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this is our first class this morning will be given by our brother jonathan bowen of the brantford ontario ecclesia

the theme of brother bone's classes this week is the lamb shall overcome them

and today's class is entitled a chaste virgin unto christ

and i turn the class over to brother jonathan

[Music]

well good morning brother and sisters and young people the purpose of our study this week together in the book of revelation is going to be to prepare ourselves or to help to prepare ourselves for the return of the lord jesus christ to the earth

to see the finger of god at work in the world around us as it is taking place right now to understand the reality of the preparation for the kingdom that's currently taking place at the hand of the angels

to see the world for what it really is

in the eyes perhaps of our how our heavenly father would have us look at it to clarify the struggle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent as it takes place in the world around us today and as it is as it has existed throughout the ages

we want to consider the example of our lord jesus christ who was motivated by his vision we read in hebrews chapter 12 and the second verse that we are to look unto jesus the author and the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of god

the lord jesus christ is the supreme example for us

we have to develop the same vision that he had to have the same motivation

to overcome the world around us and hebrews chapter 11 the chapter preceding the statement that was made by the apostle paul is full of people who are motivated by faith they had a similar vision and in hebrews chapter 11 and the first two verses we have the faith definition faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen for by it the elders obtained a good report and of course we have that interpretation for us that faith is the confident anticipation the firm conviction of things not seen as yet but firmly believe that are to come our vision must be tangible and real in front of our eyes we have to be motivated like abraham his faith was accredited to him for righteousness

and that faith became a testimony to them as it means they're a good report

then when we look at faith and we ask well how can we get it the world around us would paint the picture that faith is one of those warm ethereal feelings that sort of descends upon you as you as you involve yourself in the christian lifestyle the bible would paint a slightly different picture romans chapter 10 verse 17 tells us that faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of god that's the only source of faith that there really is it helps us build a clear vision in our minds of the glory of the kingdom to come and we have an opportunity to explore that vision this morning and throughout this coming week

we looked yesterday at the verse in second corinthians chapter four the idea that we have to renew the inward man we read in verse 16 for which cause we faint not

but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is it but for a moment his momentary and passing work is for us a far more exceeding weight or an eternal weight of glory and we are not to look at the things that are seen not to look at the here and now but pass them to the things that are not seen but the things that are seen are temporal the things that are not seen are eternal

we have to lift our focus off the passing transient things of this life the fleeting present and look past it to the kingdom to come the glory of what is to take place upon this earth in the near future when we do that the temporal things around us of our lives as they exist right now our homes their careers our trials the tribulations the school all the things that face us day by day become less and less important and so we want to try and do that this morning and look past those things

the book of revelation is given for this purpose we read in revelation chapter 1

and the first three verses that it's the revelation of jesus christ which god gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and he signified that book by his angel to his servant john now the word signify we're going to come back and look at later on means to express by sign or by symbol

and hidden within those signs and symbols is a blessing we read in verse 3

blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of the prophecy of this book and those things that are written therein and they keep them for the time is at hand

it is the blessing of imputed righteousness a promise to those who develop a confident anticipation of things hoped for or as we call it faith and so we've been invited by the lord jesus christ and by the book of revelation to as it puts in revelation 6

verse 1 when the seals were opened by the lamb the voice goes out to say come and see and so we're going to try and take up that invitation to come and see the lord jesus christ has personally invited us to look into these things

and that's what we'd like to try and do is see the picture that john saw

without a vision we're in trouble we read in proverbs 29 in the 18th verse where there is no vision the people perish or more correctly translated from the original the people are made naked

without vision we become laodicean lukewarm in our in our attitude without a zeal for the truth we become caught up in the world around us and there's a strong correspondence between having a faithful vision and being covered in christ spiritual clothing is tied very closely with faith

when we look at the chapter we had read the beginning of revelation chapter 19

and verses 7 to 8 we read let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and we notice there it says that his wife hath made herself ready she has done something and to her is granted that she should be arrayed in fine line and clean and white for the fine linen and we read is the righteousness of the saints now we want to use the vision provided to us in the book of revelation to help us understand the destiny of the saints and as this bride here is depicted as making herself ready one of the key ingredients in that preparation process is the development of faith that confident anticipation of the return of the lord jesus christ to establish his kingdom upon this earth put all these cares behind us and look forward to that the wedding garments that are given we notice are granted and there's an interesting two terms she makes herself ready but these garments are granted it's not something that she has earned but rather that is granted to her and that is faith imputed to her for righteousness because the garments of course we are told are the righteousness of the saints now when we come back to romans chapter 4 and we consider what the apostle paul said about abraham what saith the scripture he says in verse 20 or in verse three

sorry verse yeah well it's verse three to begin with what's saying the scripture abraham believed god and it was counted to him for righteousness now we want to stop there before we continue the word there counted is that idea of something that is accredited or imputed as it comes up later on in the chapter now for us to understand that perhaps we could think of if we were transferring from one school to another perhaps you're going to college or something like that and you want to take a certain course and when you go to that school to take this course you find out that you don't have all the necessary credits or requirements to take the appropriate course but you can turn around to the school and say i might not have your course but i have other similar courses so they will take that even though it's not the same thing and they will accredit us with having the necessary qualifications that is similar to this word imputed we do not have the necessary qualification of righteousness it's not something that we can possess in its fullest sense by ourselves but imputed to us is our belief it's accredited to us for righteousness and that's what we go on to read he was fully persuaded that what god had promised he was able to perform and therefore that firm conviction that belief was accredited or imputed to him for righteousness now it's not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but that extends to us it is also to us to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up jesus our lord from the dead so we cannot earn our righteousness but we can prepare

by developing faith in ourselves so that when the marriage supper of the land comes it is granted to us to be arrayed in white linen pure and white

now when we think of the the picture of the lord jesus christ paints to us throughout the new testament of his bride the ecclesia that is something we all aspire to be a part of when the marriage supper comes we would like to be a part of that bride that ecclesia there is a process by which the lord jesus christ has developed his bride in ephesians chapter 5 and at verse 25 we read that husbands love your wives even as christ loved the ecclesia and gave himself for it that he might present it to himself a glorious ecclesia without spot

or wrinkle or any such thing but it should be holy and without blemish now the preparation of the bride requires the daily flowing of the word through the minds of each and every one of us to participate in that cleansing process it's a cleansing process that puts away the filth of the flesh of the thinking of the flesh and helps to build faith within us

we want to put away those things

and desire the kingdom have that vision firmly fixed in our minds preparing us for the marriage supper of the lamb and it is the truth that does that for us we read in john chapter 17 and the 17th verse that we are told that the lord jesus christ asks of his father sanctify them through thy truth

thy word is truth so it's through the spirit word that we are sanctified or cleansed that this process of purification for the marriage supper of the lamb takes place and it's important that we keep the truth it is important because it's the power of the word that sanctifies us that develops faith within us that we may be granted to be arrayed in righteous robes

if we lose elements of the truth we lose the power of the truth to sanctify ourselves we no longer become saints set aside for a purpose but we drift back into what our brother thomas called miserable sinners without hope and without vision and so the apostle paul in second corinthians chapter 11 describes the ecclesia he says i am jealous over you with godly jealousy for i have espoused you to one husband that i may present you a chaste virgin unto christ and that's the effect of the cleansing power of the word it purifies us by its doctrines so that the ecclesia or bride remains chaste remains pure awaiting the return of the lord jesus christ

now if we lose that purity if we lose that sanctifying power then we will no longer be a chaste virgin will we and those robes of imputed righteousness if the vision is not there if the firm conviction is the if the belief the faith of abraham is not in the midst of each and every one of us then we no longer belong to that bride do we we no longer are granted have granted to us those robes of imputed righteousness

and so when we look to the kingdom age as it's depicted to us in the snapshot visions through the book of revelation we find there the lamb who stands on the mount zion and with him there are 144 000 having his father's name written on their foreheads the character of their god in their minds in their hearts god manifestation and we find that these are they which are not defiled the original word is among women for they are virgins

these are they which follow the lamb with us whoever he goeth

these were redeemed purchased from among men being the first fruits unto god into the lamb and in their mouth there is no guile found and they are without fault before the throne of god that vision of revelation describes that virgin who has been sanctified by the word and the effect of that is she is not defiled among the other women of the book of revelation she has not compromised the character that has been imputed or sorry manifestly put onto her mind through the lord jesus christ they have not defiled themselves amongst those described to us in the book of revelation and so as we follow that the character the theme of this book all the way through we find that it is the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent that is the plotline of the book of revelation the enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed the serpent that would be bruised in the head although it would inflict that temporary wound upon the the heel of the woman that's the plotline of the book of revelation and it's a living plotline it's a plotline that is alive because the book of revelation isn't a story about things that just happened in the past it's not something merely historical and factual that's interesting and intellectually stimulating for us it is a living book and that book affects every single one of us it's alive today its message is just as relevant today as it was to john back in the first century

the apostle paul though although he depicts the ecclesiast virgin unto christ was concerned for her he says that he feared in verse 3

lest that by any means as the serpent beguiled eve through his subtlety so your minds should be corrupted from simplicity that is in christ for if he that cometh preacheth another jesus whom we have not received or whom we have not preached or if you receive another spirit which he have not received or another gospel which you have not accepted he's afraid that they would bear with him they would go along with it and so

there was this fear of corrupting doctrine that would defile the bride that would make them unfit to wear those robes of imputed righteousness that would stop the preparation process that's described for us in revelation chapter 19

and in the most severe cases that the ecclesia would be robbed of its faith robbed of its vision and as proverbs puts it to us therefore robbed of its covering now the apostle paul expected a specific system there was something coming that he knew about and he tells us about thessalonians that would be responsible for such a tragedy the antidote for this is given to us as personal bible study because if this beguiling system came along and the brethren sisters had their bibles open and were aware of the truth as it is in christ jesus the gospel the things concerning the kingdom of god and the name of jesus christ then they would not be able to be deceived because they would be in light

but as they moved slowly throughout the first century and into the second the light of the gospel began to fade

they began to become complacent

a clergy type atmosphere developed where there was clergy and laity within the ecclesia there was the ruling brethren and then there was the general populace

and in isaiah chapter 9 and verse 16 we have a great warning to us

it's the leaders of the people that cause them to air said god of israel at this point in time and they that are led of them are destroyed

and so brothers and sisters there's a real danger it was there for israel it's there in the first century and certainly it's there for us today that if we become complacent and put the sole responsibility of the faith developing diet upon the leaders of the ecclesia

there's the possibility that there may be corruption and that the flock will follow them and the christodolphians as a body have throughout their existence resisted this by having the bible readings by having personal bible study in every household from a day-to-day basis as something that works as an antiseptic to this study to show thyself approved unto god writes paul to timothy a workman that needeth not be ashamed well the problem in the first century is that there was the laodicean attitude that's described in the letters to the ecclesia that bred laziness and complacency leaving the spiritual discernment purely to the shepherds so that when different doctrinal points of view came in they were not sufficiently contested

all of us are instructed in first peter chapter five but specifically the the overseers of the flock as they were back in the first century the job of the overseers the elders was to feed the flock of god which is among you by taking the oversight thereof not of constraint but willingly not for filthy lucr but of a ready mind neither is being lords over god's heritage and there is the idea of that clergy but has been examples or in samples to the flock and when the chief shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a crown of right of glory that fadeth not away the eldership of the ecclesia the prime directive to them was to feed the flock of god and we need to remember that provide meat for my household as the lord jesus christ tells us and that takes place by the diet that is prepared in the sunday school in the bible class in the lectures in the speaking brethren in what is put forward by the sisters to the children in the sunday school but all these things working together in the home feeding the flock that is the prime directive because that is what sanctifies us from the world

now

it's the scripture that's able to make us wise unto salvation and we never want to let our arranging boards become so crippled with trivial and temporal concerns about the halls and the trimmings and all that type of thing that they become lose their focus as to what we're really supposed to be about we all have to keep this as the paramount prime directive of our community as soon as we become more of a social ship and less of a fellowship around god's word the sooner we lose those roads of righteousness

in second peter chapter 2 in the first three verses there the apostle tells them quite clearly that there there is a warning given there were he says false prophets among the people of israel back in the old testament and so he says why should you be any different even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the lord that bought them and bring upon themselves with destruction and many he says shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of their motivation is covetousness and through covetousness they shall with feigned words make merchandise of you now brother and sisters we must not be naive to the realities that face us just as the ecclesia in the first century was told not to be naive as to the realities that faced them there would be false teachers and shepherds among them why wouldn't there be amongst us that's what the apostle peter says and what we have to do is keep our minds and our hearts spiritually aware and perceptive

in the first century they were to be successful many shall follow their pernicious ways

and they would jeopardize the preparation of the bride destroying the vision becoming the conquerors or the vanquishers of the people that we read about in the letters to the ecclesiastic or the the nicolaitans

ezekiel talks of israel in the same way thus saith the lord god unto the shepherds woe to the shepherds of israel that feed themselves

should not the fl should not the shepherds feed the flocks and he admonishes them you eat the fats you clothe you with the wool you kill them that are fed but you feed not the flock the deceased have you not strengthened neither have you healed that's what you are sick neither have you bound up that which was broken neither have you brought to gain that which was driven away neither have you sought that which was lost but with force and cruelty have ye ruled them

and brothers and sisters that's a warning to us to be aware that these things happened in the past as examples

let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall the corruption of doctrine can defile individual members of the ecclesia

in the most severe cases as we have mentioned it robs us of our faith and the problem in the first century was the same problem back in the time of ezekiel that the elders fed themselves and not the flock it became a situation of clergy and laity whereby just like it began really around the lord's table the last supper where there was a discussion as to who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven from the first century that developed that developed into a clergy in a laity mentality because it's human nature that we want to be better than each other

and so the apostle warns us in acts chapter 20 and at verse 28 i don't perhaps we could just lose the lights here in the front we're sort of

losing a bit of the overhead um

in the first century there was a real danger of spiritual wolves entering in and devouring the the flock we read there in acts chapter 20 and at verse 28 take heed unto all the flock over which the holy spirit hath made you overseers to feed the ecclesia of god which he hath purchased with his own blood for i know this says the apostle

i know this not it might happen or it's possible he says i know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things why to draw away disciples after them this is the first century ecclesia we often apply these verses to the world around us all these grievous wolves and there's all these types of things but this is talking about within the ecclesia as all these these verses are

the violent wolves that would come in and devour the flock for their own purposes

not to further the purpose of god in calling out the saints

also they would arise from within perverting the truth motivated by the lust of pride the pride of life and it was once put to me that there's three reasons for false doctrine the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and that's exactly what we see here he warns that there will be perverse doctrines that are based upon the idea of the pride of life that was what was to face the ecclesia what we're trying to do is look at revelation paints for us this picture of this bride this lamb's wife that was to be a chaste virgin and yet as we begin to follow through and see what happened in the first century we begin to see that this was to change and this was the altar

the lord jesus christ himself tells us in matthew chapter 7 and the 15th verse beware of false prophets which shall come unto you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves

now this describes to us those who had a religiously pious exterior they looked the part on the outside they looked the part of the sheep of the shepherds but from within out of the heart of men perceived evil thoughts thefts murders adulteries and that's the same thing that they were faced with these things were to come from within and to file the ecclesia

and now brothers and sisters when we think of ii peter chapter 2

we are given the description of this type of apostasy that would develop he says when they speak it's great swelling words of vanity they're done with great gusto great charisma but they are empty they allure through the lust of the flesh the doctrine the message is pleasing it tantallates our flesh it's something that we could do it's not hard and maybe perhaps requires change of us but we could do this we could go along with this

and he says through much wantonness those that were clean escaped

from them who live in error while they promised liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought in bondage and that brother and sisters is the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent what did the serpent promise eve he promised her liberty he promised her freedom he promised her knowledge he promised her life all those things that's exactly what peter's talking about here they speak great swelling words of vanity and they appeal to the lusts of the flesh

but the message the doctrine that's put forward is empty they promise liberty and they become the servants of corruption that's exactly what the serpent promised eve and what she became was a servant of corruption and just like the apostle paul says he feared lest just as the serpent beguiled eve so the first century ecclesia and so you and i would be corrupted by these doctrines and that's why we have a statement of faith that's why we have a clearly defined catalog of what we believe

it's to separate us from the world

that's the whole idea from it sanctify them through thy truth come out from among her and be separate touch not the unclean thing it's to take the world and its doctrines and to put a division and as you go through the old testament and you see what god tried to do with israel through the wilderness through the tabernacle through the law it was to separate to put a difference between israel and the world around them and the nations and what the apostle peter was worried about was that the message that would be portrayed by those that would arise in the ecclesia would be one of those shall not surely die and that's

all around us we're going on up to the spirit in the sky that's where we're going when we die that's what they sing that's what they teach but it's all empty words of vanity and so brother and sisters in the first century there were those teachers that stole the vision of the kingdom that was to come

they stole the vision from the brethren and sisters who stopped looking forward to the kingdom of god on earth and were taught things that the kingdom of god is among you it's now don't look for a political kingdom in the future of something yet to come but concentrate on the here and now and so instead of looking at the joy set before them they became people who looked at the tribulation of the moment and that's a recipe for the disaster of the saints

they began to believe that the kingdom of god was something that was the here and now the blessings of this life was what was to be looked forward to now that is the message of popular christianity isn't it that the kingdom is among you that we can have the holy spirit now and all the benefits and they think that the wealth that we accumulate in this life is is the blessing from god purely because we're christians and you have these christian businessmen associations and whatever else that's the way the thinking of the world goes supposing that gain is godliness and brother and sisters we've got to keep ourselves separate from that

the apostle paul talks about

the development of this apostasy into a formal system

second thessalonians chapter 2 let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and the man of sin be revealed the man of lawlessness he will be revealed says the apostle paul the son of perdition or lawlessness is it this who opposeth and exalts himself above all that is called god or that is worship so that he as god sits in the temple of god showing himself that he is god

this was what was to arise in the first century and to develop from there and would last all the way through to the lord jesus christ comes as thessalonians continues whom the lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming it was to be there from that point in time right the way through to our point in time

and that falling away that was to exalt itself was to come because of a loss of vision because the brethren and sisters became totally engrossed in this life

and so as we sort of summarize what we've talked about the main duty of the ecclesial presbyters back in the first century as it should be today is to feed the ecclesia with the word of god the apostle says it's not fit that we should leave the true service of the lord to wait on tables remember when they chose at the deacons not that that's not a work that needs to be done but the focus of the ecclesia has to be on the word there was warnings that false leaders would arise who would abuse their office neglect their duty for the lust of power of a following and a filthy lucr

these false apostles would arise both from within and from without of the ecclesia some interested friends coming in perhaps you could call it that another's brothers and sisters arising and they would bring with them or develop that type of situation

they would lead the ecclesia astray by teaching these false doctrines and this falling away would climax in the revealing of the son or the man of sin the son of perdition and that brother and sister stands as a warning to us

stands as a warning to us not to follow the same path that that first and second century ecclesia took as corinthians tells us in chapter 10

and verse 12 let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall and we have to protect the inheritance that we have been given and that begins in our own homes and with our own families

this verse stands as a testimony to our community it stood as a testimony to israel there's a testimony of the first century ecclesia my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge hosea 4 6 because thou has rejected knowledge that is the knowledge of god the yadah the knowing him by experience i will also reject thee

that thou shalt be no priest to me

well then we do not belong to the kingdom do we

kings and priests is what we're looking forward to but if we reject the knowledge of god then we have no place in it seeing thou hast forgotten the law of god

i will forget thy children that's a severe warning to us as more and more the bible readings become a thing that we just are too busy to do with all the events of this life and hustle and bustle here and there as you take a poll perhaps you find that more and more people don't do them you may have noticed yourselves and your families but that's the way sometimes it gets but we've got to say if we are there then let's put a stop to that and protect our inheritance that we pass on to our children if we're becoming too busy in the activities of the life of our lives to attend the bible class or the ecclesial functions then we have to change our perspectives

death of the bible readings will result in death of the ecclesia

god will reject us

and our children and who wants that for your children you look at the world out there and you see what it has to offer if we don't take the steps to instill the word of god in them and in our families then god will reject them

so brothers and sisters we really need to consider this in the new testament it's full of evidence of this type of thing taking place and we don't look at this to sort of depress everybody by by no means what we want to do is draw the comparison that there is a struggle going on there was in the first century and we're going to watch it go through the book of revelation but it's also going on in our lives in arab legions in our personal homes today

there's evidence of the apostasy as it grew up in the ecclesia galatians chapter 2 and verse 4 paul had already dealt with false brethren he says that there were false brethren unawares brought in who came in privately or privily secretly to spy out our liberty which we have in christ jesus that they might bring us into bondage now isn't that an echo back to what paul says in in corinthians about being brought under subjection of the serpent system to whom we gave place by subjections as the apostle paul no not for an hour

that the truth of the gospel might continue with you now think about that brother and sister this is how the apostle paul dealt with it he didn't give place he didn't allow them one bible class not one hour class to get up there and give their fanciful ideas of things that were great empty words of speculations and whatever else and there was a reason for that not because he was a hard and austere man but because brothers and sisters he wanted the truth to continue with them because he realized it's the truth that sanctifies and that prepares us for a place in the kingdom

would we do the same brothers and sisters

do we stand up to different ideas that challenge our foundations or are we more like the fire tyrannoclesia who suffer the woman jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed into idols do we allow the post-french revolution humanism to infect our clegis whereby everybody gets a turn no matter what people have to say whether it's the word of god or not it's democracy so everybody should have a turn to get up there and say their own thing do we stand against these false ideas because that's what the class in the in the letters to the ecclesia and to pass those who stand against they stood up against these and the lord jesus christ was was

commending of them

or would we allow just anything to take place we've got to look at the issue for what it is it's not just a case of entertaining one another with our words

the truth is what will separate us and prepare us for the kingdom it what it's what builds in us faith and life and the lord jesus christ we read in corinthians gave his life for the ecclesia sanctifying it by the washing of the water of the word

how much do we value that what are we willing to give to preserve the sanctity and the separateness the chastity of the ecclesia

we read in in the letters of john of the apostasy that had already developed he tells us that little children it is the last time he saw the day that he was living in and as you have heard that antichrist should come he says now he says there are many antichrists many who would put themselves in the place of the true gospel whereby we know he says that it is the last time

and he describes the character of this antichrist they went out from us for if they would have been for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they were not of us and so they went out that they might be made manifest and so brother and sisters in the apostle john's time there was an adequate witness they contended earnestly for the faith so much so that this group decided not for this we're going to leave it separated the ecclesia and that's what jude tells us in verse 3

beloved i gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints and so should we brethren because tied into that faith is our eternal life

the robes of imputed righteousness that are granted to the bride the lamb's wife to wear are tied into her faith which comes from hearing and hearing from the word of god

he was trying to preserve the gospel of salvation which had been delivered to them because he wanted the ecclesia to be a part of the bride of christ he preserved the vision of faith and the joy that was set before them and we have to do that ourselves and it begins by making ourselves fully aware of what our god has promised us

in the letters to the ecclesiastes given there to us descriptions of the time

or of the ecclesia at the time of the first century when the lord jesus christ looked out upon it and said in revelation 2 verse 2

thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not and as fandom liars in the ecclesia where they were those who said that they were one cent they were there with a mission to teach the word of god he says but you've tried them they followed the advice of the apostle john to try the spirits whether they are of god because many false prophets are gone out into the world they tried them that said they were apostles and found that they were not

we read in verse six of chapter two that thou hatest the deeds of the nicolaitans the nicolaitans were those who were the vanquishers of the people they destroyed the ecclesias faith and there were those in the ecclesia who hated that they did not want to see the ecclesia destroyed

there was a contention between the seat of the woman and the seat of the serpent and this stands as a sober warning to us not to take the truth for granted there were those it says i know the blasphemy of those that say they are jews and that is spiritual jews because we are all of israel spiritual israel they say they are christodolphians but they are not but they are of the synagogue of the adversary why because they destroy the vision of the people they destroy the hope that is set before and so brother and sisters we have to arm ourselves in the world arm ourselves in the ecclesia because we live a hundred and fifty plus years after the days when the the truth was first revived and the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent is to last from the time of genesis until the lord jesus christ returns the apostles appointed that that's a fight that takes place within and we have to guard ourselves constantly remind ourselves of the facts of the the bible

this is the plot line of the book of revelation that we hope to take some time to look at we'd like to consider though just in the last couple of minutes what happened to the ecclesia in history we have recorded forest letters letters that were sent by early bishops of the church and one of them was polycarp i used the word church because we'll see in the second class that it began to apostasize it no longer was the ecclesia called out in that sense but began to be infiltrated with all these different doctrines

one of these such men was um irenaeus he was overseer or a bishop of the ecclesia in lyons france around a.d 169 or thereabouts and you probably won't be able to read this quote but i'll i'll read it for you the doctrine

of those who were presbyters before so what he's saying is look the teachings of the bishops who have gone before those who walked with the apostles because he's very close to the apostle john he says these are not what's being delivered to you four he says i saw when i was a boy in lower asia with polycarp now polycarp who's depicted there obviously not nothing like him but that's church history

polycarp was around at the time of the apostle john and he knew the apostle john and he goes on to say that look he says i was there as a boy in lower asia and he says i heard him and i can describe the sermons which he preached to the multitude and how he related to us his conversations with john and the rest of those who had been with the lord how he mentioned their particular expressions the things that he had heard of them from the lord and of his miracles in his doctrine as polycarp had received from the eyewitnesses of the word of life he told us all things agreeable to the scriptures so he says i've talked to somebody who was there with the apostles not with the lord jesus christ but he knew the apostles personally and he goes on to say he says i retain remembrance of these things and he says if that blessed apostolic presbyter

had heard some of the doctrines that are now maintained he would have cried out and stopped his ears and in his usual manner would have said oh good god to what times has thou reserved me that i should endure these things and he would immediately have fled from the praise which he had heard such doctrines and so brothers and sisters that's the state

not 150 years but only 130 years 140 years after the apostles have been around it's about 70 years since the apostle john in 1896 and that's the situation the ecclesia was in then

another writer is cyprian of the bishop of carthage now this is 248 a.d so it's 150 years after the apostles kind of similar to our age in in time span this was what was going on they were under persecutions of desius and some of the other emperors and he says if the cause of our misery or our persecution be investigated the cure of the womb may be found because long peace has corrupted the discipline divinely revealed to us and we brother and sisters have had long peace in arab legions each had been bent on improving his patrimony he's talking about the bishops now that the elders in the ecclesia go back to the verse we read in ezekiel it's a similar type of thing and had forgotten what believers had done under the apostles and what they ought always to do they were brooding over the amassing of our over arts and the amassing of wealth or certainly we could be guilty over brooding over the amassing of wealth the pastors and deacons each forgot their duty works of mercy were neglected and the discipline was at its lowest ebb luxury and effeminate effeminacy prevailed and he goes on to say that there was arts and dress that were cultivated fraud and deceit were practiced among brethren christians could unite themselves with in marriage with unbelievers they could swear not only without reverence but without truth without meaning what they had to say with hearty aspara disparity they despised the ecclesial superiors they railed against one another with outrageous acrimony they conducted quarrels and deter with determined malice this was what was going on 150

years after the apostle john and he goes on to say

that many bishops neglected the peculiar duties of their stations and gave themselves up to secular pursuits they became involved in the things of this life they deserted the places of residence and their flocks and traveled through distant provinces and quests of pleasures and gains and so brother and sisters he says have we not deserved to suffer for such a conduct for even the divine word hath foretold us that we might expect this now i don't think we're there i'm quite sure we're not at that point but that's the danger of where letting the truth slip leads us and so brother and sisters as we consider these things as we see the ecclesia as it should have been and as it became and as we will continue to follow it through into the new testament as we will follow it through into the book of revelation as we consider the things that will take place let us keep in our minds that what we are supposed to be is an ecclesia that is described as a chaste virgin unto christ that's what we want to do ecclesia that has remained separate and remain sanctified and let us resolve to preserve the truth in our own personal lives in our families and in our colleges by protecting our bible readings and our bible studies and the faith that was once delivered to the saints christ gave his life for the ecclesia

so that it could be his bride let us give our lives to preserve the same thing may god grant us to be arrayed in white linen the robes of imputed righteousness when his son returns to the earth

Transcript

our first speaker this morning is brother jonathan bowen of the brantford ontario ecclesia

the theme for brother jonathan's class this week is the lamb shall overcome them

today's class is entitled the man child brother bowen

good morning brother and sisters before we begin i just like to ask that we could distribute the notes right about now so that we can have something in our hands so that we can follow along i've asked the lights to be dimmed somewhat so we can see a little bit better from the back of the room

before i begin i just like to make a comment that a lot of the information a lot of the graphics you are seeing come from the bible magazine which has been an invaluable source for myself in preparation of these classes and i would suggest that if you find this subject matter interesting and want some supplemental reading and some follow-up for it that you could make use of that magazine and our brother gary smith has put a display up at the back to to assist in helping people get in touch with the bible magazine

now what we want to do before we begin is just lay down some ground rules for the interpretation of the book of revelation revelation chapter 1 and the first three verses tell us that it's the revelation of jesus christ which god gave unto him to show his servants things which must shortly come to pass and we read later that he sent and signified it and there is a blessing to those who read hear and keep the things of this book so it's given to the servants of god to show them therefore brothers and sisters it must be intelligible to us if it is given to show us things that are shortly because to come to pass and that's the other point these are things shortly to come to pass they take immediate or they take place immediately following john's receiving the book of revelation and continue until the return of the lord jesus christ which would put these events future to the time of 1896.

they are sent and signified which means that they are expressed by sign or by symbol they are not literal many of the things that are written within here but there is a symbolic

picture that's painted for us to draw from the resources of the scriptures throughout the old testament in the new testament to come up with the answers to these symbols they are to be read which means to know accurately they are to be heard or comprehended and they are to be kept or observed or there are things written in this book that are vital for our walk to the to the kingdom of god

the book of revelation as we have mentioned has a plot line to it and is very similar to a play whereby there is a story that is taking place it's the story of the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent throughout history in the scene that is set for us is in each chapter there is perhaps a changing of the scene the background is given as to what is on the stage at that point in time the different players the different characters that are involved there are antagonists there are protagonists there are main characters and there are sub characters and as we watch through walk through the book of revelation we want to try and keep in mind that there is a continual theme going on and we are following it along

all these things are carrying out the plot line that we've put before you the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent and the eventual destruction of that seed

this is the conflict the apostle paul referred to in ephesians chapter 6 verse 12 where he tells us that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places therefore he tells us to take action to take unto us the whole armor of god that we read about in our readings yesterday that we may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand so this war in the political heavens is this wrestling match that takes place against the principalities and powers of this current world

whether they were the paganistic rulers of john's time or the humanistic rulers of air time it is just as much a real battle that's taking place it is real and it is deadly it involves the lives of us and our children and our colleges

it is of supreme importance brother and sisters that we be able to read through this book and identify the things that are written in it because in revelation chapter 11 18 and verse 4 we are told that there is this cry that comes forth to come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that you receive not of her plagues and the her there is the harlot woman of chapter 17

and chapter 18.

if we do not identify who this woman is how are we going to come out of her and if we don't come out of her then we may unwittingly be partakers of her sins and of her plagues which are ultimately death and destruction so it is vital for us to know what we're dealing with in our day and age chapter 17 and chapter 18 are dealing predominantly with today with the world we live in this verse is identified for us certainly it had application through the ages but historically if you wanted to fit it into the timeline it deals with today and so brother and sisters we have ample warning within the book of revelation

our brother thomas tells us that the reason that prophecy is given is so that no believer understanding this prophecy referring to revelation could be seduced into fellowship with the clerical institutions of the world because he would see them in all their native deformity and sin and so brother and sisters it stands there as an antiseptic for us because we would see the world for what it is we would see the churches around us we would identify the doctrines that they hold and that doing so we would not be seduced into fellowship with them at any level we would not belong to the ecumenical world that is going back to rome today

well our goal is to follow the plot line of the book of revelation as it goes through we will follow the transformation of the different beasts as we travel through the book of revelation we will see some of the judgments that are poured on them in the seals the trumpets and finally the vials and in the future the funders and we're going to try to use the bible as our guide now we're not going to do a comprehensive study of all the aspects of the book of revelation it would be impossible for us to do that rather we're going to try and follow the story of the beasts the story of the beast is basically the story of daniel where he has the fourth beast and we're going to see it go through the different phases and we're going to try and follow it along and keep our frame of reference back to uh this this chart here so we can see where we're at in the point of of history and in the apocalypse as it's revealed to us this morning's class we want to begin by the looking at revelation chapter 12.

in revelation chapter 12 there are two symbols that are introduced to us there is the woman and the dragon we'd like to really stop and consider the dragon first

we are dealing with the political heavens we read there appeared another wonder or symbol or sign in the heavens so we're dealing with the political scene of john's day and he looks into that political scene and he sees a symbol there and the symbol is of a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and crowns upon the heads now this is as we've mentioned a continuation of the book of daniel in daniel chapter 12 once daniel had received the prophecies of chapter seven the four beasts and their and their continuation right up to the lord jesus christ is told as he tries to inquire more what will be the end of these things he is told that he's to go his way daniel because these words are sealed up until the time of the end and at that time as we continue to read in the chapter it says that the wise shall understand well in revelation chapter 5 verse 5 we read that behold the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david has prevailed to open the seals and he's talking about the seals of the book of daniel as it was sealed up and it's the lord jesus christ who has that that was found worthy to open that book and so chapter four and five talk about that scene where it is given to him and he opens the book and and it is taken from him by the saints and they grab a hold of it and look into these things and so we're continuing from daniel in daniel chapter 7 there is the four beasts there's the medo or there's the babylonian lion as we looked at last night the medo-persian bear which was to come and destroy that lion the grecian leopard and finally there is this fourth roman beast and it's interesting that this roman beast lasts from that time where it comes into existence around the time of the lord jesus christ until it is destroyed with the brightness of his coming at the kingdom age

and revelation is an amplification of this fourth beast it is basically a metamorphosis of the fourth beast as it undergoes different phases and comes through to being what we see it in the book

when we come to chapter 12 then and we are considering this great wonder that appears in heaven we have this beast that is very similar to daniel's fourth beast it has some similarities in that it has ten horns and these ten horns are symbolic of ten kings

we read that from a later phase as we come into revelation chapter 17. but in daniel chapter seven verse 24 the ten horns of daniel's fourth beast are identified to him as being ten kings now there are some additional information that is added this beast is described in revelation as being red the color of sin

it also has seven heads and it has seven crowns upon those heads and we'd like to investigate those differences in a moment

first of all we find that these seven heads represent the different ruling powers that have governed rome since its existence they're very similar to this the four heads of the the leopard that daniel saw as the third beast that that four-headed leopard the heads represented different kings well in the book of revelation those seven heads represent the seven systems of government that would rule rome it's interesting to note that they have crowns upon them indicating that they are sovereign now when daniel's fourth or third beast ruled there was four kings that came up together and we read that from the narrative of chapter eight when the great horn the notable horn was broken off that four horns came up and replaced it and they were in existence together when we come to revelation we find that these seven headed the seven headed beasts with its different crowns is a little bit different in that these heads now are successive and we've identified them for their in your notes and on the overhead is the seven types of government that were to rule rome the crowns and the or the crowns are on the separate heads but the horns are located on the sixth head because that is the head that john was looking at when he was looking at the vision of the book of revelation

now as we look into these things and we we concentrate on this this beast and we see this head we see that the the horns on this head are not cramped and that's a a piece of information that's important for us to notice because they were not sovereign kings remember daniel chapter 7 and verse 24

tells us that the ten horns are the ten kings revelation chapter 17 tells us the same things that the ten horns are ten kingdoms that would arise but in the book of revelation in chapter 12 when we see them now this changes later on but in chapter 12 they are not crowned the heads are crowned but the horns are not signifying that the horns are in in a state that they are not sovereign that will change as time goes on

rather they are under the influence of the sixth head now as we kind of have given you a little bit of background to this this dragon that has existed its identification for us is the same of that of daniel's fourth beast it is the roman dragon that daniel saw but more information has been given to us now the judgment upon this roman dragon that's given to us in the book of revelation is identified as the seals

now the roman dragon was already in existence when john saw this vision and the seals were to begin being unleashed upon this dragon we're not going to look at all the seals we would like to focus however on the sixth seal we read in revelation chapter 6 and at verse 12 behold when he had opened the sixth seal and lo there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair the new moon became his blood and the stars of heaven fell onto the earth even as a fig tree casteth out her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind and the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled away together and every mountain and ireland were moved out of their places now this is symbolic languages we read about at the beginning these things were sent and signified now it's interesting to note that those symbols as they are laid out for us there in the book are easily interpreted as we go through them now the great earthquake that was to take place there are several great earthquakes in the book of revelation and they symbolize or signify political upheavals in the world one of the probably most famous ones to us is the french revolution where the entire world as as society knew it changed the same thing was true in the sixth seal the pagan roman system was going to change and what was to happen was that the sun was to be eclipsed and if we go back in our in our bibles to look at these symbols being used elsewhere we can go back to genesis and see the dreams of joseph where the sun was symbolic of of jacob himself and the moon was his wife and the stars were his sons so we see them as being the rulership of israel in that sense and the sun in this case is darkened signifying that the roman emperor would lose his his position the pagan roman empire is that is and he would be put out that was the greater light the stars would fall the administration of this pagan roman system would collapse and the moon the religious element would become as blood now unfortunately we don't have time to go through and identify each and every one of these signs and symbols by looking up the verses that corroborate what we're trying to say what i would like to do though is lay it out before you and you've got the notes in front of you you can go home and and corroborate this stuff yourself establish it from the bible we would like to paint the picture and bring you through the story of the book of revelation together with us so that we can see the end result

what we find in chapter 12 is these same symbols of chapter 6 appearing again there is this great symbol the woman in heaven now this woman is clothed with the sun her moon the moon is under her feet and upon her head is a crown of 12 stars and she is with child and pains to be delivered now we looked at the symbolic woman in class 1. the ecclesia was supposed to be a chaste virgin unto christ but now we find that she's not depicted as a chaste virgin anymore now she is a woman who is impregnated with apostasy she is no longer in that chaste state but she is found now with child she has committed fornication and so brother and sisters this is the symbol we are looking at certainly we can say what the woman is not

the woman is not israel

because these things are written about things that were shortly to come to pass from john's time they were written about things in the future

israel had already been dissent dismembered as a nation and taken away in 1870.

so as we look at it the twelve stars that we saw previously in the sixth seal now become the administration of the empire that crowns the woman she becomes involved in these things according to the the symbols of scripture she is pregnant as we have mentioned she now is not in a chaste state but in an apostate state and the son or the emperor the greatest light that rules the day was to basically clothe her there was to be power from the emperor that would surround this woman and the moon the religious authority of the day would be under her feet signifying her having power over it now this is a symbol

of the ecclesia

as it had become laodicean had lost its vision of the kingdom of god on earth and had looked now for not something in the future but the doctrine of the kingdom of god is among you now so it's something that we want to possess now in this lifetime and so they saw it fit in that early ecclesia of the second and third century as things progressed

they saw it fit then to ally themselves with the nations of the world around them specifically the roman empire

now two other characteristics that we would like to look at are the two characters that are in this the protagonist and the antagonist in revelation chapter 12 is this woman and the dragon and we are told the narrative of what is to happen as the woman is there ready to be delivered we read in verse 4 the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born so there we have that pagan roman system ready to destroy the birth of the apostasy that was to take place it's there ready to destroy it now the narrative describes to us the intent of what's going to happen the political situation which would develop and we can look at history and we can see these things as christianity became increasingly more involved in politics because of the doctrines that they taught that which moved away from the idea of the future kingdom of god upon the earth it became a threat to the roman state because as it increased it had its own lands it had its own public purse as it's described by edward gibbon a system of taxation which was become known to us perhaps as tithing there was no other system that was able to to generate that kind of funds throughout the empire so they were financially independent from the empire as a religious system they also had their own system of government which had evolved from an ecclesial situation when they had serving brethren and had become more of a a clergy laity situation where you had that the rulers over the ecclesias the bishops and and the the different people who were there the presbyters and the general population which were kept somewhat in darkness and as that situation built more and more and there was a separation from the early ecclesias the way they operated the apostolic faith as that separation happened more and more the christian system became more of a threat to the emperor because brother and sisters the emperor was himself

part of the roman pagan pantheon of gods he was considered to be one of the gods and the roman citizens were required to offer sacrifice to him and so the pagan church if you want to call it that or the pagan system of religion and the christian system of religion became opposed to one another because any idea that would challenge paganism also challenged the authority of the emperor and it was the emperor diocletian in around the period of 285 to 213 that tried to protect the interests of the roman pagan system of religion and what he did was he issued decrees whereby he allowed the governments or he instructed the governments that were underneath him the stars of revelation chapter 12 to go forward and to confiscate the lands of these christians to take away their monies in their public purse to take away their churches and the buildings that they had built with the great wealth that they had amassed and basically to persecute and to bring upon them the trouble that we read about in our first class um under the emperor desius so these types of things were going on in the first century occlusion now we got to remember that in this there would have been a faithful remnant there would have been christodolphians mixed in with this this greater mass of of sort of pseudo-christadophians who still held to the faith they still taught the gospel as it was delivered to the saints they believed these things and you can imagine the life of the christian dolphin at that point in time not only is he facing his brethren who might be apostate teaching that you know it's this world that now we have to look to ideas on the the godhead and ideas on the immortality of the soul that we're beginning to surface but he's also enduring the persecution of the empire as well so at this point in time the woman is depicted as being with child and she does include within her the ecclesia as well

now when this decree was was sent forth by diocletian his empire was quite largely extended right up into britain and down into egypt north africa spain it was a huge empire and the christian population had spread themselves throughout this entire empire and they had done so under the power of the first seal where the conqueror went forth with the bow and the word of god was sent throughout the whole empire

and so we have ecclesias throughout this whole region now the persecutions that

diocletian was to bring upon the ecclesia were terrific they were horrific they were terrible and he enacted the role of the dragon to devour the woman's child before it was born or as soon as it was to be born and we have the the stories of the the circuses where our brethren and sisters along with some of the apostasy that had developed but our brothers and sisters were taken and were slain they were sought asunder they were persecuted they were fed to the lions in the in the circuses and in the persecutions that took place at that point in time and it was because of this type of thing that god almighty decreed in the book of revelation that that dragon that pagan system that had crushed the saints that had crucified the lord jesus christ that system was to be thrown out of the political heavens and was to be replaced

so it's the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent in the narrative of the book of revelation there are some fighting with the sword of the spirit out of their mouth teaching the gospel and there were others perhaps part of a second witness almost who took up the sword against this system

well

when diocletian retired which was one of the only emperors actually to do that most of them were either knocked off or died a natural death of some description or another he um divided the empire into four

constantius who was to be the father of constantine ruled over the area of gaul and britain maxentius was over rome and carthage that's north africa and licinius was the emperor over panoyna which is basically the area of the balkans in greece and gallerius was the emperor over syria palestine and he basically had the area of what was to become constantinople

now in revelation chapter 12 we read that this woman is to bring forth a man-child and this man-child was to rule all nations with the rod of iron and was to be caught up to god and to his throne well as we mentioned we heard those things before in in isaiah when we looked at it last night looking at babylon but it also appears in 2

thessalonians chapter 2

and at verses 3 and 4 this man of sin that was to be revealed the end result of the apostasy that paul was warning about was to oppose and exalt himself above all that is called god or that is worshipped so that he as god was to sit in the temple of god showing himself that he is god and so we can see a cro

correspondence between these two things the man of sin ascending to this great power and the man child of revelation chapter 12 being caught up to the political heavens to the throne of the god of his day and so the son of perdition of second thessalonians two equates with the man child of revelation chapter 12.

now revelation chapter 12 is an interesting book there is an interesting chapter because you have there the the symbols that are outlined for us you have the dragon the pagan system you have the woman who is apostasized she's found with child we think back to what the apostle paul says what was he worried about impregnating the woman what was it that he was afraid of he was afraid that as the serpent beguiled eve so the ecclesia should be corrupted from the simplicity in christ well one of the names of the pagan roman dragon in chapter 12 is the serpent

so what we basically see is the impregnation of the ecclesia with the pagan ideas of the religion of the day which was the dragon and the result of which would be this man-child

now

constantius the emperor that was on the eastern or the westernmost side of the the empire was a pagan emperor

he took a wife helena who was basically from the area of what is today yugoslavia and she was a christian so you have a pagan emperor marrying a christian woman and bringing forth a son that was to overthrow the empire he was an apostate christian he could not claim to be christian but yet he could not really claim to be pagan he was kind of a hybrid of the two which will become apparent from later this was the man of sin the son of lawlessness that thessalonians talked about and constantine lives out in his life the parable of revelation chapter 12.

now when constantine's father died constantine's actually gone to join him as they were in britain and his father died there he was a very popular man and his troops proclaimed him to be emperor which was something they had no right to do he had to be deemed emperor by the emperor in rome but he accepted the commission and basically wrote to the emperor in rome and told them that well you know what the troops have told me that i'm an emperor so guess what that's the job i've now taken on and this obviously didn't go down very well with the administration over in rome so there was going to be a conflict that would ensue between these four emperors and constantine

having the gaulish legions with him those from france and britain needed an ally because he's on the westernmost part of the empire and he's got to cross the whole empire and he's got to come towards rome and if he's going to take over it and that's the picture that the scriptures paint for us and so

what had happened was when diocletian had given the decree that the christians were to be persecuted constantius father had declined to carry it out constantine kept that position he did not persecute the christians but rather he gave an edict when he became emperor that they were allowed to live in peace

and so you can imagine the laodicean christians seeing that now we have an ally in this roman emperor and there was a lot of talk in that early community about what were they going to do to basically see that this emperor survived because his success meant an end to their persecution and so they committed fornication in that spiritual sense that they threw in their lot with this emperor they joined forces with him and many christians long past believing in the doctrine of consciences of jackson joined the ranks of constantine and not only that but the christians throughout the empire saw this one emperor who would would recognize their religion and they all rallied behind him now we can imagine our brethren of the day standing up and lecturing their brother and sister saying we should have no part to do with this and there would have been a great conflict within the ecclesia at that point in time now

constantine was not a stupid man by any means he recognized that if he tapped into the network of christians

that covered the entire empire he had his own covert spy network in every corner of the empire and he maximized the use of that so the bishops became his emissaries and would carry information throughout the empire now

to sol or consolidate the support of the christians constantine had a purported vision before the battle of milvian bridge he is reported to have seen in the sky the sign of the labarum which is not exactly the cross it was a precursor to it i just like to point out by the way this is a this is a painting that was done of constantine seeing this great symbol in the sky but if you notice up in the corner there is a red roman dragon that is the standard of the roman armies that's the way they depicted themselves we've probably seen it in eureka if we read any of eureka there's a little thumbnail of it in there

but added to that constantine saw or purports to have seen this vision of the labarum the cross and in this sign he basically was to go forth and conquer is what he believed he heard the heavens to say to him now incidentally he also had a vision earlier before he became allied with the christians where he saw apollo in the skies and and had basically seen the sun speaking to him so uh you have to question somewhat the validity of this vision that he did see

however he adopted this symbol and the px that now is carried by the vatican incidentally um was the symbol that basically he saw in the heavens and his soldiers took the symbol to themselves this helmet is a helmet from the period of constantine which basically has that symbol on the front of it sort of over the forehead portion of the of the helmet and so the apostate church that flocked to swell his ranks went under the sign of the cross and so the adversaries in the ecclesia formed an alliance with the emperor they were the synagogue of satan but now they had an alliance that they formed with constantine and until this point the cross had represented to them death but now it became a good luck charm they were crucified on it previously by the other emperors under diocletian they were crucified on the uh well it was not really the cross it was the stake but i mean that's what it had represented death to them before but now it has taken and becomes a good luck charm something that they could pray to and hold on to and rally behind an idol for them to worship

it was never a symbol of the gospel to the true christian believers to our brethren back at that point in time and brethren and sisters that's why we do not worship the cross today we do not have it in our halls we do not wear it around our necks we do not associate ourselves with it we do not survey a wondrous cross in that sense it was a sign of death and it's also a sign of the apostasy because it carries behind it the symbology of the doctrine of the trinity father son and holy ghost and it is the sign that is carried right throughout the book of revelation and comes up in revelation chapter 17.

now brother and sisters in thessalonians we read that there was a system that withholdeth or with strains and it was going to restrain until the time that it was to be removed now in thessalonians that system is the pagan roman dragon that is there for us indicated it's the restraining power that held the apostasy at bay until that man of sin was to be revealed

now

in the book of revelation we read about the war that was to ensue revelation chapter 12 and at verse 7 we find that there is there war in heaven michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent well michael is a hebrew word which means who like el who like the power of the mighty ones in that sense now whereas constantine was an agent of god to bring about destruction of the roman empire he was also the man of sin in its first manifestation who sat in the place of god who like god in that sense and was the beginning of the roman catholic apostasy and it's in its greatest sense now he brought about the judgments of that sixth seal and there was to be a conflict in the political heavens between the dragon and his angels and michael who like l constantine and his angels of which a large portion was formed by the apostate christian church of the day and so this battle came to a head at a place called milvian bridge between constantine and maxentius and as the battle was fought maxentius forces lost as they as constantine's forces came onto rome and they were pushed back across the milvian bridge and it's interesting to note that the throng of the crowd on the bridge as they tried to get back over the river and not be slain on the other side forced the emperor and he fell over the bridge and the weight of his armor drowned him in the river below and so felling falling from heaven that dragon was was done away with but not completely because whereas constantine had dealt with one of the emperors on the other side of the empire lucinius had had had a war with galerius and disposed of him but there is still a roman dragon and there is still the manchild in those heavens and there was to be a war between the two of them there was an eight-year truce but the scripture determined that that was not to continue it was during this period that that constantine recognized the help of the christians by issuing an edict that their religion was to be respected and protected throughout his empire the final battle between these two forces took place in adrian opal and it was a battle of fifteen thousand infantry on the dragon side with fifteen thousand cavalry and three hundred fifty gallons roman galleons against a measly 120 000 men that constantine had and only 120 little vessels little ships and of course he was outnumbered but that was irrelevant because the word of god had said that that dragon would be cast out and so the dragon was cast out because licinius lost now it is interesting to note brother and sisters

we look at the apocalypse now and and sometimes we grapple with understanding it

constantine understood it

he read revelation 12

and he saw himself in it this is a letter he wrote to the bishop eusebius who was his close guide

the dragon having being deposed from the governments of affairs by god's providence but now that liberty is restored and the dragon driven from the administration of public affairs affairs by the providence of the supreme deity and our instrumentality and our instrumentality we trust that all can see the efficacy of the divine power the effect of the divine power working in the political heavens to cast out the dragon they saw themselves as the fulfillment of revelation chapter 12. not in a bad sense they slightly misinterpreted but they read it and saw that that dragon was rome and so constantine on his coin his coin depicts the dragon as being

victor or the the le baron the cross is being victorious over the dragon these people were aware of it

now after this brother and sisters we read that

a loud voice is heard in heaven now this is the political heavens again let's not forget this is not god in heaven but now is salvation and strength the kingdom of our god the power of his christ for the accuser our brethren is cast down which occurs accuse them before our god day and night but the interjection is made there that they overcame them by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony ultimately it was the word of god that cast out that dragon the preaching effort of the first seal that would go through the empire and unseat it however they did see themselves as the fulfillment of this but it was the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent now after constantine had won this this great victory he moved the capital of the empire from rome to the area of constantinople that move is becoming going to become very significant in in a future class and probably tomorrow as we consider these things

but what was to happen now that that withholding or with straining power is taken away now that the dragon has been thrown out of heaven there are other events left yet to ensue in chapter 12 and they equate to the the events of 2

thessalonians 2

because after that was removed then shall the wicked be revealed whom the lord shall consume with the brightness of his coming even him who's working is after the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonders with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish why why did they perish why did that first century ecclesia perish as it developed into this apostasy well because brothers and sisters they loved not the truth they received not the love of the truth and we likewise will perish as an ecclesial body if we do not love the truth

that they might be saved

and for this cause god sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned to believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness so this was what what was to be revealed after this point in time

and it's very interesting to note

that it's right after this point in time constantine is now on his throne there is no roman emperor anymore to stand in his way the dragon has been cast out and the christians are enthroned with him there and it's interesting to see that the biggest problem he's now got is these christians because they don't all agree there are different schools of thought there is a controversy that's going in within the apostate ecclesia as it's now ascended up to heaven and so we have the council of nicaea the great nicean creed was to come out of it that council was not called by the church that council was not sort of invented by the bishops it was called by constantine in an effort to consolidate his power and put an end to the squabbling amongst the church so that he wouldn't have a threat to his power base

and we see here depicted two bishops constantine you might be able to make him out there is depicted as over the the top um right hand side of this there's your left-hand side of the screen and uh here he was presiding over this this conference and we have two bishops

and the bishops are um bishop nicholas and anybody who's heard of saint nicholas santa claus that's him back from the third century fourth century and arius and santa claus there is planting a right or left hook on aries as they debate out the doctrine of the trinity

santa claus was the champion of the trinity and here he is taking on aries as they debate this subject you can see that the church had come a long way from discussing the scriptures with their bibles open and here in the political arena we result in fisticuffs as we try to come to an understanding of what not the bible had to say but what was going to be the most popular sellable doctrine well constantine listening to this debate being a pagan himself worshiping a pantheon of pagan gods was more impressed with the idea of a triune godhead because it sat probably a lot better with him since that's his background of multiple gods he liked that idea so he put the official roman seal on the doctrine of the trinity and so the doctrine of the trinity became by law of the roman emperor the doctrine that was to be held in the churches and so out of that council came the nicean creed

i believe in one god it goes the father almighty in one lord jesus christ the son of god the only begotten of the of the father begotten of the father and he goes on to say very god of very god begotten not made of one essence with the father and he also he talks about him coming down from heaven that he was incarnate of the holy spirit and the virgin mary and was made man and he goes on to say i believe in the holy spirit the lord the giver of life who proceedeth from the father who with the father is to be worshipped and

with the son and the father together is to be worshipped and glorified and brothers and sisters the believers throughout time since this point have fought have wareed against that system against this doctrine since the time of constantine and since the man child was revealed and that great delusion spoken of in second thessalonians had been revealed

now just quickly as we close off this examination of revelation chapter 12 the end result is that you have the woman now bereft of the apostasy she's given birth to this child the laodicean state has gone out from her because they were not of her and they have married themselves to the the the catholic cis or the dragon system the pagan system now what happens is that she flees into the wilderness so our brothers and sisters and not just our brothers and sisters but the witnesses who held similar doctrines if not completely the same went into the wilderness to a place prepared of god that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days very similar to elijah running from jezebel and when the dragon was cast saw that he was cast out to the earth he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child and so that dragon now assumed by constantine because he was the only roman emperor left persecutes the woman the doctrine of the trinity becomes the rule by which the the empire was to be governed and so all sects and groups that did not adhere to that doctrine were to be judged and so we see that the woman was given two wings of an eagle well an eagle is the roman empire right we read about it in matthew 25 or sorry in luke 21 with the olivet prophecy in matthew 24 and she's taken into the wilderness because the serpent is to cast out of his mouth that dragon remember the word serpent dragon interchangeable there and the woman is to be he's trying to destroy the woman by casting this flood of water out of his mouth

while brother and sisters what happened was the woman was taken into the wilderness she was taken to the corners of the empire and the groups of believers the donatists the politicians the waldenses and the albigensis through time have existed in the outskirts of the roman empire where they could not be touched by or certainly would have a much less of an effect as being touched by the the roman roman armies but we read there that there was to be a flood cast out of the mouth of this dragon and that flood brother and sisters was to come and was to try and destroy this woman and the remnant of her seed and those who kept the testimony of the word but it was to be swallowed up by the earth and so it was that the people dwelling around the donatus for instance the circumcisions of of north africa resisted the attempts of the roman emperor to wipe them out or wipe out the donatists who lived among them there were groups of people who basically stood in defiance against the roman emperor and against the doctrines that were being put forward very quickly i just want to end off on one note

bible students of the day reading the book of revelation completely understood it the donatists of north africa read revelation 1 verse 1. it's the revelation of jesus christ given to his servants to show them short things shortly come to come to pass and in the fourth century this is what a donatus writer had to say behold suddenly the polluted flood of the mackerel and persecutions burst forth from the tyrannical church of kin constance two beasts sent to africa from thence to which macarius and paulus or marcius and paulus whoever he quite pronounced that a most horrible and cruel ecclesiastical war was proclaimed that the christian people should be compelled by the naked swords of soldiers and by the standards of the serpent dragons and the blast of the trumpets to unite with these traitors and he talks about these beasts coming forward these serpents as they were to try and swallow up god's people and they recognized that they recognized what was going on because they had the book of revelation we've got it too brother and sisters we have it in front of us we have it to take home with us and what we have to do is protect ourselves with it to identify the system and we hope to do that through this coming week so that we can not be seduced into fellowship with the clerical systems of today but that we can come out of her and be not partakers of her sins

Transcript

our first speaker this morning is brother jonathan bowen of the brantford ontario collegiate the theme for her brother jonathan's class this week is the lamb shall overcome them today's class is entitled it was given to him to make war with the saints brother jonathan

well good morning brother and sisters as we continue the class this morning the progression that we've been looking at in the book of revelation i would like to just start off by stating that we are not trying to cover every detail of the book of revelation if at times you become a little bit confused as to some of the facts don't worry about it because what we're trying to do is paint the overall picture we want to not do a detailed exposition of each and every point wherein we go and improve from the old testament what the signs and the symbols represent we couldn't do that with the time we have rather what we're trying to do is a comprehensive flowing overview of the book of revelation looking at the transformation of the beasts as they go through and are depicted to us we want to see the narrative of the book the picture that is given to us the storyline if you want to call it that

we're going to leave it up to your personal bible study to come back with the use of your bible in hand your concordance and perhaps books like help us israel eureka exposition of daniel apocalypse epitomized they're all available to us to come in and fill in these details but we hope to try and build for you an overview a framework when you leave here you can walk away and perhaps have a little bit of a better understanding of how these things come together

as we've mentioned the book of revelation is simply the exposition or the beast phase of it is the exposition of daniel's fourth beast and that beast is described to us as having iron teeth it's that roman element that we can see and it equates with the iron legs of daniel chapter two as we've mentioned yesterday we spent our time looking at the dragon that is described for us in chapter 12 the first phase of daniel's fourth beast the pagan roman empire

we looked at some of the seals and saw how these were the judgments upon this system they brought about its eventual fall and and that fall is described to us in revelation chapter 12 as war in heaven between the woman and or the woman seed the man child and this dragon it is the earthquake of chapter six in the end these seals and this war in heaven had the result of bringing about the casting out from the political heavens of the pagan roman dragon from power and the establishment in its place of the manchild

now

where that brings us to in the narrative of the book is the beast of the sea of revelation chapter 13. you might want to open your bibles to revelation chapter 13 and have them there so that you can compare some of these things and have a look at them in the context the system that the man-child represented is depicted in this way it's another phase of daniel's fourth beast and it is represented by this beast of the sea that is given to us in revelation chapter 13 in the first part of the chapter and although initially this man-child was a an agent of god's judgment upon the pagan roman system itself or it became part of this be system itself it became part of the kingdoms of men who stand in opposition to the kingdom of god and we want to remember that the plot line that we're talking about is the seed of the woman in opposition to the seed of the serpent throughout the book of revelation now when we come to identify the or to to examine the beast of the sea in the first part of the chapter we read that as i stood upon the sand of the sea i saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns and upon the heads the names of blasphemy and the beast which i saw was like unto a leopard and his feet were the feet of a bear and his mouth was the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and his great authority now we want to look at this because if we remember when daniel in daniel chapter 7

saw the vision it was four beasts that arose out of the great sea and that great sea is the mediterranean sea so this beast is associated with the area of the mediterranean just like daniel's beast was we noticed that it has similar characteristics to the beasts that are mentioned in daniel it has this this lion's mouth it has the um the seat and the authority given to it by the dragon it's got feet of a bear and it looks like a leopard so it carries the characteristics and that really makes sense when we look at the book of daniel because the the image of daniel chapter 2 when it's finally destroyed is broken in pieces together so all these composite elements are seen because they represent the kingdoms of men

now as we continue along in this story as we look at what we have written here for us we find that the seat of the beast is the christian roman empire

or sorry i should say the sea beast is the christian roman empire it's made up of the sovereign states under the influence of rome and we're going to see how that develops

remember that constantine removed his capital to byzantium which he renamed to be constantinople and from there the christian roman empire was ruled

but there are changes that we are going to look at there are similar characteristics but there are some distinct differences some of the similarities include

the fact that there are 10 horns on both of these beasts there are crowns on both of these beasts although they're in different positions and there are seven heads so this is not a new entirely new creation in that sense but rather it is a continuation a metamorphosis of the previous pagan roman dragon now the ten horns as we've already looked at daniel chapter 7 and verse 24

tells us that in daniel's beast these ten horns represent the ten kingdoms that would arise we are told the same thing in revelation chapter 17 where those ten horns are also seen in existence the crowns of we as we have mentioned signify sovereign power and the seven heads were those seven systems of government now as we look at those horns we want to consider the difference in the dragon phase those horns were located upon the seven heads signifying the seven sovereign forms of political government that would rule over the body of the roman empire and they were in succession

however when we come to the sea beast we find that those crowns are no longer on the heads but they now reside on the horns and this is a key point because what has happened there is a change in sovereignty no longer is the christian roman empire completely ruled over from one place but now there is different sovereign nations that make up this this roman body of this beast that we're looking at

and it represents the empire in the phase when the 10 barbarian nations that we read about in daniel chapter 7 gain their freedom from the roman system

during the um the lifespan of this beast in chapter eight of revelation are given to us the trumpet judgments the seven trumpet judgments these are during this beast phase and partly upon it and they are the invasion of the barbarians into europe and the establishment of these independent barbarian states they are however under the roman influence both of the christian roman emperor from byzantium or constantinople and also from the the uh vatican as it was to become in rome itself now when constantine moved the capital of the empire to constantinople he left the western half of the empire exposed to the different tribes of the barbarians that were surrounding it now we want to kind of step through a little bit of history because this is a phase when i went through sunday school that we kind of jumped over a little bit and it was one of those things that i found that once we kind of walk through it and see how europe as our brother stephen was talking about the other night how europe was formed as we see it today it helps us to make more sense of these ten horns

the invasions of the barbarians there were several of them were not necessarily doing these in chronological order but we're just kind of following them through one of them was the invasion of the huns the barbarian hordes came in different ways and different basically areas they drew themselves or they came from and the huns were ferocious people who under a man named attila came and invaded the roman empire

they came from the area of what we know as scythia in the bible it's called magog in ezekiel chapter 38 josephus describes it for us they planted themselves in the area of the danube river and gave the name of their their own people to this area it became known as hungary so this was the area of the huns and under attila in 8451 they went down to the area of thrace which is next to constantinople about 30 miles from it they moved from there into macedonia and then up into the area of ponona and which is part of hungary today through norikium which is basically um

austria as we would know it they went into belgium germany france and as far as the english channel so they were they basically came in almost on a whirlwind tour through europe and they are described to us as the third trumpet the blazing star which really is another study in itself i'm going to make mention of these things but we're not going to look at them in

along with them came the goths a larick was um the leader of the goths or one of the influential leaders and we read there from gibbons decline and fall of the roman empire that he marched to the gates of rome at the hour of midnight the solarian gate was silently opened and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the gothic trumpet which i thought was very significant because the book of revelation identifies these these um gothic hordes or the the different barbarians that would invade as the trumpets and this was the hail and fire judgment of the first trumpet

the goths and the the visigoths that is basically came from the area of uh sweden they came across northern europe and entered

the actual area of the roman empire through scythia they crossed

through to greece under the leadership of alaric they went through illyria lombardy and eventually they laid siege to italy itself so we can see that what was a stable empire is now being slowly invaded and somewhat carved up by these peoples they settled in france until finally they were driven by the franks into spain in uh about ad585

then we have the vandals which brother stephen made mention of last night and the name vandal as we understand it somebody who destroys them things comes from this word because they were ones who were to sack roman and and bring great destruction upon it they also came from the area of sweden they entered gaul around the year 406

they came down into spain across into north africa where they fought basically against the catholic forces of the day the catholic dragon and set up an independent kingdom there and it was under the man named genserik

and it lasted until about 5 33

and from here they invaded rome and sacked italy and they went through the provinces of italy and basically they represent the second wind trumpet or the great mountain burning with fire that is depicted to us under the trumpets

following them we have the a lands the islands came from asia the area between the black sea and the caspian they crossed right the way through europe through germany and they joined the vandals and basically they ended up settling themselves in the area of portugal

we also have the burgundians the burgundians came from what we know today as northern germany they established themselves in the south of france or what we would call gulf or what was called gaul back then and they gave their the name of their tribe stock to that area for a long point in time burgundy was one of the nation states of europe for a long time

was the lombards who also came from the area of scandinavia they just came down the danube river river and basically after the dissolution of the empire of attila around 455

they took over part of panoyna and um or hungary as we know it they came as far as barbarian 568 and eventually they invaded italy and settled themselves there

until they were plucked up by the by the roots as described to us by daniel we have the franks who came also out of the german area the name franks means freeman which is going to make a significant point in history later on as we look at the french revolution they invaded gaul and settled themselves in the area of france which basically derives its name from the name franks they comprised part of the first trumpet as well

there were the barbarians who basically originated from part of the the dragon empire itself they were in the area of norikium and they basically gained their independence under a man named theodon and carved out for themselves an independent state

there was the sui or the suvia sometimes they are called who came from asia they crossed northern europe and entered into germany they went through gaul and galatia and basically um or galassia is called and entered into spain where they settled themselves so the suvai or sui are basically the spanish-speaking peoples

and then there was the jedi now the jeopardy or jeopardize they're called came from sweden as well they went across the north of europe as well like others other um of these barbarian hordes until they reached the area of scythia from this area they came through the adriatic bay of the mediterranean and they moved through the area of darcia and they planted themselves in the carpathian hills next to the black sea their kingdom continued as an independent kingdom till about 566 when it was somewhat destroyed by the lombards now these are the ten horn nations that have come into europe they are historically documented for us in books like gibbons decline and follow the roman empire and they carved it up for themselves giving many of the lands that they they took over their names like the franks for instance and like the huns in hungary these independent nations formed the body politic if you want to call it that the political body of the christian roman empire they were under the influence heavily of the papacy and they were initially governed by the emperor in constantinople and in fact it's interesting because all these barbarian nations as they came in were very interested in in being accepted by the roman empire and so quite often on the back of the coins that they struck would be the head of the emperor of their day so they certainly were related to this this christian roman beast as we see it in the book of revelation so that's kind of what this beast is comprised of now

we find in the book of revelation that it's this beast that is to become the enemy of the saints much more perhaps than the the the pagan roman dragon was that preceded it we find in verse 5 that it was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and it had power to continue 42 months and we find that he opens his mouth in blasphemy against god to blaspheme his name his tabernacle and then the dwell in heaven now he equates to in daniel chapter 7 the little horn that arises that we also see speaking great things against the most high

so this mad speaking blasphemy or great things established itself in opposition to the seed of the woman our brethren and sisters and those who comprise the the second witness of the time really in the empire faced this this colossal political movement and were persecuted heavily by it the kingdoms of men versus the kingdom of god or the people of god now it was during the time of this beast that the emperor um

focus gave to boniface we'll read the slide there this boniface iii obtained from focus the prince of the apostolic throne the blessed apostle peter uh sorry let me read that again

boniface obtained from focus he was the emperor

the prince

sorry focus the prince you have to excuse me here we go focus the prince that the apostolic throne of the blessed apostle peter should be the head of all the churches and that decree gave them legally the right to basically lord themselves over all other religious groups christian religious groups in the empire it was a very significant decree because as a result of it the catholic church had the power to suppress legally other religions and so the papacy became head of all churches and it made use of this authority by putting to death our brothers and sisters because they refused to bow down and to worship it they spoke with the authority of god upon the earth they became christ's representative on earth as far as the state was concerned

and consequently they made war with the saints we read in revelation 13 verse 5

power was given unto him to continue 40

in two months and it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and power was given unto him over all kindreds tongues and nations so over those ten horn nations this beast had power and influence and again it equates with that little horn the same horn that made war with the saints and so brothers and sisters it's in this time period that there was open warfare with the people of god and of the system of europe and it was to last for a period of 1260 days and it equates with that little horn and we make that statement because we're looking at phases of it and this is where this phase plugs into

during the lifetime of this beast our brethren and sisters underwent horrific persecutions they're detailed for us in books like fox's book of martyrs and moore's martyrology reading from hebrews 11 it describes the age of the patriarchs of the forefathers but it also describes this age others were tortured not accepting deliverance if they had accepted deliverance if they had have recanted they would have been set free many of them but they did not accept deliverance they held fast to their faith that they might obtain a better resurrection and consequently they were put to death for their beliefs others had a trial of cruel mockings and scourgings a moreover of bonds and imprisonment this was the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent

they were stoned they were sown asunder they were tempted they were slain with the sword they wandered about in sheepskins and goat skins being destitute afflicted tormented and brethren sisters these people gave up their lives for the truth

we've got to ask ourselves

what would we be willing to give up for the truth

quite often our lives are so busy with the things of this world that we have a hard time finding time to do the readings or to get out to the bible class

are we worthy of association with these saints that went before

the world was not worthy of them continues hebrews 11 38 they wandered in deserts and mountains in dens and caves of the earth all these having obtained a good report through faith

they received not the promises god having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect and we've got to listen to those words of hebrews and think about our association with them what have we given up for the truth

what have we given up to belong to that class of people entitled to the description of the saints

well brothers and sisters this system was to last for 1260 days

using the day for a year principle that's outlined to us both in numbers and in ezekiel we realized that it's a period of 1260 years that begins in the area of or the time period of 606 with this decree that went forward and lasts for that twelve hundred and sixty years to basically the area of around 1866.

it was under the emperor or the french emperor napoleon and also garibaldi that the papacy lost its power to execute war against the saints and we thank our god that we live in a time where we're allowed to meet like this we're allowed to talk about these things without fear of persecution and the reason is because the time of her warfare over the saints by god's mercy to us has expired

but let's not become complacent because we live in a time where we do not have that kind of persecution the battle that we face the persecution we face is perhaps a little bit more dangerous than what they faced theirs was a battle of immediate life and death heirs is a much more subtle battle because we allow the world and all its influences to kill us slowly and so brother and sisters we do well to take heed to these people who went before us now when the trumpets had finally exhausted the eastern side of the roman empire would collapse and of course we know about the fact that that dragon area as it is described for us was transferred up to russia when the last niece of the last or the niece of the last tsar or caesar sorry of the byzantine empire married ivan iii she took with her the seal the crest and all the royal paraphernalia of the byzantine empire up with her to russia and so from that point forward the kings of russia were not called kings they were called czars

caesars the slavonic contraction of the word and so when we come to the book of revelation in chapter 16 in the future and we read about the dragon that hasn't been destroyed but simply thrown out of heaven it becomes to represent the nation of russia

well as those trumpets expire and as those barbarian nations became more powerful the christian roman empire

phased itself out in that sense it basically died a slow death until basically the goths and the different vandal nations overpowered it

and then introduced onto the scene

is the lamb-like creature that speaks as a dragon

we read in revelation chapter 13 i beheld another beast coming up out of the earth

and he has two horns like a lamb but when he speaks he speaks as a dragon he exercises all the power of the first beast before him and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed

and so brother and sisters this is the next phase that we're following through now we're trying not to spend too much time looking at these things was because we really want to look at europe as it is today and the developments in front of us but we want to give ourselves a frame of reference to how we get to today well this beast that's described for us has horns like a lamb which tells us that it has a christian veneer

it is a dragon in sheep's clothing in that sense it is false christianity that has become metamorphosized into one of these beasts

the dragon speaking mouth tells us what it's really like on the inside it has that roman element to it but at the same time it has the christian veneer a holy sort of countenance to it and so out of those two elements you have a holy roman empire that develops now it was under charlemagne who basically was called upon by the pope to come to italy and drive out the lombards that were basically causing some tribulation for his holiness now the lombards were named at with the meaning of their name is long beards and it's actually quite comical to read what brother thomas has to say about these long beards and how that the catholic church hated them so much that it became tradition among the catholics that they did not allow their followers to grow beards and so as you look across the catholic church and you wonder about where you know or you look at all their priests and and popes and whatever else you'll be very hard pressed to find somebody with a beard that's why i have one i just sort of like the idea anyway

the pope called upon charlemagne to rescue him so what charlemagne did was he came down into italy and he drove the lombards out and so charlemagne defeated them and became the patriarch or the protector of italy now some 26 years later when charlemagne came to the vatican for a ceremony on christmas day in the year 800

he was basically there kneeling before the pope for to have the mass and partake of the death cookie and whatever else and pope leo the third picked up the roman crown the iron crown and put it upon charlemagne's head and crowned him pronounced him to be the emperor of the holy roman empire now leo had absolutely no right to do this whatsoever it was from byzantium

from constantinople that the successors were supposed to be named so he took upon himself this authority and we can see the the growing of the the the power and the authority of the papacy and so the holy roman empire was born

the territory of this empire included basically much of france germany and italy it didn't surround the mediterranean sea like the the previous empire had the christian roman empire and so consequently it is depicted as being the beast that came from the earth because it came from the germanic french sort of area of of europe now it is a metamorphosis again of daniel's fourth beast and it was to continue the persecution of the saints and to live out that seed of the woman versus seed of the serpent narrative of the book it has that holy roman empire

characteristic about it now we read of this beast that it was to make fire come down from heaven in the sight or from heaven on the earth in the sight of men now this fire that was to come down from heaven came out of its dragon like mouth in that sense it was in heaven now we don't want to get confused and think now that we're talking about almighty god in heaven we're talking about the political heavens so the fire coming down

is judgments as fire is depicted in the in the bible coming down from the political heavens of the day now these judgments came in the form of edicts from the mouth of this dragon and it mobilizes the armies under its influence to carry out these decrees and a perfect example of these decrees is that of excommunication we read excommunication was the was a terrible weapon in the hands of the sovereign pontiff everyone fled with horror from him who had been struck by it the lords broke off all commerce with the king who had been excommunicated there hardly remained in his attendance with any attendance with with him to serve him and these threw all the fragments of his table into the fire rather than eat them it was a terrible time in that sense when excommunication was was sent forth you were completely and absolutely ostracized from the people around you you were cut off you could not deal in the society of the day you could not buy or sell if you were a king your subjects were no longer according to the papal decree they didn't have to follow what you said and so you were reduced to nothing

our brethren experience the fire of extra communication under this time because they refused to worship the beast

now charlemagne began this empire and his family really held on to it for about 70

years it was then transferred over to otto the first the german empire emperor around the year 962

and eventually the otto family passed on the empire to um the habsburg family that ruled it until napoleon came along now it was during the time of this beast of the earth the holy roman empire that it was to develop with it not separate to it but sort of in in con

can't think of the word in well anyway together with it there you go um during this this time the uh the image of the beast was to arise that we read of in revelation chapter 13.

verse 14

and this image of the beast is is set up we read verse 14 this this beast deceived them that dwell upon the earth by the means of the miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast saying unto them that dwell upon the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by the sword and yet all of a sudden is found to be alive again and this beast had power to give life to the image of the beast

that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast that they should be killed and so there is this this depiction of an image that's set up i wasn't quite sure how to depict that on on the slide before you so i kind of just dug the head of the last one and stuck it on a post because it's almost like an idol that is set up in the memory of the preceding beast the christian roman empire that's there before you and so it's something that is resurrected to the memory of now in daniel chapter four or chapter seven the fourth beast when we consider it again as we kind of look back there the finer details are given to it as to how it how it was to to move along and it's described as these ten horns but there is some narrative that takes place that we want to consider just for a few moments the fourth beast dreadful and terrible and strong and seedingly had ten horns

but three of those horns were to be plucked up we have seen what the ten horns represent three of them will be to be supplanted by this eighth little horn and these three were the lombards the huns and the vandals all of whom had a piece of rome at some point in time the vandals were an aryan nation by their religion they did not believe the trinity to the same degree and so they were plucked out by the forces of the emperor justinian around 554 a.d

the lombards ruled italy during the time of charlemagne and of course he came along and plucked them up and removed them from power around the year 800.

the huns who had established themselves in hungary were also plucked up by charlemagne's descendants and so we have basically by their removal the advent of this little horn daniel 7 verse 8 says i considered the horns and behold there came up among them another little horn before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots and behold in this horn there were eyes in the mouth speaking great things so once these three horns were plucked up which happened over a period of time they were replaced by this little horn that daniel talks about this little horn had eyes and a mouth and it spoke great things against the most high and it was to wear out the saints of the most high we read in daniel chapter 7 and verse 25.

this little horn was the catholic power of the holy roman empire as is depicted to us in revelation it was equivalent to the beast that came up out of the earth more specifically though there is the earthly kingdom of the papacy what we call the temporal power of the pope now it's interesting to note that the papal coronation crown has a triple t error on it three crowns one in the words of daniel perhaps for each of the horns that was plucked up before it and it's interesting that when the pope is crowned that is what is placed on his head a three crowned crown so that he basically takes over from those three horn nations now pep in the short the king of france gave basically in about 758 predecessor to charlemagne gave the uh the pope um

after the battling with the lombards who had taken control of italy he gave the pope three territories the area of rome ravenna and a portion of lombardy and they became known as the papal states now they were wrestled from him and charlemagne restored them to him and from this point the image or the replica of the christian roman empire carrying much of the same characteristics was established in rome and from here the pope ruled as a king he was not just a spiritual ruler at this point in time but he had become both a spiritual ruler and a literal king over the papal states he ruled with a rod of iron in that sense and not only that but his influence over the other people was very very strong

under pro pope gregory the the seventh around the year 1073

the papacy sovereign over its own territories now reached the point in history where no longer was it looking for the emperors for support and sort of sometimes the popes were actually chosen by the emperors but now the papacy appointed internally its own popes

without reference to the emperor whatsoever

the emperor

and the kings of the earth

instead of requiring or influencing the papacy in the decision who would become pope they now had to go to the papacy in order to gain um

the allegiance of their people because they required the pope to crown them in all an order basically to be authentic as rulers on their thrones and this is really the point in which the image of this beast becomes powerful now the reason we've run through these things and there's a lot of history that we could talk about there is tons and tons and tons of reams of it because we've just basically taken a jump from the year 300 almost right up to about 1850 as far as the area which this this system covers and we're not going to spend our time to go into it individually suffice it to say that it's under this power that the greatest and the most horrific persecutions of god's people have taken place of our brethren and sisters and are detailed for us in books like the brethren in christ and in the protesters by our brother alan ayer what we want to do is just see that through this transition

europe became a center of the christian or i should say the catholic religion and its influence pervaded all levels of society it was built upon the same structure as the roman empire the papacy was there is

an image to the wounded beast we are told was created

in other words

what we are looking at in the papal states and in the vatican as it exists today even is basically a replica of the roman empire

they are structured the same way

we read from the mcgraw-hill encyclopedia illustrated world history it was truly roman in its structure talking about the catholic church the hierarchy of pope archdiocese diocese and parish was in the tradition of diocletian's imperial reorganization within the episcopal system the sea of rome enjoyed a special authority the roman church was accepted as first amongst equals now what that basically is telling us to telling to us is that remember when we went back at the very beginning with the dragon we talked about the fact that it had seven heads and each of those seven heads were systems of government and we found that the sixth head was to disappear

and that was the imperial head where the the caesar was supreme but it was to be resurrected what we're looking at in the papacy is the same structure as was there back in the time of the roman dragon it is the same

framework that has been resurrected it is an image to the same beast that already existed it's modeled after it's depicting the same thing and history and this is not christodolphians writing this history tells us well you look at the one you look at the other the same thing and that's important for us to understand

well we read further that as many as would not worship the image of the beast were to be killed and he caused all both small and great rich and poor to receive the mark of or to receive a mark in their right hand and in or in their forehead that no man might buy or sell say that he had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name and he goes on to tell us it's the number of the man as the original would really have it with a definite article there and his number is 666

so this image is related to the sign of the beast the 666 in the forehead and we have to stop and ask well what does that mean well he tells us what it means that number is the number of and the definite article is there in the book of revelation in the original greek it's the number of the man

what is the man of the book of revelation well it's the man child of chapter 12 it's the man of sin of second thessalonians so what is being forced upon the people of europe at this point in time amongst which their brethren list lived was basically the doctrines of constantine and the man of sin that would arise that was the mark of the beast that is to go into their forehead a terrific study sometime to go into that is very exciting is a comparison between the mark of the beast and the seal of god in their foreheads it's not some visa card thing or a upc symbol that when you go through the grocery store you put your wrist there or your forehead on the thing and scan it in it doesn't represent that we've got to look at it in in the real greater symbols of the the apocalypse these two things you've got the seed of the woman the seed of the serpent you've got the mark of the or the seal of god and the mark of the beast

the seal of god is the character of god in your forehead in your mind and in your hand in that sense in your works in your heart

the image or the the mark of the beast is the doctrine the character the thinking of that catholic system in your forehead and in your hand in your works now it's interesting that it's the trinitarian cross

the symbol of christianity as we know it and the trinity is the chief doctrine of christianity the ecumenical doctrine that forms the basis of the catholic religion

we read here from a book on new catholicism this is not this is something that they're proud of by the way this is written by a catholic in the catholic church and the other christian churches the sign of the cross is an important part of personal and public prayer it is the first sign made on us at baptism which incidentally is made in the forehead of the child it is the last sign made on us as we depart to the future life which incidentally is also made on the forehead it is a vital part of the liturgical prayers and the sacraments with the sign of the cross we begin and end our prayers we call it a blessing we say bless ourselves which i found rather interesting but anyway bless ourselves tracing with our hand the figure of the cross on our forehead on our breast and on our shoulders tracing this holy sign on our forehead our hearts and our shoulders we remember that we are blessed in mind and heart and all our being or we could rephrase that to saying we are corrupted in mind and heart and all our being with the trinitarian catholic doctrine that pervades the entire christian world around us there are very few denominations that do not believe in the trinity and christodolphians and their brethren throughout the ages have stood against this that's why many evangelical tv and radio stations will not allow us to participate they will not air our programs we have found that in california and ontario because we do not hold to the doctrine of the trinity

well these three points basically of the cross that are made on the forehead and the right side and over the the heart in that sense that trinitarian doctrine was what was impressed on the people and if they refused to go with the line of the church during this time they were put to death they could not operate at all within the empire that they lived

and so brothers and sisters we have followed through the story of the book of revelation in preparation really for what we're going to talk about next

in the next couple of classes throughout the week we have looked at the dragon that first of all existed and basically ended up being in constantinople or byzantine and eventually moved up to russia we have talked about the beast of the sea that christian roman empire that developed and basically incorporated much of europe and north africa we've talked about the beast of the earth that holy roman empire that developed and basically gave life to that image of the beast signifying the vatican and and the area of the pope's temporal power we have followed the metamorphosis of daniel's fourth beast throughout the book of revelation we have seen the arise of the political power of the apostasy from the first century ecclesia to present times recent times this system has stood in opposition to god's people it has murdered and crucified and destroyed the saints throughout the ages it is drunk with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of jesus

this overview has been necessary for us to see the current phase that we're going to be looking at during the next three classes see the beast as it is today because i believe as brother stephen said that it is one of the most incredible signs to us as christodolphians that our god has given us to the nearness of the return of the lord jesus christ this earth what we see going on in europe right now is incredible and we have to get a perspective of it because it will help us remove our affections from the fleeting present and not see this life as something that's going to last

but see the finger of god has indicated a course for the kingdoms of this world to bring them into cataclysmic

destruction

and that his saints will be rescued out of it we pray our god that we would be able to see these things withdraw ourselves from the world and prepare for the return of the lord jesus christ

Transcript

our first speaker this morning is our brother jonathan bowen of the brantford ontario canada ecclesia

the theme for brother jonathan's classes this week is the lamb shall overcome them

today's class is entitled the wine of her fornication brother bowen

well good morning brother and sisters as we consider this morning's class it's going to be a very serious discussion that we're going to engage in we don't take lightly the responsibility for saying what we do this morning we ask for your careful attention to examine the evidence that we're going to lay before you for what is going to be said

we read in first of john chapter 3 in the 12th verse that there was cain who was of that wicked one and he slew his brother and we are told wherefore slew he him

because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous marvel not my brethren if the world hates you and the catholic church has stood in opposition to the brethren and sisters that are of the lord jesus christ throughout the ages as it also does with us and we should not be surprised if the world hates god's doctrine and those who who hold it

yesterday we examined the two phases of the beast of the earth and the image of the beast which was to arise at the same time we highlighted the little horn which had the eyes and the mouth and it was during this time that the image of the beast was to be set up this was the age of the holy roman empire called in secular history the dark ages when the papacy ruled europe with an iron fist during this time persecution was severe for those who refused to worship the beast

and it was at this time brother and sisters that through the mercy of god the reformation broke forth small lights of truth dotted the historical horizon during this time and they led the way for the dawning of the reformation and it is the reformation that has given us the bible you have in front of you today and it is out of this period that we can also glean some serious warnings for us

in the 14th century a reformer named john wycliffe translated the bible into english copies of his translation were hand copied and distributed around 1382.

this was the first translation done in over a thousand years in the native tongue of the people who were to receive it once people read they became enlightened as to the real character of the papacy the lollards who were wycliffe's followers called the poor preachers were inspired by the book of revelation and by the words we have read about the coming antichrist and first of john wycliffe was fully aware of the teachings of the bible

he makes the correspondence between the little horn of daniel's fourth beast and sees its role with the saints and he says in in one of his writings on the truth of the holy scripture why is it necessary in unbelief to look for another antichrist in the seventh chapter of daniel antichrist is forcefully described as the horn rising in the same time of the fourth kingdom for it grew from among our powerful ones more horrible more cruel and more greedy the horn had arisen from among ten horns having eyes and a mouth speaking great things against the lofty one and wearing out the saints of the most high and thinking that he is able to change times and laws now wycliffe says that his followers at that time of them he says for so do our people see the lord pope as it is said of that eighth blaspheming little horn or that little head and so vehemently was wyclef and his followers hated that 40 years after wyclef died the pope ordered his bones to be exhumed and burnt

the intense persecution that was to follow wycliffe and to try and stamp out his teaching and eradicate those who who followed him was to spread throughout england

wyclef was later followed by a man named erasmus erasmus was a roman catholic priest now he opened the gate to the translation of the bible by using the original greek manuscripts to translate a copy of the new testament into english or certain english into latin initially his work was only effective for the clergys they were the ones who could read latin but it sparked the spirit of biblical thought amongst some of these clergy and some of the priests of the church began to question the foundation of the system that they belonged to during this time one such man was the reformer martin luther he was a priest who really looked hard at the situation that faced them he began to promote what he believed to be the true gospel message found within the bible neglected for so long he was disgusted with the practices of the church such as the gathering of indulgences and when john tetzel came through with his his train of indulgences selling forgiveness of sins luther saw the hypocrisy in it tessa was approached by a man who basically asked him if he could he could buy an indulgence forgiveness of a sin that he had yet to commit and so they negotiated out a price the one offers 30 the other one says 20 and they saw it for 25 and he's sold that he can have his sin forgiven for 25 dollars tessel goes his way and the man goes his way and then we find out that as tetzel leaves that city with his box of indulgences and all the money that he's collected from the poor unsuspecting unsuspecting suspects that this man robs tetzel and takes from him the money that he had sold this indulgence to him plus all the other money he had made when brought before court of law he was asked if he was the one who had indeed done this deed to which he replied yes i am but i have my indulgence i have already been forgiven for the sin that i have committed

martin luther saw that as absolute hypocrisy and incidentally the man was let go

martin luther saw that as hypocrisy and different things like it and began to preach justification by faith a novel idea for the time that he lived in and he nailed his 95 theses or points of contention to the doors of the castle church in wittenberg

martin luther also wanted the common man to be able to read the bible for himself he translated it into german and set off the reformation in the european arena one of the first translations that was made again in the native tongue of the people of europe this is luther's own bible that is depicted here and it still exists today

luther was also aware of the teachings of the book of revelation and of first john and of thessalonians he says that we are to beware of false prophets which come unto you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves he continues on that it is now well a thousand years that this passage has been perverted by false christians he purports so that we have no power to judge but to accept what the pope and his councils determine without any judgment of our own now this gospel here overthrows the very foundation of potpourri and all councils for we are not bound to keep what the pope commands and what men decree therefore i say again firmly grasp what the gospel teaches for the authority has never been given either to the pope or councils or anyone else to sit and determine what is faith for christ says beware of false prophets

either the gospel lies or the pope and his counsels do and that was written in 1522 it's taken for one of luther's notes from one of his sermons

he also identified the antichrist we read about in first john he says this teaching forcefully shows that the pope is the very antichrist who has exalted himself above and opposed himself against christ because he will not permiss permit christians to be saved without the power which nevertheless is nothing and is neither ordained nor commanded by god the pope urges and disseminates his papal falsehoods concerning masses purgatory and monastic life one's own works and the fictitious divine worship for this is the very papacy upon each of which the papacy is altogether founded and is standing and he condemns murders and tortures all christians who do not exalt and honor those abominations of the pope above all things these men had their bibles in hand and were able to identify this system they make up part of the two witnesses that we read of in the book of revelation they were not necessarily believers of the true gospel in its full extent but they saw certainly the way the bible identifies the system

william tyndale was inspired by martin luther he saw what was going on in germany he himself being a cleric and picked up on these things he was introduced into by to luther's work and wanted to replicate the effect in england he undertook his life's mission as to translate the bible into common english so that the plowman would be able to read it for himself with the advent of the first printing presses the bible was able to be mass produced instead of hand copied this was done in germany to avoid persecution and when the light of the scriptures revived the reformation in england intense persecutions came upon the people

tyndale also used the tool of prophecy to identify rome the bishop of rome he says made a law of his own a ruler to rule his church by and to put christ out of the way all the bishops he says forswear unto the bishop of rome must swear unto the bishop of rome all the curates and the bishops all accurate sorry unto the bishops but all of them for swear christ and his doctrine he says now though the bishop of rome and the sex give christ these names yet in that they take from him the effect and take the signification of these names unto themselves and make him but a hypocrite as they themselves be he identifies them as being the right antichrist that divine the deny both the father and the son he identifies this harlot system out of the book of revelation and he taught the followers that were to come to him to come out of her my people and be not partakers of her sins and god used this man to provide to us the bible we have in front of it in front of us because his work was the nemesis or the basis for the king james version

tyndale was vigorously opposed by the mother church and by men such as sir thomas moore

he produced his bibles in germany as we have mentioned to avoid persecution when those bibles were found they were burnt by the church the catholic church he smuggled them back into england and this fanned the fames of the flames of the reformation when tyndale was eventually caught he was imprisoned and later he was burned at the stake that catholic church indeed has earned the description of being drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of jesus but it was this man that was responsible by the the providence of almighty god to deliver us the word that we have in our in our native tongue today

now there is evidence in your bible if you have a king james version in the front of it in the preface there is evidence of the understanding of the translators of the day we read there in the preface that by writing in defense of the truth this has given such a blow to the man of sin that he will not be healed and they identified the roman catholic church as the man of sin and this was the grounds under which the english protestant churches broke with the church of rome

popular history paints it as being the issue of divorce and remarriage with henry viii that was a symptom of the cause the real issue was the right of men to interpret and to read the bible for themselves the authority of the scriptures versus the authority of the papacy and this is identified to us in the beginning of the preface of the king james version

the bible states that we have a more sure word of prophecy where until we do well to take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place in second peter chapter 1 and the 19th verse well those of that time used this light that shone in the dark ages a very dark place to identify what was going on around them

bishop newton who writes on the antichrist has this to say when papal doctrine and the papal authority prevailed over all it was natural to think and expect that the true notion of antichrist would be stifled and that the doctors of the church would endeavor to give another turn an interpretation to this passage the night of ignorance was so thick and dark that there were hardly here or there a single star to be seen in the whole hemisphere but no sooner as there was any glimmering or dawning of the reformation then the true notion of antichrist which had been so long suppressed broke out again the wall densities and albigenses written off by our brother alan air and the protesters and brethren in christ propagated the same opinions in the same century that the pope was antichrist was indeed the general doctrine of the first reformers everywhere here in england it was advanced by wycliffe now brothers and sisters we want to see that for what it is when the bible was not available when the word of god was not available the papacy was not identified as the antichrist because people did not have the keys to do that but no sooner as the word of god was available the people began to read from its pages and they identified the forbidding of marriage they identified the commanding to abstain from meats they identified calling no man father they saw the papacy for what it was and so the fight that was wrestled with their brother and sisters was not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places wherefore we are told to take unto us the whole armor of god that we may be able to withstand in the evil day in having done all to stand as ephesians 6 verses 12 to 13 tells us now our brethren lived among the reformers of that day they were embroiled in a conflict against spiritual wickedness in high places that conflict brother and sisters has not ended

during the reformation the catholic church responded by introducing the counter-reformation which consisted of two phases the first part was to destroy what it called as the heretics

this is backed up by the book of daniel chapter 7 verses 21 to 22 where it identifies that this would take place i beheld the same horn make war with the saints and prevailed against them until the ancient of days came and judgment was given to the saints at the most high this was to prevail until that point in time and we have identified in our previous class that that little horn existed during this time

revelation chapter 17 and verse 6 tells us that the apostle john saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints the true believers and with the blood of the martyrs of jesus those who were christians and protested against catholicism but perhaps did not hold the truth in its purity the two witnesses and when he saw her he wondered with great admiration

and so brother and sisters it is throughout this age that we have the testimony of history the inquisition was launched against the people who believed in god's word their crimes were very simple they learned the lord's prayer by heart they perhaps owned a bible or read one they recited passages of scripture they taught the gospel these people were brought before the councils of the jesuit inquisitors to have their punishments meted out

those punishments and that system which was to hunt them out is identified for us and their own history dictates the way in which they operated

the jesuits were founded by ignatius loyola they were the shocked troops of the church who were to carry out the inquisition

we read here from the jesuit oath i do further promise and declare that i will when opportunity presents make and wage relentless war now notice this because we're going to come back to this secretly or openly and against all heretics protestants and liberals as i am directed to do if we lived in that day and age it would include us that i will extirpate and exterminate them from the face of the whole earth i will spare neither sex age nor condition i will hang waste boil flay strangle burn alive these infamous heretics rip up the stomachs and the wombs of their women and crush their infants heads against the wall in order in order to annihilate forever their excretable race that when the same cannot be done openly i will secretly using the poison cop the strangulation court the steel of the point yards the lead and bullets regardless of the honor rank dignity or authority of the person or persons whatsoever may have their condition in life either public or private as at any time may be directed so to do by any agent of the pope or superior of the brother of the holy or brotherhood of the holy faith or of the secret or the society of the jesuits

that is the current oath of the jesuits it has not changed that is taken from 1843 we're not talking about back in the 1600s

now brother ron abel during the 1970s was on a radio or a television show with a catholic priest and one of the statements that was made during that show by the catholic priest was that if he had the opportunity he would do the same thing to the christodolphians today

and so brothers and sisters this is the system against which we face

the jesuits were determined to eradicate the word of god they wanted to remove the identity that might be placed upon themselves by the prophecies contained within god's words and so they burn the bibles both of the jews and of the reformers to eradicate any of this this writing that might point the finger to them

when this did not significantly work they burned the reformers themselves and history is full of the accounts of those who love not their lives to the death as we examined yesterday the different tortures and the different things that they were subjected to for simply holding the truth as it is in christ jesus and so brothers and sisters we really have to consider these things and put them in the light of what the book of revelation says that this is the way it would be and that ultimately the lord jesus christ will return and crush the head of this serpent power

one of the most famous of these persecutions is that of the massacre of the huguenots of france on saint bartholomew's day rollins as we mentioned who wrote the ancient history from which we looked at cyrus the persian the other day was a huguenot in france

we read by our brother thomas writes about this in helpers israel he says now it is the saints who refuse to adore the imperial roman image or the eyes and mouth of the little horn and who have not the sign of the cross upon their foreheads or in their right hands these are the parties who the image has caused war to be made upon and who have been prevailed against and killed with all attended enormities and promiscuous massacre the slaughter of the albagencies of the vados in the valley of the pibunti's mountains in the 13th and 15th centuries of the huguenots on saint bartholomew's day at the revocation of the edict of nance the dragon age the drownings the instances of cruelties inflicted upon the saints by the roaring lion of the eternal city the spirit the book of revelation the bible denounces it as drunk with the blood of the saints because it stirred up the secular powers to murder and massacre the opponents of romanism and the advocates of human rights as it caused the saints to be killed and become so died in wickedness and steeped in crime that its iniquity hath at last to reach unto heaven and the burning flame of war is consuming and destroying it until the end and he makes reference there of the french revolution that massacre brethren sisters was not something that took place by a bunch of zealots slightly misguided

it was celebrated by the catholic church by the coin that you see before you struck to commemorate it

now my brother thomas goes on to say the apocalypse was given to the end that the servants of the deity who are keeping their garments might be able to discern the signs of the times preceding the apocalypse of christ and the real nature of things extent in their several generations no believer as we mentioned earlier understanding this prophecy could be seduced into fellowship with the clerical institutions of this world because he would see them in all their native deformity and sin and so that is what the book is there for us to do to open it to read its pages and see what is before us we should be able today to determine the real nature of what exists in the world and not be fooled by it

well the reformation or sorry say the counter reformation the first part of the inquisition did not significantly work it was not effective enough to stamp out the teachings of the reformers so a second approach was taken to undermine the teachings of the reformation especially especially the prophetic identification of the church of rome

the jesuit oath continues i do further promise and declare that notwithstanding i am dispensed to assume any heretical religion for the propagating of the mother church's interests to keep secret and private all her agents councils from time to time as they may instruct me and not to default directly or indirectly by word or writing or circumstances whatever but to execute all that should be proposed given in charged or discovered unto me by you my ghostly father now this is historical documentation of the intent of the jesuit movement to infiltrate the protestant religions for the purpose of spreading papal doctrine

in the prelude to the jesuit oath we are told exactly how that would take place

the jesuit to be was instructed my son heretofore you have been taught to act as a dissembler among the reformers to be a reformer among the huguenots to be a huguenot among the calvinists a calvinist among the protestants generally to be a protestant obtaining their confidence you have been taught your duty as a spy

to gather all statistics facts and information in your power from every source to integrate yourself in with into the confidence of the family circle of protestants as well as the merchants bankers lawyers among the schools and the universities in the parliaments and legislatures and in the judiciaries and councils of state and to all things to all be all sorry to be all things to all men for the pope's sake whose servants you are unto death

this is their

history this is their writings this is their oath this is not some fanciful conspiracy theory that we have made up to present before you it's history

and so brother and sister is to carry out that plan in the 1600s in the year 1580

the jesuits began a series of writings

the the jesuit franciscan ribeira in 1537 to 1591 where he lived was the first one to revive an undeveloped form of futurism around 1580

it says that futurism made virtually no headway in the protestant community until about the 1820s through the church of england the scholar maitland was to bring it in in the late 20s futurism began to gain converts and to grow in the british isles often motivated by revived interest in god's plan for israel during which time it gained one of the most influential converts john nelson darby and if anybody has the darby bible in front of you and the notes of the nelson bible then that is um where basically a lot of these things will be found in your in your margins though darby and other brethren expositors are sorry through darby and other brethren expositors futurism spread to america and throughout the evangelical world the last 100 years have seen for the first time the full demand development of consistent futurism this has led to the in turn to the formulation of dispensationalism and a clearer understanding of the pre-tribulational rapture of the church now this is written by a christian writer who is talking about the rapture and where the idea of the rapture of second these are first thessalonians 4

came from and he says it came its roots were in the jesuits writings who put forward a futuristic interpretation of the book of revelation belief in the book of revelation could not be applied to the catholic church if its interpretation was to be found in the future

we continue to read that at the time of the reformation the early protestants widely held and were convinced the pope was the supreme individual embodiment and personification of the spirit of antichrist and the roman church the harlot system of revelation 17. this understanding was responsible for bringing bringing millions of believers out of the roman catholic religious system it therefore became expedient for certain roman theologians to turn the attention of the people away from the papacy and this the endeavor to do by inventing a counter interpretation to be held by the protestants or sorry than that held by protestants this new scheme of prophetic interpretation became known as futurism rather than viewing the drama of the book of revelation spiritually and historically what we would term today the continuous historical interpretation of the book of revelation they would consign it to a brief period of time at the end of the age it was the jesuit priest named ribeira who in the days of the reformation first taught that all the events of the book of revelation were to take place literally during a three and a half year reign of antichrist way down at the end of the age and he laid the foundation for the secret rapture idea their goal is outlined to us of pointing the finger away from the catholic

church in the interpretation of the book now the jesuits did this by cunning

they conspired

to get their book into the protestant movement one of the men following ribeira was lucanza he was also a jesuit priest he built on ribeira's teachings and spent much of his life writing his book that's the title page of one of his the books here this is the one by ribera

the coming of messiah in glory and majesty was the book that lucanza wrote he wrote it under the assumed name of rabbi ben ezra supposedly a learned jew who accepted christ as his savior with jesuit cunning says this writer he conspired to get his book a hearing in the protestant world they would not permit in their home something coming from a jesuit pen but the earnest work of a converted jew perhaps would be something that they would devour and that's exactly what happened so these jesuits dressed themselves in sheep's clothing according to their oaks they acted as dissembler to go into the protestant movements and to spread their doctrines well that was the one view the futurist view that the book of revelation all occurs way down at the end of time the other one is the praetorist view another jesuit from seville alcazar who the title page of his book is depicted here it says in 1614 alcazar made a new attempt to interpret the apocalypse through the use of critical historical methods he concluded that the apocalypse described the two-fold war of the church in the first century one with the jewish synagogue and the other with paganism which resulted in the victory over both adversaries now he basically writes these things saying that the book of revelation is to do with 80 70 and the events around that time before it was even written from a from a historical point of view and so pointing the finger away from the catholic church the jesuits in a period cartoon and this none of this is christodolphian writing there's nothing that i've made up it's just books that talk about the subject

i've depicted for you the jesuits of ribeira who basically are pointing to the future and saying no no no no the interpretation of the book of revelation is way down the round towards the end of time and on the other hand you have the jesuits of alcazar pointing to the back saying no no no no the book of revelation is already being completed it is fulfilled back in the time of the jews and standing to witness against them we have the writers of the day we have wycliffe tyndale luther calvin sir isaac newton gratton guinness elliot dr keith alexander hissam and we could add to that brother thomas brother roberts brothers c.c walkers and our brethren sisters of the earlier christian dolphin ecclesia they identified by the use of of revelation chapter 17 revelation chapter 12 2nd thessalonians 2 and daniel chapter 7 and 8 where the papacy fit into the identity of the scriptures

now if that seems a little bit too cloak and dagger for you if that seems a little bit too fanciful that this is just a bunch of zealot christians evangelicals who who sort of have gone a little bit too far in their identification let's listen to what

reverend cece martindale a jesuit priest himself writing in the catholic true society publication has to say he says today we think there is no danger of anybody supposing that the visions of the apocalypse are meant to represent a series of historical events succeeding one another chronologically the continuous historical point of view why

well he says the real renaissance of scientific study of the book took place in spain in the 16th century

the jesuits themselves were largely responsible for it especially alcazar and mariana about the same time the jesuits will tell you the reason you do not look out in the protestant world around you and see that these things are interpreted the way they used to be is because we came up with better ideas back in the 16th century

i realize you might not be able to read this slide but i just like to pick out a couple of things from it this is a book by a man named dennis priebe the final verdict he says so great to hold that the conviction of the papacy was the antichrist gain upon the minds of men that rome at last saw she must bestow herself and try by putting forth other systems of interpretation to counter the identification of the papacy with the antichrist toward the close of the century of the reformation two of the most learned doctors set themselves to the task each endeavoring by different means one free futurist one preacherist to accomplish the same ends alcazar and ribeira

and he goes on to say that the futurist system uh which asserts that these prophecies refer properly not to the career of the papacy but to some future supernatural individual who's yet to appear he says it is a matter of deep regret that those who advocate the futurist system at its present day protestants as they are for the most part are really playing into the hands of rome and helping to screen the papacy from detection as the antichrist

and so brother and sisters the protestant world has become drunk with the wine of her fornication of the interpretation of the jesuits the catholic church when it comes to understanding the book of revelation no longer do the bulk of them identify the church as the antagonist of the book the enemy of the saints no longer are they able to discern who she is and so consequently we see them going back to rome in droves

we read or we see that in the

protestant world

and headed up figuratively by the church of england which is one of the first to really break away we see that lull to sleep by the intoxicating effects of the roman catholic doctrine the church of england supposedly protestant has been moving away from the protestant interpretation of the book to a reunion with the papacy just a couple of weeks ago there was a conference held in toronto where the bishops of both the catholic and the church of england churches got together to discuss steps for unity here we see anglican priests falling down prostrate in conversion to join the church of rome we've seen queen elizabeth ii the head of the anglican church the supposed defender of the protestant faith cozying up to the catholics to cardinal hume at a service in in rome or not in rome sorry in england and it's interesting to note that they should both be dressed in

red

billy graham one of the leading protestant

heads of this country

we read from one of the southern baptist christians david cloud of the christian news says graham more than any other single person is responsible for leading the evangelical community into a more cozy relationship with the church of rome he has failed to warn of the terrible and unbiblical doctrines of rome graham sees no problem in having spiritual fellowship with the roman catholic church and since his influence is very great among the evangelicals is any wonder that many have followed his lead

now billy graham in 1967

received an honorary catholic degree making him an honorary catholic priest and this is what he had to say in 1983

when he visited vancouver british columbia the pope he says is almost an evangelist i tell you that that was just about a straight and evangelical address as i'd ever heard it was tremendous

what would tyndale and wycliffe and luther have thought about a statement like that

he goes on to say in the fine print there that finally the way of the salvation has not changed i know how the ending of the book will be the gospel that built this school the catholic school he received his doctrine at the gospel that brings me here tonight is the way of salvation

going back to the church of rome

and so another christian concerned about these things writes in a book called selling out to the pope the doctrine is of no longer prime importance to many evangelicals emphasis has shifted in recent years to a shared experience and we've probably all heard that haven't we as we try to preach the truth people don't want to know well i've got jesus in my heart what does it matter a shared experience has become a common ground for fellowship rather than common doctrinal convictions everybody that loved jesus should get together without regard of doctrine doctrinal distinctions evangelicalism as a whole has been stricken with a bad case of the warm fuzzies he says if the roman catholic loves jesus then i should embrace him as my brother in christ this is the common view of many and brothers and sisters we never want to fall into the danger of those things

and so we asked then do we see the protestant world protesting anymore the word protestant comes from the word to protest against protest against what against the catholic church the reformation where they came from gave them this insight to do so so we look at the modern interpreters of revelation from the protestant world and we find one hal lindsey he says no get me wrong he says i've got a few theological differences with the pope but john paul ii is in my opinion a truly devout person who claims a personal relationship with jesus christ and that is the basis on which we can cozy up to the roman catholic church in this man's opinion what would those who have given their lives during the reformation think about this the souls from under the altar that cry out how long o lord holy and true this thou not judge and avenge us

one of the last of the two witnesses i guess you could say that that exists is the man um ian paisley he is the leader of the protestant religion in northern ireland he says the light of god's world at the reformation dispelled the black midnight of popery millions of souls thus escaped from the dungeons of papal priestcraft in order to regain or sorry in order to regain her vice-like grip on europe rome has launched the great counter reformation the main object was to undermine the belief of the reformed churches in the bible which had sorry upon which they had been successfully and gloriously founded

in order to do this he says rome planted her emissaries in the schools where the leaders and teachers of these denominations were trained and that brother and sisters is true i went to a mennonite church in british columbia and the company i worked for was a newspaper and we were doing an advertising section on this church and i volunteered to go because i really wanted to go and see what was in the library of this preacher so we went into his library and we looked across the shelves and i said to him i said i don't see any mennonite books here they're all ivps undervan they're all sort of just your standard christian baptist kind of works and he said oh well he says i'm not a i was never a mennonite he says i just went to college and these guys offered me the job and so that's the way in which the world today is turning it's just a religion that becomes a business so he goes on to say that these people try to have the bible viewed as myth and fable which is true you ask many of your christian associates and they will tell you the book of genesis the the account of genesis and the the creation is not literal it's mythology you can't take it literally that's why there's room for evolution he goes on to say that rome soon had the streams which ran down to the grassroots of protestantism poisoned at their source the jesuit top professors soon became the acknowledged leaders of the reformed churches and he's making specific mention there of billy graham he goes on to say then started the many pilgrimages back to rome until today the leaders of the now apostate reform churches are tripping over one another to slobber upon the pope's slippers as he would put it and so brother and sisters we see there is a grand movement across the reformation we have heard just very recently in the news

of the lutheran church making this great statement of having reconciled itself to the catholic church oh sure there's a few little details to work out but they are now reconciled one to the other can you imagine what luther would have done he'd be at the world conference of the lutherans hammering his theses on their doors i mean brothers and sisters this is the reality of what is taking place

but we have to ask the question are we as christodolphians immune from these things let's not sit back with an attitude of smugness and think that we are because the bible tells us that there shall be false christs and false prophets that shall show great signs and wonders in as much if it were possible they would deceive the very elect and that brother and sisters is us so we have to do some self examination in the light of the evidence that we've set forth before you historical documented evidence and when we turn to some of our own works

we find the christadolphian magazine and i'm making no comment here on the quality of the christadolphian magazine just purely the fact that it used to have the words in opposition to dot the dogmas of papal and protestant christendom put upon the front of its pages that was the character of the early christodolphians that's the way they stood they were in opposition to these things and they had no qualms about saying it their lectures from their billboards in the newspapers all stated the same things and yet today we seem to have moved from an open opposition to perhaps a quiet disapproval of the catholic and protestant communities our community has been guilty of politically correcting its witness let's take for example instance him 244

zion's king shall reign victorious in the old hymn book it used to say in the the third verse or a second verse actually see all papal idols falling worshipped once but now aboard

now it reads see all worldly idols falling and so we have edited out the identity of the catholic church from our hymnbook

it is a removal of our witness

brother thomas was fully aware of the writings of these jesuits in the preface to volume 3 of eureka he says ribeira and alcazar were spanish jesuits who sought to expand the apocalypse so as to deliver the papacy from the identity of any identification with its symbols the true meaning of the apocalypse is accessible only to the brethren of christ who follow and are sorry in the fellow servants of the apostle who keep the sayings of the book all others will prove but vain and fanciful theorists who the secrets of the deity are never to be found with now sadly today we're not quite so enlightened during the 1960s and 70s these same ideas were introduced into our own brotherhood during a wave of popular interpretation and they carried the same effect of pointing the finger away from the catholic church we'd like you to consider the next slide from a purely objective point of view

based on the evidence that we've set before you

we have a new series of writers who have put forth what they call new ideas on the book of revelation the evidence would suggest that these are not really new ideas at all

we have attention pointed away from the catholic church we have praetorist ideas which would tell us basically that the harlot of the book of revelation must represent israel and that attention can be coaxed away from rome to jerusalem the end result is that a statement is made that at least the pope honors christ

could we say that brothers and sisters to our brethren and sisters when they are raised from the dead who lost their lives who had their children's heads crushed against the walls that the pope honors christ

we read of the futuristic ideas the possible connection is between israel and the harlot system of the last days

not the vatican so the hope of israel now becomes a hope of seeing her destroyed as the book of revelation would indicate to us an israeli beast the seed of the woman will inflict the death moon upon a jewish serpent

and so brother and sisters will the jesuits conquer our community have we unwittingly taken in some of their doctrines we have to do some self-examination on this

the warning remains to us come out of her my people that she be not partakers of her sins that she received not of her plagues for or she says therefore shall her plagues come in one day what are her plagues death mourning and famine and she shall be utterly burned with fire it is necessary brethren and sisters that we identify who she is because this chapter is talking about the time period in which we live and we are invited to come out of her we can only do that by identifying who she truly is

we need to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints we need to identify using the book of revelation the system that faces us in the world today

and hopefully tomorrow we will continue to look at the arising of this system the last phase of the metamorphosis of daniel's fourth beast the phase that is arising today before our very eyes and god willing we hope to see it as it arises from the abyss the abyss of of history ready to make war with the saints may it be brethren sisters that we are accounted worthy to be amongst those who shall go with the lord jesus christ to follow him in white horses in heaven the political heavens that we might be entitled to that description of being those that are with with him who are called and faithful and chosen

Transcript

our first speaker this morning is our brother jonathan bowen of the brantford ontario ecclesia

he is speaking to us on the theme

the lamb shall overcome them and today's class is entitled these shall give their power unto the beast brother bone

well good morning brother and sisters just to uh by way of announcement mention that there are plenty of notes at the back now there have been extras run off and for the preceding classes there are some extras left over of those also

we've been examining the beasts of the earth and the image of the beast in the last class or so and looking at the the development of these well brothers and sisters to me this is where things begin to get really exciting because it brings us into the time period that we currently live in we now move our attention to the vials of wrath these are the judgments of god upon these two systems and again we'd like to remember that the plot line of the book of revelation is the seed of the woman in opposition to or an enmity between the seed of the serpent

not going to attempt to do an in-depth study of the vials by any stretch of the imagination we just simply want to highlight a few aspects that help us focus on the metamorphosis of daniel's fourth beast through the book of revelation that will bring us to the current events of today

the vials of roth are god's judgments as we have mentioned and they are carried out predominantly by the man napoleon and the french revolution they were the main agents of this this judgment that was poured out the revolution began in france with the storming of the bastille around 18 or 1789 about 210 years ago this revolution was taken through europe by napoleon who was used to pour out these judgments of god upon the system that persecuted our brethren and sisters

at the height of his conquest napoleon conquered almost all of europe he dissolved the holy roman empire and took from the austrian king the title of emperor for himself so putting an end to the holy roman empire he toppled most of the crown heads of europe replaced them with rulers of his own most of which were his family and friends

and he brought judgments upon those specific nations such as spain who had through ferdinand and isabella supported the spanish inquisitions and some of the hideous crimes against the people of god and against the jews

now during the fifth vial period napoleon advanced on rome itself he took over the papal states and made pope pius the seventh prisoner and moved him to france

this move that napoleon made began the end of the temporal power of the papacy represented in in the earlier chapters as the image of the beast during napoleon's failed exploits into the middle east and in other areas the revolutionary council of france reinstated the pope back in rome and it wouldn't be until the man garibaldi that the image of the beast would be destroyed

garibaldi led a force of black shirts as they were called and removed all non-italian powers out of italy under the flag of italian nationalism they united the country he also took back those papal states from the pope and made the pope prisoner in his summer residence castel gandolfo in 1870 and so we see the period of the treading down of the saints came to an end there was a period where it was given to them to make war with the saints but that period has now expired

we want to examine for a few minutes what the scriptures have to tell us about the last phase of daniel's fourth beast you want to see what revelation chapter 17 speaks to us of

we have followed the metamorphosis of daniel's fourth beast so far the dragon the pagan roman empire that lasted until 313 with constantine the sea beast the christian roman empire that lasted from 313 to around the year 800

the earth beast the holy roman empire that lasted approximately from 800 to 1817

and during this earth beast phase there was the image of the beast the papal kingdoms that lasted from roughly 1073

to 1870 and the last phase we come to examine this morning is the phase of the harlot that is to ride the beast

it is a very exciting time that we live in brother and sisters it is the convergence of much of the bible prophecies that we see into our day in our age all the biblical symbols representing the kingdoms of men can be seen today in some form the feet of nebuchadnezzar's image the little horn of daniel chapter 7 the harlot writing the beast of revelation chapter 17 the man of sin of ii thessalonians we live in the climax of the kingdoms of men just before the kingdom of god is about to break forth upon this earth when the son of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings we live at that dawn period where you can just begin to make out the return of the lord jesus christ as these the son of his righteousness will arise upon this earth now it's during this period that the beast of revelation chapter 17 is to come into existence we read that i saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns which reminds us of those previous beasts we've already been looking at the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations of filthiness of her fornication and upon her forehead was a name written mystery babylon the great the mother of harlots the abominations of the earth and john saw this woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of jesus

and this is the form that we'd like to look at this morning

we noticed that this is a harlot we've already run into a harlot in the book of revelation revelation 2 and verse 20 we read about that woman jezebel who the fire tyre in ecclesia suffered a prophetess who was to teach and to seduce his servants think to er commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols and the lord jesus christ says he gave her space to repent and she repented not of her fornication and so this is the system that arose out of the early ecclesia the falling away described by paul in 2nd thessalonians that went out from us as john says in his first letter the harlot represents a false religious system that began at the time of the apostles and was to continue all the way through history as we have seen she is depicted in her latter manifestation the final phase 1900 years later as riding the beast

and so as we look at her we see that there's some identifying points she has an accumulation of great wealth she has a cup of fornication of false doctrine she has many harlot daughters and she is guilty of murder and there are many other things we can look at some of these things are easily identifiable we have seen the identity of this false religious system that is drunk with the blood of saints by the historical things we have looked at we have seen the false religious doctrines that have been disseminated through this cuff of fornication the trinity the different interpretations of prophecy that are there to seduce and to deceive the people upon the earth

she is also called though the mother of daughters a mother of harlots and it was interesting that when brother paul billington and frank abel were in the vatican filming one of their bible magazine videos entitled christendom astray that they noticed as they were standing in the vatican square a window up on one of the buildings of the vatican and they observed that there was a mural there and they used the telephoto lens to take a picture of this mural which carries the caption meta ecclesia which of course we would understand as the mother church so we see this as a fulfillment of revelation chapter 17. she is a mother of different false religious harlot daughters of christendom that we see around us today

we also note that the beast which thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life in the foundation of the world when they behold the beast that was in is not and yet is now that echoes the words of revelation or of daniel chapter 12 that the wicked shall not understand they shall wonder and let us not be amongst those who say i wonder who she is but rather let's remember those words of daniel that the wise shall understand and apply ourselves to finding out who this woman is we continue to read that here is the mind that hath wisdom the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits and there are seven kings five are fallen and one is and the other has not yet come but when he cometh he must continue a short space and the beast that was and is not even he is of the eighth and as of the seventh is the eighth and is of the seventh that goeth into partition and so brother and sisters we see some of these identifying points this political system is represented as being fashioned after a previous beast the sea beast or the christian roman empire which means that it is an imperial system and that's what we have to look for something that has an imperial element in it it is not exactly the same because as daniel's image depicts or nebuchadnezzar's image the clay is intermixed with the iron it doesn't carry quite the same aspect but certainly a lot of the same type of things this system is resurrected after being thrown into an abyss this happened at the hands of napoleon he put the kingdom into darkness but it was to arise again consequently we are looking for the resurrection of the roman empire we also note the woman is geographically located on seven hills and we can see these symbols in existence today the seven hills as brother stephen has already drawn our attention to are identified easily and would have been known to the apostle john we must remember that this woman is sitting on a beast and that beast is a development of the roman empire the fourth beast of daniel and so it is no surprise to us and it is providential that in the coinage of the roman empire we see roma the woman sitting upon seven hills at the time of vespasian and that would have been a familiar familiar symbol to the disciples of the day

we also note that there are ten horns which they are sized and these are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet but receive power as one hour or as kings one hour with the beast and these we are told are to have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast and these shall make war with the lamb and so we see there that the ten horns which were the sovereign nations that comprise the sea beast or the christian roman empire are depicted as individually not amounting to much but they are developing a unifying mind or a political doctrine and will eventually voluntarily give their power and their strength to the beast and the end result of that will be that they will make war with the lamb now since the beast was plunged into the abyss by napoleon and garibaldi several attempts have been made to resurrect it the first concerted effort was made in world war one by bismarck and the german kaiser which is simply the german

form of the word caesar remember we looked at czar was the russian form of the word caesar well the kaiser is the same thing

world leaders of the time recognized the effort being made by the vatican to restore its restore its former state prime minister

gladstone of britain had the following to say there is a fixed purpose among the secret inspirers of roman policy to pursue by the road of force upon the arrival of any favorable opportunity the favorite project of re-erecting the terrestrial throne of pope dumb the temporary kingdom of the pope upon the earth the existence at this day of the policy even in the bare idea is itself a pretentious evil i do not hesitate to say predicts prime minister gladstone quite accurately that the incentive to general disturbance that this will be an incentive to general disturbance at premium upon european wars he says if this policy is pursued we will see europe plunged into war once again

and so the man otto von bismarck

we read of him that he made an alliance of prussia and the 17 northern german states these were created by bismarck in 1866

and it led to the declaration of the german empire or rite in 1870 the proclamation of king william the first of prussia as the german emperor in versailles in 184 or 1871.

bismarck's greatest achievements however were the administrative reforms the developing of and now listen to this because this is what we see in europe today a common currency a central bank a single code of commercial and civil law for germany now that quote is taken out of the german news a magazine from germany from june and july of 1988

this is them talking about their own history and being very proud of it and so bismarck created this second reich

and it was kaiser wilhelm the the second of germany that set in motion the battle plan to unite europe on this overhead we have the actual plan that was put out to basically encompass much of europe back into this holy roman empire that was to be revived he is seen here as reading the proclamation of his of his attentions which brother and sisters was the real catalyst of the beginning of the first world war an attempt to reunite europe under the catholic german power to revive a second reich the holy roman empire and certainly the papacy saw it as such the papacy was thrilled at the prospect of a catholic german empire it saw the kaiser or the caesar's plan as an opportunity to be released from his captives in italy under garibaldi and the forces that followed him

the papers he looked for the resurrection of the beast that had been ruled that had been ruling in europe before napoleon and so we read the slide a period slide from 1909 from an italian publication a cartoon which said come on come on my sons for 39 years we have waited for you in rome 39 years since 1870 when the kingdom of the beast was plunged into darkness and so we read the caption last hopes that is of their temporal power to be restored but the power of the viles brothers and sisters was still in effect and the naval alliance of britain and her allies thwarted the attempts to revive this empire during the first world war it cost millions of lives to do so

however not to be beaten and not to steer its course away from its designed intention having failed in 1917 the german papal confederacy made a second attempt in the second world war adolf hitler rose to power partly thanks to the help of a very influen influential man of the time a man named von patten he was the leader of the german catholic party he was also the privy chamberlain of the pope and it was these two men benito mussolini of italy and adolf hitler of germany who were to combine forces and both work with the catholic church to endure success ensure success they drank of the wine of her fornication and committed political fornication with her in that sense and so it was mussolini that made a deal with the vatican to restore its national status in exchange for votes that would help to rocket him to power as the dictator of italy he signed the concordant with the vatican in 1929.

we read there that likewise a guarantee of its and this is the vatican's indisputable sovereignty in international matters it has been found necessary to create under special conditions the vatican city recognizing its full ownership and exclusive and absolute dominion and sovereign jurisdiction of the holy see over that city and so brothers and sisters what had been plunged into darkness under garibaldi and under napoleon by the hands of benito mussolini is now resurrected and is given the opportunity to exist as that great city once again

well meanwhile back in the reich hitler goebbels and himmler as our quote says

the most and most members of the party's old guard were catholics it's not by accident that because of the chief's religion that is hitler the national socialist government was the most catholic one that germany has ever seen this kinship between national socialism and catholicism is most striking if we study closely the propaganda methods noting it is more instructive that joseph goebbels

in his works

he had himself been brought up as a in a jesuit college and was a seminarist before devoting himself to literature and politics so brothers and sisters goebbels was a jesuit in training he went to a jesuit school and it's no surprise that as they resurrected this beast once again they should choose as their flag across

crooked as it might be

hitler's

nazi party was heavily influenced by the catholic religion a man named edmund paris writing a book called the secret history of the jesuits had this to say the ss organization that is the gestapo had been constituted by himmler according to the principles of the jesuit order their regulations and spiritual exercises prescribed by ignatius loyola were the model himmler tried to copy exactly the whole structure of the direction was a close imitation of the catholic church hierarchical hierarchical order and himmler as the head of the ss was the son of a roman catholic his uncle was a jesuit priest who actually was tried at the nuremberg trials for trials for war crimes his brother was a franciscan monk these men were men who belonged to that beast system and adolf hitler said of himmler i see himmler as heir ignatius loyola these are not sort of conspiracy theories brother and sisters these are documented historical facts of the character of this system in the second world war and it was at the hands of this man that six million jews god's people would be put to death in a manner very reflective of the jesuit oath that we read for you yesterday

and so it was in 1933 that the vatican entered into an alliance with nazi germany signing a concordant and these were not sort of distant negotiations held amongst a few zealot priests and a few off-colored nazi officials the vatican's signatory was a cardinal paselli paselli was to become pope

the twelfth

von papen signed for the vatican or not for the vatican for the nazis and as we have mentioned he was the privy chamberlain of the pope the leader of the german catholic party in in germany and so we read what von papen had to say the third reich is the first power in the world not only to recognize but also to put into practice the high principles of the papacy brethren and sisters can we not see that this system that ruled europe in the 1930s and 40s is none other than an attempt to revive that beast and hitler had envisioned what he called das new europa the new europe which is exactly what we hear in phraseology today and he sought to unite it under his third reich and the map you have there before you is his vision of how he was to reach out and take over both western and eastern europe and the church played a large role large role in hitler's third reich here we see adolf hitler who is uh with reich bishop mueller head of the german church of um or the catholic church of germany and these were not just silent things that took place during the second world war and that's what we hear of today it's revisionist history all the church remains silent on these things and it's been criticized for beings it wasn't silent brethren sisters it was actively involved as one of the chief reasons or catalysts behind the the empire that was being built by adolf hitler as is evidenced by many photographs that have been somewhat suppressed but are certainly there as documented evidence the alliance of the nazis and the bishops of germany and the countries that they overran here we see them giving the nasty salute with nazi soldiers and brothers and sisters it was this system trying to arise again that persecuted god's people israel and that murdered our brethren and sisters and one such man was from a small ecclesia in berlin brother albert mets he refused to serve in hitler's forces and was sentenced to death he says this

to my dear brothers and sisters this is the letter written just before his execution it is hard for me to write to you today not on my own account but because i know that this letter will cause you grief so i beg you not to take it too hard

you all know my belief and my hope

for to me or for me to live is christ and to die is gain so do not weep over me even if the supreme punishment comes upon me but rather be strong and of good courage for i have been condemned to death and am to be executed the life which is in me that took a visible form will return to the source and then the at the appointed time will soon take that form again it is my time or if my time is now and at an end and i must die then remember that is appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment tomorrow i shall submit a petition for mercy perhaps the court will yet show mercy towards me and even if not i still hope to be allowed to write to you some more think of me in your prayers and now i will close in confidence of god and his kingdom and greet you all with all my heart and brother albert metz was executed at 5 30

on april the 4th in 1941

that is the system as brother thomas calls it reeking with the blood of the saints

and there were many others who were not catholics who died at the hands of this power in croatia where the catholic church became the only state religion under the astache government of anti-pavilic the archbishop stepanek made an alliance with him and we see him here depicted we see the nuns of the catholic church of yugoslavia or as it became croatia at that point in time marching with the estachi soldiers we see priests blessing the croatian troops we see franciscan muntz who joined in stepanak's policy of convert or die to the nation of of croatia

and we see

the murder of the orthodox priests of any christians who were not catholic in this state 700

000 people in the small nation state of croatia lost their lives that is the largest per capita murder of any ethnic race or religion during the second world war it is even greater per capita believe it or not than the destruction of the jews

and we've had comments this week of how the the catholic church has repented you know this great speech that the pope gave of you know we're sorry for the things that took place we're sorry for remaining silent during the second world war which is a complete virus well if they are so sorry brethren sisters

then why is it that pope john paul on october the 3rd 1998

visited the tomb of archbishop stepanek the architect of the murder of the 700

000 non-catholics

and canonized him or beautified him began his his journey to become a saint of the roman catholic church

the book of revelation correctly states

they repented

not

and this is confirmed by this fact a man tried for war of crimes and found to be guilty at his trial has now become a catholic saint

well brother and sisters this brings us to the exciting time that we live in the second world war failed to bring about the successful reviving of the beast the reason is that it was not in god's plan or his purpose he had a plan to bring many more to righteousness before this should happen and we have given given the opportunity during this time to come to the truth and to raise our children in it plus both the kaisers and hitler's plans could not be a fulfillment of revelation chapter 17 as they did not successfully answer to its requirements not willing to settle for defeat though the catholic church is trying again

follow the metamorphosis of daniel's fourth beast and we now stand at the final stage we stand at the end of the kingdoms of men at the edge of the return of the lord jesus christ of the earth

now it is during this time that we find that there was the foundation of the european union that our brother stephen has talked to us about

it began initially

as it says in europe there was an awareness of the communist threat it still provided an imp impetus for the consolidation of the western part of the continent in closer ties so that was the guys into which the european union began we've got the threat of communism we need to get together however it's it's catholic founders

and they were catholics robert schuman and jean monet of france both of them ardent catholics had other plans for this union and so did the pope it's interesting to notice the close hand the catholic church has in its it's coming to power the pope saw the the european union as a chance to revive those former glories or as the scripture would put it to revive the beast that was and is not and yet is before signing the historic treaty in 1956

the signatures went to the pope's private residence for an audience and this is the same pope brethren and sisters that signed the concordant with adolf hitler in nazi germany we read from the catholic times this is not something that they are hiding this is the historical fact the pope on monday urged the nations of europe to create a real federation the 78 members of the assembly drove from rome to castle gandolfo and received were received in the audience of the holy father before beginning their session he said the six nations of little europe were embarking on a solitary road from which can emerge for themselves and for europe a new road in all domains an enrichment not only economic and cultural but spiritual and religious and so it was in 1957 that that treaty of rome was signed the birth of the european union the nemesis for the beast that is to arise took place in no other place than rome after the blessing of the holy father

now it was during this time that the second vatican council was what took place in the 60s

and this was a place where the the vatican laid out its plans for the church over the next century in the preceding years a new doctrine was introduced at this point in time to compete with the communist ideology of the day and it was introduced by a jesuit tile hard the chadron which incidentally who was incidentally responsible for the construction of the missing link the pilt man man he faked it from the tooth of a pig so this is the type of character of this man now he introduced something called christian socialism or we could rephrase that to be catholic humanism

he says a faith will have to be born or reborn containing and embracing all others now there is ecumenism if i've ever heard it inevitably it is the strongest faith which sooner or later must possess the earth so they see the the end result of of this humanistic christian socialistic theory as an embracing of all the earth under the dominion of the roman catholic church the strongest faith

now brother and sisters that ideology is catholic or roman or iron and it is humanistic

socialistic

or the seed of men which is clay so we see its teaching echoes what it is called in daniel chapter 2.

now in order to succeed at imposing its doctrine upon the world especially europe it needed to harness all means available and so with the growth of technology in the public education system it began its work somehow the catholic church managed to avoid identification from world war ii as a contributing party instead it re retained or regained its sovereignty and made itself rich by investing in both sides of the war and it immediately set about its goal to re-establish this place in the world now we read that the roman catholic church is being given an opportunity this is talking about today an open invitation to fill the vacuum created and to set a moral agenda to stabilize an uncertain society

it will be perceived as the unchanging bedrock upon which the new world order may be constructed its plea for britain and for europe will be to seek out its lost soul and restore its christian spirituality and the more the church of england is perceived as a failure which is largely responsible for the teaching of the jesuits and undermining the church of england the more the church of england and britain is perceived as a failure the greater the opportunity will be for the church of rome to proceed with its evangelicalization of europe and to absorb britain into the catholic europe and so we put that up there as just an example because the same thing has happened with the lutherans once you remove the prophetical identification of the lutheran church of the catholic church well then we have much greater reason why europe should get back together again now one of the ways in which the catholic church has retained tried to regain her power is being by harnessing the media it's made a concerted effort to control and to form public opinion and they make no attempt to hide their intentions we have the catholic encyclicals and tracts that tell their people this is what you should be trying to do in a publication called pastoral instruction on the means of social communication in 1991 put out by the catholic true society this is what was said the power of propaganda is increasing and its power is being augmented by the growth of behavioral sciences like that of psychology and the technical resources at the disposal of the communications media broadcasters have access to the

minds and the hearts of everyone television especially communicators have therefore and most important part to play in forming public opinion now brother and sisters we have to be careful

that we do not give the catholic church access to our minds and our hearts through the media we have to be careful that we do not allow our opinion to be formulated through this means that they openly say they are going to harness

because our minds in our hearts belong to the lord jesus christ

we read further in in one of these encyclicals communicators have therefore a most important part to play in forming public opinion he continues that they are to influence public opinion and this is justified only when it serves the truth that is the catholic teachings parents educators and priests and christians or catholics as really as what they're talking about these organizations should encourage young people with the right qualities to take up a career in social communication they must make this contribution with these social teachings of the church in mind broadcasters have access to the minds and hearts of everyone that was 1971 so they're saying look put your catholic boys and girls into the media and use it as an opportunity to get into the minds and the hearts of the people of the world

not only that but also in the schools

the schools have become a place where our children are affected by the doctrines of men unesco had some fairly frightening things to say about our children in a publication called in the minds of men by a man called ian taylor under the heading the unification of the mind in the schools which has to remind us of revelation chapter 17

the following is said

as long as the child breathes the poisoned air of nationalism and education in world mindedness can produce only precarious results

now listen to that brother and sisters what they're saying is they want to educate our children in world mindedness and they go on to say that the school should therefore use the means described earlier to combat

family attitudes so they want to take the family attitudes which we would call the truth

the christadolphian doctrine which is a threat to world-mindedness and they want to squash it and it's by these means working in europe that the catholic church has been able to form one mind one public opinion and so brother and sisters there has been a change amongst the christodolphians from air doctrine we read until about a half century ago christodolphians in north america tended to discourage the pursuit of higher education or college university and there was a rationale behind that there was a reason and that was that higher education would necessitate exposure to ideas and theories perceived as false and this is a warning to us brother and sisters because we have changed quite a bit on our thinking more recently the college degree became a cultural passport to many kinds of employment there has been a less of an aversion to higher education and many christadelphians now boast of graduate degrees in numerous disciplines and so brother sisters we got to listen to that's a non-crystal looking in our community and saying well here's an interesting change and berlin says is we got to hear those things and hear them in reference to what the world is telling us they're trying to do with their young people these are some of the tools that the church has used in europe to form the opinion and we have to be careful that it doesn't happen amongst us the goal of the church in europe is quite clear a long arduous path lies ahead however he says the pope the holy see hopes to see a day born when a new europe will arise rich with fullness and tradition can it not be said that the the faith of the christian faith that is the catholic faith is the thing that made europe it is there that our missions as bishops of europe takes a gripping perspective no other human force in europe can render a service that is con the service that is confident to us promoters of the face to reawaken europe's christian soul where her unity is rooted and so brothers and sisters we see a revival of the christian soul that's the words they use the book of revelation says the beast that was and is not and yet is is what is trying to be brought back newsweek says many it's interesting that this newsweek depicted euroland as the tower of babel and on the inside graphic where this this article is located it depicts europe as this strange eight-headed beast funnily enough he says many of the europe's leaders their leading statement hope that the common currency will prove a great leap backwards it will restore through greater unity the size and size europe's once proud place in the world and european statement statesmen have been looking for this the returning to a history in geography like the one who is returning home a movement towards political and economic cooperation of the last two decades raised among many people like mitterand and others has this hope of a true european revival

schuman and the others dreamed of the rebirth of europe and the maestric treaty and the euro are descendants of that hope and dream and if there's any doubt as to what kind of character europe has what kind of doctrine is behind it it was the baroness shirley williams one of the british labor ministers under edward heath's government who took britain into europe who had the following to say we will be joining a europe in which the catholic religion will be the dominant faith

in which the application of the catholic social doctrine will be the major factor in everyday political and economic life so what she's saying here is that this europe rejoining is going to be directed by the catholic church the woman that sits upon the beast

let's just refresh our memories for a moment we're looking at the sovereign states of europe who would have one mind i.e christian socialism who would voluntarily give their strength and power to the beast and finally make war with the lamb well power is the strong's word 1411 and one of the meanings put forwards is the power and influence which belong to riches and wealth and so we have the creation of the euro a united currency it is also the power of resources arising from numbers it is the power consisting or resting upon armies forces and hosts and our brother stephen palmer has talked about that

there is the word strength which basically from strong's means the power of choice

the liberty of doing as one pleases the power or authority or the right the power of rule or government these are the things that were to be given up and so in europe we see this taking place come january 1999 what charlemagne and his successes failed to achieve violently will have been accomplished this is what the world is saying brother and sisters in a single measure peacefully a single monetary regime will unite the 11 european states some of the world's leading countries will relinquish an essential element of sovereignty their money to a large entity the european central bank the euro 11 will be forever melded together europe of the old place name or sorry europe an old place name on the world's map will become euroland a new force in world affairs they are giving up their power and their strength so that they can have power one hour with the beast

think of strong's definition as we read this about the the european parliament or the european justice system in parliament it is now generally accepted by the british judges that european law takes precedence over acts of parliament parliament has therefore surrendered its sovereignty where there is any disagreement in britain's actions with the european court of justice it is the european court of justice which decides what is right now whether britain will stay in or not is not what we're putting this quote up there for just simply to highlight what has taken place they've given up their sovereignty the european parliament it was set up earlier as a body called an assembly its functions were to talk and to debate it now is incorrectly termed a parliament though none of its powers have increased that's all it can do is to talk and debate it doesn't decide legislation it has no legislative or tax raising authority it's merely a power to debate and make suggestions with the passing of the single european act huge errors of areas of britain and europe's national sovereignty were given away by the enlargement of europe's qualified majority voting system and so for the european citizens today there are few aspects of life that are untouched by brussels in the name of efficiency and cooperation national governments have ceded an enormous amount of power to the european commission all the legislation and regulation coming out of brussels originates with the commission a body that is not answerable to the citizens by the ballot box the european parliament which has

directly elected which is directly elected has very little power what was we were we to see revive an imperial head it's not a democracy in europe brethren sisters far from it

adrian hilton who wrote the book principality of power in europe says that in a true democracy it's the people who decide which powers to lend to the leaders it's a false democracy in where the leaders decide which freedoms to lend to the people and so brethren see we brothers and sisters we see a holy european empire emerging peregrine warstorn saw the rising of the papal influence in europe and had this to say the pope calmly is preparing to assume the mantle which he solemnly believes to be his by divine right that of the new holy roman empire emperor reaching from the urals to the atlantic do we recognize brother and sisters what is going on in europe do we see the power of the papacy arising as it assumes rises to assume its role as the system that will ride the beast well brother and sisters

brother roberts had this to say he says we look at the european system today and we ask is there any correspondence to the symbol of revelation chapter 17

is there a confederation of powers on a roman basis independently sovereign yet combining to sustain among them the ecclesiastical system enthroned on seven hills historically reeking with the blood of heretics everyone knows that this is just the situation of affairs the scarlet bodied beast is a body politic of europe its color and its symbol is sin showing that by divine estimation european society which considers itself history or um considers itself christian and holy is steeped in wickedness that was written in 1880 and brothers and sisters we've got to ask do we see that well i personally think that it can't be clear of the evidence that is set forward the current events in europe are screaming out to us of the rising of the beast that was and is not and yet is if we cannot see through these current events brother and sisters that the angels have been at work to help us to identify these things a little bit more graphically perhaps because these symbols that europe chooses to associate itself with or to depict itself by depict a woman riding a beast surrounded by 12 stars the stamps that they issue depicting the uh the seventh second european parliament opening which was opened by the pope incidentally is a woman riding a beast and she's coming out of the sea

we have the books of euroland the newsweek that depicts europe as babylon we have official posters from the european union themselves the caption of which reads europe many tongues one voice depicting itself as babylon what blasphemy against almighty god in heaven and so we see time magazine and this idea of this new europe arising a woman riding a beast crowned with 12

stars

brothers and sisters the lord jesus christ is at the door the earth is ripe for judgment it is up to you and i to prepare ourselves for the trumpet sound that is to take us to that judgment brother thomas wrote 150 years ago there is never yet existed a single dominion contemporary with the toe kingdoms and of course comprehending them in its jurisdiction which would claim to be represented by nebuchadnezzar's image in order then to prepare for the catastrophe the image which is now in antagonistic parts must be confederated there will be no more a resuscitation of old governments but all things will be absorbed into one continental dominion upon the roman domain brother and sisters it did not exist in his day but it certainly is coming up today it did not exist but we can see it as it is being born in front of our eyes and it is in the days of these kings that the god of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and this kingdom will not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it will stand forever the question is do we want to be a part of it

Transcript

well brother and sisters as we come to the close of our study together in the book of revelation many of you with me have enjoyed going through these things we have

enjoyed looking at the passage of history as described by our god and so our thanks goes to our god that he has given us such a book as this to let us know the time period in which we live in revelation chapter 5 and at verse 9

we read there

they sang a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to god by thy blood out of every kindred tongue people and nation and has made us unto our god kings and priests and we shall reign upon the earth

and so brother and sisters we indeed are indebted to our heavenly father and to the lord jesus christ that these things have been sent and signified that we his servants might know those things that are shortly to come to pass upon the earth and that brethren and sisters is a vision that involves us because we read there that we will be made kings and priests upon the earth

and so brother and sisters we reflect that this is a vision that motivates us the lord jesus christ was a man motivated by such a vision looking unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith we read in hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of god and so brothers and sisters we want to leave here with a clear vision in our mind not to be outdone by our brother ron i thought i'd share this slide with you

that is the vision of the world around us an empty absolutely fruitless

nothing vain vision of floating off to some ethereal place where we just sit for eternity doing nothing and as the cartoon says wish i'd brought a magazine brother and sisters we have to develop a vision much clearer than just some thing in the future that we're not really sure about because that's what the lord jesus christ was motivated a clear vision that was able to give him the strength to overcome

and so we left off in our last class in daniel chapter chapter 2 and verse 44.

in the days of these kings shall the god of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and this kingdom shall not left me to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms the kingdoms that we have been looking at and it shall stand forever that is the point in time that we live we live in what we call the pivot of destiny the very point in time when the lord jesus christ is about to be manifested upon this earth the dawn of the kingdom of god and this is the generation brothers and sisters that will witness these things our goal this week is to remain this to make this abundantly clear and so that we can go from this bible school with resolve in our hearts to prepare to meet the lord jesus christ in his return

the world will be completely taken by surprise when the lord jesus christ comes but this should not be the way it is for us

first thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 2 says you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the lord cometh as a thief in the night but he goes on to say that ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief in the night ye are the children of light the children of the day we are not of the night nor of the darkness therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober

brother and sisters hopefully that book of revelation will help us as we go from here to watch and to be sober and not to get caught up in the affairs of this life we have the enlightening word of prophecy a more sure word of prophecy that we do well to take heed unto as a light that shines in a dark place

and we have to prepare ourselves now for the kingdom of god so we want to watch

my brother and sisters we will not be watching the events that we are to talk about now take place on cnn

this will not be like the gulf war that we can listen to the radio and pick up the newspaper or watch on the television and see these things take place because we are involved in them

and so as we have followed through the picture of the book of revelation as we have come through the different phases we live in the time period of chapter 16

and 17

where the vials are still at the end of their their pouring out and that harlot system is beginning to arise we live in the time period of this sixth vial and the majority of this vial has been poured out the nations are in the process of being gathered together by the frog spirits the spirits of humanism that we've been talking about that are gathering it to that battle of armageddon and the harlot is already in the controlling seat of the beast of europe and will assume a greater and greater roles in the coming days

and so the christadophian body has watched this sixth angel pour out his vial upon the great river euphrates the water thereof being dried up that the way of the kings of the east the saints the kings of the suns rising might be prepared

we have anticipated it as a body we have lectures about it and we have seen it happen our brother thomas correctly predicted britain's role in the drying up of the river euphrates in alps israel 70 years before it took place he says the term the drying up of the waters of the euphrates which occurs for the purpose of bringing about the restoration of israel he says britain promotes the colonization of judah or judea and so brothers and sisters we have seen that in the history of the christodolphian body and more recent times we have seen the drying up of the euphrates by the u.s led coalition that stopped any further advance of the rivers of islam into the middle east containing those little puddles if you want to call it of arab nationalism or or zealous religious wars that have been taking place

and that puts us directly into the context of revelation chapter 16 and verses 15

and this verse brother and sisters is what you could call the verse of the christodolphians directed especially and primarily to us as a body

behold i come as a thief

blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame so our watching brothers and sisters is directly related to our position at the judgment seat

having a consciousness of the nearness of christ returns will help to impress upon us the reality of the things concerning the kingdom of god and help us detach our affections from the fleeting present to the world to come and it takes us right back really doesn't it brother and sisters to where we started back in revelation chapter 19 where we looked at the marriage of the lamb that was come and his wife hath made herself ready and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints

and so brother and sisters we have the book of revelation the book of daniel ezekiel we have all the prophecies of the bible that are there to help us use that light of scripture to develop faith a confident anticipation of things to come a firm believe that what god has said he is able to perform and he will perform it and that faith that we have

that worketh by love

will be accredited to us for righteousness if we develop it by god's grace

our righteousness is the covering we find the lamb's wife arrayed in and that righteousness is given to us by almighty god if we believe him and our belief in these things is not an intellectual assent it's not saying yes i agree in the event subsequent to the return of the lord jesus christ it is the practical outworking of a firm conviction in our lives as we go to work as we go to school in our homes as we teach our children that we the people of god believe that he will send his son in the very near future to take the kingdoms of this world to himself that is faith brother and sisters the practical outworking of it and so we need to prepare ourselves now

because the first event that will herald the return of the lord jesus to christ to the earth is that of the resurrection we read for the lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel with the trump of god and the dead in christ shall rise first of first thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 16.

where will we be brother and sisters when the angels of the lord jesus christ are sent out to gather us together to the judgment seat

what will the angels interrupt us from doing

would we want to be found in those circumstances would the angels enter into the situations we put ourselves would they take us from there or would they wait at the door till they we remove ourselves and whatever those things are we really have to live our lives as though at any point in time the angel of the lord could come and take us and we would be prepared and not only prepared brother and sisters but willing and wanting to go with that angel

we will not be able to hide behind our sunday suit and tie at this point in time because we will be seen for what we are

we read that those which are alive and remain which we believe firmly brethren sisters will be many of us shall be caught up together with them in clouds those great clouds of witnesses of hebrew chapter 12

to meet the lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the lord wherefore comfort one another with these words and so we have the picture of the judgment before the lord jesus christ comes in judgment of the world he will judge his household and that is us we read in first peter chapter 4 and the 17th verse for the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of god

because we are to be involved in the judgment of the nations of the world around us and that's why we're not going to see these things take place in front of us on our televisions in the newspapers in the magazines we are taken away first so that god can prepare his people for their involvement in these things

and if it first begin at us what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of god and if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear so the bible describes to us that judgment process in second corinthians chapter 5 and at verse 10 we must all

all appear before the judgment seat of christ

that everyone may receive the things done in his body according that he hath done whether it is good or bad and the apostle paul cautions us knowing therefore the terror of the lord we persuade men and brothers and sisters we do have to stop and consider the reality of the judgment seat that word there appear as many of you will know as that closely related to phanerosis the idea of being revealed for what we are to be opened up to be shown

and when the lord jesus christ strips away the veneer that we wear amongst each other and exposes the true character on the inside

will he find the reflection of himself that he is looking for of his heavenly father will he find the faith on the earth in you and i when he returns

we should heed the words of the apostle paul in corinthians we often read it before we come together at the memorial meeting about we should examine ourselves

and so eat of that cup and drink of or eat of that loaf and drink of that cup well brother and sisters the apostle paul goes on to say that if we would judge ourselves

then we should not be judged so brothers and sisters let's go from here with resolve in our mind to make the necessary changes in our lives so that when that judgment seat comes we will have already dealt with as much as we can recognizing our nature for what it is and asking god for strength so when the lord jesus comes he will help us in our struggle by removing the nature that we have and answering our prayers because we know that we cannot do it on our own strength and so we will be immortalized to live with him and reign for a thousand years but we have to begin that process right now he's not going to come and change us the end of revelation ends let him that is in just be unjust still let him that is filthy be filthy still let him that is righteous be righteous still so we have to develop that in ourselves now and begin those changes as we go from here this week

we have a wonderful hope an incredible hope the world doesn't even begin to understand we read in in second peter chapter one the fourth verse that we have been given unto us exceeding great and precious promises

that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption of the world through lust he continues in verse 10 wherefore rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things ye shall never fail for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our lord and savior jesus christ and so brothers and sisters let's do that going from here give diligence

once the lord has taken his saints to him once that judgment process has happened then we'll begin the wonderful picture the march of the rainbow angel that we have described for us throughout the bible and the first step in that march is going to be as we talked about yesterday in our in our small reading group the preparation of israel so that when the govian forces comes down it is a trial of the nation's faith there is no point in a sense of coming down if there's no faith to try and so we read in in malachi chapter 4

and verse 5 behold i will send you elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the lord and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to the fathers lest i come and smite the earth with a curse and so god will develop the seeds of faith in his people israel once again pastors will go out that will teach them that is the work of the lord jesus christ and the saints led by elijah as we are told here in malachi chapter 4

and verse five would tell god brothers and sisters that we would be involved in that work that we would prepare ourselves now to assist our lord jesus christ and become part of his purpose in bringing about the kingdom upon the earth but notice that it is before the coming of the dreadful day of the lord and so we are taken away before the events of ezekiel chapter 38 take place

how would it be a thief like coming if we watched it how would it be a thief like coming if we saw these things happening how would it be a thief like coming if the the cry came from the middle east of the strange power that had arrived there we will be removed before these things and that's the exhortation to us to prepare ourselves now and so we have we know well the story of ezekiel 38.

the nations of europe and the book of revelation that are identified for us or sorry the nations of europe that are identified for us from the perspective of the book of revelation from ezekiel chapter 38 from daniel chapter 11 they all paint this this picture of this northern confederacy and their ancient locations can be easily ascertained by the use of the historians such as herodotus strabo josephus things that are available to us today

that's not our subject but we just want to comment on one thing our brother stephen mentioned to us this need for the confederacy of russia with europe the need for the

military confederacy because that is what is to happen in europe these shall make war with the land and not only that but the forces of ezekiel 38 combine and come down into the land

well one month ago the russian president putin visited the pope

their conversation began with a discussion on how eastern and western europe could be pulled together and this is what is said by the news article on this first official visit to western europe russian president vladimir putin spoke to the pope john paul ii at the vatican about the ongoing need to bring western and eastern europe closer together and there we have it brother and sisters all over again a confederacy that is based on daniel chapter 2

chapter 7 revelation being prepared and who is preparing it the vatican and russia and not only russia but following this meeting putin headed off to germany a week later to visit with the german chancellor

read there

russian president vladimir putin and german chancellor gerhard schroeder concluded their first summit on friday with schroeder's support of russia's cooperation in european defense matters schroeder said that proposals put on the table by putin creating a european missile defense system which includes russia sharing russia's technology with european partners were due considerations on a broad level the europeans were asking questions as to how they could organize this septuagint not a question of whether or not they want to do it but how can we do it and how soon can we do it to which putin responds this is an issue issue for a particular summit not a simple question but we must move in this direction there is no doubt putin said that he told schroeder to consult with his european partners tell them that russia as a third party should work together with the european partners for the missile defense system the dragon the beast and the false prophet preparing themselves for the return of the lord jesus christ and the character of europe as painted to us by the book of ezekiel is one of anti-semitism they were to come against my people

and so we read that in this this article from the electronic telegraph friday march the 12th of 1999

israel reacted sharply yesterday to a statement from the european union countries that they did not recognize jewish the jewish state sovereignty over jerusalem the foreign minister ariel sharon was to go on to say that we will never give up anything regarding jerusalem the letter from the united or the european union countries believed jerusalem was not to be part of israel but a corpus separatum which i thought was very interesting latin is what they use

the language of the papacy for a separate entity and so we can see the seeds of what will bring russia down what will bring europe into this conflict being painted and or being sown right now in europe we can see the attitudes developing

and it's at this point in time brother and sisters that the role of christ and the saints changes christ is not coming back as a lamb dumb before her shearers this time but as the lion of the tribe of judah he is coming in the physical manifestation of yahweh upon the earth he who will be mighty ones the saints who will be with him are those mighty ones of power and so our brother thomas wrote human governments have all been opposed to god's truth they have made war upon all that class of people and there are several countries who are entitled scripturally to the designation of the saints and we have seen that with their own eyes you cannot make peace between them that's the reason why we who advocate the doctrine of god saints are in hostility to the world those who are on our side who would make peace with the enemy are not fit to be on our side it is war to the knife between the powers that be and all christodolphians we accept no truths we consent to no compromise either the world will conquer us

or we will conquer them

by argument now but when the time for argument is passed away and the lord has come with power and great glory his saints will take the sword and conquer the world whether the world likes it or not we read in our readings the other day that the meek shall inherit the earth meek brothers and sisters as we all know is not weak meek is power that is contained and so we find the meek inherit in the earth in psalm 149

we read that the lord take his pleasure in his people he will beautify the meek with salvation

and he goes on to say let the saints be joyful in glory they are immortalized at this point in time let them sing aloud upon their beds or their pavilions let the high praises of god be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand depicting what we see in revelation the man with the sword coming out of his mouth to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments upon the people to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute upon them the judgment written this honor have all his saints and brethren and sisters we can think of those saints who as matthew chapter 19 verse 29 tells us have forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or lambs or children for my name's sake that shall receive in a hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life this is the honor of those who were put to death by the system

or put it another way this is the plot line of the bible is it not it is genesis 3 verse 15 the seed of the woman conquering the seed of the serpent

it's the plot line of the book of revelation and we've seen it we have watched the serpent inflict the temporary bruise upon the lord jesus christ and upon his saints we have seen them persecuted crucified banished burned at the stake and executed more recently at gunpoint

well this is the time brother and sisters when the saints will inflict a mortal wound upon the forces of the serpent and the lord jesus christ will be the head of this group that will come forward

this is the time when daniel tells us that the saints will take the kingdom and rest it from the hands of the usurpers i beheld the same horn make war with the saints and prevailed against them until the ancient of days came and judgment was given to the saints of the most high and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom that is daniel 7 verse 21 and 22

that time brothers and sisters is at the door when the saints will possess the kingdom and they will take it let's not get lost in the cares of this life and miss out on such an opportunity to be with the lord jesus christ and the establishment of the kingdom on the earth

this is when christ will be physically manifested to the world we read in second thessalonians 1 and verse 7 to you who are troubled rest with us when the lord jesus christ will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels the messengers of his power the saints in flaming fire taking vengeance upon them who notice what it says know not god the saints have already been judged

judgment begins at the house of god and if the righteous scarcely be saved what shall be the end of those who know not god and obeyed out the gospel and so we see here the lord jesus christ coming in vengeance on them that know not god and obey not the gospel of our lord jesus christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the lord and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints this is that great cloud of witnesses that returns in hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1 at this point here to take the earth back from the kingdoms of men

the little stone cut without hands that we saw in the image

revelation chapter 10 describes it as the rainbowed angel i saw another mighty angel come down from heaven clothed with a cloud the rainbow was upon his head and his face was it were the sun and his feet his pillars of fire and he cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth and when he cried seven thunders after their voices and when the seven founders had uttered their voices i was about to write and i heard the voice from heaven saying unto me seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered and write them not and so those final judgments are sealed up to us in their entirety but the scriptures do tell us of how some of these events will take place we read in revelation chapter 16 and verse 16 that the nations will be gathered together into a place called in the hebrew tongue armageddon and this corresponds with the invasion of ezekiel 38 of zechariah 14 of joel 3

of daniel chapter 11.

these are parallel prophecies and that word armageddon is is broken out for us it's a transliteration which means it's a hebrew phrase or word that is taken into the book of revelation and simply transliterated phonetically spelt in greek and the word is armor a heap of sheaves or arima appears in ruth

the sheaves that were laid out on the floor before boaz

gai are gay the valley and we think of it gay hennan the valley of the son of him we know this and dawn is that word judgment or den and so armageddon is the heap of sheaves gathered together in a valley for judgment and that's exactly what joel chapter 3 tells us let the nations be awakened and come up to the valley of jehoshaphat for there will i sit to judge all the nations round about put you in the sickle for the harvest is ripe come get you down for the press is full the fats overflow for their wickedness is great multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision and if you look in your margin there you will see that it's the valley of concision or threshing so we have a heap of nations brought down gathered together into a valley for threshing and this is the day of the lord that is near in the valley of decision and the sun and the moon of the world around us the political heavens will be darkened and the stars will withdraw their shining and this is similar to what we read throughout the bible

zechariah describes it this way i will gather all nations against jerusalem to battle the city shall be taken the house is rifled the women ravished and half of the city shall go forth into captivity and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city and that is the end of ezekiel 38 really isn't it the nations that come down and there is jerusalem finally taken

and it's at this point in time that the lord jesus christ with his saints appear on the scene then shall the lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of olives which is before jerusalem on the east and the mount of olives shall cleave in the midst thereof and brethren and sisters we will be with the lord jesus christ when that happens because we read the lord my god he who will be mighty one shall come and all the saints are with him

so we're not going to see these things take place if christ comes back to jerusalem we're involved in it and that's why we have to prepare ourselves now and once the lord jesus christ has been planted in jerusalem

removed psalm 2 tells us

yet i have set my king upon my holy hill of zion i will declare the decree the decree that was declared at his baptism thou art my son this day have i begotten thee ask of me and i shall give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession thou shalt break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel this is the true one like l this is the lord jesus christ in manifestation not constantine who usurps disposition but the lord jesus christ and so we read at that point in time in isaiah 9 11 9 they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the lord as the waters cover the sea and so brothers and sisters it's at this point in time the decree will go forth he sees john sees in the heavens another angel fly in the midst of heaven it's in between the two heavens of the politic of the world around us just before the establishment of the kingdom of god and just after the the heavens or the the things that are in existence right now and he comes forth you preach the everlasting gospel good news to the people on the k on the face of this earth to the people in your neighborhoods to the people that your children are involved in in school the good news of the gospel

that right now is shrouded by those catholic forces by the christian forces by the humanistic forces that would blind the world around us the good news of the gospel that's to go out to every nation kindred tongue and people saying with a loud voice fear god and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come and worship him that made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the fountains of waters and what more applicable phrase could be made to the nations that live right now to the society that we have to deal with in a godless society an evolutionist society they are in for the rudest awakening that has ever taken place

well brothers and sisters based on the theories that we looked at in our fourth class of antichrist disseminated by the

jesuits and the christians around us what do you suppose the response of the world is going to be to such a decree

well the teaching of antichrist if we take a sampling of their books is pretty much more or less comes down to a similar theme revelation is all about future events anti-christ is a future menace that is to appear he is to appear in jerusalem he is to convert the jews he is to build a temple in jerusalem he is to do many miracles and he is to put the world in a situation where it's called to submit

and that is the mainstream teaching of of most baptist evangelical and catholic writers they're all singing the same song when it comes to antichrist this is rome's song because they are drunk with the wine of her fornication

let's make sure brother and sisters that we don't become drunk with these doctrines too that we recognize the truth for what it is that it's the lord jesus christ who is to return to the earth acts 1 verse 11. it is christ who is to convert the jews we read about it in isaiah in our readings it's echoed in romans chapter 12

that the deliverer will come forth from zion and turn away ungodliness from jacob it's the gospel message the hope of israel

christ will build the temple in jerusalem fulfilling the promise that was made to david isaiah 2 then the lord's house shall arise he will perform many miracles

and all nations will be called upon to submit to him

well the world's response has been predicted through the bible at this point in time psalm 2 where they're called upon to submit also tells us what they have to say it says the nation's rage and the people imagine a vain thing the kings of the earth set themselves the rulers take cancel together against the lord and against his anointed saying let us break up their bands or let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us they will have nothing to do with it because they will look at the lord jesus christ and see him as the antichrist

is it any surprise that they're going to rebel against him when he comes

well brother and sisters at this point in time there will be absolutely no room for dissenting views on prophecy the world will be given an ultimatum to bend to he that sitteth in heaven shall laugh the lord will have them in derision then shall he speak to them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure he says i have set my king upon my holy hill of zion and he instructs those kings of the earth to be wise now therefore ye o ye kings be instructed ye judges of the earth serve the lord with fear rejoice with trembling kiss the son lest he be angry and he perished from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little and blessed are all they that put their trust in him some nations brothers and sisters will hear that and they will submit

we have indication through the bible of the tarshish nations who will bring gifts who will submit to the lord jesus christ and be involved in bringing his people israel back to him and that will be largely due to the fact that they have had the word of god and it will be an assistance to them in that day

we don't know exactly who will and won't be involved but we know some for sure the nations of europe we're told will make war with the lamb

they will make war with the lord jesus christ just as they have made war with his people throughout the whole history of time

just as they make war with us and our children in our homes in our schools in the society we live in trying to infect us with the gospel of their the good news as they see it of their doctrines and their teachings the humanistic philosophies all these types of things the warfare is still going on today brother and sisters we know it might not be openly persecuted but certainly these things are there pulling us away from our god and from his service so these shall make war with the lamb

and the lamb shall overcome them for he is lord of lords and king of kings and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful and there's three things

the calling of the gospel we have all heard and there are many are called but few are chosen and on what basis are they chosen how does that verse work that tells you here

those that are called and faithful are the ones who will be chosen we have all heard the call of the gospel brother and sisters so have our young people we want to take up that call and be faithful to it so that by god's grace we would be chosen in this day

well it's at this point in time that the lord jesus christ will pour out the thunder judgments of the book of revelation they will sound out from heaven and the world will not know what has hit it it will be the greatest conflict that has ever existed in the face of the earth because it will be the conflict between the seed of the woman the lord jesus christ now upon the earth in physical divine manifestation and the seed of the serpent the arm of flesh

and so we read in daniel chapter two thou saw as this image that is being constructed and standing up today till that a stone was cut out without hands which smote the image on the feet that were of iron and clay and break them to pieces then was the iron the clay the brass the silver the gold broken in pieces together and became like and notice the words chaff

of the summer threshing floor and there's the echo to revelation

and the wind carried them away and there was no place found for them and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth

and we read in daniel chapter 7 i beheld till all the thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit whose garment was was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool

his throne was like a fiery flame and his wheels is burning fire there is the caribbean the god manifestation in this age that will come forth and will destroy the kingdoms of this world not for the sake of destruction brother and sisters not for the sake of blood the lord taketh no pleasure in the death of the wicked but for the sake of the establishment of the kingdom of god upon this earth and so a fiery stream will issue forth from before him and that is that proclamation fear god give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and he says i beheld because of the voice of the great words which the horns spake

that's the reason for its judgment for its doctrine for its insidious teaching for its blasphemy against the god of heaven and for its treatment of his people and i beheld even until the beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame

and so brothers and sisters ezekiel puts it the same way he says that i will send a fire on magog and that area of europe that has existed the holy roman empire the christian roman empire that has stood in opposition to god's saints will experience the wrath of almighty god as he crushes the head of that serpent once and for all

it is described to us in revelation chapter 19 as being a lake of fire the same thing the beast was taken and the false prophet that was that wrought miracles before him the political body of catholic europe and the papacy will be taken that wrought miracles before him which deceived them that had received the teachings of the beast the mark of the beast

and them that worshiped his image these both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone and their remnants were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse which sword proceeded out of his mouth

and no longer brothers and sisters will israel be trampled unto foot will be a proverb and a byword but as we read in zechariah the lord will fought as he fought in the day of battle well how did he fight in the day of battle well jeremiah 51 tells us that israel will become in verse 20 my battle acts and my weapons of war for with thee will i break in peace is the nations there the rod of iron in his hand and with thee will i destroy kingdoms and with thee will i break in pieces the horse and his rider i will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock and with thee will i break in pieces the captains and the rulers and so the kingdoms of this world and of our christ our kingdoms of this world would become the kingdoms of our lord and of his christ

and the saints who have suffered throughout the ages will rejoice over her thou holy apostles and prophets and reward her even as she rewarded you and this is not some

inconsistent incongruous bloodbath at the end of time brothers and sisters this is the true and righteous judgments that were promised to those souls under the old altar how long o lord holy and true does thou not avenge us and perhaps it's hard for us to get into the flavor of that because our children have not been taken from us and starved in the room following until we should recant and we've had to listen to their cries as they die

we have not experienced those things and perhaps it's hard for us to get into the spirit of this because it's not our family it's not our father that was taken and shot at dawn but brother and sisters we got to read these things and identify ourselves with god's people we read in revelation chapter 19 verse 1

after these things i heard a great voice of much people in heaven the lord jesus christ and the saints now enthroned in the political heavens of this world that's what thessalonians is talking about so shall we ever be with the lord in the air this great cloud of witnesses in the political heavens

and they say hallelujah praise be to yahweh salvation and glory and honor and power unto the lord our god for true and righteous are his judgments for he hath judged the great which did corrupt the earth of her fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand and again they said hallelujah and so brothers and sisters this is the situation that will come thy kingdom come thy will will be done on earth as it is in heaven and with this false system taken out of the way as isaiah 25 verse 7 puts it he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people and the veil that has spread over all nations and that darkness will be removed from the nations of the world around us and the people of our neighborhoods who we try to preach to but we can't seem to get through to we'll have all that superstition and worldliness removed from their eyes and they will be able to see the kingdom of god established upon this earth and so brothers and sisters we read in revelation 11 15 the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our lord and of his christ and he shall reign forever and ever it's not a question of if it's a question of when and whether or not we're going to be involved in it it will happen brother and sisters with or without us and we've got to decide going from here if we want to be involved in these things if we keep the vision in our hearts and our minds if we are motivated by faith not allow this world to swallow us up with its attractions and entertainments but overcome the world by faith then we have a promise that is being given to us to him that overcometh will i grant to sit with me in my throne even as i overcame him and sat with my father in his throne that promise is to us and to our children if we would bring them up in that way

and so let us not lay up for ourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust that's corrupt and thieves break forth and steal but let's lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal for where our treasure is there will our heart be also

and then shall the righteous shine forth as the son in the kingdom of their father who hath ears to hear let him hear

and so brother and sisters knowing the time it is now high time to awake out of sleep

for now is our salvation nearer than when we when we believed the night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light our bible school is all but over we return to our lives to our jobs to our schools to our trials and temptations let us keep the vision of the kingdom of god in our minds and our hearts let us watch the world around us and make ourselves aware of the hand of the lord as it moves and let us heed the invitation of christ

he that testifieth these things saith

surely i come quickly

surely i come

quickly

surely i come quickly and so brothers and sisters let's heed those things let's take that book of revelation let's eat it up and have it motivate us and the book that really is not to be consigned to the end of time of the scriptures but goes all the way through them and so let our voice echo that of john's as he reached the end of this marvelous prophecy given to us by god's grace

no doubt he was filled with tears when he said these things when he saw the picture of what was to come even so come lord jesus

even so

come lord jesus let that prayer be in our hearts as we leave here and the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you all amen