Month: July 2020

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The Revelation is a Roadmap for God’s People or History, Prewritten

Beatus d’Osma, 11th century

God’s Direction Revealed in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament, God gave His people a look at their future through the prophets, thus providing them with guidance throughout their history. 

Sometimes the prophets gave a general warning or encouragement about the nation as a whole but, occasionally the information was very specific. Prophecies began in the Garden of Eden, leading through the ages of the death and resurrection of the Messiah. 

The Kingdom Age was foretold as the Kingdom being given to a people other than Israel after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. 

  • Genesis 15:13-24; Exodus 2: 8,12 The Sojourn in Canaan and Egypt
  • Genesis 49; Deuteronomy 33 Possession of the Land and the Distribution of the Tribes
  • Lev. 26:18, 21, 24; Daniel 4:25 The seven times curse or 2520 years of Gentile Imperial Rule
  • Numbers 14:33-34 Forty Years in the Wilderness
  • Judges 13:5 The Victories of Samson
  • 1 Samuel 15; 28; 1 Chronicles 28:5 The Reigns of David and Solomon
  • 1 Kings 11:31 The building of the Temple and the separation of the kingdoms
  • Isaiah 10; Joel 1; Hosea 8:11 The Assyrian Invasion and Following Captivity
  • Isaiah 7:8 The time of the Captivity
  • 2 Kings 10:30 The Reign of Jehu’s family
  • 1 Kings 13:2 The Reign of Josiah
  • Jeremiah 25:11,14 The Seventy Years Captivity
  • Dan 2, 7 The four Imperial Nations of Babylon, Medio-Persia, Greek and Rome
  • Daniel 9, Zechariah 9 The birth, ministry, and death of Messiah, His Resurrection, The spread of the Gospel, The Fall of Jerusalem and the Temple
  • Daniel 11 The succession of Persian kings, The reign of Alexander, the wars of Syria and Egypt
  • Zechariah 10 The scattering of Israel and the regathering of Israel

God’s Direction for the Saints Revealed in The New Testament

Our God is immutable, meaning He does not change. The same guidance He gave to His people in the Old Testament applies in the New Testament.

There are those that believe prophecies in The Revelation are largely about a future seven years of tribulation involving great destruction. If this is true, it has left His followers with no instructions or warnings for 2000 years. However, the text itself says otherwise.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what must SOON take place; and he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, Rev. 1:1

Would God not do the same for His people as He did for ancient Israel?  Would He leave us with 2000 years of silence-as the Dispensationalist’s teach? Everything about The Lord’s provision for Israel would lead us to expect a fuller and more detailed foretelling. Not scantier! 

And, so it is that He put it all down in one book, The Revelation. Then, added that no one should add anything to the book. The course of history is set out for all to read.

. . . and if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. Rev. 22:19

The book of The Revelation is that foreordained history of God’s people from 98 AD to The New Jerusalem. It is our “roadmap,” our guiding light.

However, one must put in the time and read the history books, while comparing them to the prophecy. It is also a sound practice to read the Old Testament prophets and their fulfillments in order to understand the symbolic language of prophecy. [See Also: Hermeneutics ]

The Early Church understood these principles-not with complete clarity-but beginning brush strokes were being applied to the painting of history. Followers approached prophetic events with all dread and earnestness. They understood that the Gospel would triumph and cause the fall of the Roman Empire. But, they did not look forward to that day; they knew the Lawless-One would step into the void left by the Empire’s fall.

By the time of the Reformation, the Church began to understand that the Seal Judgments were fulfilled with the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and that the Trumpet Judgments were the Dark or Middle Ages. Finally, scholars that followed the Reformers witnessed the beginning the Bowls or Vial Judgments unfolding. The great twin persecutors of God’s children; the Roman Church; and the Ottoman Empire would soon be losing their power and prestige.

As the centuries rolled by, each new generation is gifted with a greater understanding as prophecy and corresponding events match up. More light is available as more events are fulfilled. Greater and brighter is the message as each detail becomes clearer in fulfillment.

Unfortunately, the Dispensationalists have clouded people’s minds with futile speculations. They rather recently invented, contrived, and supposed themselves into believing in things that are not in the Bible at all. There is no seven-year tribulation, there is no future political antichrist, and there is no rapture. These are all creations of their own imaginations. They jump from verse to verse in vain attempts to explain things that are simply not there. At the same time they neglect serious in-depth study of what is actually written in the Bible.

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We live in the End Times

At least that’s what many in today inherited churches are teaching. But is that valid?

If we are living in the End Times, what were Paul and Peter talking about?

Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come. 1Cor. 10:11

He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake. 1Pet. 1:20

The end of all things is at hand; therefore keep sane and sober for your prayers. 1Pet. 4:7 

For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 1Pet. 4:17 

If they were living in the End Times, what ended? Obviously Paul and Peter did not use this phrase to mean the end of ALL time or the end of OUR time. They were not thinking it was the end of our time, They had no concept or our time. They must have been speaking of THEIR time. In their time, the kingdom of Judea was at its end. The Messiah had told them that the Kingdom of Heaven/God was here. (See Also: The Kingdom of Heaven)

The second problem we now have is most of the inherited churches in the twenty-first century have miss understood the nature of the Kingdom and teach that the Kingdom of Heaven/God is delayed. The Kingdom was announced by both John the Baptists and Messiah Himself, therefore unless one thinks they were false prophets, there is something about the nature of the Kingdom that those teaching a delayed Kingdom have missed.

Those that teach a delayed Kingdom want a perfect world with the Messiah on a physical throne sitting in a physical temple. Just as the Pharisees had wanted the perfect Jewish Kingdom, where the Jews ruled the Gentiles, and all nations would have to come to Jerusalem to worship in a physical temple. They didn’t like a non-temple kingdom, where all are sons of Abraham. 

There is a time coming for a New Jerusalem, but that is not The Kingdom John the Baptist, Messiah, Paul, or Petter were talking about.

The time of Jewish polity was ending, and the faith was going out to the Gentiles.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Rev. 22:13 

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Not One Tear

We are often accused of being anti-catholic. This is simply not true. Catholic is Latin for “universal.” We believe in the universal church although we prefer congregation. We just don’t believe that The Church of Rome is part of it. The Church of Rome’s history and teachings has been one of violence and intolerance. Like the Empire before them, they have violently put down any who said anything they didn’t want to hear. 

When confronted with these facts the common response is “that was then,” we’re not like that now. To which we respond “God has not forgotten one tear.”

Thou hast kept count of my tossings; put thou my tears in thy bottle! Are they not in thy book? Psa. 56:8

He will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken. Is. 25:8

The Crusades and INQUISITION, are solely the Church of Rome’s responsibilities. She is truly drunk with the blood of the saints and anyone else that got in her way. This is not to say that there are no true believers in her ranks, but they need to recognize her for what she is and leave.

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; Rev. 18:4 

Her Judgment is Sure

And he called out with a mighty voice,  “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul and hateful bird; Rev. 18:2

Fallen is in the indicative, which is past tense in English. To be fallen is to be judged. Babylon is judged as a completed fact, it has already happened. It is not “will be judged” it is a stated fact that she “has been judged.”

This verse is a quote from Isaiah.

And, behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!” And he answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the images of her gods he has shattered to the ground.”Isaiah 21:9

In Hebrew, there is no word for emphasis like the English surely or very, so the verb is double stated. Babylon is surely fallen. It is a done deal, and remember Isaiah wrote this before Babylon was an empire. 

Taken during Operation Iraqi Freedom, U.S, Navy photo by Photographer’s mate 1st Class Arlo K Abrahamson.

This is what the imperial city looks like in its fallen state. Just melted mud bricks. So what will Rome look like?

“Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;  5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.  6 Render to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed. Rev. 18:4-6

What does a double draught look like?

The Millstone

21   Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So shall Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and shall be found no more;  22 and the sound of harpers and minstrels, of flute players and trumpeters, shall be heard in thee no more; and a craftsman of any craft shall be found in thee no more; and the sound of the millstone shall be heard in thee no more;  23 and the light of a lamp shall shine in thee no more; and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall be heard in thee no more; for thy merchants were the great men of the earth, and all nations were deceived by thy sorcery.  24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.” Rev. 18:21-24 


There are six “no mores” her sins will no longer be tolerated. No amount of penance or indulgences will matter. The King of Kings has had enough.

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matt. 18:6

Millstones are heavy things. There will be no coming back from purgatory.  How many little ones have been led astray by Rome’s lies? God has not forgotten — even one of them, not one tear. His judgments are true and just.