Greetings Everyone, it’s great to be with you once again, here in Spring Hill, Florida, just a mile away from living mermaids here in Weeki Wachee! Welcome our dear brethren and friends in Germany – Grüße an euch Brüder und Freunde in Deutschland! Also, in Orlando, Florida; Buda, Texas; Athens, Alabama; and Lake Charles, Louisiana – greetings to everyone!
It is a pure pleasure to be here with everyone once again! I’m so glad that you are here! And, I’m pleased that you are here – our friends who listen to us on our YouTube and UGETube channels and our Soundcloud Radio channel – I send all you greetings, and I hope that you’re in a much warmer place than West Florida today.
Turn with me in your Bible again to the Book of Revelation chapter 8 –
Verse 1 – “When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”
Now, we believe that the first four of these trumpets are in conjunction with the prophesied witnesses which are spoken of in the Book of Revelation chapter 11 – which finalizes with the “Two Witnesses.” It’s the same type of situation that we read about in the Book of Exodus – in which Moses was given power to affect the pharaoh of Egypt, and in the end, the children of God were allowed to leave their captivity. So, we believe the prophesied end-time witnesses have a hand in all of this.
Again, and I cannot reiterate this enough, and so many times we and our affiliated churches have mentioned this very thing – a great many people do not understand what we teach from the Spirit of God. Question: When is the glorious resurrection of the saints!? Now, the majority of the remnants of the churches of God have been “doctrinally” proclaiming for some eighty-eight years that the resurrection of the saints would NOT occur until the seven seals were over, and the seven trumpets were over, and the seven plagues were over. And then, somewhere in all of that – they weren’t quite sure – the resurrection of the saints would occur. They also incorrectly stated as part of their “doctrine” that the seventh of the plagues was somehow an extension of the seventh trumpet blast. And, I still have in my file cabinet a copy of their 1972 booklet “The Book of Revelation Unveiled at last!” with its bright red cover which proclaims this very thing!
Well, close – but no cigar!
Friends, the seven seals are roughly equivalent to the very early part of what our Lord Jesus Christ has called the ‘great tribulation,’ the end-time troubles – ‘Jacob’s Trouble’ of Ezekiel chapter 30.
Then, the TRUMPS – where the angels sound their trumpets and some very terrible things begin to take place upon the earth! And then we’re told that the SEVENTH TRUMP in Revelation chapter 10 along with Revelation chapter 11 – of which I ended Part 4 of this series – that the SEVENTH TRUMP is that very time where the resurrection of the saints occurs! The last trump of which the apostle Paul spoke about! The very last trump which our Lord Jesus Christ spoke about upon His return and of hearing a ‘great trump,’ and that the people would be ‘gathered together.’
So, I wanted to reiterate this once again before we begin here in chapter 8. This seventh seal is equivalent to the beginning of the SEVEN TRUMPETS.
Chapter 8 of the Book of Revelation
Chapter 8 is a very moving Scripture to read – with the apostle John, prisoner, on the island of Patmos, the northernmost island of the Dodecanese, at a very elderly age – “for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ”! He was certainly there thinking about the life that he had lived and of the testimony which he stood for. And as we had read in the SECOND PART, suddenly behind him he heard as it were “a loud voice, as of a trumpet” blast! And upon turning around he sees JESUS CHRIST in His glory – “One like the Son of Man” – which announced, “’ I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.’” He was commanded that whatever he saw he was to write down in a book and send it to the seven churches which were in Asia Minor.
In this full-color vision, he saw a mysterious scroll that had seven seals upon it. And it was asked in “heaven,” “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” And the apostle John began to weep, “because no one was found worthy” in Heaven or on the earth or under the earth – in other words, no one who had previously died and had been buried – was able to open the scroll, or let alone even look upon it. And, friends, we should take this to heart – that looking back throughout the history of mankind; of everyone who has ever lived or will ever live – there is no one, but the One, worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals.
Yet, an elder.
And I don’t mean to get off subject here, but it behooves me to explain here who are these twenty-four elders. In 2020 I had written my sister and explained –
God’s living word does not specifically provide the identity of these elders. Yet, some information is provided enough for us to rule out some possibilities and consider some options.So, they are clearly believers of God Almighty and Jesus Christ. They are “in heaven.”“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. …” – Revelation 4:1.So, this “heaven” in this vision which the apostle John is experiencing may not be the Third Heaven. It could very well be New Jerusalem in low earth orbit. Notice: “Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. …”“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2) Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” – Revelation 21:1-2.Also, they are “clothed in white robes.” A symbol of God’s righteousness (cf. Revelation 3:5, 18; 19:8) – “And to her [the Church] it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” – Revelation 19:8.Also, they “had crowns of gold on their heads.” This is something that is not said of angels anywhere in Scripture. Something which saints are said to receive (cf. 1st Corinthians 9:24-25; 1st Thessalonians 2:19; 2nd Timothy 4:8; 1st Peter 5:4; Revelation 2:10).Let us also keep in mind – and all of this is only thoughts, speculation, and nothing more – that the twenty-four elders could be based upon 1st Chronicles 24:1-5.If so, this ‘kingdom of priests’ represents the Church that dwells – in the immediate future – on “heaven on earth”
But, I digress –
Yet, an elder said to him, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”
And so here stands a Lamb “as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” Meaning, “the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.”
Again, we know that the Book of Revelation is not the revelation of the apostle John, but rather the revelation of Jesus Christ. And in the Book of Matthew chapter 24, privately, He had revealed to His disciples these very seven seals.
As we go along here, we’ll be comparing Matthew 24 with the Book of Revelation, as these seals are beginning to be opened – concerning religious deception, wars and rumors of wars, of nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places, about the martyrdom of the prophesied end-time witnesses which will take place – which even occurred in the time of the disciples. And then, ultimately, the blocking out of the sun and moon caused by volcanos erupting and even possibly a “nuclear winter”! Of Satan the Devil and his demons being thrown down to the earth and forbidden access to the atmosphere. And “then the sign of the Son of Man” appearing in outer space – “heaven.”
Friends, if you want to know what is going to happen in these latter days – the “end of the age” – reading and studying our Lord Jesus Christ’s words in Matthew 24 will certainly tell you! He stays in order of events!
Verse 1 – “When He opened the seventh seal [again, equivalent to the very early part of what our Lord Jesus Christ has called the ‘great tribulation’], there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”
Let’s focus a moment on the word “silence.” This word silence is used here poetically and is akin to something which the prophet Job writes – “ … A form was before my eyes; There was silence; Then I heard a voice …” – Job 4:16.
A hush, a whisper, a calm comes over God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Also poetically used to indicate respectful attention – and a thought which entered my mind – even a kind of melancholy. A sadness which befalls God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, because They know what is about to occur to the world They love – John 3:16.
Now, this is a prophetic statement – “silence in heaven for about half an hour” – the wrath of God is about to completely fall upon all mankind! “ … a memorial of blowing of trumpets, …” – Leviticus 23:24. That has a most prophetic meaning even back then, and this is the meaning right here!
Verse 2 – “And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.”
We covered them in the first book of the Book of Revelation, they are the seven angels of the seven churches that stand before God. So, these seven angels are all about to blow on their trumpets – and we know what this term “trumpet” means in bible prophecy. We celebrate the Feast of Trumpets every year and its meaning – a trumpet which is to announce something, a warning, to assemble the troops.
Continuing in vision – verse 3 – “Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 4) And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.”
So again, poetic language. It’s almost as if prayers are smoke.
You might recall I had typed up an article not long ago entitled “Is God Listening?” And I ask a question here, where do the prayers of the saints go!? Well, here they are. And what happens to those prayers!? Do they go straight to God the Father, or does something else happen to them before they go to God the Father!?
Notice – “He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints …”
To gain a better understanding of this incense, notice what Unger’s Bible Dictionary writes –
“Figurative. Incense in Scripture is the symbol of prayer. “Let my prayer be set before thee as incense” (Psa. 141:2; see Isa. 60:6). In Rev. 5:8; 8:3, 4 we meet with the same idea. But “it is not prayer alone that is expressed by incense … A good or evil savor was to Israel the symbol of a good or godless life; and when, therefore, the sanctuary of God was kept continually filled with fragrance, they beheld in this sweet savor, not of prayer alone, but of that life to which, as a priestly nation, they were called” (Dr. Wm. Milligan, Bib. Ed., iii, 226, sq.).” 1
Recall back in ancient Israel, when they gave an offering, they burned incense and it was like a sweet savor that went up before God the Father!? How is your prayer presented before God the Father!? It has to be accompanied with incense. And I’m not trying to get all religious on you – you can certainly go into a mystical store and buy all the incense you would want – and like my wife’s cousin, light them before a wooden idol of Buddha. But, that is not what this is about! In the New Covenant, this incense represents Jesus Christ as our High Priest taking your prayer and making it a sweet savor before turning and offering it before God the Father.
So, our prayers go up – and because of the sacrifice which our Lord Jesus Christ made – it is a sweet savor before God the Father.
The apostle Paul explains –
“But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12) Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13) For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14) how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works [meaning, the Old Covenant] to serve the living God?
15) And for this reason He is the Mediator for the new covenant, …” – Hebrews 9:11-15.
And, before moving forward I would like to say – throughout mankind’s history there were some prayers that seemingly were unanswered. This is the culmination of those seemingly unanswered prayers – at ‘the end of the age.’ We can think about God’s begotten children who had lived their lives in the Catacombs of Rome. What about God’s begotten children who were in Jerusalem when Emperor Titus sieged Jerusalem in 70 AD and sacked the city of David and many of the inhabitants were killed or dispersed. According to Josephus, 1.1 million non-combatants died in Jerusalem and 100,000 in Galilee; 97,000 enslaved 2 – certainly some being God’s begotten children who were unable to leave beforehand!? Those prayers that went up to God the Father, to be saved, weren’t answered right then – here is the culmination of all those seemingly unanswered prayers.
Verse 5 – “Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.”
Certainly a massive earthquake along with thundering and bolts of lightning! Certainly very terrorizing and intimidating natural phenomena!
Again, we believe that the end-time prophesied witnesses, culminating in the “Two Witnesses” may have a direct hand in some of these early trumpet tribulations (which are in brackets below). Do you think this will get mankind’s attention!? Now, do you think that mankind will begin to repent at this time!? No, they won’t.
Is there anything more terrifying than the deafening cracking sound of a bolt of lightning ripping through the air at an incredible speed and striking in your proximity!?
Verse 6 – “So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.”
So, we’re reading about each of these seven trumpet plagues – each one of these corresponding to one of the angels that as he blows his trumpet these plagues are falling upon the earth.
Now, there appears to be a parallel here in the Book of Jeremiah the 51st chapter. One may ask – what is this “great mountain burning with fire”!? Certainly, we can say that it will be a large asteroid striking the earth, surely causing volcanoes to spew their lava into the oceans. But, let’s look at the Book of Jeremiah the 51st chapter –
Verse 25 – “’ Behold, I AM against you, O destroying mountain, Who destroys all the earth,’ says the LORD. ‘And I will stretch out My hand against you, Roll you down from the rocks, And make you a burnt mountain.’”
Now, who is He speaking about here!?
Well, this is the prophet Jeremiah’s writing, back in the days when the kingdom of Judah was about to be attacked by the Babylonian Empire. And Jeremiah is warning the people that this great kingdom is going to take them into captivity because of their rejection of God, His Way, and His Law. And that was exactly what happened to the kingdom of Judah – wasn’t it!?
But notice this is a judgment that is going to happen eventually to Babylon. And, the Book of Revelation certainly speaks of another Babylon – the daughter of Babylon – “’ Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, …” Ancient Babylon did fall – along with its most famous city from ancient Mesopotamia whose ruins lie in modern-day Iraq 59 miles southwest of Baghdad. In 539 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, with a military engagement known as the Battle of Opis. Babylon's walls were considered impenetrable. Yet, here, the prophet Jeremiah was speaking of this great impenetrable city falling.
Verse 26 – “’ They shall not take from you a stone for a corner Nor a stone for a foundation, But you shall be desolate forever,’ Says the LORD.”
Verse 27 – “Set up a banner in the land, Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her, Call the kingdoms together against her, … Appoint a general against her; Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.’”
Verse 28 – “’ Prepare against her the nations, With the kings of the Medes, Its governors and all its rulers, All the land will tremble and sorrow; For every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.’”
So, speaking about how the LORD God is going to exact judgment against Babylon. And we believe that in this final end-time BABYLON – the final installment of the “Holy” Roman Empire will be utterly destroyed, and BABYLON – a great civic leader and a great false church will be destroyed!
“’ Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!’” – Revelation 18:2.
So – “ … a third of the ships were destroyed.” All the international commerce – these mega-ships that carry cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Because of massive tidal waves and tsunamis – these mega-ships will be utterly destroyed! It all comes to an abrupt halt!
Verse 10 – “Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11) The name of the star is Wormwood [meaning bitter]. A third of the waters became wormwood [bitter], and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.”
Verse 12 – “Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, …”
Certainly, with all these volcanoes erupting, asteroids striking the earth, it would logically mean that a third of the time when the sun would normally be shining – it isn’t. A tremendous amount of smoke and pollution in the atmosphere!
Verse 13 – “And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven [the atmosphere], saying with a loud voice, ‘Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels [the messengers] who are about to sound!’”
So, everything up to here has been most terrible! But now this godly messenger announces, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” The last three plagues are going to shake this world even more! Talking about end-time events of the most dramatic effect upon the earth which this world will ever experience. Let us always remember, our Lord Jesus Christ’s living words – “’ And unless those days were shortened, NO FLESH would be saved; …’” And friends, the Day of Atonement is speaking of this soon-coming terrible end-time!
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In this section, I would like to shortly go over to the Book of Ezekiel chapter 5. Many might say that this has no merit upon the Book of Revelation, but we do believe it does. This is something which the prophet Ezekiel wrote against the siege of Jerusalem and his nation – inspired by God’s Holy Spirit. This contains a tremendous amount of information – and as we’ve been saying, the prophesied Day of the LORD is equivalent to (prophetically speaking) the Day of Atonement. And as Minister Michael C. Garrett says over and over – it is the most prophesied event in all the Bible.
In verse 1 the Lord GOD says to the prophet Ezekiel, “’ And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair.’”
Now, this is all prophetically a reference to the Day of the LORD!
So, the prophet Ezekiel shaved his head and shaved his beard off. And he divided all the hair upon a scale.
Verse 2 – “’ You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city [he shall burn 1/3 of the hairs], when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword [in other words, chop the hairs with a sword], and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after them.’”
Verse 3 – “’ You shall also take a small number of them [the hairs] and bind them in the edge of your garment. 4) Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL.’”
Now, at this point, it is rather ambiguous, but it becomes clearer in just a few more verses. Also, keep in mind – in our world today, the British Isles, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, have descended from the twelve tribes of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL – whose name was once Jacob.
It becomes clearer here – verse 5 – “’ Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘This is Jerusalem; …’”
And, Jerusalem is the rightful capital of one of those tribes – the tribe of JUDAH. When the prophet Ezekiel wrote this they had already been taken into captivity. Recall: He had written this by the River Chebar in captivity. He is actually writing about a future destruction of Jerusalem.
Verse 6 – “’ She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have REFUSED My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’”
Certainly, one of the greatest judgments that they literally threw away was the Divinity of Jesus Christ as being the true Messiah and the glorious Son of God! And as Minister Garrett writes in “Notes Concerning The Day of Atonement Prophetically the Day of the Lord” “In fact, the people of Jerusalem, almost two-thousand years ago, chanted in unison, wanting to see the death, the crucifixion – a horrible death – of Jesus Christ. [Screaming,] ‘Crucify him!’ ‘Crucify him!’ ‘Crucify him!’” 3
Now, as I’ve been warning – of a prophetic dream and in a subsequent sermon “’ Blow the Trumpet!’” this is talking about war, ‘I will draw out a sword after them.’ And, this is also talking about a time – soon to take place in the immediate future – when ‘ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL’ is going to be suffering these consequences.
Verse 7 – “’ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, …’”
As I had said in a recent sermon – our peoples of the United States of America and the United Kingdom along with her Commonwealth Nations are even more disobedient than the nations even around us. As an example, what do many of these Middle Eastern nations do to their people when they catch them stealing!? Well, Houssam Ahmed, now living in Los Angeles, but who had lived in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, wrote this on Quora back in 2017 –
“Technically, for any theft as minor as shoplifting a candy bar, however, usually it is not enforced and some other forms of corporal punishment like lashes and/or a hefty fine plus jail time are substituted. … However, the actual punishment decision is left to the judge. So in a small town, he could rule on cutting off the hand as a punishment for stealing the candy bar and it will be enforced.” 4
David Lee & The Media Line writes in 2018, published by The Jerusalem Post –
“One of the stark differences between Muslim countries and others that practice forms of westernized criminal law is the manner in which the systems define capital offenses.” 5
And, is that ever-more true in this United States of America today!
Verse 9 – “’ And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.’”
Notice Ezekiel chapter 7 –
Verse 2 – “’ And you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel: ‘An end! The end has come upon the FOUR CORNERS OF THE LAND.’”
Verse 3 – “’ Now the end has come upon you, And I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways, And I will repay you for all your abominations.’”
Notice that the Lord GOD’s WARNING that ‘the end has come’ upon the land of Israel (cf. Genesis 48 & 49). Now, while a great many people claim that this only referred to (as in past tense) to the tiny nation of Israel in the Middle East, we should understand that the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles – referred to as the Commonwealth Nations, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, are indeed all across the ‘four corners of the land.’
Truly, with a national debt of well over $29.8 TRILLION and growing – with every terrorist attack, with every pandemic, with every devastating hurricane, or devastating earthquake or tornado, the US is becoming weaker and weaker. And I say, just as Greece needed to be bailed out back in 2010, who will come to the aid when the US dollar finally and completely collapses!? Well, according to Dave Hodges of the Common Sense Show – He asks, “What happens when the top dog collapses? Who would be able to come and render aid in America?” No one. Because they will be in a worse situation. In short, there will be nobody riding in to rescue the United States. 6
We ask the same question that King David asked. And we ask the same question which is asked by all our brethren – “LORD, how long will the wicked, How long will the wicked triumph?” – Psalm 94:3; Revelation 6:10. When is all of this going to end!?
I myself pray brethren that we do have a mark upon our foreheads for our weeping, crying, and sighing over the abominations that are done within our nations! We don’t want to see any more evil and vile Islamic terrorists blowing our people up! We don’t want to see thieves getting away with crimes! We don’t want to see any more child abductions! We are sick and tired of seeing this vile evil on our televisions! Of what human beings are doing to God’s world!
Friends, it was not popular what the prophet Ezekiel had to preach. But somebody has to do it! Somebody has to say it! Somebody has to WARN this world and its nations – that what is prophesied is soon to come! It’s not a popular subject. But it is the living word of God. And well, you can certainly rip out the Book of Revelation from God’s living word – as they clearly wanted to at the Council of Nicaea 325 AD. And you can scoff at it like Martin Luther and author D.H. Lawrence had. And you can, as the Eastern Orthodox so-called Christians continue to do – refuse to include it in Scripture. And you can just ignore what we are warning and hope that we will all just fade away. But it is going to happen! And this judgment is soon to come because of our wickedness and abominations!
Friends, open up any history book of world civilizations and their empires – you will find that they rose and they fell. And truly the list is practically endless!
- The Babylonian Empire
- The Medo-Persian Empire
- The Greco-Macedonian Empire
- The Roman Empire
Can you imagine!? The mighty and powerful Roman Empire – which gave us our political aspirations and in which the US copied their government – fell!!? The official end of the empire came in 476 AD when the last insignificant emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed, and a barbarian chieftain assumed the title of King of Rome.
And the mighty empire of the United States of America – which has existed for nearly twenty-five decades – will fall! Of an internal rot and degradation which has been happening to our nation for centuries. And we see this being fulfilled here in the Book of Revelation.
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Chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation
This ‘fallen star’ is Satan the Devil and his demons being thrown into the ‘bottomless pit’ just before the glorious and powerful return of Jesus Christ, His saints, and His angels! – cf. Revelation 20:1-2.
Recall: back in the 1st chapter of the Book of Revealing, our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that “stars” can represent angels – Revelation 1:20. In the Book of Isaiah chapter 14, Isaiah was inspired to write, “’ How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, …’” – Hebrew being Helel ben Shachar meaning “shining one” or “in or of the morning.” Also, we should pay attention to the fact that this verbiage is past tense – meaning it had already happened.
The apostle Jude wrote that Satan the Devil along with his followers are but “raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” – Jude 1:13.
So this mighty and powerful Islamic army of 200 million soldiers destroys men with different types of weapons which destroy not the buildings, trees, or grass. It’s interesting in knowing that many nations have this technology and what damage these types of weapons can indeed do – like electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and chemical weapons.
Friends, could the apostle John be speaking about our modern effects of sarin gas!? According to the Mayo Clinic, “When a scorpion stings, its stinger can release venom. The venom contains a complex mix of toxins that affect the nervous system.” So does sarin gas! Of course, there are a plethora of dangerous and potentially deadly chemical weapons, which when exposed to, you would wish you were dead.
Here, certainly talking about a massive invasion from the north and the east – an attempted counter-attack by the likes of Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan.
Now again, the apostle John was seeing in vision in his day – in approximately 95 AD – and he was seeing as it were a film clip you might see of World War II, in which bombers are dropping bombs on whole cities like London or Berlin. Or like the dropping of napalm bombs on villages in the Vietnam War. And eventually the dropping of the atomic bomb Little Boy on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. He is trying to describe these military weapons with the very limited ability he had – having never seen such weapons before.
Now, if you’ve ever seen the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now which has a scene where a great number of helicopters ride in and they’re playing Ride of the Valkyries – their “wings” certainly sounded like “chariots with many horses running into battle”!
Verse 11 – “And they [these 200 million strong Islamic soldiers] had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.”
Of course here referring to Satan the devil.
Verse 12 “One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.”
Remember, there are the seven seals, and the seventh seal being the seven trumpets!
Now, friends, personally, we believe that this along with the “kings of the east” is referring to a collection of Islamic people from eastern countries – even including Indonesia, which is one of the most populist Islamic countries in the world! There are literally millions upon millions of Moslems in India and Pakistan – all of those countries of the east.
Here we see that Almighty God and our Lord Jesus Christ has been restraining and holding back this massing – this assembling into one body – of a radical Islamic confederation of armies that could have caused worldwide devastation long ago (with the very real possibility of obtaining nuclear and or biological weapons) – but here God releases the four angels (and these may be indeed demons in charge of FOUR COUNTRIES) who are bound at the great river Euphrates. I personally am thinking that there’s a good chance – I don’t know for sure – that this ‘200 million man army’ is attempting to attack the European forces which have wiped out their Islamic brothers and cousins.
Let us hold our place here in the Book of Revelation, and quickly turn back into the Book of Isaiah, the 9th chapter.
The prophet Isaiah says here in verse 13 – “For the people DO NOT turn to Him who strikes them, Nor do they seek the LORD of hosts. 14) Therefore the LORD will cut off head and tail from Israel, Palm branch and bulrush IN ONE DAY.”
Verse 20 – “But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, DID NOT repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols …”
Well, it may come as a complete shock to many, but true Christians and Moslems do not worship the same God! And, as I had written previously, one only needs to read their Koran to see for themselves –
“The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was no more than God’s apostle and His Word which He cast to Mary: a spirit from Him. … God forbid that He should have a son! His is all that the heavens and the earth contain.” – Women, 4.171.
Now, even after all these plagues occur people will still NOT turn to God and repent.
“… of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.”
The whole message of the salvation of mankind is about a message of being saved.
“Save me, O God, by Your name, And vindicate me by Your strength” – Psalm 54:1.
However, they, like my wife’s cousin, would rather fall down and worship some wooden carved Sukhothai style Buddha seated in a half lotus pose! – which does not see, hear, or walk!
REPENT! Our great and awesome God says He loves those who have a broken spirit and a contrite heart.
This is what God wants – He wants people to repent.
Yet, sadly, even during these terrible times to come which we are reading about here in the Book of Revelation PEOPLE WILL NOT REPENT!
It often makes you wonder – what other choice does God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ have!?
Verse 21 – “And they DID NOT repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immoralities or their thefts”
Is God’s loving grace so great that He will allow the crimes perpetrated by terrorist groups, such as Islamic Jihadists – the likes of bombings, assassinations, beheadings, and kidnappings – into His glorious kingdom!?
The apostle Peter quoting King Solomon says –
“’ If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?’” – 1 Peter 4:18.
I leave you this day with that thought. □
To be continued...
Bibliography
1) Unger, M.F., Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Incense, Figurative. Moody Press, Chicago, Ill., 1966, pp. 524.
2) Josephus, F., The Works of Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, FaithPoint Press 2006, 6.9. §3, pp. 795.
3) Garrett, M.C., “Notes Concerning The Day Of Atonement – Prophetically the Day of the Lord” Part IV § The Time of Great Trouble, 2019, pp. 51.
4) Houssam Ahmed, Quora, Original question: “The consequence to stealing in the Middle East is cutting off a limb. When is this true?” – 2017. Retrieved 24 Jan. 2022.
5) DAVID LEE/THE MEDIA LINE, “Cruel & unusual punishment in the Middle East” The Jerusalem Post, published AUGUST 28, 2018. Retrieved 24 Jan. 2022.
6) Hodges, D., What Will happen When The Dollar Collapses? The Common Sense Show, 30 May 2014. Retrieved 24 Jan. 2022.
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