He established it and did not create a waste place, so what about Genesis 1:2?

Posted on 10/28/2022 by remso

Looking at the word wrath to find out if the earth is young or old might seem ridiculous, but I will try to unravel this great mystery for us. 

The story begins in Genesis 1:1, which says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

The phrase “in the beginning” is the Hebrew word rê’shı̂yth, which means the first in place, time, order, or rank. I could read this sentence in this manner, “in beginning,” God created. There is NO reference to the time spent doing this, nor does it limit God from doing more and other things.

Because we have accepted what our pastors said, without question, we do not challenge the ill-informed creation stories and do not understand or believe that the earth was perfect in its creation.

The prophet Isaiah backs up this assertion. 

“For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the LORD, and there is none else. “I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a waste place‘; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.” (Isaiah 45:18-19 NAS95)

The only assumption we are left with is that verse one demonstrates that the creation was done and it was good. 

So now we get to verse two and find this. 

“The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2 NAS95)

Whoa, stop right there. Something drastic happened between verses one and two, yet we deny it and ignore how or why this occurred.

Look at this phrase “the earth was formless and void.”

Formless is the Hebrew word. The Word Study Dictionary states this. tōhû: A masculine noun meaning formlessness or confusion. The exact meaning of this term is difficult at best since its study is limited to its relatively few Old Testament occurrences. It is used to describe primeval earth before the seven creative days (Gen_1:2); a land reduced to primeval chaos and formlessness (Isa_34:11; Isa_45:18; Jer_4:23).

Void is the word bōhû and, according to the “WSD,” implies “a masculine noun indicating void or emptiness. It depicts the state of matter after God had created it…”

It is evident that this earth was destroyed after God’s initial creation. I will say that I think Dr. Ken Hamm is doing the Christian community a great disservice by pressing intensely for a young earth created in 24 hours segments when the origins of the Genesis account, in conjunction with Isaiah 45:18, DO NOT support a six-day creation within 144 hours. I will also say that I do not know how Dr. Hamm orates this position, but I have experienced a couple of young earth advocates, and several of them went to his creation science museum and returned as proponents of a young earth.

As I am writing this, it occurs to me that this 144-hour time frame might apply if it was merely the installation of a relatively small garden in Eden and a general clean-up of the destroyed earth. But even that seems foolish.

So there had to be another force acting upon the earth, and there was.

“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.” Rev 12:12 KJV

Do a search for the word wrath, and you will find, depending upon the translation, that there are at least eleven references in Revelation alone. Most point to God as the originator of that wrath, but one of those passages is directly attributable to Satan, and you can see that above.

Wrath seems like such a simple word and easy to understand, and that is why few bother to look it up in Greek. The Strong’s concordance tells us that it is the Gk word thumos with a primary meaning of passion (as if breathing hard): – fierceness, indignation. One of the last options is the word wrath.

Webster’s dictionary defines PASSION as “the impression or effect of an external agent upon a body; that which is suffered or received. The feeling of the mind, or the sensible effect of impression; excitement, perturbation or agitation of mind; as desire, fear, hope, joy, grief, love, hatred…”

As you can see from the definition of passion, Satan was acting under the premise of receiving a wounding from God; and the agitation and hatred that brings.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8 NASB)

To understand this verse, I need to ask, to which point in time is Peter speaking?

I ask this because Jesus told us, while He walked this earth, that He beheld Satan fall like lightning, and standing among His disciples, He wasn’t talking about yesterday. He was speaking about a time much closer to creation. 

It is evident from this statement that this event where Satan fell happened long ago. Since we find Satan in the garden seducing Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, then it is safe to say Satan’s fall occurred at or before the garden creation. (This scenario with Satan’s fall has a wide variety of options and may play into the “Gap Theory” that is notable between Gen 1:1 and 1:2.) (Luke 10:18)

Alright, I went there and brought up the “Gap Theory,” so let’s pursue this for a few minutes.

Genesis, in most translations, opens in this manner, “In the beginning.” The problem is that this phrase is wrapped up in one Hebrew word – rê’shı̂yth. It means the first, in place, time, order, or rank.

The passage could easily be read “in beginning,” indicating a process and still making sense. Creating the heavens and the earth was the first thing God did; this opens the door to Him doing other things, and we haven’t made it past verse one yet.

What did God do? 

He created the heavens and the earth. 

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1 NASB)

Created – the Hebrew word used to express this creating was bārā’. “It is a verb meaning to create. God is the only subject of this verb. It is used for His creating: heaven and earth.” But it is also indicative of Him creating: humanity (Gen_1:27); the heavenly host (Isa_40:26); the ends of the earth (Isa_40:28); north and south (Psa_89:12 [13]); righteousness; salvation (Isa_45:8); evil (Isa_45:7).  (Word Study Dictionary) 

Did God make any mistakes?

No, and I will prove it to you. 

“For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited, “I am the LORD, and there is none else. “I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a waste place’; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.” (Isaiah 45:18-19 NASB)

Established is the Hebrew word kûn: According to the Word Study Dictionary, it is A verb meaning to set up, to make firm, to establish, or to prepare. The primary action of this verb is to cause to stand in an upright position, and thus the word also means fixed or steadfast.

Waste place is the Hebrew word tôhû. Used twice, it means to lie waste; a desolation (of the surface), that is, formlessness, confusion; figuratively a worthless thing; without form.

According to Isaiah 45:18-19, this is NOT what God created. “He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited.”

 And yet, what does Genesis 1:2 say? 

“The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2 NASB)

Obviously, something caused the earth to change. Some might try to tell you that this was a part of the creation process. For example, some believe that the planet and the heavens were formed from a hot spinning mass. However, based on what we see in the scriptures, especially Isaiah 45, that does not seem likely.

Formless, as used in Genesis, is the same Hebrew word we saw in Isaiah, tôhû – a worthless desolation. Void is the Hebrew word bôhû and means an undistinguishable ruin.

So, according to Isaiah 45, the earth was made in a manner appropriate for life, and the life of humanity, once that happens.

What does all that mean to you and me?

It means that something horrific happened between Genesis 1:1, where we see creation, and 1:2, where we find formless, void, and darkness. There is no reason to see this destruction as anything other than Satan being thrown to the earth. 

You should realize that there is NOTHING in scripture that defines how much time lapsed between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. If you hold to the idea that the earth, living things, and, in time, two humans were created in six, 24-hour days, then you are sadly deceived. For example, when Adam committed treason, God slaughtered an animal, specifically a lamb.

(I can tell you that because Abel knew how to make a proper sacrifice, and yet you – the reader, have NO indication that God told Abel, and Cain for that matter, how to do that. So our only logical assumption is that the clothing for Adam and Eve was made from lamb skins and that the lambs were used to teach Adam how to make a proper sacrifice, which he then had to share with the boys that were going to have to make their own sacrifices several years from this point.

And I want you to think about one more aspect of communication from God to man.

How did Eve know NOT to touch that particular tree in the garden?

We do not see God talking to Eve; we only see God speaking to Adam about the tree. Therefore, it would have been Adam’s position, as the one having dominion, to have shared that information with Eve.

Now, think about Satan saying to Eve, did God really say that? Now, think about Satan disparaging Adam and creating doubt that Adam told her the truth and was merely trying to control her; and he belittled God, for God would not have imposed such restrictions upon you.  A conversation built on these premises would have allowed Satan to deceive Eve. Remember that Adam is standing just off her shoulder and could have called down the power of heaven against this foolishness, but he said nothing.)

I have been around religious zealots long enough to hear every ridiculous argument against what I just said. That lamb had to go through the birthing process, and sorry, but that takes months, not hours. Look, this Bible is a Jewish book, and in the majority, even the Jews, did NOT interpret the creation as a six-day, twenty-four-hour format; therefore, neither should you.

Secondly, if you are trying to hold to six 24-hour days for the creation, what do you do with the fact that there was no time until the fourth day? (See Genesis 1:19)

The point here is that Satan, at some point, was thrown to earth, and that act created vast and encompassing ruination; and that is quite possibly what we see when we read Revelation 12:12, where it says, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.” So, in his great wrath, Satan trashed the place, which had to be repaired.

Job tells us that Satan was already here, walking about the heavens among the sons of God.

“Now on a certain day, when the sons of God came to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them. And the Lord said to him: Whence comest thou? (The NLT translation reads “Where have you come from?”) And he answered and said: I have gone round about the earth, and walked through it.”
(Job 1:6-7 DRB)

Then, Satan’s coming down to the earth predates the fall of humankind in the garden. I suppose this opens an entire other can-o-worms, but the point is that the planet got a makeover, or Adam walked among the earth and its animal life in a corrupted state without concerns. 

What do we have that might answer how Adam could have walked fearlessly among Dinosaurs (you cannot deny they were here)?

  • Adam, the man, was given dominion over the earth and all the animal life. He was God on this earth.

  • The only record of animals fearing humankind shows up after the flood. 

    “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. (Genesis 9:2 NAS95)

    Did you notice that fear is only one way, and they fear us? That tends to indicate that humans interacted with the animals. 

    Since an obvious assumption would be that the earth had all the beauty and horror one could imagine. Even Dr. Ken Hamm has animals on the ark exhibit that have long been extinct. So Adam might have needed to avoid tar pits, quicksand, and volcanic activity. And leads to another potential solution on God’s part.

  • The Garden.

    A garden looks different to various people, so when I traveled through the Arizona desert in America and stopped at the Petrified Forest, the displays indicated a lush tropical environment, which is a garden to me. This suggests that the entire planet was a garden. With the destruction that came, it may have been necessary for God to construct a special one for Adam.

So then, this great wrath of Satan, how is it demonstrated?

In the form of trials and tribulations, that wrath is a regular part of the believer’s life.

Jesus told us that we would have tribulation in this world, and we are certainly a part of the world. 

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
(John 16:33 NASB)

A secondary consideration is that we who are followers of Christ are in Christ and therefore look and act like He did.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
(1 Peter 5:8 NASB)

A famous passage exhibiting the wrath of the dragon (one of Satan’s names) can be found in Revelation 12.

 “And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. (16) But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. (17) So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
(Revelation 12:15-17 NASB)

I firmly believe that the woman is Israel. This identification would be entirely acceptable because of: the time period – a period in which God is pouring out His wrath upon Israel for their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, their unbelief, and their idolatrous ways.

We should have figured out by now that Satan is on the rampage – dishing out his own version of wrath, but do we know why? 

The answer is yes. Initially, Satan is attacking the Jews, the woman’s children.

This fight was initiated in the Garden shortly after the fall.

“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
(Genesis 3:15 NLT)

Hostility between Satan’s offspring and the woman’s. I will leave you to figure out who these outstanding citizens are. However, because God allows those receiving Christ to be grafted into the vine, the draw effected by the Holy Spirit will continue up to the “great white throne” as multitudes will sincerely acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. Before the millennial reign, they, too, will become targets of Satan’s followers. The statement that spells out the reason for the attack in Revelation 12:16,17.

“But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 12:16-17 NAS95)

The age of the earth is indeterminate, and an early church father, Origen (AD 185-254), wrote in his book, On First Principles, chapter V, that decay has been in effect in the natural world since the creation of the universe. We have also seen that death and chaos may have played a role in Adam’s surroundings because of Satan’s wrath; and yet Adam walked the earth fearlessly. One of the proofs of that is the statement that God made to Eve, “I will greatly multiply your pain and your travail; in pain you shalt bring forth children.” A statement like this makes NO SENSE unless she had borne children without pain.

So, with the acknowledgment that Eve had previously born children before the garden incident, it becomes easier to understand where Cain obtained his wife; why there was a “city” called Nod; and why Cain thought that others would kill him.

Understanding that the earth has been here for an indeterminate amount of time allows you to comprehend that there was a perfect creation, as attested to by God, out of the mouth of Isaiah and that something cataclysmic happened to change all of creation. It is easy to understand that Satan’s expulsion from his place of prominence was the event that destroyed the creation, and Genesis 1:2 shows God putting it back together.

Now whether the earth was a perfect sphere in which a mist watered the entirety of the planet is irrelevant. I don’t know about you, but I can look at the mountains covered with snow and see them as majestic. The oceans are still a fascination to me, and I love to catch fish. Deserts have their own strange beauty to them, and anywhere I can find a tree for shade quickly becomes my new favorite place. I can see God in all of them, and it matters not how long they have stood against time because any day now, my Jesus is coming back to take His bride home.

I found Him and accepted the fact that He wanted us to be His. The obstinate and foolish reject that idea. If you are NOT following Jesus, then you are following the destroyer, and you are following him to his destiny, hell. Why you would think that is attractive or intelligent is beyond me, especially when there is a home in the Father’s arms where love and peace will reign forever.  

The idea of an old earth has been with me for about 17+ years now, but along this journey, I have been met with derision. 

I have never heard a good argument to dissuade or disprove my beliefs. Still, my religious opponents go after the “gap theory” because there is no clear biblical backing for a gap. Yet, those choosing to fight against that gap lean heavily upon the idea that the creation all happened within 144 hours. I have never heard an adequate explanation of why there are dinosaurs or why those dinosaurs are billions of years old. One answer thrown at me expressed that God sped up time. Ah, but only to enhance your theory while ignoring others more intelligent than you. So that did not fly.

About eight years ago, the church I was attending had asked Dr. Hugh Ross to come and speak to our men’s group. Since he had just finished a seven-year study at his church on the book of Revelation, he was now available. I had become aware of Dr. Ross several years before this when a lady “friend” of mine told me that her atheist, science-teaching father had come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ by reading one of Dr. Ross’s books about the creation. 

I remember tears rolling down my cheeks as the Holy Spirit affirmed in me, through Dr. Ross, things I understood from scriptures, but few else would pay any attention to. To be honest, these thoughts became fodder for Satan to bring doubts. That day, listening to Dr. Ross was monumental, and I wanted to shout because I became more convinced about what I saw in Genesis 1. Sadly, several men in attendance openly criticized Dr. Ross, not to his face but behind his back, and he was only a few feet away.

Really, are we that despicable? Apparently, the answer is yes.

Fast forward to 2022, when the subject of the Ark Experience in Kentucky comes up. Again, it seemed like an exciting and harmless topic, and it was until one in the group had to add that they had also gone to the Creation Science Museum and how they were now proponents of a young earth; and how all this came from the mind of Dr. Ken Ham.

Who is Dr. Ken Ham?

According to Wikipedia, “Dr. Kenneth Alfred Ham is an Australian Christian fundamentalist, young Earth creationist and apologist, living in the United States. He is the founder, CEO, and former president of Answers in Genesis, a Christian Apologetics organization that operates the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. “

Apparently, Dr. Ross had encountered harsh criticism from several religious zealots within the scientific community. Two groups, the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) and the Bible-Science Association (BSA), were the most vocal in opposition to what Dr. Ross began teaching in churches. In Dr. Ross’s book Creation and Time, he details in chapter eight how Henry Morris, the founder, and president of ICR, stated that “The continued insistence on an ancient earth is purely because of the philosophic necessity to justify evolution and the pantheistic religion of eternal matter.” i

Dr. Ross, on page 82 of his book Creation and Time, writes,

“To John Morris, evolutionism is ‘an unmitigated evil,” the philosophical root of “fascism, racism, Marxism, social Darwinism, and imperialism.” In his view, the “modern ills of promiscuity, homosexuality, abortion, humanism, new-age pantheism, etc.,” all “flower from the same evil root.” ii

Dr. Ross says, “in case any Christian fails to recognize the theorem, old-earth beliefs = evolutionism, evolutionism = unmitigated evil; therefore, old-earth beliefs = unmitigated evil. (John?) Morris calls the old-earth view “anti-Biblical” and “anti-theistic” and adds that “there can be no justification for a Christian adopting the old-earth concept.”

Dr. Ross goes on to say that “Henry Morris began to voice these opinions long before his son did. In a book entitled The Long War Against God, the elder Morris comments on social disintegration:”

“The failure of Bible-believing Christian churches and schools to aggressively defend and promote true biblical creationism [i.e., young- earth creationism] is a major cause of the takeover by evolutionary humanism of our entire society. …” iii

On page 83 of Dr. Ross’s book Creation and Time, he conveys that “Dr. Ken Ham of the ICR makes similarly severe charges against old-earth creationists.” On pages 84 and 85, Dr. Ross tells us that Ken Ham’s view is that “the old-earth view of creation destroys the basis of the Gospel message and the message of redemption.” iv

Dr. Ross points out that the Bible-Science Association agrees with Dr. Ken Ham’s assertions by saying that [Old-earth] theology denies the central teaching of Christianity … and rejects the connection that scripture establishes between sin, death, and Christ’s atonement. …In [this] theology, death is natural. Death was a reality for millions of years before man ever arrived to sin. This leaves Christ’s death on the cross as, at best, well-meaning, but besides the point.”v

I am NOT an educated Theologian, and my experiences with a couple of Theologians have been less than pleasant. However, it feels as if I have been a Christian all my life, and until I was about 23 years old, I was content to have others tell me what the Bible says. I am now 68, and for 45 years, I have been reading the Bible on my own, asking God some hard questions, and learning about God’s nature and character, yet I am always learning or having something revealed to me by the Holy Spirit. To have someone accuse me of being a false teacher simply because I can understand that the earth is old borders on blasphemy to me. Many of these young earth detractors are not content with merely calling us false teachers, even though I have never, in a group setting, attempted to teach an old-earth doctrine; I leave that to the scientists. But I have brought up the subject when I look up the Hebrew word rê’shı̂yth, which I find in Genesis 1:1, where it says, “In the beginning” God created. A simplistic read has my mind thinking that it was said and done. The problem is that the Hebrew implies “The first thing” God did. The logical approach is to assume that there would have been a second thing, and that is the direction the Jewish reader goes when reading Genesis 1:1. I would never have known that if I had not stopped to read with the intent to understand. The idea of an old creation is not new to me, but it has expanded how I look at the creation, and none of this diminishes what I know about God but magnifies His power and authority.

I posted this because it bothers me that we, the church think it is necessary to fling such caustic abuse at each other. I was raised in an environment where my religion was deemed better than yours. All this became more noticeable since 2020 and the lousy mask mandates. For me, this wasn’t about some form of influenza, it was about forced mask mandates, and those mandates suddenly infiltrated a faith-laden church body.

A friend of mine persistently says, what would Jesus do?

I can tell you that He fearlessly touched lepers and others and healed them. Friends shunned my wife and I at church when we refused to wear a mask during worship, as Governor Newsome illegally ordered. One dear lady from church, which I had known for several years and always had horrific colon issues and was quite frail. Throw the mask issue into the mix, and suddenly she could not let you near her. But think about these actions and how we lived before the mask mandates, which are gone now unless you go into a medical establishment. You could have had any number of diseases, and how would any of us know it unless you are sneezing all over people, like the thoughtless person in the other line at Walmart who sneezed on several of us – that really happened before Covid.

Oh, by the way, I lost a brother to Covid. He got infected because an attendee at their small church came in one night, and my brother, one of the pastors, went to greet him. Unfortunately, the man had an active case of Covid and coughed on my brother and the other pastor. My brother, who had other health issues, did not recover.

I have given you information and names, not because you need to take torches and rakes and storm their bastions, but because you need to know that people that you deem to be solidly grounded and sane are highly capable of adopting bizarre, emotionally based, false teachings, and denounce you if you disagree. You need to get your head into your Bible and study to understand. Let’s assume that you choose not to study the Word and, therefore, not make any changes in your life. Will you go to hell? No, but you will be fodder for a world gone mad and Satan’s demons. Why would you want to go that route?

i Morris, Henry M., “Recent Creation Is a Vital Doctrine,” Impact 132 (June 1984), page iv.

ii Morris, John, “How Can A Geology Professor Believe That the Earth is Young?” page d.

iiiMorris, John, page d.

ivHam, Ken, “Billions, Millions, or Thousands – Does It Matter?” Back to Genesis 29 (May 1991), page b.

vBSA editors, page 12

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Will you destroy all the residue of Israel in pouring out of your wrath upon Jerusalem?

Posted on 10/22/2022 by remso

In looking at some older posts in a folder called “Questions that need an answer,” I found this one dated 04/2019, where a friend was having a meltdown about the wrath of God. 

Sometime later, in talking with an acquaintance about eschatology, that brother in Christ angrily said, there is no wrath. I quickly understood that his problem was a matter of terminology. Still, it was also evident that this “intelligent” man had never read the Bible (His church background had been Episcopalian, and he had been content to let someone tell him what the Bible said.) 

On the other hand, the person who originated this discussion felt that we all deserved God’s wrath. I had said to him, Is it possible that you have ascribed God’s wrath to Satan based upon Revelation 12:12, where it says, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath?” As I recall, he did not have a reasonable answer and insisted that we must sustain God’s wrath. I can tell you that this is NOT a true statement, and I will substantiate this with the Word of God.

Search for the word wrath, and you will find, depending upon the translation, that there are at least eleven references in Revelation alone. Most point to God as the owner or originator of that wrath, but one of those passages is directly attributable to Satan alone.

“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.” Rev 12:12 KJV

Wrath seems like such a simple word and easy to understand, and that is why few bother to look it up in Greek. The Strong’s concordance tells us that it is the Gk word thumos with a primary meaning of passion (as if breathing hard): – fierceness, indignation. One of the last options is the word wrath.

Webster defines PASSION as the impression or effect of an external agent upon a body; it is also that which is suffered or received. The feeling of the mind, or the sensible effect of impression; excitement, perturbation or agitation of mind; as desire, fear, hope, joy, grief, love, hatred. The eloquence of the orator is employed to move the passions.

As you can see from the definition of passion, Satan was acting under the premise of suffering or receiving a wounding from God; and the agitation and hatred that brings.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8 NASB)

To understand this verse, I have to ask, to which point in time is the narrator speaking?

I ask this because Jesus told us, while He walked this earth, that He beheld Satan fall like lightning. It is evident from this statement that this event happened long ago. Since we find Satan in the garden seducing Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, then it is safe to say Satan’s fall occurred at or before the garden creation. (This scenario with Satan’s fall has a wide variety of options and may play into the “Gap Theory” that is notable between Gen 1:1 and 1:2.) (Luke 10:18)

So then, this great wrath of Satan, how is it demonstrated?

That wrath is a regular part of the believer’s life. 

Jesus told us that we would have tribulation in this world, and we are certainly a part of the world. 

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
(John 16:33 NASB)

A secondary consideration is that we who are followers of Christ are in Christ and therefore look and act like He did. 

A famous passage demonstrating the wrath coming from the dragon (one of Satan’s names) can be found in Revelation 12.

 “And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. (16) But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. (17) So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
(Revelation 12:15-17 NASB)

I firmly believe that the woman is Israel. This identification would be entirely acceptable because of: the time period – a period in which God is pouring out His wrath upon Israel for their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, their unbelief, and their idolatrous ways.

We should have figured out by now that Satan is on the rampage – dishing out his own version of wrath, but do we know why? 

The answer is yes. Initially, Satan is attacking the Jews, the woman’s children. This fight was initiated in the Garden shortly after the fall.

“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
(Genesis 3:15 NLT)

Hostility between Satan’s offspring and the woman’s. Who these outstanding citizens are, I will leave it for you to figure out.

However, because God allows those receiving Christ to be grafted into the vine, the draw effected by the Holy Spirit will continue up to the “great white throne” as multitudes will sincerely acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. Prior to the millennial reign, they, too, will become targets of Satan’s followers. The statement that spells out the reason for the attack in Revelation 12:16,17.

“But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
(Revelation 12:16-17 NAS95)

We do not know the methods or how extensive this attack on the tribulation believers will look like; what we do know, according to Revelation 6:8, is that one-quarter of the earth’s population will die. Although we do not have the false prophet in his full role because of chronological timing, the pressure against followers of Christ is most likely increasing. I said we don’t know what this organized killing of “Christians” will look like because Revelation 6 indicates that many will deny the god of the beast (Allah). Since the scriptures DO NOT spell out the method of death or the speed at which that must be done, these people may not have time to prepare elaborate statements in which they profess their newfound love of God over Allah.

Perhaps God will understand the heart of the individual at that moment, where the denial of Allah will be taken as the alternative, acceptance of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We have the “thief on the cross” as an example. We assert and assume that this thief just became aware of Jesus, but read the entire story, and you will come to understand that there was much more going on in the man’s heart, and Jesus saw that and said, “this day you will be with Me in paradise.”

———————–

Let’s assume that we have exhausted the wrath of Satan. Now let’s consider God’s wrath for a moment. 

If I did not say it earlier, let me mention it now. At about the same time that my friend was trying to convince me that we must endure God’s wrath, a brother in Christ who would not read his Bible was content to rely upon what his former Episcopalian priest had told him, and angrily retorted to me, there is no wrath from God!

To say something like this demonstrates that all you heard from your priest was, God is Love, and He is, but if that priest said God, like a parent, will correct His children; and, as Israel has done since leaving Egypt, repeatedly ignoring God’s instruction, then God will move His reproofs to the next level and bring the wrath, you did not or could not hear that. In chapter eight of his book, Ezekiel – the prophet, sees a vision while seated with elders at his house. In the vision, Ezekiel is shown the Son of Man/Jesus, but he is also shown the elders committing abominations with idols in their hidden and secret places. Judgment and wrath are coming because of these practices, and don’t think for a second that they are not still committing abominations because they are; wrath will come because of these things and others.

Since God often uses others to carry out His wrath, we see God in the ninth chapter of Ezekiel saying,

“Draw near, O executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.“

One group of executioners was the Assyrians.

This One will be our peace. When the Assyrian invades our land, When he tramples on our citadels, Then we will raise against him Seven shepherds and eight leaders of men. They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, The land of Nimrod at its entrances; And He will deliver us from the Assyrian When he attacks our land And when he tramples our territory. (Micah 5:5-6 NAS95)

Suppose you jump forward in time to Revelation chapter seven, where we see the seals being opened and God’s wrath and punishment playing out. In that case, 144,000 Jewish young men are marked with a protective mark on their foreheads, while others are violently slain – older men, young men, maidens, little children, and women. These same destroyers will defile the temple. 

Ezekiel asks, “Are You destroying the whole remnant of Israel by pouring out Your wrath on Jerusalem?” The Jews, during the time of wrath, will be asking this very question. The answer Ezekiel receives goes like this, 

“And it came to pass, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord Jehovah! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy wrath upon Jerusalem?”
Ezekiel 9:8 ASV

The thought continues, only I switched translations because the terminology is more appropriate.

“The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with blood, and the city is full of perversion; for they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see!’ “But as for Me, My eye will have no pity nor will I spare, but I will bring their conduct upon their heads.”  (Ezekiel 9:9-10 NASB)

The identification of the woman as Israel should prompt you to ask, who else is involved in this mire called God’s wrath, we call the tribulation?

We see Israel as the woman in Revelation 12:16,17. Like many of you, I assumed that the parable of the ten virgins was indicative of the church. I was convinced of this because, for years, I sat next to many of them. They may have brought one of their many Bibles to church that day – they make a handy seat saver, but they never open the thing. The ten virgins show us that half the virgins (a significant reference) are unprepared.

Does that mean they did not really care?

We are not given a direct answer to that question; and so we assume that fifty percent of the “Church” will miss the moment when the Church is called to the wedding and, therefore, have to endure this time of wrath, along with many of those deceived by the cult religions.

I might be completely wrong in this assumption, and here is why.  

First, since this Bible, we esteem, is a Jewish book, we may need to throw out this assumption because we are Gentiles. If it applies to us, it is because we have been adopted. 

Secondly, Jesus told the disciples and, therefore, us that He and the Father would never let us out of His hand.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29 NAS95)

If you have given yourself to Him, then you are His, and He is NOT letting go of you, and this is one of the basics that feed into the idea of eternal salvation (I am becoming more convinced of this daily.) If you insist on scoffing at the possibility of eternal salvation, it is because scoffers see this like grace and those who think they can live promiscuous lives without repercussions. Those repercussions are actual and come while we are here on the earth. But if you believe that “cheaters” will be burned up at the Bema seat of Christ, you are wrong, for Christ took all the wrath upon His own body so that we don’t have to.

“For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. …”
(Colossians 3:3-4 NAS95)

In a Biblical world, where there must be at least two witnesses, this is a taste of the immense amount of evidence substantiating eternal security. By the way, my security is in Jesus and His ability to carry out His promises.

The third group I see included in the time of wrath is the nation of Israel and, by extension, the Jews in general. 

We understand from scripture that the veil that blinds all who are left (those not caught up in the snatching away of the church) will be lifted, and the number of Jews that will take a stand for Jesus will be remarkable. But, unfortunately, if you are left on the playing field, where they bring out the mowers, turn on the sprinklers, and turn out the lights, you will suffer – including being slain because you choose to hold on to Jesus Christ as your Lord.

And lastly, there will be the nations in general. Included in this number are those giving their allegiance to Jesus Christ. Many will be from Muslim countries as they, along with people from every nation and religion, will have the veil lifted from their understanding. I have already read testimonies where Jesus has come to many in a dream or a vision. In one case, Jesus repeatedly returned to a Muslim man until the man finished writing out the Gospel of John. One of these people interacted with me, of all places, at a Halloween parade, and this man told me how Jesus had come to him in Iran, which, in time, he had to flee from. Eventually landing in France, a man begins to share with him, in Aramaic, the exact scriptures that Jesus had told him about in the visions. From that point, his life changed. 

Since the subject is the wrath of God, even though some deny that there is any wrath. Let’s get back to that.

The word wrath appears 183 times in the NASB Bible; 11 references are found in Revelation.

“Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;” (Revelation 6:15-16 NASB)

Surprisingly, these atheists comprehend that it is the wrath of God.

Revelation 14:9-10 speaks about those who take the mark of the beast, worship the beast, and worship the image of the beast. We are told that these will drink the wine of the wrath of God.

“… “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”
(Revelation 14:9-10 NASB)

Let’s close this look at wrath with this passage from Deuteronomy.

“Now the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, when they see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it, will say, ‘All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’ “All the nations will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?‘ “Then men will say, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. ‘They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them. ‘Therefore, the anger of the LORD burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’”
(Deuteronomy 29:22-28 NASB)

So, God’s anger is a real and documented thing. Telling me, “it is NOT!” only demonstrates your foolishness. Rejecting Jesus will cause you to be thrown into a time of wrath, where you will be overthrown and killed if you do not follow after Him. But since the time of grace will be over, it appears that being killed because you are a follower of Christ is your only other option.

My suggestion, grown a backbone now.

Posted in 1 Peter, bible study, courage, devour, prowls, Revelation, roaring lion, Satan, sober spirit, the word of their testimony, Tribulation, war, wrath. | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

They are not that high-tech, are they? Revelation 13:16,17.

Posted on 10/16/2022 by remso

 “ It (the false prophet – also referred to as a beast) 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 or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.” Revelation 13:16-17 (Emphasis mine)

If you think about how Islam deals with infidels, they are not that high-tech, are they?

I say that because, for the longest time, we were subjected to watching the beheading of Isis captives and an American citizen like Nick Berg – who was an American freelance radio tower repairman who went to Iraq after the United States invasion of Iraq. He was taken hostage and eventually beheaded on public television. Others have been shot in the head, and some have been hanged in public squares.

I have been watching how Islam treats people for several years now and decided to do a little research to see if the Quran prescribed the sword as the unique method of death for infidels. I can’t say that I found that directive, but it is clear killing infidels is communicated.

If you attempt to research this for yourself, you will find the obligatory rebuttals to these passages from the Quran. In their rebuttals, they will tell you that Muslims are only to kill if attacked. It would seem that even an oral statement, especially one like this, in which my statements could be deemed blasphemy against Allah, constitutes an attack. Oh yes, the Quran tells them that deception is an elevated form of Jihad; and from what I understand, Allah is openly stated as the greatest of deceivers. So take that for what is worth. So, when they stand in defense of orders to kill, we might need to perceive what they say as nothing more than an attempt at deception.

While the next few lines may not speak to the method of death, it does speak to how serious they are about killing you.

From the website https://www.markalanwilliams.net/post/2017/01/02/koran-says-to-kill-infidels-bible-doesnt.

“SO, LET’S LOOK AT WHERE THE KORAN SAYS TO KILL INFIDELS AND THEN THE FACT THAT THE BIBLE DOES NOT TEACH THE SAME.”

1. The Koran says to kill infidels.

Note: an “infidel” means “a person who does not believe in religion or who adheres to a religion other than one’s own.”
Synonyms are unbeliever, agnostic, atheist, pagan, idolater, and heretic.

Here are passages from the Koran that teach Muslims to kill infidels (note: a sura is like a chapter reference):

“But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem [of war]; but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful” (Sura 9:5).

“Fight those who believe not in God nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by God and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, [even if they are] of the People of the Book [Christians and Jews], until they pay the jizya [tribute] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” (Sura 9:29).

“Prophet! Make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal sternly with them. Hell shall be their home, evil their fate.” (Sura 66:9)

Two surahs could potentially be used to provide a justification for beheading in the context of war:(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beheading_in_Islam#Beheading_in_Islamic_scripture)

When the Lord inspired the angels (saying) I am with you. So make those who believe stand firm. I will throw fear into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Then smite the necks and smite of them each finger. (8:12)

Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until, when ye have routed them, making fast of bonds; and afterward either grace or ransom ’til the war lay down its burdens. (47:4)

There is much more than this, but I am trying not to bore you.

This idea that outsiders cannot work freely in an Islamic-controlled land is not a new concept.

Look at what the Qur’an says:

“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” Qur’an (9:29)

So, if you submit or are subdued and pay the Jizya tax, then you can live in relative freedom; otherwise, no.

Having been told by a “brother” at church that he was NOT interested in extra-biblical literature, and I have shoved a good deal of this type of literature down your throat, then let me show how this applies and aligns itself with scripture.

“And he (He is the false prophet. Islam believes this to be their version of Jesus, and they believe that he will be of the lineage of Aaron and, therefore, entitled to be the high priest in the Jewish temple.) causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves (With the arrival of the vaccines do you believe that people like Bill Gates had that deadly concoction injected in their bodies? Of course not, after all, they have to run this great reset, that Klaus Schwab refers to as the fourth industrial revolution where humans become bio machines due to the ingredients in the vaccinations and further upgrades,) to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.”
(Revelation 13:16-17 NASB) (Emphasis mine)

I never would have guessed that even the great and rich will have to comply.

But what if this mark is not that high-tech, and Islam, who may have control at this point, may have their own simple idea of a mark.

The Jews, forced into the ghettos of Poland, were given marks, and they were not allowed to do

A crowd marked as Jews

anything without the yellow star that said Juden on them. Few realize that there were many colors used to denigrate people groups under the direction of the Nazis.

A puzzling aspect of this prophetic word is the reference to this 666 indicator and how it is the number of a man. For a moment, I thought Walid Shoebat sounded good, as he described how it looked like the Arabic symbols meaning there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger. I am not sure, and I am not willing to play with Gematria. So if there is one thing in Revelation that throws me for a loop,codex vaticanus for 666 comparison it is this 666 stuff. We already know it is a man; I am confident that it will be someone fulfilling the role of the Mahdi; they will head the restored Islamic caliphate, but who it is, is anybody’s guess. For a few minutes, I thought Principe Erdoğan of Turkey was going to take the lead in this role, but I now lean toward former President Barack Obama. We should not rule him out.

The passage reads:

“This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”

Contextually, John had just finished speaking about the image of the beast being set up, but as I said, we have too many options to define this as yet.

Your best bet is to stay ready on God’s side. Start by having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You do that by turning your life over to Him and asking Him to come to be the center of your life. Then work on trimming off the bad fruit you have grown. Jesus Christ knows how to do that.

Posted in Thoughts on scripture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

He will force the world to take the mark.

Posted on 10/14/2022 by remso

Considering how peculiar this “beast” is, what kind of image would you make for it?

Perhaps you could make a portrait of it and focus on the “eyes”; since scripture tells us that “it” is given a mouth, then maybe that is a good starting place.

There is a problem, as I recall, and that is that Islam detests all expressions of art. Evidence for this could be seen as the United States, under the direction of “President” Biden, tucked its tail and abandoned Afghanistan and many of the people who had allied with us. The Taliban swooped in, or maybe they were already there, waiting for their opportunity to emerge. Well, they emerge did, and one of the first things they did was to destroy music schools, crush musical instruments, and beat the youths that were there to learn.

Did you actually believe that they would allow expressions of art, a symbol of American influence and freedom, to flourish?

Not a chance; and so I do see how they would be thrilled with this “Jewish high priest” making an image and commanding everyone to worship it, but then there are those miracles that the false prophet, or as the Muslims will call him – Jesus, performing the same miracles that the two witnesses performed.

Everyone who is still alive (I say this because there has been a prolific and deadly onslaught against people, in addition to the outpouring of God’s wrath from above. It would probably be safe to say that half the population could be dead by this time.) and aware of what has been going on would know that you can’t do things like the false prophet has done unless you are empowered (Ah, but by what?). To the Muslims, it will seem as if this “high priest” turned Muslim is empowered by Allah.

Not so clear, is it?

Whatever this convert to Islam decides Allah should look like, he will make an image of it and will demand that all the inhabitants of earth worship this thing that now talks.

Let’s assume that many of you have never been to Disneyland. There, they have a place called the Haunted Mansion. As you walk to the “doom buggy” that will take you through the attraction, paintings follow you with their eyes. In a short distance, you come into a room with a ladies head in a glass ball, and she talks eerily to the audience; tombstone heads come alive, sort of, and sing; graves open and characters sing to you; and, there is a grand ballroom where ghostly characters dance in a classical style to some organ music. Every time I go through it, I try to figure out how they did that. It’s really not much different from an illusionist’s act, where misdirection keeps you from seeing the apparatus that makes it all work.

He will force the entire world to take the mark and worship the beast.

Back in 2017, I could see how Islam might have dominion over the Middle East, but you would never be able to enforce this nonsense over a Modern nation.

But what have we seen in the last couple of years?

I used to think that it would be impossible to effectively force the world to worship a man or an image and take some form of a mark, but the years 2020 through 2022 have demonstrated that most of the population can be herded like sheep and made to believe that they have to comply with the demands of some cackling governing body, and inject multiple versions of some poison into their bodies without question.

We also experienced an Islamic invasion, first in the European nations, and then President Barack Obama (he was the President in 2017 when I wrote this) took multitudes of them into this nation. Thousands of people, many of whom we know, were interspersed among veteran Jihad fighters, and this invasion is a form of Jihad/warfare. Combine that with Islam’s gradual and intentional infiltration of our governing bodies, like school boards and congress (another form of Jihad), where they are making quiet inroads into establishing Sharia law as the law of the land (consider Detroit, Michigan, and a few others). Once they establish a strong foothold, they will, under Sharia law, give themselves free rein to slaughter outsiders – infidels; and it will be the unified call from the Mosques that directs them.

Assuming that the rapture has happened, what has been going on in Jerusalem?

God sends his two witnesses.

Let me point something out that most do not catch.

“And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky so that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days, some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.” (Revelation 11:3-12 ESV)

There is speculation on who they are, but is it important that we know that?

What is important is what they do, what they say, and when they get here. I happen to believe they show up right after the rapture, and here is the significant reason – they stop the rain.

Why is that a big deal?

Because this second beast, the false prophet, causes the rain to come back again, and that buys him notoriety. They also perform signs, and the false prophet mimics those also.

So what do the two witnesses do?

  • The first and most important thing they do is, as Revelation 11:3 tells us, “they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days.”

    Look up the word prophesy in your concordance, and you will find the Greek word prophēteuō; it means to foretell events, or as the Word Study Dictionary conveys, it means “to declare truths through the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit.” If you are NOT a follower of Jesus Christ, this probably means nothing to you. I am, therefore, I can see these two telling the Jews directly and subsequently, thanks to the 24-hour news, the whole world that Jesus is coming and His return is attached, now, to a clear and definite timeline.

    Nobody is telling them the ABCs of salvation. The message is to align yourself with Jesus and NOT the antichrist. Followers of Christ, during this time, will be martyred; that may look like an Islamic sword coming down upon your neck, but there are guillotines and the brutality of other humans who will hate you.

  • “if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes.”

    No doubt that is impressive, but there is more.

  • “They have the power to shut the sky so that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying.”

    Ah, there is that no rain thing. Not quite as impressive as the fire, but the economic aspects are devastating to an agrarian society.

  • “ they have power over the waters to turn them into blood.”

    Oh, this sounds familiar, as Moses turned Egypt’s waters to blood.

  • “ and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire”

    Every kind of plague?

    Moses and Aaron hit Egypt with a number of plagues, including one in which their firstborn would die. This terminology, “as often as they desire,” also sounds like God is giving them free rein to follow their emotions. I am sure that many will try to tell me no, but those last five words are telling.

Remember that I said that prophecy to the Jew is a pattern.

How many patterns do you think the Jewish readers are seeing?

In the days of Abram, God struck Pharaoh with plagues.

“But the LORD struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.” (Genesis 12:17 NASB)

What happened immediately after Moses brought each plague upon Egypt?

In Exodus chapter eight, God struck the Egyptians repeatedly with plagues until Pharaoh finally let God’s people go. The bizarre part of this story is that the sorcerers in Pharaoh’s court replicated what Moses and Aaron did.

So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the LORD had commanded, and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For each one threw down his staff, and they turned into serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. (Exodus 7:10-12 NASB)

Sorcerers – the Hebrew word is kâshaph and means those who practice or use witchcraft or sorcery. The Word Study Dictionary tells us that it is a verb meaning to practice magic, to practice sorcery. While the exact meaning of the word is obscure, it involved the use of supernatural powers that hardened hearts against the truth (And that is exactly what you see happening when you read this story.)

Magician is the Hebrew word ḥarṭōm. The Word Study Dictionary states that it is a masculine noun meaning engraver, a writer associated with the occult. (Perhaps this might be easier to grasp if you think about Ouija boards. These things are eerily associated with the occult.) These people seem to have had knowledge of astrology or divination and were commonly associated with the magicians of Egypt in Pharaoh’s court. (Keep in mind that) Pharaoh could not find any magicians to interpret his dream, so he called Joseph (Gen_41:24). Moses caused plagues to come upon Egypt, which the magicians could not reverse (Exo_9:11). (Emphasis mine.)

The false prophet will follow the two witnesses to the stage (so to speak), just as Pharaoh’s sorcerers followed Moses. It only makes sense that he repeats what the two witnesses just did. Odd, but it occurs to me that while many will stand in awe of the two witnesses and their message, others will see it as a circus sideshow; they will not perceive that these two are legitimate and from God, and that is why they are doing these signs (which, are an aspect of God’s wrath and mercy.) It is these signs and the trustworthiness that got this man the position as high priest, to begin with, and it is those very signs that promote the deception that will convince many of Israel’s religious elite.

  • It (the false prophet) performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people.

  • and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on the earth, 

Nonetheless, it is Pattern!

If I have lost you and you don’t know where these bullet points came from, let me remind you. Revelation 13:13. I strongly suggest that you reread Revelation 13, starting from verse 11, as it tells us that the false prophet is the guy who makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast.

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? But let me show you how verse 12 ends in the NASB.

“whose fatal wound was healed.”

We have well-known Bible teachers who should know better, trying to tell you that a “world” leader will take a bullet to the head, die, and rise again. If you have bought into that fairy tale, then you are scoffing at me now. But let me show you something.

“And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; …”
(Revelation 13:2-3 NASB)

  • The beast is not a singular entity but a multi-headed monster. While many will attribute this to the “revived” Roman empire, it also fits the description of the Caliphate rule of Islam.

    Are there many sects within Islam? The answer is yes, and they are all butting heads with each other.

  • “The dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.”

    This is all happening within one paragraph and applies to a multi-headed beast; yet, Jesus refers to this thing as him and then speaks in the singular about his throne and authority. We have been watching leaders within Islam struggle for power, and one, in particular, kept decreeing himself to leader of the reborn Ottoman empire. Where did that get off to?

  • “ I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed.”

    So as you picture some freakish mutation with many heads, imagine one of those heads,
    equivalent to perhaps a sect of Islam or a Caliphate, and it appears to have been killed; that could happen in so many ways. We are watching such a thing happen in real time with Ukraine. But     the sentence does not say it died; it says “as if,” and in a sense, the Ottoman empire played possum as well. (This happened in 1924 when the British, with a bit of help, crushed and dismantled the Ottoman Empire. Although the world thought they were dead, like flickering embers from a wildfire that are thrown across vast regions by the wind, remnants from this empire, like the Muslim Brotherhood, continued to pursue their global domination.)

If I have opened your eyes and prompted you to study, then my job here is done.

He (meaning Jesus) is coming sooner than you can imagine, and He is coming for those who are waiting for Him. This is the rapture of the Church I am talking about. Should you miss that bus and then choose to follow Him, sorry, but you will die a martyr – for your testimony. On the plus side, Jesus will meet you on the other side, and you will be welcomed into the arms of the Father.

Do not think for a minute that you get to bring any selfish, foolish, and hateful attitude with you, as you will be changed, just as the church will be changed. Since the sinful nature is clearly attached to the body, then it might be safe to say that this body will experience death, no matter who it referred to when it comes to being in heaven.

And yes, many are dying as martyrs as we speak, so it is not an exclusive club, and whatever they are going through will come to your neighborhood sooner than you think.

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The deception will be great. Matthew 24:3-5.

Posted on 10/11/2022 by remso

Doesn’t this title have a familiar ring to it?

What was Jesus’ first response when the disciples ask Him these questions?

“As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.” (Matthew 24:3-5 NASB)

As you noticed above, the NASB used the term “mislead.” 

Do you realize that any magician, “worth his salt,” is a master at misdirection? The words are similar, but if you look up the simple word mislead, you will find the Greek word planaō. 

The first thing Strong’s concordance says in the definition of planaō is “to (properly cause to) roam.” 

Roam, in my mind, lends itself to the results of someone misleading you. 

To roam is to stray or wander, among a few other words. Alternative words that explain planaō are “seduce or deceive.”

Imagine this scenario if we used the word seduced to convey what the false prophet will do.

We associate seduction as typically being between a man and a woman who are NOT married to each other. If you were the spouse of one of these people, your reaction to what they are doing may not be so cordial or mild.

Why say all that?

Because we read things like the NASB translation of Matthew’s account and we glance over a simple word like mislead and completely miss the depth of passion that God was trying to convey.

  • He (the false prophet) will also be the enforcer of Sharia;.

    This coincides with the tribulation becoming even more deadly, especially for the Jews in Israel.

    “But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” (Matthew 24:8 NASB)

Considering what we have seen, how could tribulations become greater unless it is in the number of killings and the associated violence?

Islam and the caliphate that will arise will aggressively begin killing anyone who is not a Muslim.

Allow me to refresh your memory about who we are talking about.

  • and it spoke like a dragon

Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

Simply stated, the dragon is Satan; therefore, it speaks like Satan – the deceiver. Let this sink in.

The false prophet presents himself as peaceful, almost like Jesus, but he speaks like Satan.

Perhaps the knowledge that the Jewish religious council had selected a man to be the high priest in the “new” temple when it is built, and they have already trained him. His name is Rabbi Baruch Kahane,Rabbi Baruch Kahane but if you do a search for the high priest in Israel, you will find that the Rabbi stepped back from the position as he did not feel the timing was appropriate.

And, in case you hadn’t noticed, Satan does not present himself like the grotesque images we see in movies; he is subtle and seductive. Eve found that out – that is, until Satan goes into fury mode.

Revelation 13:6 ESV “It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.”

Satan can and does become furious. The idea of making war on “her” offspring will be developed as we go.

Revelation 12:17 ESV “Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.”

    • It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence. 

The first beast is a man. We were told that he emerges from the sea, so we know that he is NOT a Jew. This man does NOT sustain a bullet wound to the head, die, and rise again. Daniel 7:8 tells us that this man will have a mouth uttering great boasts. The word “boasts,” italicized, indicates that it was added for clarity. In this, it seems inappropriate because the Aramaic word translated as “uttering great boasts” is rabrab and also means domineering.

This is a timing issue, and it is difficult to be precise.

What does it mean to be precise when you are God, the creator of time?

We know that there will be a seven-year period of destruction upon the earth, and the clock seems to start with the removal of the church from the earth (the rapture). There seems to be an immediate entrance of a “world” leader. Islam calls him the Mahdi, the 12th or hidden Imam, the leader of the global Islamic caliphate. We call him the Antichrist or the first beast.

This entrance of the second beast – the one that has horns like a lamb – seems to be at the midpoint of the seven-year period.

Why say that?

Because there is a rapid escalation of events at the mid-point and our false prophet, who has operated quietly in the temple, suddenly gives himself over to this Mahdi, performs the signs, and steps up as the enforcer of this disgusting and bloody sharia law.

Everyone seems to know that the Antichrist will sign a peace treaty. We keep saying it will be with Israel, but scripture says, is that it will be with many. That may not include Israel. When I first wrote this, I guess that none of us would have thought that Russia and China would be in Syria fighting against Isis. Russia believes that defending Bashar Assad is key to defeating Isis, while President Obama is set on removing the Syrian President from power. (There are many good theories on what this is all about, and most have to do with the Federal Reserve Bank.) So, while the Antichrist may be juggling aspects of his worldwide deception, this second beast steps up and handles the enforcement aspect for him.

  • and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.

This Jew turned Muslim – temple priest turned desecrator, and a deceiver on a grand scale, makes all the earth worship the first beast.

I need you to consider the description of the beast once again.

“And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.” (Revelation 13:1-3 ESV)

Multi-headed, with ten horns and seven heads, it looks like a leopard, a lion, and a bear. However bizarre this thing seems to be it is given a mouth; in other words – a spokesman – the Antichrist.

In the world of clues, this is huge,

“One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed,”

First, there is no such animal; second, Daniel plainly defined the Babylonian empire as the first of these heads. Historically we know that the Medo-Persian empire was the second, and the Grecian empire was the third. Since we now know, we are looking at empires and not a human as the head, what one empire fits this description better than any other? The answer is the Ottoman empire, and the world thought they were finally killed off in 1924.

Guess what?

They came back to life in 1979 with the Iranian revolution.

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One other thing, prophecy, to the Jew, is a pattern.

Posted on 10/10/2022 by remso

Nothing was to be judged on the basis of one witness, which also applied to the prophetic.

“On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.” (Deuteronomy 17:6 NASB)

When someone operating in the role of a prophet declares something, all we can do is hold it in the back of our minds. Of course, all changes if the impact should be immediately seen. Later on, another prophecy comes and validates not only the first prophet but the word itself. (There are parameters upon which to judge a prophecy, the biggest is – it is trying to lead us away from God to serve other gods.) The Jewish mind understood all of this. They are not impressed with the waving of hands and fancy words, and the Apostle John knew this as well. That is why in almost every case (some are harder to find than others), these are words that have been spoken over the Jews on a previous occasion.

Focusing on Revelation 13:11-18.

“Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. 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 or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.” (Revelation 13:11-18 ESV)

  • Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth.

Since our first beast rose out of the sea, and we know that the sea represents people, we can learn that the first beast comes out of an environment that is more widespread. This second beast, rising out of the earth, demonstrates that he is from a more localized area, but where?

The easy answer as to where this localized area is is Israel.

  • It had two horns like a lamb. 

    If you are not a farmer, then you may not know that sheep have horns, but for economic reasons, they cut them off. At the time of this writing, we had recently gone to the local county fair. (It is hard

    lamb with horns

    lamb with horns

    to believe that the area I live in was once orange groves and farmers.) That particular year they had several sheep with horns, and the horns were massive.

To the Jewish attendees in the early church, their perception that this meant deception was immediate. 

The fact that it is like a lamb establishes that it is representing itself, to some degree, as Jesus did, at first gentle and caring, but then at the three-and-a-half-year mark of the seven-year period – watch out.

If we were Jewish converts, what would be our immediate association when John introduces an image of a lamb?

Perhaps Genesis 22:8, where Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb ..” The idea of the slain lamb as a way of removing sin was scattered throughout the Torah and a common practice for the Jews. However, the impact of the slain lamb – in tradition – was a good thing, and we already recognize that there is a horrendous deception coming. We all also have the imagery, seen earlier in Revelation, of the lamb as though it had been slain, and that was Jesus, the Messiah, standing there.

 “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” Revelation 5:6 ESV

This may not be hitting you in the same manner, it is impacting me, but if the Jewish religious council, with their eyes closed, as they are today, get pulled into this deception, they will pull many into the deceit along with them. Think of this scenario as a sinkhole.

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I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.

Posted on 10/09/2022 by remso

This bit about the lamb is another one of those images that gives people grief.

Some information that might help you understand is that the Apostle John is NOT writing mysteries meant to be hidden from the church. I mention this because a previous Pastor told the audience that day that John wrote in code to get this letter – the Revelation, past the prison guards. Sometimes all you can do at the time is moan. The mysteries are only hidden from those that chose not to ask what things mean; the “mysteries” also tend to remain hidden from those who do not understand that John’s target audience was Jewish converts. 

I will prove my point.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” (Revelation 2:7-9 ESV)

The Holy Spirit has him writing to churches. 

You do not need to have a conversation about Jews and their traditions unless they are a part of the equation, and in Smyrna, they were central to the equation. The IVP Bible Background Commentary states, “The strength of the Jewish community in Smyrna is well attested.”

Another example comes from the book of James and demonstrates how widespread the Jewish converts were. Here in James 2:2, the mystery is cloaked thanks to the translator’s choice of terminology, and we, with our stacks of Bibles and no motivation to find out the alternate meaning of simple words, like assembly.

James 2:2 ESV “For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in,”

Translated for the Gentile reader, we see nothing wrong with the word assembly. People assemble themselves together frequently. However, when this was written by James, he actually wrote the Greek word for synagogue. He did not do that inadvertently, thinking that in time it would be filled with Gentile believers. He, too, was writing to Jewish converts.

sunagōgē – an assemblage of persons, the majority of which are Jewish in origin. Now, isn’t that something?

If they are calling it a synagogue, then what do they expect to find there?

Jewish converts, of course, but not only that, converts that are integrating the richness of their newly found Messiah into the heritage that makes them special (and we ignore that.)

Who were the two Apostles that seemed to be called to the Gentiles?

Peter – who seemed to end that mission shortly after going to the Centurion’s home. The other evangelist to the “Gentiles” turned out to be Paul. Paul, for almost 15 years, we are told in the book of Acts that in every town, he entered into the synagogues.

So, it is safe to say that in the beginnings of the church, the evangelistic impact was toward the Jewish community, but the Gentiles still came. When the traditionalists came around demanding that Gentile converts be circumcised and follow Jewish traditions, Paul withstood them and finally took his arguments straight to the church council of elders in Jerusalem, where several of the original disciples still sat (Peter was one of them), for a decision.

And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between them and us, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
(Acts 15:7-9 ESV)

Notice the terminology Peter uses as he distinguishes between the Jew and the gentile. Years later, Peter is still referring to them (the gentiles) and us (the Jewish community). It may not mean anything to you, but the statement is dripping with prejudice. There, in the Jerusalem council, the decision was made to acknowledge their freedom but command the gentiles to stay away from blood:

Acts 15:19-20 ESV Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God (20) but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.

The synagogue of Satan?

Pastor John MacArthur says this of the – synagogue of Satan. “With the rejection of its Messiah, Judaism became as much a tool of Satan as emperor worship.”

Think about this for a moment. You should be able to see how Judaism could become a tool of Satan. It was the thing (a zeal for the law) that motivated young Saul/Paul to chase down converts, then beat, imprison, and in Stephen’s case – stone them to death.

When Paul had trouble on his missionary journeys, where did most of it come from?

The Jewish community, but not just any Jews, synagogue leaders.

Look at this.

(Act 14:2) “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.” (Acts 14:5 NASB) “And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers, to mistreat and to stone them,”

This is not the act of people who merely cannot understand. They are choosing not to buy into this Messiah message that Paul preached.

How many of them were around when Jesus spoke of God as his Father?

A statement of this nature would have been blasphemous in their hearing if it was not true.  But it was true, and yet they still wanted to kill Jesus. They chose to be unbelieving Jews and, therefore, combative in their resistance to truth and change.

Since I have told you this, you now need to start thinking like a Jew – A person that has a reasonable comprehension of the Old Testament (something that would have been required of a Jew.)

Are you beginning to grasp that our absence of examining the scriptures has hurt us and left us open to deception?

Now maybe we can understand what John was trying to convey because virtually everything alluded to in the Revelation came out of previous prophetic words found in the Old Testament.

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A deception that no one would have seen coming.

Posted on 10/08/2022 by remso

Islam is looking for a Jesus as well.

I wrote this post in 2017 (here I am in 2022, editing and adding clarifying information). Two years passed, and I was still struggling to comprehend this, just like everyone else. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit saw fit to put Glenn Beck (he used to be a commentator on Fox news and now has his own internet show) before my eyes. Glenn had the author Joel Richardson on the show, comparing Jesus to Islam’s Mahdi. To say the least, I was stunned, as NO ONE had ever spoken about these things as Joel did. Within minutes I ordered Joel’s book, The Islamic Antichrist, and began devouring the information there; it changed everything for me.

Now you can see how you have to, on occasion, humble yourself to learn, and honestly, how many of you would have thought to consider what a Muslim believed?

The false prophet, although they do not call him that, 

  • Will be a Jew of the ancestry of Aaron and therefore allowed to be a priest. 

  • He will declare himself to be a Muslim, 

  • He Bow (submit) to the Mahdi (the Antichrist), 

  • And he will do significant signs like calling fire down from heaven, raising the dead, and causing it to rain again. 

Although all these things sound ridiculous and improbable, they will happen. 

All this will cause many to turn from God and follow this second beast. The fact that Jesus needed to say, “see to it that no one misleads you,” indicates that SOME will be misled. In one case, we are warned that even the elect will be deceived. Who is the elect in a book centered upon the Jewish nation? The Jewish religious leadership. 

Why should some of you have a problem with this information about Islam?

Because the Bible does NOT explicitly say this will happen. 

As a brother in Christ once said, I refuse to be concerned with extra-Biblical literature. I responded with, it’s fascinating that you would say that because you are already steeped in traditions of men, which are based in extra-biblical information. For example, we say that Jesus was a carpenter when the assertion was made by Jewish religious zealots, not to Jesus but about his father, Joseph. What makes this worse is that they DID NOT call Joseph a carpenter; they called him a tekton, the same word they were now using to demean Jesus. The Greek word tekton means an artisan and could even apply to poets or an artisan who works with granite. 

A recent (2020) archaeological find on the outskirts of Nazareth demonstrated that tektons worked there and that they had been making granite bowls, cups, and water pots.

That’s great, the man responded, but what does that have to do with me not accepting extra-biblical information?

An archaeological dig would undoubtedly fall under the category of extra-biblical, but tie that information to the first miracle that Jesus performed publicly, turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana, and you have some monumental information that could shake your attitude toward extra-biblical knowledge. 

Did you ever consider that Jesus, a Jew, would have been familiar with Jewish ritual cleansing rules; yet, He sent the servants, of which we know nothing and can therefore assume that they were gentiles, to go and fill the vessels with water. Just because they were not Jews, Gentiles would have been unclean, and having them touch the “ritual cleansing vessels,” typically, pottery would have contaminated the pots, and they would have only one recourse, which was to destroy the expensive water pots. Even if the servants were Jewish, there would have been some point at which they touched those vessels, and yet, NO ONE raised an uproar, and you had to know that there were religious leaders at this wedding. 

What makes this significant is that apparently Jesus the tekton probably knew that the cleansing vessels were made of granite and NOT subject to Jewish cleansing laws because He had made those very vessels. Of course, we do not know this either.

Here is a peculiarity that no one has ever mentioned before. Several years before this wedding, an enterprising Jewish businessman was reading about the purification laws in Deuteronomy and realized that the Biblical specifications said nothing about granite. The logical assumption then was that God perceived granite to be permanently clean, and this piece of information was presented before the Jewish elders. They thought this was a great revelation and approved the usage of granite wholeheartedly. 

Why do you suppose that no concern about purification was shown at any point, and doesn’t the lack of concern catch your attention?

Odd, isn’t it? Perhaps Jesus knew all about this because He, being a tekton – an artisan – a craftsman – a stone mason, and had made these pots himself? But, of course, we don’t know any of that, yet we accept many things like this that are extra-biblical, and you don’t even blink an eye. 

But, if I tell you that Islam has their own set of prophecies, which conflict with scripture and are in direct conflict with Christian beliefs, and you feel comfortable rejecting that understanding without even thinking about it and continue wallowing in your unbelief and misdirection; then perhaps you are the one that is deceived.

Posted in Antichrist, bible study, Deception, End times, false prophet, Islam, Israel, Jews, mortal wound, Prophetic, ten horns and seven heads, Things I have never noticed before, Thoughts, Thoughts on scripture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The freedom the cross brings. Romans 6

Posted on 10/04/2022 by remso

As an aspect of my rebellious nature, I wrote this post and included my Pastor’s name. I, as a joke, tried to redact it, but that did not work, so I either eliminated it or put dots where his name had been. In the long run, this elimination of his name is probably wiser, although I have inserted information that could potentially lead you to find out what his name is. Don’t waste your time because it is not that important. What is important is that you become more skillful in the Word of God. This by no means is demanding that you memorize scriptures, I can’t, and I gave up trying years ago, but I do lean heavily upon the Holy Spirit bringing things back to my remembrance. So when your Pastor says something that is in opposition to the Word of God, then you will know it. Now, what you do with that information depends upon how much of the bridge you want to burn. I have burned a couple of them and now wish I hadn’t.

On a recent Sunday morning, I was listening to my Pastor teach on Romans 6. The scripture reading this morning began with Romans 6:12.

Romans 6:12-14 NASB “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, (13) and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (14) For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

The pastor admitted that we probably would not make it out of verse 12, which, as you can see above, instructs us to NOT let sin reign in our mortal bodies so that we obey its lusts.

Considering that we all have an inborn desire to lust, I equate it to a damaged chromosomal chain in our DNA, which is common throughout all humanity. Theoretically, science looks at human DNA and sees a dark spot in the exact location on all of them. Without the original schematics, which would show that the plans called for something else, they have no alternative but to declare that this dark spot is standard in humankind and, therefore, the baseline that defines all humanity.

If that is true, how do we avoid this desire to want what we cannot or should not have?

That is where Romans 6:14 steps up to bat because it says sin, lust, or faithlessness shall not be master over you. 

If sin does NOT master us, why not?

Because you are not under the law but under grace.

Ah, here is where some take the hairpin curve on the mountain road too fast and go over the edge; because they think we have no law to guide us. Those that choose to abuse the law of grace do not seem to realize that God’s law is written upon their hearts.

“Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, A people in whose heart is My law; Do not fear the reproach of man, Nor be dismayed at their revilings.”
(Isaiah 51:7 NASB)

Paul, to the church in Corinth, wrote:

“You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; (3) being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3 NASB)

So the law that we think we are free from is written upon our hearts, and it still guides and controls our very being.

But there is another thing that gives us freedom from the death associated with sin: the cross.

Some will say, I saw the movie, The Passion. It was bloody, vile, and nightmarish, but how does that change my life? 

Well, the cross was no less than the bronze serpent that God had Moses place upon the crossed poles that would have ordinarily held a banner so that all who looked upon the serpent would live. 

“The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.” The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten when he looks at it, he will live.”
(Numbers 21:5-8 NASB)

If you noticed, looking upon the serpent on the pole did not make the “sin” go away, nor did it remove the pain associated with being bit. Instead, it allowed them to live. The Apostle Paul told us to fix our eyes upon Jesus – who, by the way, is no longer on the cross.

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
(Hebrews 12:1-2 NASB)

If Jesus, as a part of that journey from the cross to the throne, paid for our redemption, purchasing us back from Satan’s ownership with His own blood, then we are free from the penalties required for the “sin” that so easily besets us.

So here is where my problem with the Pastor’s assertion came into play.

In trying to make some point associated with the study on Romans, there was a part that I admittedly missed that led to the Pastor saying the price Jesus paid on the cross wasn’t enough, and that is why Jesus now sits as mediator.

So let’s walk through this statement and see if it’s true. 

The author of the Hebrews tells us that Jesus endured the cross because He saw the joy set before Him. ( Hebrews 12:2.) That joy included the knowledge that people like you and me would join the family as we came into fellowship with God. The joy also included the pain He would suffer; the loss of His relationship with the Father, even if for a short time, and the resolution of this sacrificial journey from the cross to the throne because He knew that He would soon be sitting in His rightful place, on the right hand of the Father, where this story began all those years ago. 

However monumental as these assertions are, they do not prove the sufficiency of Christ; that piece of evidence that demonstrated, for me, that He was enough began to ring true here in Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9:13-15 tells us that He sprinkled His blood, as the high priest, in the heavenly temple to purify not only the Heavenly temple, but He acted there on our behalf also. In other words, He covered our sins as well.

We are told in Hebrews 9:23 that everything on earth, in terms of the temple, the utensils, and the functional pattern that the priests went through to cover the sins of the people, was first established in the heavenly temple.

“That is why the Tabernacle and everything in it, which were copies of things in heaven, had to be purified by the blood of animals. But the real things in heaven had to be purified with far better sacrifices than the blood of animals.” (Hebrews 9:23 NLT)

A portion of the Hebrews 9:13-15 reads like this,

“For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God.”

That cleansing blood was almost beaten out of Him by the Roman scourge; the nails on the cross and the spear in His side could have depleted it all, and yet there was enough blood to apply to not only Himself but us as well; cleansing us from ALL sins, and bringing about our permanent forgiveness.

Here is where many will part company, as I referred to, a forgiveness that is endless, and yes, I am saying that all sin is forgiven. If you can’t handle this scriptural truth, then you need to realize that your religious traditions have blinded you to the truth of the gospel.

“So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.” (Hebrews 9:11-12 NLT)

To put it bluntly, Jesus is never going back on the cross, not even if you keep messing up multiple times a day.

Why not?

Because the sacrifice He made WAS enough, adequate, and sufficient, so I, unless I am unlearned or seriously misled, should NEVER imply to anyone that Jesus and the price He paid on that cross was never enough.

But there was another aspect of this presumed inadequacy, and that was that Jesus was now sitting on the right hand of the Father, mediating for us, because His work on the cross was not good enough and therefore must constantly pitch our case before the Father. Here is a piece of twisted logic for you to chew on.

If you feel as though you can say that Jesus was not enough, then why would you possibly think that He could mediate on your behalf?

You wouldn’t, and you know that. To think in this manner tends to mean that you are purposefully disregarding the supremacy of Jesus, God’s Son. Jesus voluntarily submitted to the cross on our behalf; and then, as the high priest, submitted His own blood and splashed it upon the altar and mercy seat in the heavenly temple.

Hebrews 7:15-25 NASB (I have used the NASB with the exception of verse 25 as it states the situation more clearly. I also added some commentary which I have italicized.)

(15) “And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek [That priest was Jesus], 

(16) who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement but according to the power of an indestructible life.[Why introduce the idea of indestructibility unless He first had to be destructible? He told Pilot that he could do nothing unless He allowed it; that means that Jesus allowed all this to happen.]

(17) For it is attested of Him, “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.” [Melchizedek seemed to show up out of nowhere in a land where a priest should not have existed, especially since there was no Aaronic line that provided the priests. “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High.” (Genesis 14:18 NASB)]

(18) For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness [So, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Old Covenant was set aside for another.]

(19) (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand, there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

(20) And inasmuch as it was not without an oath

(21) (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, “THE LORD HAS SWORN AND WILL NOT CHANGE HIS MIND, ‘YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER‘”);

(22) so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. (23) The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing,

(24) but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.

(25) And so he is able, now and always, to save those who come to God through him, because he lives forever to plead with God for them. (GNB)

Again we find evidence for the supremacy of Christ in Hebrews 1:3, which tells us that having completed these things, He sat down in victory, NOT defeat.

“And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:3 NASB)

How did He get those keys unless He went to hell itself?

Psalm 16 shows us David speaking prophetically about Jesus and how He knew that the Father would not allow Him to suffer or see the corruption associated with hell.

“Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: my flesh also shall rest in hope.  (10)  For you will not leave my soul in hell; neither will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption.” (Psalms 16:9-10 KJV [thees and thous were changed for readability by me].)

We modern-day Christians assume that the words we see on the pages of our Bibles are correct and not to be challenged. It was Dr. Chuck Missler who pointed out that every translation has issues, but the KJV’s are well documented, so we can make proper adaptions to our studies. So with that said, let’s look at the word corruption.

Corruption is the Hebrew word shachath and means a pit (especially as a trap); figuratively destruction: – corruption, destruction, ditch, grave, pit.

The Apostle Paul must have understood that Jesus went to hell, even if momentarily because he tells us that He ascended on high. I can take this two ways: I can see the superiority of Jesus as the Father tells Him, “today you are my Son,” come and sit in your seat once again, or I can say that this is merely referring to Jesus when he rose up and disappeared in the clouds, while an audience of witnesses watched.

Although, if you can admit that He rose in the clouds, as He said He would, then wouldn’t you tacitly be admitting to the validity and Lordship of Jesus Christ? 

“Therefore, it says, “WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.”
(Ephesians 4:8 NASB)

Look at our introduction to Jesus in Revelation 1, where it says that He was dead and now alive..

“When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” (Revelation 1:17-18 NASB)

If I can grasp the supremacy of Jesus and why then I should comprehend that He is the finest of mediators between man and God.

“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.”
(1 Timothy 2:5-6 NASB)

It was Pastor … that made the statement that inspired this post; and he is the one that made a statement during a recent conference called” Futures,” how that when it comes to the reality of our lives and the mistaken idea that we are free from effects of sin. Pastor … says, we are sin positive. Think about those who have heard the words; you are HIV positive. It used to come across as a death pronouncement until the pharmaceutical companies introduced treatments for HIV. As a follower of Christ, the pronouncement that we are sin positive is a pronouncement of life because of His love and acceptance; and though we may stumble frequently, we still get back up because we have a mediator, Jesus, the victorious Son of God. And, He is perpetually looking out for us.

And since Satan is actively looking for some failure, in which he can protest that we must be destroyed in hell, as he will be constantly.

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.” (Revelation 12:10 NASB)

If Satan thinks he has a full-time job accusing, then I suppose Jesus, too, has a full-time job defending us against his accusations.

We are covered by the blood of a victorious Jesus.

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This might seem like a bizarre question, but hardly anyone knows the answer. Is the last trumpet related to Armageddon?

Posted on 09/26/2022 by remso

I am choosing to refrain from book studies, like the one I finished recently on Revelation. It was a blessing, but a bit tedious, and I needed a break. On the other hand, the small groups I have sat with, and even a few pastors, have given me fodder for Biblical conversations demonstrating how far we are from scripture and embedded in religious traditions. This is such a topic as we will try to answer the question,

Is this the “last trumpet” we see in 1 Corinthians 15, and is it associated with Armageddon?

I recently did a study on Armageddon because of a question such as this. I can tell you that this word only appears once in the King James version of the Bible. Try to find Armageddon in the NASB, and it does not show up.

“And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”
Revelation 16:16

One witness (and there are supposed to be, at minimum, two [Read Deuteronomy 19:15]), and we are making a big deal out of this word, Armageddon.

Armageddon is a variation on the Meggido valley. It is also known as the Plain of Jezreel. Galilee sits in the center of the valley, as well as Nazareth. Mount Carmel, where Elijah killed the prophets of Baal, stands as the Southern boundary. And a fun fact is that this valley has been the location of every significant battle we see in the Bible.

I see three wars that will affect Israel in the time of wrath and one final battle also fought in the Meggido valley.

First, if you are new to Biblical things, our focus is on Israel. So the next war that will impact Israel will be Ezekiel 38 and 39, where God draws Gog, the ruler of Magog, along with a few other Northern nations and several North African nations; their commonality is their religion, even if changes names in the African nations to Boko Haran. 

When this takes place will either be in the moments before the catching away of the church or right after. I point this out because we know that the antichrist will show up and immediately go about trying to make peace. Many will tell you that he is making peace with Israel, but the Bible says nothing to back that assertion up; what it does say is that he will make a covenant with many, which might equate to a ceasefire. The details of this attack can be found in Ezekiel 38:1-23, and there you will find that Gog, the big, powerful leader of the Northern confederation, is killed on the hillsides of Israel. I do not think that he will be included in the “peace” talks.

The second attack upon Israel happens at the mid-point of the seven years. (Read Matthew 24:15-25.) Daniel saw this attack in a prophetic vision and explains it in chapter 8, verse 13 

“Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, “How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply, while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled?” (Daniel 8:13 NASB)

The only motives I see for this second attack are driven by the entrance and activity of the false prophet. Most big-name Eschatology teachers will tell you that this is a leader from the revived Roman empire. I cannot accept that assertion because it tries to direct me to ignore history and a clear understanding of what Islam believes, which happens to coincide in many ways with Bible prophecy. Sadly, many will tell you that we cannot look at or consider extra-biblical information. If you only realized how much extra stuff you hold as a tradition. For example: Does God take children to heaven if they have not reached the age of accountability? Try to find that in your Bible; you can’t because it is based on extra-biblical traditions, which you claim we have to ignore. The question itself is beyond difficult, especially when an eight-year-old child can intentionally take a gun to school and shoot another child because of some interaction. At what point do we declare a child to be accountable? It’s a rhetorical question that does not require an answer.

Daniel 9 is another place where Daniel received an explanation of one of his visions.

“Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.”(Daniel 9:26 NASB)

The sixty-two weeks is 62, seven-year periods – equaling 490 years, and they have already come. We know this because Jesus, the Messiah, was killed. The problem for most is that they can’t figure out that the rest of this paragraph is still to come. The prince to come is the antichrist, and the sanctuary is the temple yet to be built. Because God gave us an example in the Roman ruler Titus, we assume that the people who are to come will also be Romans. The problem is that the troops under the Roman flag were in the majority conscripted Assyrian troops and had a burning hatred for the Jews. These are the people that destroyed the temple in 70AD, in disregard of Titus’ orders to cease and desist. Disobedience to Roman orders usually meant death, but Josephus tells us that they did not seem to care what Titus said.

If you have doubts whether Daniel 9 speaks about war or not, note the end of the paragraph, where it says, “and the host to be trampled.” Host, in Hebrew, is indicative of a mass of people. The host is also indicative of God’s people – Israel. Trampled is to tread down as in warfare or violence. 

The third instance of war and the only passage that uses Armageddon is Revelation 16:16.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.”) And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon. (Revelation 16:12-16 NASB)

This is when Jesus comes back as the warring Messiah. Israel should be ecstatic as this is who they have been waiting for.

Revelation 19 tells us all about this war at the end of the wrath.

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.” (Revelation 19:11-14 NASB)

Do your homework, and you will find He only kills those who came to fight; this in no way means that the others who stayed back and continued to wallow in their hatred will be indiscriminately killed, as they are allowed to live and maintain their free will.

Revelation 20 describes the last war (if you can call it that) – the fourth war since the wrath, to be fought in the Jezreel valley.

“When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:7-10 NASB)

Once they rallied around the Holy City, God simply burns them up, and no one on God’s team breaks a sweat.

In case you wondered how such a large quantity of people, who have seen God’s love and grace in action, could put their brains in park and try to kill God and His people, they are deceived by demons. Allow me to point something out; there are only two people in hell at this point in time, the antichrist and the false prophet. They were thrown into the lake of fire at the end of the seven years.

Paul tells us of the last trumpet in 1 Corinthians 15.

“Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, (52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
(1 Corinthians 15:51-52 NASB)

I have looked at as much information about Rosh Hashana as I can handle, and although I perceive that it is two days of shofar blowing, there does not seem to be a designated “last” trumpet of the day. Did you even think about the ramifications of that? As the earth rotates every few seconds, someone new gains the right to blow the “last” trumpet blast.

So, while I cannot say there is NO last trumpet, there is nothing like the Revelation to spell out how many nor how we would know. I will, however, point out that more than many others, Paul knew about Yom Teruah, or the Feast of Trumpets, even if it does not answer our question about how we might know when to look for this “last trumpet.”

Note that this particular trumpet is associated with: the twinkling of an eye, the dead being raised imperishable, and the fact that we will be changed.

Paul, so to speak, went after those disparaging some who were trying to maintain their Jewish heritage. Paul writes.

“So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in connection with eating and drinking, or in regard to a Jewish festival or Rosh-Hodesh or Shabbat. These are a shadow of things that are coming, but the body is of the Messiah.”
(Colossians 2:16-17 CJB)

If you can grasp what these days mean to the Jews, you will understand that there are many reasons to hope for Jesus to catch the church away on this Feast of Trumpets. Therefore, while it will be the last trumpet for those that follow Jesus Christ, it is certainly NOT the last trumpet as far as God is concerned.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 refers to us as being changed.

Changed is the Greek word allassō and means to be made different.

But different in what way?

I have for years felt led to try and educate the Christian community. Therefore, I feel comfortable saying, as though you would understand when I say it, knowing the scriptures, we understand that this means we will be sin free, be like Him, and finally immortal. The other aspect of this change is that we change locations to our next home, which is in heaven with Him.

“He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.” (Philippians 3:21 NLT)

Let’s consider the word trumpet for a moment.

“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 NASB)

We seem to have exhaustive discussions about a pre-tribulation rapture based upon Revelation 4:1.

“After these things, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”
(Revelation 4:1 NASB)

Notice that it says, after these things, what things is “He” talking about? The end of the church age, which we just witnessed in Revelation 1-3. Considering that we are caught up to be with Jesus with a trump, it is no coincidence that John is drawn up into heaven by the voice of a trumpet, where he gets to witness the wrath of God that is to come.

Now, if you were referring to the seventh trumpet, then you have to consider that this seventh event continues to bring on God’s judgment and wrath.

“The trumpets in Scripture are of great significance in eschatology in determining when the rapture of the church takes place (1Th_4:13-18). This involves the question of whether the mention of the “last trumpet” in 1Co_15:52, simply referred to as “the trumpet” in 1Th_4:16, is the same as the seventh trumpet in Rev_11:11-15. Some assume that these trumpets are identical and thus presume that the rapture of the church will take place at the time of the occurrence of the seventh trumpet of Rev_11:15. This seventh trumpet is in the middle or toward the latter part of the seven-year tribulation period, i.e., Daniel’s prophetic seventieth week.” (Dan_9:25-27). Finis Dake

This last paragraph says it all, the seventh trumpet is only associated with the midpoint or the end of the seven years.

Pay attention to the words in Revelation 11:15.

Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15 NASB)

This is the last of seven. The last of the current set of woe (all of which are a part of God’s wrath.)

We have to go back to Revelation chapter 8 to find the seven trumpets.

“And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.” (Revelation 8:2 NASB)

What do we see in Revelation 8?

Tremendous destruction of the earth and the heavens. Revelation 8:13 gives an ominous warning.

“Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in mid-heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
(Revelation 8:13 NASB)

The fifth trumpet.

“Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them. The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle. They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months. They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.”
(Revelation 9:1-12 NASB)

Do not think for a second that these are ordinary locusts; they are not, simply because there is NOTHING on earth like this. Look at the description that I highlighted.

The sixth trumpet.

“Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind. The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm. The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”
(Revelation 9:13-21 NASB)

Here, the four angels bound under the Euphrates have been released. The entirety of their purpose is to kill one-third of the population of those still on the earth.

Why make that statement?

Because the slaughter of humanity has been an ongoing process since the opening of the first seal and the rider on the white horse.

With the seventh angel, with the seventh trumpet, Revelation 10:7 tells us, “the mystery of God is finished.”

What do we see?

“Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, “Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. “Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.”
(Revelation 11:1-2 NASB)

What does this mean?

The new temple to be built will be given to the Gentiles.

Look at these passages.

“…, For aliens have entered The holy places of the LORD’S house.”
(Jeremiah 51:51 NASB)

Aliens are the Hebrew word zur and also means foreigners, illegitimate persons, and laymen. Do not consider these laymen Jews, as we are most likely talking about Muslims.

“Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.”
(Hosea 8:8 KJV)

Hosea’s words have taken on new meaning as of September 2022, as the interim Prime Minister of Israel, Yair Lapid, addressed the UN and said Israel is willing to solve the Palestinian problem by splitting Jerusalem. I do not think he speaks for the majority of Israel; I do, however, think he speaks to and for our “American President” Joe Biden and his handlers, who I am pretty sure have exposed a crack in the Jewish governmental infrastructure and pressured Lapid into suggesting such a horrid thing, especially since it goes against God’s law.

If you don’t know what a Gentile is, let me help you. Since the overwhelming majority of scripture is centered around Jerusalem and the Jewish people, then a Gentile is ANYONE outside of the Jewish religion. So, consider who might be trying to create an abomination in what will be the newest Jewish temple – in Jerusalem? It doesn’t take long to envision Hamas and the Palestinians. Guess what? The “Gentiles” among the Israelites want it all to themselves. It would not bother them if Israel were to be swallowed up.

Finally, the trumpet is sounded.

Revelation 11:15 MKJV  “And the seventh angel sounded. And there were great voices in Heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ. And He will reign forever and ever.”

Here the narrator uses a mix of present and future tense:

  1. Present -“The kingdoms of this world have become,”

  2. A future tense when He says, ” And He will reign forever and ever.”

So what is my understanding of this?

God is not concerned about the timing of these events, as they are all one package about to be opened. But, I might also note that He is the God with no beginning and no end, which may significantly impact how He handles the timing of these events.

The end result will leave no loose strings.

Some will not see this as there are passages that indicate people, with their option of free will still intact, are worshiping Satan and self.

Revelation 21:8,27 (MKJV)  “But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, will have their part in the Lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. b.)And there shall in no way enter into it anything that defiles, or any making an abomination or a lie; but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”

And there is that bit about one last battle before the judgment seat of Christ,

And when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be loosed out of his prison. And he will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle. The number of them is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth and circled around the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured them. And the Devil who deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet were. And he will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:7-10 MKJV)

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