow down to
God. How can any thinking Christian be deceived into following a
philosophy such as his? But there are such people, who call themselves
Christians, who indulge in evil practices and superstition, and also in the
immorality of the Nicolations. They increase in numbers every day, either
because they have forgotten the first principle of Christianity or they never
really understood it.
In Thyatira Jezebel is the female version of Balaam.
False prophecy, immorality and lust, sorcery and total blindness to God.
The prophets tell us that all these practices will increase toward the end
times, in the days to come.
In Sardis they were alive in name only, again the first
principle of Christian teaching, must be forgotten to fall so far as Sardis.
No danger to Satan. There are long established churches today which fill
the same description.
Laodicea, the wealthy, the church of the latter days,
having power and influence, receives from Jesus the greatest scorn. If
these are your churches change them or leave them; support the few in them who
have not lost their patience and faith. Do not be complacent, look closely
at your church.
Repentance or Punishment
For all these faults, to be
found in any church anywhere, or any Christian anywhere, or any person
anywhere, for all these faults, there is only one remedy; to ask Christ for
forgiveness, approach Him as a small child approaches his father, and invite Him
into your life everyday. The food you eat is His body, the drink you drink
is His blood; as it gives life to your body, so Christ gives life to you.
That is the reason for repentance. Jesus begs us to repent. How can
you refuse?
It's hard to understand how
people can ignore the incredible rewards God has promised. Take a look at
what is happening in the world today; it is enough to make anyone who has never
heard of God, to start looking for Him. Yet the Bible tells us that in the
latter days there will be a great 'falling away'. So great is Satan's
ability to exploit the feeble will of man, that MOST of the people who live on
this planet, take the easy way, the human way, the way of the flesh, and will do
so right to the last hour. God tells us, that as He did with His chosen
people before, He will do again to all of mankind, and that is He will cause, or
allow them, to be 'blind', to remain blind. If they do not want to see,
then so be it. He has said all He is going to say. We must make our
choice. Now here in the letters to the seven churches, Christ clearly
states what will happen to those who make the wrong choice. It is no
wishy-washy, vague threat, wrapped up in a lot of mumbo-jumbo. It is a
clear statement of fact, of what is going to take place. So clear that any
fool can understand it.
To Ephesus,
"if you forget what you received at first, I will
remove your lampstand from its place".
That simply means you will
cease to be of His church. To that you cannot even say 'God help you'
because of course, He cannot.
To Pergamum,
He says, "repent or I come with the sword of my
mouth". Remember, that next time Jesus comes, it will not be as a humble
teacher as before, but as the Prince of Heaven, King of Kings, Lord of Creation,
Judge of all men. His word, one word, and you never existed, you were not
even created; if you are not in the mind of God, you do not exist. Now
some might say that that is not a bad deal. Have a real good time here and
then 'poof', nothing. Well, let me enlighten you, to be non existent,
forgotten by God is a long, long, long, painful process. It's in the book.
So get that false philosophy out of your mind. It is not the way to go.
Definitely not.
To Thyatira,
the Lord said, "Repent, or I come to war on the
unrepentant with the two edged sword". (Just the same as Pergamum.)
"Jezebel, because she would not repent, I will throw on a sickbed, her lovers
will go into a tribulation, and all her children will die".
This is very revealing.
There is nothing new about venereal disease among prostitutes, male or female,
but this implies sickness of epidemic proportions. Such diseases will cut
Jezebel off from her very reason for living, no one will touch her with a barge
pole. Are Herpes and Aids in addition to the age old diseases, just a
foretaste of what is to come?
Now here is a question for
all the sincere Christians who believe we all go into the great tribulation;
are we all unrepentant lovers of Jezebel? I invite you to read again and
understand Our Lord's letters to the seven churches.
To Sardis,
Jesus says, "strengthen what remains, there are
few among you that are not soiled, or I will come as a thief, for your work is
not perfect in the eyes of the Lord".
Jesus does not waste too
many words on this lukewarm church. It is as if He knows that many will
not change. When He comes without warning, it will be too late for them.
To Philadelphia, He says, "Hold fast to what you have, that no
one may seize your crown".
That does not need any
comment from me.
To Laodicea,
"...I will spew you out of my mouth, repent and
invite me in". That is pretty clear too, I think. It cannot be said
much plainer than that.
Reward
This is the section I have
been looking forward to. If what I have said before is hurried and
poorly written, it is because I have been impatient to get to this section, the
rewards Our Lord has promised us.
"For all the promises of God
in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us."
(2 Cor. 1:20)
"God is not a man, that He
should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and
shall He not do it or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" (Num
23:19)
"To him who conquers I will
grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."
This is
Christ's promise to all Christians who hold the knowledge and love of Christ
above all else.
God removed Adam from the
garden of Eden (paradise on earth), to prevent sin living forever. Now
because Christ has died on the cross, eternal life is now possible for any man.
God simply says, 'meet my conditions and it's yours.
Where is Satan's promise? He
does not promise anything. But he would have you believe, through his
agents here on earth, through his imitations of Christ's church, even using
Christ's name, that eternal life will be here on earth, and everyone can have
their hearts desire as long as they bow down and worship him. He is going
to con us into believing that he is Christ, and for a while he will be
successful because he will allow full reign to the lusts and greed of men.
Man will not know that he is sick until he feels the pain. A tooth can be
going bad for a long time before it starts to ache. But when man starts to
feel the pain, he will rebel against the anti-christ; then where are the
promises of Satan? Man will realize that there never were any promises from
Satan, and will turn to the promises of God, but for many it will be too late.
'They will not know how to meet God's conditions.
"Be faithful unto death, and
I will give you the crown of life... ... He who conquers shall not be hurt by
the second death". Here God tells us that if we constantly search out His
understanding, to meet His conditions, and strive always to walk with Him (and
it is not always easy), not only will He give us eternal life, but we will not
have to face the dreadful day of Judgment. I bet you cannot remember all
the good deeds you have done, nor can you list all your sins one by one.
Do you want to risk waiting until you stand before the throne of Jesus before
you find out what your score is? I can guess what my score would be. The
fact that most people in the crowd would have a score like mine, some even
worse, gives me no comfort what so ever. There is no way that I am going
to wait for that day. I have been working on my ticket for the First
Resurrection for the last ten months, and will keep working on it until the day
I die or the day of the Rapture, whichever comes first, and as things are going
these days, there is a good chance that either one could come first.
Up to now God has made one
promise, and upped it with a higher bid. I do not hear a word from
Satan's corner.
"To him who conquers I will
give some of the Hidden Manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new
name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it",
... Says
Jesus, in His letter to Pergamum.
If you take another look at
the 'faults' of Pergamum, or the faults of any of the churches, at first look it
might seem a big task to overcome. "Forget about me, I'm too far gone."
That's the statement of a man who is so far gone, he can afford to be honest.
He thinks the mountain is so high, there is no chance of climbing it. He
cannot even find the strength to get to his feet, never mind climb the mountain.
What he must understand is all he has to do is ASK, and he will be given the
strength to climb to his feet, and after the first few wobbly steps he will be
running like a new born colt. No one is too far gone, unless he is dead.
"...I will give you some of
the Hidden Manna..." Jesus told us that He was the "bread of life". In the
wilderness God showered manna on His chosen people that they might eat their
fill and be nourished. It was the 'bread of life' to those people on
earth. Christ is offering some of the bread of life in heaven. He is
offering part of Himself, for those who conquer Satan in their lives here on
earth. He offers part of His limitless power, understanding, knowledge,
goodness and authority in heaven. He offers us a chance to be part of His
strong right arm, His heavenly organization, for ever. The mind boggles.
" ...I will give him a white
stone..." I do not pretend to know what the full meaning of this is.
To me it means, a place, a position, a purity which can not be soiled, which
once established will stand for ever. "...with a new name written on the
stone which only the receiver knows...". To me, the new name will be the
purpose, the reason for existence, and the owner will answer to no one but the
One who gives the name and the stone, for no one else will know the name that is
written on the stone. In total, Christ is saying that, on earth we can be
part of Him through communion, but in heaven we can become part of Him and His
power and authority. He will make us true Sons of God.
I still do not hear anything
from Satan's corner. God himself does make one promise on Satan's
behalf (perhaps Satan is too shy to tell us himself), and that is that, he will
make ten men kings for one hour in return for their authority. I suspect
that they do not know it will be for only one hour. Such generosity, ten
men out of all the souls of creation. I can almost see Satan
squirming with embarrassment. Satan does not like to make promises,
because he has nothing to offer except death, and you would have a job to sell
that on any market. Satan is successful at it because he does not tell
you what he is selling, and you do not find out until you get home and unwrap
the package. So beware of the churches that sell you Christ, and put death
in the parcel.
Thyatira; read this letter
again. Jesus will judge you by what is in your mind and heart, no matter
what church you are. But to those who live in a 'Jezebel community' and do
not hold or take part in that community, on you Jesus will lay no other burden.
(It is burden enough.) "...only hold fast to
what you have, until I come..." Until I come; is the greatest promise of all.
The whole of God's creation is promised in those three words, not just the
earth, but heaven as well. Satan is already here and look at the mess we
are in.
"He who conquers and who
keeps my works until the end, I will give power over the nations, and he shall
rule them with a rod of iron, even as when earthen pots are broken in pieces,
even as I myself have received power from my Father; and I will give him the
Morning Star."
Do you see yourself as a
local king with a royal iron bar breaking bad people up like earthenware pots?
Power over nations implies that this will be in the Millennium reign of our
Lord. These are the nations of men still on earth and even though Satan is
bound for a thousand years, sin will still be hidden in the heart of man, a
carry over from this old world. God's attitude to evil is as unbending as
a 'rod of iron'. If you earn such a place in heaven as Christ promises,
you will rule by the standards of God, unbending and uncompromising in the face
of evil, with the power, authority, and wisdom of Christ Jesus, the Morning
Star.
Not only is Satan silent
now, I think he has left the room. He will be back though, you can bet on
that.
Philadelphia, no faults
expressed, all promises. This goes beyond the Millennium; here we have
promises for the new heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem. But
first, Christ says, we must hold fast to what we have, let no one seize your
crown. Let no one lead you off the path once you have found it. Hold
on tight to your faith in God, just as Job did through all his trials. If
you do this, Christ promises to keep us from 'the hour of trial, which is
coming on the whole world'. In the light of this promise of God, how can
any Christian believe that the Rapture will come after the tribulation, as I
have read in some commentaries. Did not Jesus say in a previous
letter, "...I will lay on you no other burden...". For a born again, accepting,
enduring, patient, Christian, this life is your tribulation. The last
seven years are for the unrepentant who do not call on the name of Christ.
"He who conquers, I will
make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it...".
If that sounds dull, think again. We cannot even begin to dream of the
untold beauty and joy of such an existence. To be at the very heart
and hub of God. There are no words to express the idea.
"...and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my
God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven, and my own new
name". What Jesus is saying is that we have the opportunity to become a
part of the very being of God. Words fail me...
Satan is death. The
thought makes me feel physically sick.
Laodicea; in these days its
nature is so familiar, and yet Jesus persists in His promises, never giving up
in the face of evil, never bending. He is knocking on the door.
Opportunity knocks, they say, well Jesus is our opportunity. Invite Him into
your heart
and share your food with Him, and allow Him to share your life; your reward will
be a seat with Him on His throne, just as He earned a seat on His Father's
throne.
Invitation to Understand
Christ offers the same
advice at the end of each of the seven letters, "He who has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches". To any Christian or non Christian,
the seven letters are the most important words in the Bible. They point
the way, the only way to salvation, to life. Let no one deceive you, THERE
IS NO OTHER WAY.
If you have read this book
this far, I praise your endurance; if you are just browsing and your eyes just
happened on these words, then I beg you to read the seven letters of Christ to
the churches, before you read this book. Compared to them this book is of
no importance. Read the first three chapters of Revelations every day and
each time you read it, it will lead you closer to an understanding of God.
An understanding of God
through Jesus Christ our sole purpose on earth. The urgency of Christ's
message increases with each passing day. If you think I exaggerate, pick
up any world news magazine or newspaper, recognize the speed of the population
explosion, the speed of increasing poverty, the speed of groups of nations
gathering into power blocks, the speed of inflation throughout the world, the
increasing lack of jobs, of space, of freedom, and increasing lack of
understanding of the first and greatest laws of God; to love God above all else,
with all your heart and all your soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
Consider these things with care. Just about anything you can think of that
is rapidly increasing today, is based on a philosophy or exists because of
conditions which are directly opposed to the teaching of Christ and the
precepts of God. Take a look, and judge for yourself, for ultimately, on
how you judge the world around you depends on your actions, and your actions
result in the judgment of God on you.
About the Author
John Michael Nugent had a
stroke and was near death. How close is near? He was consciously in the shadow
of death itself. That's near. He spent 15 years in the Royal Navy. He saw much
of the world and many of it's wonders. He worked in Saudi Arabia for 18 years
and became familiar with the customs of Islam. He has always been a student of
ancient history, peoples and their beliefs. He is an ardent student of Biblical
Prophecy.
If you have any questions,
comments or would like to share thoughts with the author, you can contact him at:
j.nugent38@sky.com
Copyright © 2000-2023 All Rights Reserved.
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