MORE REVELATIONS OF THE FUTURE! DO 1901 1/85
--About the Crash, the Tribulation & the Antichrist!--Revelation 11,12,13 & 17.
1. (DAD SINGS:)
"Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
That calls me from a World of care,
And bids me at my Father's Throne,
Make all my wants & wishes known.
In seasons of distress & grief,
My soul has often found relief,
And oft escaped the Tempter's snare,
By Thy return, sweet hour of prayer!"
--You never heard that before?
"'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word,
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know 'thus saith the Lord'!
Jesus, Jesus, how I love Thee,
How I've proved Thee o'er & o'er!
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,
Oh for faith to trust Thee more!"
--More of you knew that one!
"What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins & griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry,
Everything to God in prayer!"
PTL! Shall we pray? Someone lead us. (Family prays.) PTL! TYJ! Quicken their minds, Lord, wake'm up & help'm to be able to think & remember, & if they can't do that, Lord, help'm to mark their Bibles, in Jesus' name, amen! If you haven't got any memory, at least you've got a Bible & you can always mark that!
2. THE DOLLAR'S GOING UP, UP, UP, UP, UP! [EDITED: "Children like"] it when I go into action! Remember Stephen David's little song about that? ([EDITED: "Fam:"] "The Green Paper Pig"!)--Right! Could you sing it [DELETED]? ([EDITED: "Fam:"]
Ha, ha, ha! Don't be deceived,
The Green Paper Pig is all a dream!
Ha, ha, ha! Children dance on the roof,
The Green Paper Pig is gonna go--Poof!)
--Boom! What happened before the Green Paper Pig collapsed & went boom, exploded?--It was getting bigger & bigger & bigger & bigger! What's happening to the Dollar right now?--It's getting bigger & bigger & bigger & bigger! It's going up, up, up! Bigger & bigger & bigger!--And gold, which has real value, has been going down, down, down!
3. IT REMINDS ME OF THAT TRICK THAT EVIL SPIRIT TOM PLAYED ON MR. MACHOWSKI! He kept telling him the winners of the races & he was making a lot of money! So he finally decided, "Oh boy, I can't lose! I'm gonna bet everything I've got now on this last horse & make a fortune & then I'm gonna quit!" But Tom, his familiar evil spirit, of course could read his mind & knew exactly what he was thinking about. Tom would pick up a pencil & write the names of the horses that were going to win. Did you ever see a pencil seem to pick itself up & write? ([EDITED: "Fam:"] In movies.) In movies, yes. That's what they call spirit-writing, & it really happens. He would pick up a pencil & write him the names.
4. I KNEW MR. MACHOWSKI PERSONALLY & HEARD HIS TESTIMONY! He used to be our superintendent of schools where I was a teacher, & he used to give his testimony, a marvellous thrilling testimony. He was a total unbeliever managing a carnival, & they're some of the roughest bunch of people you'd ever wanna meet! There's only about one bunch of people that are rougher than the roustabouts of the carnivals, & maybe that's the roustabouts of the oil fields!--Or journalists, they're a really rough bunch of people. They say they've got the foulest language there is! I don't know how it could be any worse than it was in the army.
5. BUT ANYHOW, MR. MACHOWSKI WAS RUNNING THE CARNIVAL & HE HAD THIS WOMAN THAT COULD TELL FORTUNES & HE WANTED HER GIFT, & HE GOT IT!--TOM, THIS EVIL SPIRIT! He could tell him things, things that were going to happen, what horse was going to win the races, so he made a lot of money & he quit the roustabout business, the carnival, & he was just going great! He thought he was going to bet everything he had on this last horse & be sittin' pretty for the rest of his life. So Tom wrote the name of a horse, Mr. Machowski bet everything he had on it, & he lost!--And Tom just cackled & cackled & laughed! He did it deliberately, tricked him, & he lost everything!
6. UP TO THAT TIME HE THOUGHT TOM WAS A GOOD SPIRIT, HE THOUGHT HE WAS REALLY LIKE AN ANGEL, HIS GUARDIAN ANGEL, but then he realised that Tom was evil & he had deliberately tricked him to destroy him! See, Tom kept playing him along, stringing him along, deceiving him & making him think that he was good, the same way the Devil does lots of times, until finally he saw his chance to destroy him, & wrote down the name of the wrong horse & the horse lost & Mr. Machowski lost everything! So Mr. Machowski was furious with Tom! He went back & had a seance with Tom & all Tom could do was laugh right in his face!
7. BUT THANK THE LORD, IF YOU GIVE THE DEVIL ENOUGH ROPE HE'LL HANG HIMSELF!--THAT'S WHAT QUEERED MR. MACHOWSKI ON TOM! He was through with Tom from then on & he tried to get rid of him. But he couldn't get rid of him! He kept pestering him & annoying him & gave him all kinds of trouble, until Mr. Machowski finally heard the Gospel on radio & got saved & started going to church! Tom would even come & sit beside him in church & whisper in his ear all kinds of bad things about the people & the preacher & tell him, "Oh, that's a lie, that's not so!" He just annoyed him & pestered him! Until finally Mr. Machowski went on the attack & went out witnessing for the Lord on the streets of Chicago with the Christian Businessmen & he was out there preaching one day when he just really rebuked Tom in the power of the Spirit, & a drunk who was standing there listening fell down & had a fit! He knew Tom was gone, he'd entered into that drunk instead, & he never had any trouble with Tom again!
8. WELL, RIGHT NOW GOLD IS GOING DOWN, DOWN, DOWN & A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE SELLING THEIR GOLD & BUYING DOLLARS, & DOLLARS ARE GOING UP, UP, UP!--So big & so valuable & supposedly worth so much more than they were ever worth before! And this they compare in relation to gold, see? If the price of gold is down & the Dollars will buy more gold than before, they think that the Dollar's worth more & they can spend less Dollars for more gold. The Devil is tricking the World right now, but the Lord's allowing it because they worship those things & money is their god.--Paper money, imagine!--The god Mammon! Jesus & the Bible call it Mammon, the god of wealth. You'll find it in the 6th Chapter of Matthew in case you don't know how it's spelled. "Ye cannot serve God & Mammon both!" (Mat.6:24)
9. SO GOD IS ALLOWING THE PRICE OF GOLD TO FALL SO THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE FAITH IN GOD & HIS WORD WILL SELL THEIR GOLD. But the wise people will buy it because they know that it always goes up in the long run & always goes higher & higher than before!--One step down, two steps up, one step down, two steps up, that's the way gold goes. Right now it's on the step down, but wait until the Green Paper Pig goes BANG! What happens to a balloon when you blow it up till it explodes? (Claps hands!) It falls flat as a pancake!--Even flatter than Alf's pancakes! There's just hardly anything left!
10. SO THE MORE YOU HEAR ABOUT THE DOLLAR CLIMBING, THE CLOSER WE ARE TO THE COLLAPSE! As someone has said, the higher you are on the cliff, the closer you are to the abyss. So the higher the Dollar goes, the closer it is to exploding till it collapses! And that's what the economists are worrying about right now, they're hoping the Dollar will keep going up because that's great for the U.S.A.! Foreign investors are getting rid of other currencies & other investments & they're all buying Dollars & investing in U.S. property!
11. THEY TALK ABOUT THESE OTHER POOR DEBTOR NATIONS OF THE WORLD, BUT DID YOU KNOW WHAT THE GREATEST DEBTOR NATION OF THE WORLD IS?--THE U.S.A.! At first it just started out borrowing money from its own people, now it's borrowing money from the rest of the World! It owes more money to its people & the rest of the World than any other nation on the face of the Earth & has the largest national debt that any nation has ever had! The national debt is something like three trillion Dollars, I believe. That's more than all the money that was in all the banks in the whole World when I was young. Think of that!
12. SO THAT'S WHAT WE'RE EXPECTING NEXT, & THE HIGHER I SEE THAT DOLLAR GO, EVERY DAY I WONDER JUST HOW LONG IT'S GOING TO BE ABLE TO STAND IT! And that's what the economists are worried about. They say, "We're hoping that the Dollar will decline slowly." But usually when it happens like that, this is what they call inflation. When you blow up a balloon, you know what that is? ([EDITED: "Fam:"] Inflation.) You're inflating. When you pump up a tire you're inflating the tire. And right now the Devil is pumping the Dollar full of hot air, just plain lies, nothing but paper & hot air! Think of it!--And it's getting bigger & bigger & bigger till it collapses!
13. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOUR BALLOON TO GO FLAT WHEN YOU BLOW IT UP TOO BIG? ([EDITED: "Fam:"] Right away!)--Boom! Crash! When you have a blow-out in a tire, how long does it take it to go flat? Well, you folks haven't had too much experience with automobiles lately, mostly riding in planes! But when you have a blow-out--not a puncture but a blow-out--it goes flat immediately, just like your balloon. And when I pointed my finger at that Green Paper Pig, what happened?--It went "Pow!" & went flat immediately!
14. WHO WAS ENGINEERING THE INFLATION OF THE DOLLAR?--THE [EDITED: "ACS"]! [DELETED] Isn't it amazing how the Lord can show you a picture of something like that? It's marvellous, so simple even a little child almost could understand it! Here I could see the City of Jerusalem & these [DELETED] [EDITED: "ACs"] there counting out their money & manipulating the stock market & all kinds of stuff, & they shoved this Pig on its way down the Jordan Valley to try to destroy us. We were escaping across the Jordan River out of Israel over to the side of the Arabs. Isn't that significant? [DELETED]--And here came this huge monster Green Pig coming down the valley! But I just pointed my finger at it like I did that dog that time & rebuked it in Jesus' name & it went, BOOM!
15. YOU DON'T SUPPOSE THE LORD IS WAITING FOR US TO POINT OUR FINGER AT THE DOLLAR, DO YOU? Well, we're trying to get a few jobs done first, printing, etc. But if it gets to where it looks like that Dollar's gonna gobble us up, I'm sure gonna point my finger at it! We'll have to destroy it. If the Dollar looks like it's going to destroy us, then we've got to destroy it! But first we want to get a few jobs done. I want to get these classes done, for one thing, & some more printing done & all those pretty posters. We're praying the Lord will give us at least one more year, this year, '85, hoping we'll be able to finish those before the collapse, before the Dollar explodes & falls flat!--And that is gonna be one big collapse! That is going to be the worst crash, the worst panic, the worst stock market drop the World has ever known! It's all gonna go--boom!--Fall down flat!
16. --HOW SOON WE DON'T KNOW, BUT THE LORD DOESN'T HAVE TO TELL US EXACTLY WHEN. Maybe it's a good thing He doesn't because we'd worry about it. He doesn't want us to warn the World of any of His secrets either! If we'd tell them exactly when, then they'd have warning & they'd sell all their stocks & bonds before the collapse & they'd get rid of all their Dollars & they'd get out from under it. See, Tom didn't warn Mr. Machowski that the horse was going to lose, he made him think it was going to win, & that way he lost everything, it ruined him financially. Thank the Lord, though, it resulted in him getting saved & getting rid of Tom!
17. SO THOUGH IT'S A BAD TIME AHEAD, IT'S EVENTUALLY GONNA RESULT IN OUR GETTING SAVED, AMEN? We're already saved, but I mean saved out of this World, & we'll be a lot better off in the long run. The worse things get, the sooner they're gonna get better! PTL? The closer we get to the End, the quicker the End's going to come, & it's got to get worse before it can get better. So, praise the Lord! Well, that was a little lesson on the side! I didn't mean to give you a lesson on economics this morning, but that's pretty much the next thing we can expect & there may be a lot of other things. Have you read that list of Events of 1984 we put in one of the GNs? (See GN 170.) You'll be amazed at how many great things happened in '84, some of the biggest catastrophes the World's ever known, & some of the biggest falls & deaths & all kinds of things. Tremendous events are taking place! '84 was an eventful year of mostly bad events for the World, but for us, virtually all good events! TTL! Isn't that wonderful?
18. I FOUND SOME INTERESTING VERSES ALONG THE LINE WE'VE BEEN STUDYING THIS MORNING WHEN I WAS LOOKING THROUGH THE BOOK OF REVELATION! What chapter were we studying in our last class on Friday? See, we only have school five days a week, then you get Saturday & Sunday off. We were studying Chapter 16. We ran through it real fast but I wouldn't say we finished it because some of these chapters you could study for a week!
19. DOES ANYBODY WANT TO RECITE THE 16 MAJOR POINTS OR EVENTS OF THE ENDTIME? (Fam: I'd like to.) Good girl. Mmm, what a vision of loveliness! Turn toward them unless that distracts you too much--you might distract them! Isn't she beautiful? PTL! (Fam: The 16 major points of the Endtime.) We call them points because some are events, some are periods, etc. (Fam: 1) the Last Days, 2) Signs of the Times, 3) The Crash, 4) The Rise & Revelation of the Antichrist.) At least the rise, we're not sure just when the revelation is going to be. Some people believe it's going to be at the time of the breaking of the Covenant, that we won't really know who he is till then, but I have a feeling we'll know before that.
20. (FAM: 5) SIGNING OF THE COVENANT, 6) BREAKING OF THE COVENANT.) Then we'll really know he's the Antichrist when he breaks the Covenant. I think we'll even probably suspect who he is if he even makes such a Covenant, that'll be such a miracle! That would really be a major miracle if he can make these three religions make peace with each other. (Fam: 7) Great Tribulation, 8) Atomic War, 9) The Rapture, 10) Wrath of God & Marriage Supper.) They're both actually happening at the same time, but we usually like to put the Marriage Supper first. (Fam: 10) Marriage Supper, 11) Wrath of God, 12) Armageddon, 13) Millennium, 14) Battle of Gog & Magog, 15) Great White Throne of Judgement & 16) New Heaven & New Earth!) Very good! PTL! All right, now that you've had your review, we'll dig in! I found an interesting verse today in the 12th Chapter proving some of the points that we've been talking about. We're going to go back to some other Scriptures too, but we're principally staying in Revelation.
21. YOU HAD THIS IN "REVELATION MADE SIMPLE," IT USED TO BE IN A LITTLE TRACT & IT WAS ON THE BACK OF THE REVELATION POSTER, A SIMPLE OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION. We divided it into what three groups of Chapters, does anybody remember? How many? (Fam: Three sevens.) Three sevens of chapters plus Chapter 22 was kind of thrown in extra. Actually 21 & 22 are really all the same, all about Heaven, & should have been one whole chapter. But the fellow who divided the Bible into chapters apparently thought that it was too long a chapter so he chopped the end off & you've got 22 chapters, & he must have been pretty wise & Spirit-led!
22. THE BIBLE WAS NOT DIVIDED INTO CHAPTERS & VERSES UNTIL THE 1200s, BUT IT CERTAINLY IS HANDY TO HAVE IT DIVIDED INTO CHAPTERS & VERSES SO YOU CAN FIND SOMETHING! In the days of the Apostles & the Old Testament, all they could say was, "Well, it's in David or it's in Isaiah or it's in this or that!"--And you had to hunt for it. And not only that, paper was so scarce that in writing the Old Testament in Hebrew they didn't put in any kind of punctuation & they didn't even put space between the words. But those old Hebrew scholars, they knew it so well that they could read it anyhow. Can you imagine what it would look like if you didn't put spaces between your words or any punctuation? Well, they were trying to save paper like we do!
23. WE ALMOST DO THE SAME THING WITH SOME OF OUR PUBLICATIONS, IN FACT WE WERE! Some of the words weren't actually running together, but some of the letters were running together to where it was a little confusing sometimes when we did 17 characters per inch. So we had to try to get away from that & now we're trying to do 15 per inch to keep the characters separate. But once in awhile in order to cram all the stuff in the GN we do what we call "squashing" it & we have to squash it or squeeze it & do some of the articles in 17 to get it all in. We had to do one whole Poster Issue in 17. But I figured it wasn't all that technical & if you couldn't figure out a word here or there, that's okay.
24. BUT WHEN IT COMES TO THE BIBLE YOU'VE REALLY GOT TO KNOW YOUR STUFF! You wonder sometimes why things are so mixed up & why God's referring to this back here, & then suddenly He refers to the End, then He goes back to this again, then He tells you about the End. You say, "Well, why doesn't He put it in nice chronological order?" Well, it is pretty good order, but one reason He keeps referring to the End is to cheer you up! We ran across a verse like that in our last class that I skipped over real quick in the 16th Chapter because it had nothing to do with our subject, but it was an encouraging verse, the 15th verse. He says, "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth & keepeth his garments," etc. He keeps throwing in warnings about the End, or He keeps throwing in encouraging things about the End. The End hasn't even happened yet in the story, but He wants to remind you that everything's going to have a happy ending. It also reminds you that the End is coming & You'd better be ready for it! Then He goes back to the story again.
25. I NEVER HEARD ANYBODY ELSE TEACH REVELATION THIS WAY AT ALL, & WHEN THE LORD SHOWED ME THIS, WE FOUND THAT THE BOOK OF REVELATION WAS DIVIDED INTO THREE BEAUTIFUL SECTIONS in beautiful, even chronological order & almost mathematically balanced! These three groups of 7 chapters each, plus the end of the 21st which is called the 22nd chapter, are each groups dealing particularly with certain periods. The first seven chapters are mostly what? (Fam: A bird's-eye view.) Yes, you keep getting closer & closer, flying down lower & lower to watch the events. A bird's-eye view of what? (Fam: Of all the events of the whole End.) Yes, & this bird's-eye view He gives stretches from when to when? How long is the Endtime period? (Fam: From the time of Jesus to the end of Time.) Right. A lot of people express it as between the two Comings of the Lord--we would say between the First & Third Coming of the Lord! You say, "I thought there was just a Second Coming--where does this Third Coming come in?" (Fam: Armageddon!)--Right! That's when we come down with Him at Armageddon. So that's quite a long period.
26. IN THE FIRST OPENING OF THE BOOK, IN THE SEVEN SEALS, HE DEALS WITH THE WHOLE PERIOD OF HISTORY, ALL THE WAY FROM THE TIME OF CHRIST TO THE VERY END. You have the End & all the things that are happening at the End right there at the end of the 7th Chapter. You've got all kinds of terrible things happening, remember? Well, actually the 7th Chapter is about the scene in Heaven, but at the end of the 6th Chapter & the 6th Seal & all that, oh boy, it ends up with the verse: "For the great day of His Wrath is come!"
27. ISN'T THAT THE END OF THE ENDTIME PERIOD? The day of His Wrath really ends with Armageddon. Well, here it is only the 6th chapter & it says here in the last verse of the 6th chapter, "The day of His Wrath is come!"--Why? Come on now, she just told you! (Fam: It's a bird's-eye view of the whole thing.) You just got the picture of the whole thing from beginning to end!
28. IT'S AMAZING HOW THE LORD FIXED IT, THE WORST PART OF THIS PERIOD IS IN THE 6TH CHAPTER! We don't like that figure six much, do we? I always try to avoid numbering anything, even Letters, good Letters, with sixes. I usually try to put that number on a bad Letter or a bad GN or something, like that TM Issue, #166. The 7th Chapter then shows how the Lord saves us during the Tribulation period, so that's the good news. Amen? Then begins the next seven chapters. I thought we'd better kind of review this to remind you, because maybe you've forgotten.
29. IN THE FIRST SEVEN CHAPTERS WE HAVE THE SEVEN SEALS OF HISTORY, OF WHAT WE CALL MODERN HISTORY. Even historians mostly date ancient history up to the time of Christ, & then the period of Christ on is called Modern History, just the last 2,000 years, which is pretty modern compared to the 4,000 that went before that. So the next seven chapters also deal with seven things, what are they? (Fam: The Seven Trumpets.) The Seven Trumpets of what? If you can, always repeat what they're about, Seven Seals of History, Seven Trumpets of the Tribulation. Because these next seven have particularly to do with all the various events of the Tribulation, & that carries us right up to Chapter 14. And again, two times 7 is 14 & we have another good chapter really, because it's in the 14th Chapter that what occurs? (Fam: The Rapture!) That's the main event of the 14th Chapter. Of course, right before that the Gospel is preached to the whole World & Babylon is destroyed, then the Rapture occurs. There's another Scriptural authentication or documentation of the fact that Babylon is destroyed, which means the Atomic War, occurs just before the Rapture or just before the End.
30. NOW DON'T CONFUSE THE ATOMIC WAR WITH ARMAGEDDON! Okay? I get mixed up myself sometimes, because for so many years I was taught contrary to that. The Atomic War ends what period? (Fam: The Tribulation.) Well, just about anyhow. Some people get technical & say there are a couple more events after that, but it's the major event toward the end of the Tribulation. And then the Battle of Armageddon ends what period? (Fam: The Wrath of God.) The Wrath of God, the whole Endtime period. But don't get those two confused, amen? So in the second seven we have seven what? (Fam: Seven Trumpets of the Tribulation.) OK!
31. AND IN THE LAST SEVEN CHAPTERS THERE ARE SEVEN THINGS THERE TOO THAT PRETTY MUCH INTRODUCE THOSE LAST SEVEN CHAPTERS, WHAT ARE THEY? (FAM: THE SEVEN VIALS OF WRATH!) In fact, most of those seven chapters have to do with the events of both the Tribulation & Wrath. There are several flashbacks to describe things & to help identify the Whore & the Beast & all these things, but they lead pretty consecutively & chronologically right on up to the End, & they deal mostly with the period of Wrath.--Plus again, the Happy Ending! Each one of these has a happy ending! Isn't that beautiful? In each seven, the last chapter of the seven has a happy ending! So in the last seven, what's the happy ending? (Fam: The New Heaven & New Earth!) That's right, Heaven in Earth & Heaven on Earth, praise the Lord? Because we've often said the Millennium is going to be like Heaven on Earth. But actually Heaven won't be on Earth yet during the Millennium. We say Heaven on Earth in the general broad sense of the word, a very happy time & heavenly time.
32. ALL RIGHT, SO THE LAST THIRD OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION DEALS MOSTLY WITH THE END OF ALL THOSE THINGS, THE END OF MAN'S WORLD, at least the end of the World when he's running it, right up to--what do we call the final major event of the Endtime? (Fam: The New Heaven & New Earth.) Of the Endtime. The New Heaven & New Earth is part of God's World, what's the end of Man's World? (Fam: The Battle of Armageddon.) The Battle of Armageddon! We've just been talking about it, in fact that's been our study pretty much. We defined the Endtime as the end of Man's World, the time during which God is letting Man run the World & making a mess out of it, & that goes right up to the Battle of Armageddon. In fact, as we're going to show you again, the Battle of Armageddon is a battle between many nations at first before we ever descend for Armageddon, & I'm going to read several Scriptures to you on that. They're not expecting us at all! They don't know we're coming!
33. THE WAY SOME OF OUR ANALYSTS HAVE WRITTEN THIS YOU'D THINK THE DEVIL & HIS CROWD & ALL THE NATIONS ON EARTH HAD GATHERED TOGETHER AROUND JERUSALEM JUST WAITING FOR US TO COME DOWN TO FIGHT US! That's the kind of picture you had, but that ain't so! They don't know anything about what's happened to us, we've just disappeared & they think they've gotten rid of us forever & they're very happy about it. We disappeared, it's some kind of a miracle, they saw some bright light in Heaven & heard thunderings & trumpets & they even saw Jesus & a lot of them were scared & mourned etc. But it's amazing how quick the sinners forget things! By & by we're gone & they soon get used to the idea that it looks like they finally pretty much succeeded. It looks like all the Christians got wiped out somehow, & who knows? Maybe the Antichrist will even take credit for it! He's a great deceiver, maybe he'll claim that he performed some kind of miracle & that was really his doing & he just made'm all disappear like the Green Paper Pig & now he's ruling the World. But he still has wars & lots of trouble & the Wrath of God & Armageddon!
34. SO LET'S GET BACK TO SOME SCRIPTURES THAT YOU CAN NAIL DOWN HERE, & WE'RE PARTICULARLY STUDYING THE TRIBULATION PERIOD & THE SECOND SEVEN OF CHAPTERS. What is our main detailed subject right now that we're trying to prove from the Scriptures & in logic, that two & two makes four, or four minus two makes two? Can anybody tell me what brought up this whole subject? Oh my, I got a lot of hands on this! (Fam: That other people besides the Christians didn't receive the Mark.) Right, & there are other people fighting the Antichrist besides us, in fact fighting whole wars! Are we proving it to you? Is it pretty evident? We find out the Antichrist during his reign fights a total of five wars!--Four during the Last 7 years & one at the end of the Wrath of God, the Battle of Armageddon! He tries to make his last stand, Custer's last stand. In this case it's the Cussiner's last stand, the guy that's doing all the cussin' & cursin' of God & blaspheming the Lord! The Cussiner!--That's his last stand at the Battle of Armageddon. I think those funny little things I say help you remember things!
35. NOW LET'S LOOK BACK AT THE 10TH CHAPTER! "Boy, Dad, the way you skip & hop all around the Bible, I get lost!" Well, it's because I'm trying to interrelate certain events & certain things that happen! In the 7th verse of the 10th chapter He says, "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall begin to sound."--What's he sounding? (Fam: The Trumpet.) The 7th Trumpet! "The mystery of God shall be finished!" Now what's the mystery of God that's going to be finished when we hear the Last Trumpet? God's Word says right here that when the Last Trumpet sounds, the mystery of God will be finished, & in a minute we're going to read what happens when it sounded.
36. BUT WE KNOW ONE THING VERY IMPORTANT THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO US AT THE LAST TRUMP: "FOR WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE!" It's 1Corinthians 15:51. What does it say? First one to find it, read it! (Fam: "Behold, I show you a mystery.") He calls it a mystery, right? ("We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound & the dead shall be raised.") There you are! It's two verses, but it begins with 15:51. I always remember that easy because you take the 15 & turn it around & it's 51, & that's where the passage begins. Of course, it goes on to the 52nd verse.
37. BUT WHEN ARE WE ALL GOING TO BE CHANGED? WHEN ARE WE GOING TO RISE? WHEN'S THE RAPTURE GOING TO OCCUR? WHAT'S GOING TO ANNOUNCE IT? (Fam: The Last Trump!) Right! Now read that verse again, Revelation 10:7. First to find it, read it! (Fam: "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.")--Finished! And of course He says there, "As He hath declared to His servants the prophets." They've been prophesying that from cover to cover in this Bible! So the mystery of God shall be finished. Isn't that what Paul just got through saying in 1Corinthians15:51 & 52?"I show you a mystery." It's going to be finished.--When? (Fam: The Last Trump!) What's going to happen? (Fam: The Rapture!) It's obvious! That's a specific reference to the Rapture.
38. DOES IT TALK ABOUT A TRUMPET SOUNDING IN 1THESSALONIANS 4? First one to find it, read it! Let's have a Bible drill now, maybe that'll keep you awake! (Fam: "For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel & with the trump of God.") (1Thes.4:16) The Trump of God shall sound, there's your Last Trump! So the 7th Trumpet of the Tribulation announces what? Well, in the 7th verse of the 10th chapter it hasn't been blown yet, but He's telling you ahead of time that that's when the End is going to be, the end of the mystery for us!--Not the end of wicked Man & unsaved Man on the Earth, that end goes on a little further. But that's the end for us! That's a new beginning for us! PTL?
39. NOW TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE LAST TRUMP IS BLOWN, YOU'VE GOT TO SKIP ANOTHER 20 VERSES, ALL THE WAY FROM VERSE 7 OF REVELATION 10 DOWN TO VERSE 15 OF REVELATION 11! And in between it you've got more events of the Tribulation, you've got the two Witnesses, you've got the 42 months again, & it tells you 1260 days in the first part of this 11th chapter. It specifies the length of the Tribulation twice. I don't want to have to read all this over again, though, or we'll never get done! You should know this so well you should almost have it memorised! The 2nd verse says 42 months & the 3rd verse says 1260 days. There it is again, 3-1/2 years! So over half of this 11th Chapter is about the Tribulation.
40. AND WHAT HAPPENS IN THE 12TH VERSE? (FAM: THE RAPTURE!) That's the Rapture, really. After all, when the two Witnesses are raised from the dead & are caught up into Heaven, that's at the same time we're going to be caught up to Heaven. They don't get a special rapture all to themselves, that's when we're all raptured, praise the Lord! And what happens after that? As we've often said, what period on Earth begins then? (Fam: The Wrath of God.) Read it! What does it sound like? Great earthquake, thousands slain, "the second woe is past," a great woe on the Earth. Actually that's a Rapture in the 12th verse, but He's still describing the events of the Endtime & He tells you that the Trumpet is blown. What He's saying is all these things are happening at the same time, all at once, boom, boom, boom! He can't put'm all in the same verse, but this is all happening at once.
41. 15TH VERSE: "THE SEVENTH ANGEL SOUNDED!"--And what happened? (Fam: "And there were great voices in Heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord.") When the Lord catches us out of this World, as far as the Lord's concerned, Man's day is done. You could say this is the End if you wanted to, the End of the Endtime, & most people do. The Wrath of God is certainly the end of Man's day. But it lasts for a little while, so even though we recognise the Wrath of God as the end, Armageddon is the end of the Wrath. Get the point? It's all part of the End, it's all the End, in fact almost the whole book's about the End, especially the last 14 or 15 chapters. But pinning it down to an exact point, we have pinned it down to the end of the Battle of Armageddon.
42. SO WHEN THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD START GETTING FED THE WRATH OF GOD, THAT SHOWS WHO'S THE BOSS! That shows that God's in control & that He's got more power than all of them. When He starts pouring out all those horrible things that you read about in the Wrath & that you get to in the next few chapters over, God is certainly pouring out His Wrath & Man's End has come. But Man's End is not at a certain second of a certain minute of a certain hour of a certain day, there's a long period of God meting out His Wrath, about 30 days we've guessed that it means, & that maybe the Battle of Armageddon lasts about 45 because it's 75 days from the end to the time the people who survive are blessed with the Millennium. Am I just getting you more confused or are you getting the point? Some of you still look a little puzzled.
43. SEE, SO MANY OF THESE THINGS OVERLAP, SO MANY OF THEM HAPPEN AT THE SAME TIME. Some follow one after the other, some overlap like this, some are right on top of each other, some are overlapping like this, so you can't possibly just describe it all, you'd have to put it all in one verse or all in one chapter. There's a succession of events, & then there are other concurrent events that are occurring, & there are other events, but He tries to deal with each subject one at a time, even though they may overlap each other, just like the events of history. Didn't we study that in the lives of the Patriarchs, the forefathers back in Adam's day, didn't those lives overlap each other? If you wanted to tell one guy's life, you'd tell his whole life from beginning to end. And then you'd want to tell the other guy's life, you go back & tell the other guy's life, overlapping each other. And that's a lot the way the Book of Revelation is. A lot of events are overlapping or coinciding or running along at the same time.--For instance, what's going on in Heaven during the Wrath of God? (Fam: The Marriage Supper.)
44. SPEAK UP! I KNOW MY QUESTIONS MAY SOUND LIKE RHETORICAL QUESTIONS, BUT I WANT TO KNOW! Do you know what a rhetorical question is? It's a question that a teacher asks that he doesn't necessarily expect the answer to, he just asks it to make you wake up & think & try to find the answer. But don't think I'm just asking you a rhetorical question--when I ask you a question I want an answer! I'm not just asking rhetorical questions. I'm trying to make you think!--Because it's a law of teaching & learning that you will learn a fact better if you want to learn it. Man is so constituted by God that he wants to know everything, so when I ask you a question, it means you've got to know something, & right away you want to know it or you're going to be the dumb bunny of the class! Right away to save your own reputation you've got to think of the answer, so you really want the answer, don't you? Even if you don't know the answer, you're really relieved & glad when I tell you the answer or somebody else does, & you probably won't miss that one again!
45. IT'S LIKE PLOWING THE SOIL & MAKING A FURROW READY FOR IT WHEN I ASK A QUESTION! The furrow, that hole in the ground, is the question, that's an empty hole, & what does it need? It needs the seed, the Word! Just like our girls, they're holy holes, they've got a hole that likes seed. And what's the seed?--The Word! If I ask you an empty question, you want to fill it up with an answer, don't you? And if you do, what's going to happen? What happens to our girls? It's going to bear fruit! You're going to get pregnant with some kind of fruit. You're going to get pregnant with knowledge. It's going to bear fruit, a fact that you will know & you'll learn & maybe you'll have it forever!
46. SO WHEN I ASK YOU A QUESTION, I EXPECT YOU TO TRY TO ANSWER IT! And even if you don't know the answer, as soon as it's answered you'll know it & you probably won't forget it again, 'cause one of the best ways of teaching & learning is to ask questions. Even if I ask a question I know you don't know the answer to, I know that none of you know the answer, at least then all of you want to know the answer right away. Then when I give it to you, you really learn it! That's something you learn in teaching. And all of you are going to be teachers one of these days, so don't forget that! That's something that'll come in handy even in the Millennium & probably even on the New Earth as far as we can see. If people still need healing, their need is the question & your Leaves of Life are the answers & it's going to bear good fruit to make them good citizens of the Kingdom of God!
47. I HAVE TO THROW IN THESE LITTLE SIDE LESSONS ALL THE TIME & I'M ALWAYS GOING OFF ON SOME LITTLE SIDE PATH PICKING DAISIES! But don't blame me if the Lord preaches you so many different lessons in one morning & I don't get around to everything I'd like to get around to, blame it on the Lord! He's the Guy Who puts some of these extra ideas in my head! But you need to learn those too. A few of those things are just as important & practical for you to learn as it is for you to learn some of these details of Revelation.
48. YOU'RE SITTING SO FAR TO ONE SIDE I DON'T ALWAYS SEE YOU, HONEY! It's not that I can't see, if I'd had my glasses off I'd have seen you. But these glasses have a bar right there where I can't see you. Otherwise I can see this finger clearly right here, & I can see this one clearly right here. I do not have tunnel vision. My cousin Genie was an eye doctor in California & he performed 2,000 corneal transplants, more than any other doctor in at least California, I don't know about the U.S. at that time. He was an expert eye surgeon, but he still took some patients at his office. He usually had a full schedule, but since I was visiting he said, "Would you like to come down to check your eyes?" I was 35 or 40. He said, "It's about time maybe you had glasses. I think you'd better come & have a free eye-check on me!"
49. WELL, HE WAS AN OUTSTANDING EYE DOCTOR & SURGEON, SO I FIGURED, "BOY, THIS GUY REALLY KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING! I'll really get a check-up & he'll find out everything that's wrong with me, if I have anything wrong." Instead of that he was astounded at what good eyes I had at that age! I was already working for Fred so it must have been in the 50s. As I recall, I was nearly 40, the first eye examination I'd ever had! I never had gone to an eye doctor, I never had any trouble with my eyes, I always could see very very well. I didn't get eye glasses till I was almost 50. He was astounded at what good eyes I had. He said, "You've got almost 20/20 vision, one eye is just a little bit weak." I think it's this one, I forget sometimes.
50. IT'S FUNNY, I'VE GOT TWO EYES & THEY COMPENSATE FOR EACH OTHER NOW, EVEN AT MY AGE. My right eye sees very well at a distance & my left eye sees pretty good within about a meter or two, so between the two of them we licked the platter clean! You've heard that one, haven't you?
"Jack Spratt could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean.
And so between the two of them,
They licked the platter clean!"
One of'm just ate fat & the other one just ate lean. That's why Jack Spratt was so skinny & Mrs. Spratt was so fat! Now isn't that a marvellous piece of knowledge you just learned?--From the University of Empty Blab & the World of useless knowledge! But it has a moral, a sort of a lesson to it, that even though maybe one thing isn't enough, the other thing may be more than enough, & between the two of you, one can chase a thousand but two can put ten thousand to flight! (Deut.32:30) It may not be fat & lean, but at least it means cooperation. So that's a funny little poem about cooperation! I think it's a Mother Goose rhyme or something.
51. A LOT OF THOSE MOTHER GOOSE RHYMES HAD GOOD MORALS TO THEM, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, & A LOT OF THEM WERE JUST CRAZY! However, now they're beginning to realise they had something to do with history then. The Mother Goose rhymes were definitely political. They were a little bit like the Bible, they were mysterious & disguising who they were really talking about, because they were talking about certain kings & prime ministers & political events. But they teach them to little kids because they're just funny little verses & rhymes & some of them don't seem to make any sense.
"Hickory-dickory-dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one & down he ran,
Hickory-dickory-dock!"
That doesn't seem to make any sense at all, does it? But it had something to do with British politics at that time, something about one o'clock, etc.
52. "HUMPTY-DUMPTY SAT ON THE WALL,
HUMPTY-DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL..." ([EDITED: "Fam:"]
"All the king's horses & all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty together again!")
Oh, you know some Mother Goose, huh? Well, Humpty-Dumpty happened to be the King at that time & he had really made a big mistake & lost his power somehow or another & even his armies couldn't put him back together again! But it was like a funny little children's rhyme so the author couldn't be pinned down for being a seditionist or criticising the king or something. Because in those days you could lose your head over almost anything, & losing your head in those days meant they chopped it off if you said anything against the king or made fun of the politicians, etc. So you've gotta watch out! But anyhow, some of these little Mother Goose rhymes had a moral! How did I get onto all that?--My cousin! Well, maybe you finally wake up when I tell you these little stories.
53. AND THE THING HE WAS MOST AMAZED ABOUT WAS MY 180 DEGREE VISION! Clear out here in both directions I can see these fingers clearly. He had this big funny contraption with a steel rim with these slide things on it which measured degrees & everything so that he could measure exactly the vision width of the people who came in. Some people have vision like this, like they've got a couple of blinders on! You probably don't even know what a blinder is! ([EDITED: "Fam:"] I do, it's the same that they put on horses so they don't get scared.) Exactly, especially on city horses where there's a lot of traffic & noise. They didn't have to do that to country horses, but they put blinders on'm in the city so they could only see straight ahead of them & they wouldn't be annoyed or distracted or bothered or scared by the things that were happening here & here. That's the way some people's vision is.
54. THAT'S JUST ABOUT THE WAY THE CHURCH'S VISION IS TOO, THEY'VE GOT BLINDERS ON! There are none so blind as those that will not see, they just refuse to see! "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts!" Thank God for you people who are open-minded, you've got nice, broad 180-degree vision & you're willing to learn something new! I'm learning something new all the time! I ran across some new verses that I didn't realise were on this subject even this morning! You find treasures old & new in the Word, so I thought I'd tell you about these.
55. BY THE WAY, THIS 11TH CHAPTER REALLY KIND OF WINDS THINGS UP HERE! Here's another one of those that runs right up to the End again. See, He keeps telling you about the End.--Right? Aren't we raptured? In verse 18, "The nations are angry & Thy wrath is come!" Here's the Wrath of God already! "Dad, I thought you said that the Wrath of God didn't come till the next seven chapters?" Well, He keeps referring to that period throughout the Bible & throughout this whole book! You can't pin everything down exactly within one nutshell & compartmentalise it air tight in compartments, because the Lord keeps referring back & forth to this there at the End & something that was at the beginning etc. But don't get mixed up! It's obvious that He's just referring again to how it's going to end right after the Rapture.
56. "THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY!"--With whom? With what? Who's angry with whom? Well, we find out at the end of the Wrath of God, what occurs? (Fam: Armageddon.) Don't be afraid, Honey, speak up! Armageddon! So we just assumed that they're mad at God, & some definitely are mad at God. The Antichrist forces are definitely mad at God, right? But He says the nations are angry! Well, we found out there are some other nations besides the Antichrist nations, & by this time they're rebelling against him & they're angry with him! So here's another little interpretation for you, that the nations are angry! When nations get angry with each other, what do they do? (Fam: They fight.) They have a war! So there's a little premonition that they're going to have the Battle of Armageddon at the end of this Wrath.
57. AND THE TIME HAS COME HERE AT THE END OF THE 18TH VERSE WHEN THE LORD IS GOING TO "DESTROY THEM WHICH DESTROY THE EARTH"! And here's lightnings, thunderings, an earthquake & great hail!--Exactly the same thing that it says happens after the Battle of Armageddon even at the end of the Wrath of God. Here it is, a reference tothat again. See? It keeps repeating references to these events. You've got to get the events straight in your own head, but just notice that there are many references to those events long before they actually happen. In the chronology of the Bible, He keeps referring to things at the End. It's all the same in the mind of God, in fact to God it's already happened! He lives in the great Eternal Now, no more Time, & these events are already as good as done in the mind of God, the future is already accomplished, it's that certain, that sure! You don't have to worry about whether it's going to happen or not, it's going to happen, God said so! PTL!
58. THE 12TH CHAPTER IS A BEAUTIFUL CHAPTER, & BEGINS VERY BEAUTIFULLY WITH A WOMAN! Who is this woman clothed with the sun, moon under her feet & on her head a crown or 12 stars? Well, the Catholics say that that's the Madonna, the Virgin Mary. I've seen statues of her like that in Catholic churches, with 12 stars around her head like a crown. You say, "Well look, she has this child that's obviously Jesus caught up to God & His Throne, so it must be Mary!" Yes, but you keep on reading & it couldn't be Mary! Becaust at this time what happens?
59. THE SECOND CHARACTER IN THIS STORY IN THE 12TH CHAPTER IS THE GREAT RED DRAGON! One woman Bible teacher was teaching people that that was Red China. Well, Red China's sort of only part of it. But the Lord makes it very specific & you've got to go down to the 9th verse to find out who it is for sure. It gives him three names, in fact four names including the 10th verse: The old Serpent, the Devil, Satan & the Accuser! Well, God wanted to make sure you didn't mistake this Red Dragon for somebody else or something else, so He's got all four names there to make sure you know it's the Devil!
60. WE DON'T HAVE MUCH LONGER TO GO, THANK THE LORD! Aren't you glad the class is almost over? Everybody that's glad class is almost over, say "Amen!" (Silence) I bet if I'd have said that first I'd've caught somebody & somebody would have just heard me say, "Say Amen," & they'd have said "Amen!" I've caught audiences that way a lot of times. They're not even thinking, they're not even listening, they just hear you say, "Say Amen," & I've had several people pipe up, "Amen!"
61. WELL ANYHOW, THIS 12TH CHAPTER IS TELLING EVENTS ALL THE WAY UP TO THE END, but then He goes clear back actually to the birth of Jesus, which is in a sense the birth of the Church, at least the modern Church, the Christian Church. Christ was the first Christian & He was the Lord of all the rest of the Christians that came along, right? Get it? So He's going back, & if you want to think this is Mary, I'm not going to destroy your illusions.--Well, at least not till we read the rest of the chapter! First was the woman, & then the Great Red Dragon is the next character in this two or three act play. It's like a drama, like a play, like a movie!
62. VERSE 5: "AND SHE BROUGHT FORTH A MAN CHILD, WHO WAS TO RULE ALL NATIONS WITH A ROD OF IRON." Who's that? (Fam: Jesus.) Jesus, obviously. "And her Child was caught up unto God, & to His Throne." Where's Jesus today? ([EDITED: "Fam:"] In Heaven.) In Heaven with His Father. "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred & threescore days." That's how many days again? ([EDITED: "Fam:"] 1260 days.) How long is that? (Fam: 3-1/2 years.) 3-1/2 years by the Jewish Calendar, don't forget. That's according to the Jewish Calendar of about twelve 30-day months/year, as it averages out, or 3-1/2 years x 360 days equals 1260 days.
63. AND THEN IN VERSE 7 THERE WAS WAR IN HEAVEN! Who was fighting whom? ([EDITED: "Fam:"] Michael & his angels fighting the Dragon!) Michael & his archangels fighting the Devil & his angels! The Devil & his angels are outnumbered two to one. How do you know? (Fam: Verse 4.) Very good! The tail of that Dragon cast a third part of the stars, meaning the angels, to the ground. When the Devil had a revolt in Heaven, a third of the angels followed him, think of that! Do the angels have free will?--Obviously! They are created, supernatural, super-powerful beings, much more powerful than we are, but just like us, God gave them a chance too, God gave them a choice. And when the Devil decided he wanted to be as powerful as God, you have to go back in Isaiah & read it, he wasn't satisfied being the righthand of God, the Lightbearer, Lucifer, he wanted to be God Himself, so God had to put him down. (Isa.14:12-19)
64. BUT HE'S NOT CAST OUT YET! See, a lot of people think that happened a long time ago, some people think it happened when Jesus was crucified, some people think it happened way back yonder sometime in the Old Testament or something, but we find him still appearing as one of the sons, in other words stars or angels or creations of God, appearing before God in the Book of Job, one of the oldest books.--And he still does that! It says right here he's the Accuser of the Saints, that he's accusing us day & night, all the time! He still has access to be the prosecuting attorney before the Judge, God, to accuse us for our sins. You see? So he's still Up There! He's apparently not cast out until the middle of the reign of the Antichrist, right at the beginning of the Tribulation, & that's why the Antichrist becomes so powerful & so horrible & wants to be God, because it's Satan again, the old Devil at it again!--The Antichrist is the Devil in the flesh!
65. SO HERE'S A WOMAN FLEEING INTO THE WILDERNESS. Well, where did Mary flee into the wilderness for 3-1/2 years? After Jesus was born, first of all they lived in their own hired house in Bethlehem for two years, maybe you didn't notice that. And the Wise Men actually didn't come on the very night He was born like they have in the Christmas pageants, just the shepherds did. The Wise Men would have really had to travel fast to get there then! They came after Jesus was living in a house with His parents, two years old. This is why when the Wise Men came & left, Herod went & had all the children killed under two years of age, because Jesus was two years old. So they didn't flee at all right at first, did they? But when they finally fled to Egypt they stayed down there four years. (Mat.2:11-21) So Mary doesn't fit this picture at all. It has nothing to do with Mary. This is a picture of the Church. Well, in a sense you could say Mary was sort of the Mother of the Church since she gave birth to Jesus, & that's nice to look at pictures of Mary with stars around her head & the moon under her feet.
66. THEN IN THE 9TH VERSE SATAN'S CAST OUT OF HEAVEN INTO THE EARTH! It's specific, you don't have to guess about it. Some things we guess about, that because this is so & that is so, then this must be so. But some things the Bible says specifically, exactly what happened! You know you've got a right hand & a left hand, you know this is so & that is so, but if you bring those two things together--(claps hands)--you may not be able to see that clap, but it's there! Right? I'm illustrating something! Two facts are so (claps), bring'm together, you can hear it, even though you can't see it. Savvy? So some facts we have to assume, deduct, estimate & theorise, that because this is so & that's so, that's (claps) gotta be so! Even though we can't see it, we can still hear it. Is that an illustration that [DELETED] kids can understand? I never did that before, that's brand new, I just got it! PTL! I get a lot of new crazy ideas to help us understand even while I'm teaching. I'm sure it must be the Lord! He must know how simpleminded we are. We've got to be shown pictures like a little child.
67. THEN IN VERSE 11 IT TALKS ABOUT ALL THE MARTYRS: "AND THEY OVERCAME BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB & BY THE WORD OF THEIR TESTIMONY, & THEY LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO THE DEATH." And now another woe is coming, "Woe to the inhabiters of the Earth ... for the Devil is come down unto you!" There it is again! It already said he's cast out into the Earth in the 9th verse & it says it again in the 12th verse. "For he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Good night! If he was cast out, as some theorise, at the birth of Christ or death of Christ or resurrection of Christ, that's not a short time! I've heard preachers preach all kinds of theories on that, just because at this particular point it sounds like these events are all at the same time. But you see, God has a much broader view of things. If he knows at the time he's cast out he has but a short time, goodness, it's been 2000 years since Jesus was born, that's not a short time! He's talking about the Tribulation period! He's talking about only 3-1/2 years! It says "woe to the inhabiters of the Earth" because he's really mad, he's got great wrath, he knows he has just a short time!
68. "AND WHEN THE DRAGON SAW THAT HE WAS CAST UNTO THE EARTH..." Right now he's allowed to operate back & forth between here & the Throne of God & he's got oodles of demons here & probably on the way between that the angels & the saints have to fight getting back & forth from Heaven to the Earth. I wrote about that in "Difficulty in Spiritual Communications." (ML #1846) One devil delayed one of God's archangels three whole weeks while he was on the way with the answer when Daniel first prayed the prayer, but it took him three weeks to get there! (Dan.10:12,13) You mean God's angels aren't absolutely almighty? He won, he was almighty, but the Devil is the tester, the hinderer, the troubler, the tribulater, he just makes it difficult, right? We can't always get it done right away because the Devil gives us such trouble! He can't stop us, he can't keep us from it, but one of his main jobs is to accuse & hinder & slow down the work of God, & that's exactly what he does with some of these messengers of God.
69. THE DEVIL PUT ONE OF HIS BIG TOP DOGS ON THE JOB TO STOP THE ANSWER TO DANIEL'S PRAYER, THE DEMON WHO WAS KING OF PERSIA. As far as God's concerned, these men who are kings are not really the kings, they have Satanic powers behind them. And it was some archangel of the Devil, of Persia, who was wrestling Michael the Archangel. So the answer may be a little slow getting here, but it always gets here, amen? You may not always get what you want right away, but God's delays are not denials, & sometimes His defeats are actually victories! You've got a little quote about that, what is it? (Fam: God gets some of His greatest victories out of seeming defeats.) Very good!
70. IN THE 13TH VERSE, PERSECUTION! "The Dragon saw that he was cast into the Earth & he persecuted the woman which brought forth the Man Child." But what happened? "To the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness!" Hey! That's the first time I ever thought about that! Did you know that's just what we've been doing? We're the Church, we're the woman, & we've been given wings to fly into these wildernesses in the mission field! I'm learning things too, see? The Lord shows me things right while we're teaching. I couldn't understand what that was all about, I figured, "Well, she just flew away somehow." But most of us have flown to these mission fields, right? And as far as the countries from which we came, the fields we're now in seem like wildernesses, don't they? They're not as civilised, some of them are even jungles! Compared to the developed nations of the West & the North, Europe & North America, most Third World countries are like a wilderness! That's a good point too on what I said about how the Lord's going to protect us.
71. LET ME TELL YOU, THE DAY'S COMING WHEN THE MISSIONARIES ARE GOING TO BE THE SAFEST ONES ON EARTH! I used to tell people in the United States that. I mean, they stayed home in their nice safe country with wealth & good jobs & all their possessions, thinking they were secure. I said, "Listen, one of these days you're going to wish you were a missionary out in the jungle someplace when God starts destroying this country!"--That country that we were in then, the U.S.A. I said, "One of these days you'll wish you'd gone to the mission field on those great wings!" PTL! Hallelujah! See? Nearly all of us have come to these wilderness mission fields of these Third World & Eastern countries on wings! How about that? That's a good point! I never fail to get something! Every time I read a chapter I almost always find something new that I never thought of before!
72. --AND FOR HOW LONG? (FAM: 3-1/2 YEARS!) Here it is again! Here again we have reference to what can't mean anything but the Tribulation period. When is she going to need to fly away on wings & hide in those wilderness fields especially? (Fam: When the Devil is cast out.) Yes, & during what time? (Fam: The Great Tribulation.) During the Tribulation period. I'm working up to a verse! Here we're discovering more things as we go along, & I was really trying to get up to a verse I discovered this morning!
73. 15TH VERSE: "AND THE SERPENT CAST OUT OF HIS MOUTH WATER AS A FLOOD AFTER THE WOMAN, THAT HE MIGHT CAUSE HER TO BE CARRIED AWAY OF THE FLOOD." (Fam: His lies.) Exactly! He has flooded America & Europe now with the lies of FreeCOG & our enemies, & he's still casting this flood of lies out of his mouth to try to stop us. Right? But do you know what's happened in some of the wilderness countries of the Third World?--They've just been swallowed up & lost & they didn't even pay any attention to'm! Because what happened? Here's another verse on the major subject we're dealing with in this series:
74. "AND THE EARTH HELPED THE WOMAN!"--THERE ARE GOING TO BE SOME PARTS OF THE EARTH THAT ARE GOING TO HELP US! Here you are again! Mark that verse! Not the whole Earth is going to be turned against you, not every nation on the face of the Earth is going to be turned against you, but some parts of the Earth are going to help you! You know when Deb's dirty book came out, she was on the "700 Club" & the whole interview was shown in the United States from beginning to end, a total of about 18 minutes long. But we heard from our Family in one country that when that thing played on TV there they cut off the end! When they finally woke up to what she was saying & who she was talking about, they cut it off at the end of about 6 or 7 minutes! We read the full transcript from somebody in the United States, & in the other country they left off the last & worst part of the whole thing! The whole thing was bad, but they cut the worst part off! They swallowed it up! They hid it away! They heard it, but they swallowed it up! The Earth swallowed it up, hid it. How about that?
75. I NEVER COULD UNDERSTAND THAT BEFORE, THE EARTH SWALLOWED IT UP! What does that mean? I figured, "Oh well, the World just swallows all these lies & they believe them, but at least it protects us". But that doesn't really protect us. It's our friends that bury all that junk & garbage! We say nowadays if somebody believes a lie that they swallowed it. But in this case our friends have swallowed it up & hid it so that the rest of them didn't hear about it. We've had almost no bad publicity in some countries.--Until finally God knows we're through there.
76. I THINK WE HAD MORE RADIO STATIONS IN INDONESIA THAN IN ANY COUNTRY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH!--More radio stations, more of our Gospel there & just scores & scores of our people there! We flooded that country with the Message! We really flooded it with the Truth of God, the true Water of Life! And when we had done enough of it & God needed us some other places, God as good as said, "Enough!" If we don't know when to leave, God knows! So what does He usually do to get us out of a country when we've been there long enough, or even too long?--He sends persecution! And how does it usually begin?--With a flood of lies! They begin to publicise the lies of our enemies all over the place!--Newspapers, magazines, radio, television! When you hear that flood of lies & it's just flooding the country, the next thing that happens is what? (Fam: Persecution!) And the next thing that happens is what? (Fam: Fleeing!) You'd better get, go!
77. SO WHEN THE WHOLE COUNTRY JUST FLOODS WITH THESE LIES, THIS FLOOD OF THE LIES OF THE DEVIL OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE DRAGON, & THE PEOPLE ARE NOT BURYING IT BUT PUBLICISING IT, NOT SWALLOWING IT & HIDING IT BUT PUBLICISING IT, THEN YOU'D BETTER GET READY TO LEAVE! If you get smart you can even leave before you start getting persecuted. But that's the time when you've definitely got to go. Jesus said, "If they persecute you in one city, flee to another!" (Mat.10:23) He didn't say to stay there & suffer it like a good Christian & be a martyr! Let the other guy die for his country, God wants you to live for His! Amen? Remember what I told you General Patton said? He told his soldiers, "I don't want you to die for your country, I want you to help the other guy die for his country! I want you to live!"
78. SO GOD DOESN'T WANT YOU TO DIE FOR YOUR COUNTRY, HE WANTS YOU TO LIVE AS LONG AS POSSIBLE! Well, in the long run, when you've finished your job He may let you die for your country. What's your country? ([EDITED: "Fam:"] Heaven, the Kingdom of God.) The Kingdom of God. We say Heaven & we have a little bit of Heaven in our hearts already, don't we? We do have Heaven in our hearts & we're already members of the Kingdom of God, & it's right here & now. This is part of the Kingdom of God right now. You're the Kingdom of God! So that's true. But some people might not understand if you say Heaven, then they think they have to wait till they get to Heaven for the Kingdom of God.
79. BUT JESUS HIMSELF SAID, "THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU!" (LUK.17:21) IT'S ALREADY HERE! What did Jesus first start preaching when He went out preaching? (Fam: "The Kingdom of God is at hand!") (Mark 1:15) It's at hand, it's here! If it's at hand, what does that mean?--It's within reach, you can reach out & grab it with your hand. That's what "at hand" means. That Bible's at hand, that pen's at hand, it's within hand's reach! And when they started preaching the Gospel, the Kingdom of God was at hand, they could reach out & grab it by faith! Haven't we talked about the hand of faith? Salvation's a gift, but you've got to reach out & grab it, you've got to receive it! PTL? So when it's at hand, it's right there, the Kingdom of God's at hand! PTL!
80. SO THANK GOD FOR SOME OF THESE COUNTRIES THAT HAVE JUST BURIED THE JUNK! Some countries where our enemies went looking for us & tried to get their stuff publicised & find out where some of us were, the officials just flatly refused to tell'm! They refused to believe their lies! They swallowed it up & buried it! When you swallow something, what finally happens to it?--It comes out the other end! You'd better bury it, it stinks, & some of these lies the Devil gives about us, they sure stink!
81. SO THE EARTH HELPED THE WOMAN! THERE ARE PARTS OF THE EARTH ALREADY HELPING US & GOING TO HELP US DURING THE TRIBULATION TOO! Isn't that encouraging? Now see, some of us never saw this before, I never even saw some of this before! We didn't have to see it before, we weren't so close to the Tribulation. But now the Antichrist rule & Tribulation is about to begin very soon, so the Lord's beginning to prepare you & encourage you & inspire you to know that you're not alone! A little pitiful handful of Christians or Family or even the few million Christians in the World are not going to have to fight the whole hordes of the Devil all by themselves! There are going to be whole nations, many parts of the Earth that are going to help you & hide you. It says so right here!
82. SHE WAS NOURISHED IN THE WILDERNESS TOO--FED! How about that? Isn't that wonderful? They're not only going to hide you, they're going to feed you! Because how else could you eat if the World law is that you've got to have the Mark of the Beast? Well, a lot of people are going to even refuse it & still eat, because they're going to refuse the Mark & they're going to do their buying & selling anyhow! It reminds me of an old song. Grandpa's always doing something silly, but maybe it sort of wakes you up! (Sings:)
"Oh, Mama don't allow no music played in here!
Mama don't allow no music played in here!
But I'm gonna play my music anyhow,
I don't care what Mama don't allow,
Mama don't allow no music played in here!"
Isn't that a terrible song? That was one of the songs of the days of Satchmo, Louis Armstrong. Now isn't that a terrible thing? That's about the way kids are today:
"Mama don't allow no music played in here,
But I'm gonna play my music anyhow,
I don't care what Mama don't allow!"
Well, thank God, when the Antichrist don't allow no selling going on here, there are some people who are going to do their buying & selling anyhow because they don't care what the Antichrist don't allow! Savvy? It did make some sense after all, didn't it? I'll bet you'll never forget that, some of these awful things Grandpa comes up with! Well, I'm just using that as an illustration.
83. VERSE 17: "THE DRAGON WAS WROTH WITH THE WOMAN, & WENT TO MAKE WAR WITH THE REMNANT OF HER SEED!" In spite of everything he still keeps pursuing us, makes war with us, & with those "which keep the commandments of God & have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Who are the seed of the woman? What are their characteristics? (Fam: Us.) Us, yes, but what does it say we're like here in the 17th verse? (Fam: Who keep the commandments of God.)--You obey the Lord! And what's the main thing you do in obeying the Lord? (Fam: Witness!) Witnessing! Keeping the testimony. Amen? Isn't that beautiful?
84. MY OH MY, WE ONLY GOT THROUGH THE 11TH & 12TH CHAPTERS HERE TODAY. WELL, YOU KNOW THE 13TH ONE, I'M SURE! (Maria: Don't take anything for granted, we don't know anything very well!) Well, I've got ten minutes, do you want to get started on the 13th? (Fam: Yes, Sir!) All right, but today, God willing, I'm going to let you out at 12 o'clock, I hope! You ought to get some kind of a big bell & start ringing it so loud you can't hear me, then I'd quit! (Maria: That wouldn't be polite.) It's okay if I tell you to do it!--Or somebody could get an alarm clock with a real loud bell & set it for 12 o'clock & put it someplace where we can't reach it! What's funny about that? I thought that was a good idea! You've gotta get something to make me stop!
85. WELL, IN CHAPTER 13 FIRST OF ALL YOU'VE GOT THIS BEAST COMING OUT OF THE SAND OF THE SEA! Hey, that's funny. What happened to that Red Dragon? Where do we find that Red Dragon? (Fam: In Heaven.)--Exactly! The Red Dragon in the 12th Chapter, 3rd Verse, appeared in Heaven! That's symbolic of spiritual power, it shows it's the Devil, he appeared in Heaven. This other Beast appears out of the sand of the sea. Almost every word of every prophecy is usually symbolic & significant, it has some kind of meaning. Just like my dreams, nearly everything, sometimes even directions, has meaning. I wonder what that means? Does it have something to do with sand?--Sand of the sea.
86. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE SEA WAS TO THE ISRAELITES? THEY CALLED IT THE SEA, THE GREAT SEA! (FAM: THE MEDITERRANEAN!) What is the sandiest shore on that sea? (Fam: Egypt.) Well, North Africa, really. They're all desert countries with nothing but sand, piles of sand, mountains of sand, miles of sand! Sand of the sea! Could that maybe be significant that he came out of the sand of the sea?--Because this is not the Red Dragon. Oh, you thought it was the same thing? Same guy?--No! The Dragon is the Devil. The Beast is whom? ([EDITED: "Fam:"] The Antichrist.)--Exactly!
87. THE DRAGON HAD SEVEN HEADS & HE SYMBOLISED SEVEN WHAT? (FAM: SEVEN WORLD EMPIRES.) On each of his heads was a crown, symbolising the seven World Empires. Now up comes the Beast & he also has seven heads, right? In other words, he looks a lot like the Dragon. Because he's given the power of the Dragon, he looks like the Dragon, he acts like the Dragon, but there are a few little minor differences here. I wonder if they have any meaning? Here it says, "And upon his horns are ten crowns." What do you think that means? We find out definitely, because of the visions of Daniel in the past, that those ten crowns are on the last head. Right?--In other words, the ten powers still remaining in the World at the time of whom? You're not following me. (Fam: The Antichrist.) Yes, the Antichrist. Some of you look a little puzzled. I know I talk fast & it's hard to remember what I'm talking about.
88. THOSE TEN CROWNS ON THE TEN HORNS REFER SPECIFICALLY TO WHAT PERIOD? (FAM: THE TRIBULATION.) Specifically the very end of the Tribulation period. How do we know that? You've got to go clear over to the 17th Chapter to find those heads & crowns mentioned again. But you know that chapter, we don't have to go to that yet, do we? Who are these ten horns? (Fam: Europe.) We believe it's Europe because Europe is now composed of ten leading nations, part of what was once the Roman Empire. The Antichrist's Kingdom is sort of a revival of the old Roman Empire. So where are these crowns then?--They're on these ten horns. They're the ten kings or leaders of these final ten nations. Well, do you want to turn to it to get it straight?--17th Chapter. He tells you right here.
89. THE GREAT WHORE IS RIDING ON WHAT? WHAT WAS THE COLOUR OF THE DRAGON? (FAM: RED.) WHAT'S THE COLOUR OF THE BEAST? (FAM: SCARLET-COLOURED.)--RED! How could the Lord be more specific about the colour of the last World Empire? What do we call'm today? (Fam: The Reds!) The Reds, the Communists! Don't you think they're going to be leaders of the Antichrist government? He's even going to lead Russia. Red is very significant. See, God doesn't say red just to give you a pretty colour for the Dragon & for the Beast. Maybe you thought it was just a warning, because we usually use red for warning, but He's specific, He's symbolising & signifying something. He's warning you of something for sure, that it's the Reds who are going to win, the Reds are going to lead the World. The colour of the government of the Antichrist is Red! How about that?
90. SO HERE'S THE BEAST, HE'S ALSO RED, & HE ALSO HAS SEVEN HEADS & TEN HORNS. We already read that back here in the 13th Chapter, & here this ugly-looking monster pops up again in the 17th Chapter.--Why? Because here He's going back & giving us the history of the Whore & this kind of government & how it's going to end. We haven't got time to read it all & I'm almost out of time. The Great Whore is Babylon riding on the back of the Beast in great power. The Devil & the antichrist forces are certainly supporting the U.S.A. today, aren't they?--Not Russia, but other anti-Christ forces, the ACs as we call them. And she is riding in power & pomp & glory & riches & wealth on his back right now. But pretty soon she's going to be under his claws, because listen to what happens.
91. 12TH VERSE: "THE TEN HORNS WHICH THOU SAWEST ARE TEN KINGS WHICH HAVE RECEIVED NO KINGDOM AS YET; BUT RECEIVE POWER AS KINGS ONE HOUR WITH THE BEAST." We don't call these nations of Europe kingdoms today, do we? They're all democracies. "Oh, we're all free countries! We're not bad, wicked, evil empires like Russia & all of them, we've done away with kings & kingdoms!" Well, whether they're actually going to be called kings or made dictators like kings or what, they're going to be like kings, like having crowns. Maybe the ones who rule at the very end will actually have crowns. It just says "one hour with the Beast", at the very end, one hour, meaning a short time. It doesn't mean just 60 minutes, but it means an hour. When the Lord says "in that hour [DELETED] in this hour," etc., He means at a certain specific time, usually a very brief time. So what happens?
92. "THESE HAVE ONE MIND, & SHALL GIVE THEIR POWER & STRENGTH UNTO THE BEAST, & THESE SHALL MAKE WAR WITH THE LAMB!" All right, we find out that these ten kings have ten crowns, signifying they are given power for a very short time with the Beast at the very End. Did you notice that that's the difference here between the Dragon & the Beast? Let me give you the picture clearly. I was showing you the Scriptures, but let me sum it up.
93. ON EACH HEAD OF THE DRAGON THERE WAS A CROWN, EACH WORLD EMPIRE, BUT BY THE TIME WE GET TO THIS LAST HEAD, THE OTHER CROWNS ARE ALL GONE. Those empires have gone & the only head that has any crowns is the last head & the ten horns, & each of them has a crown. Get the picture? It says so. If you don't believe it, go back again to the 3rd verse of the 12th Chapter: "Seven crowns upon his heads."--Of the Dragon, right? But what about the Beast? 1st Verse, 13th Chapter: "Seven heads & ten horns, & upon his horns ten crowns." You kind of miss those little things sometimes when you're reading & you think it's exactly the same.
94. BUT THE BEAST IS NOT EXACTLY THE SAME, BECAUSE THE FIRST EMPIRES OF THE WORLD ARE ALL GONE, PASSED AWAY! The heads are still there, symbolising that they have been there, & the nations, well, there are hunks of those empires, remnants still on the Earth today, aren't there?--But they're certainly not in power, are they? Rome is no more! Right? But this last head is kind of like Rome & it has ten horns--on one head! And the crowns are not on each head, but on the ten horns! "Boy, Grandpa, Bible Prophecy is so complicated!" Well, these are little details but they're important to prove to you that there's coming a time when leaders of nations will again be like kings & dictators & have the power of kings. What kind of power did kings have? They could say, "Off with his head!" They were absolute dictators, absolute monarchs & they could rule & whatever they said went, whatever they say goes! A king is an absolute ruler, a dictator! No democracy there!
95. SO THESE FINAL TEN POWERS ARE EVENTUALLY AT THE VERY END UNDER THE ANTICHRIST GOING TO BE ALL DICTATORSHIPS! So he's not going to have much trouble getting their cooperation, right? He made'm kings! He made'm dictators! So of course they're going to do what he tells'm to do! So here you are! There's the difference between the Dragon & his heads, & the Beast & his heads, & the last head which has the ten horns, of which each one has a crown, ten kings! Savvy? Well, that's enough to give you something to swallow! You can chew on that awhile. We should probably have given this 17th chapter a whole lesson & we'll jump back at it again maybe. But it had to do with what we were reading in the 13th Chapter about the Beast, the fact that he had seven heads & ten horns, but the horns all had crowns, not the heads. I was trying to show you the difference & show you why. It tells you why here in the 17th chapter--because they are the ten kings who cooperate with the Beast & do what?--"Shall make war with the Lamb!" You say, "What do you mean, Dad? I thought Armageddon didn't come till the end of the Wrath of God?"
96. WELL, SOME OF THESE GUYS ARE MAKING WAR WITH THE LAMB JUST BY MAKING WAR WITH US! We've got people already at war with us, don't we? And when they're against us, they're against the Lamb! So it's symbolic, in other words. They hate Jesus, they hate Christ. We even call them the anti-Christs, the ACs. They're already at war! [EDITED: "They"] are already at war with Jesus. [DELETED] Well, we'll have to get some more into that 17th Chapter when we get to it, but I was just trying to show you why these horns had crowns & who they are. And there they are, those last ten kings that rule the World with the Antichrist! Europe is not the only part of the Earth, but apparently he's going to get most of his cooperation from Europe. You say, "Dad, I thought Europe was part of the West! Europe's against the anti-Christ Reds, Europe is preparing to fight against Russia!"
97. LET ME TELL YOU, IT WOULDN'T TAKE MUCH TO PERSUADE EUROPE TO FOLLOW THE ANTICHRIST AT ALL! THEY'RE SICK & TIRED OF THE U.S.A. & SICK & TIRED OF AMERICANS! It reminds me of what the British said about the American soldiers during World War 2. They said, "What's wrong with the American soldiers?" The British said, "They're over-sexed, overbearing & over here!" Over-sexed means they were preyin' on their girls, they were too sexy! They were having a little problem. If you take millions of men in an army & no women, some of the native women that are around are going to get it!--Especially when they could get it for a chocolate bar or a pair of silk hose when things were so short! Later on the price went up to a ticket to New York & that sort of thing. Now I understand it's quite a ways up. A call girl used to be $100 a night back in the days when I couldn't afford it! Ahem!--I didn't either, not that kind, anyway. I'd usually get mine free just by going to a dance. But nowadays I understand some call girls get $1000 a night! That shows you the depreciation of the Dollar. I told you the Dollar's only worth 10 cents nowadays!
98. OH MY, I'M RUNNING OVER AGAIN! I'VE JUST GOTTA QUIT, THAT'S ALL! QUIT IS QUIT! PTL! Let's pray quick before Grandpa says another word! As we pray together the prayer the Lord taught us... ([EDITED: "Fam:"] The Kingdom Prayer!) Well, that's the prayer the Lord taught us, I didn't say the Lord's Prayer. But that's good, I'm glad you remembered that, it's really the Kingdom Prayer. It's not the Lord that's praying it, it's His Kingdom that's praying it! We say it's the Lord's Prayer because He taught it to us, of course, but once He taught it to us, whose prayer is it supposed to be?--It's supposed to be our prayer! A lot of people want to keep it the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father, & just have it His prayer, but it's our prayer now! It's the Kingdom Prayer, all about the Kingdom, praise God, & we're interested in the Kingdom, aren't we? So make your own little circle & let's pray the Kingdom Prayer that the Lord taught us to pray: (Prays Kingdom Prayer.) Amen! God bless & keep you & give you a good day!--Well, a good afternoon, half the day's gone! God bless you all! Thank you!--In Jesus' name, amen!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family