A Systematic Theology for the 21st Century – Vol 11 Eschatology






A Systematic Theology for the 21st Century – Vol 11 Eschatology


Dr. Edward Rice


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Table of Contents

Volume 11 Eschatology – The Doctrine of Last Things 1

Chapter 1 Eschatology Preliminary Essays 5

The Feasts of the LORD are Prophetic 14

The Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread 17

The Feast of First Fruits 18

Pentecost 19

The Feast of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles 20

The 70th Week of Daniel 9:24 26

The End of the Dispensation of Grace 33

The Time of Jacob's Trouble 39

The Battle of Armageddon 42

Chapter 2 The Things Seen, Which Are, and Which Shall Be 51

Chapter 3 Good Eschatology Requires Good Dispensationalism 56

The First Dispensation – Innocence 57

The Second Dispensation – Conscience 58

The Third Dispensation – Government 60

The Fourth Dispensation – Promise 61

The Fifth Dispensation – Law 63

The Sixth Dispensation – Grace and Truth 65

The Seventh Dispensation – The Kingdom 67

Dispensational's Alternative, Supersessionism 70

Chapter 4 Cambron's Bible Doctrine - Eschatology 73

Cambron's Chap IX Eschatology - The Doctrine of Last Things 73

Outline For Chap IX Eschatology 74

I. Physical Death 74

II. The Bodily Resurrection. 77

III. The Intermediate State. 83

IV. The Second Coming Of Christ. 87

V. The Antichrist. 91

VI. The Tribulation. 97

VII. The Battle Of Armageddon. 102

VIII. The Millennium. 103

IX. The Judgments. 105

X. After The Millennium. 108

XI. The Future Of The Wicked. 109

XII. Heaven. 111

Chapter 5 Ironside's Lectures on Revelation 113

Lecture 1 The Introduction 115

Lecture 2 The First Vision 122

Lecture 5 The First Vision of Heaven 131

Lecture 6 The Seven Sealed Book 137

Lecture 7 The Fifth and Sixth Seals 148

Lecture 8 The 144,000 and The Great Multitude of Gentiles 158

Lecture 9 The Breaking of the Seventh Seal 167

Lecture 10 The First and Second “WOE” Trumpets 177

Lecture 11 Eating The Little Opened Book 186

Lecture 12 The Two Witnesses and the Seventh Trumpet 196

Lecture 13 The Woman and the Man Child 207

Lecture 15 The Personal AntiChrist 228

Lecture 16 The Harvest and Vintage 239

Lecture 17 The Vials of the Wrath of God 249

Lecture 18 Babylon: Its Character and Doom 259

Lecture 19 Babylon: Its Character and Doom ( Concluded) 270

Lecture 20 The Two Suppers 280

Lecture 21 The Millennium and the Judgment of the Great White Throne 290

Lecture 22 Closing Scenes 301

Ironside Bibliography 311

Chapter 6 The Revelation of Jesus Christ 313

The Revelation of Jesus Christ an Overview 316

The Four and Twenty Elders 321

The Day of the LORD and Last Day(s) 324

The Day of the LORD 324

The Last Days and The Last Day 328

Eschatology – The Rapture 331

The Rapture, Begins a Division Between Dispensations 338

The Rapture, Bema Seat, and Marriage Supper. 338

Seven Years of Tribulation 343

The Millennial Kingdom 346

The Eternal State 367

Chapter 7 The Premillennial Return of Christ and The Pretribulation Rapture of the Church 377

The Pretribulation Rapture of the Church 379

Replacement Theology – Amillenianism, Post and Mid Trib Error 380

Chapter 8 Critique of other Systematic Theology Eschatology Works 382

Critique of John Miley's 1892 Methodist Eschatology 382

Critique of Charles Hodge's 1878 Eschatology 386

Critique of Augustus Strong's 1907 Eschatology 386

Critique of Theisens' 1949 Eschatology 388

Supplemental Reading Report - Eschatology 389

Thiessen Compared to Strong. 389

Thiessen Compared to Cambron. 390

Thiessen Compared to Erickson. 392

Thiessen's Part VIII Eschatology Q&A 393

Thiessen's Chapter XXXIX Q&A 393

Thiessen's Chapter XL Q&A 395

Thiessen's Chapter XLI Q&A 397

Thiessen's Chapter XLII Q&A 400

Thiessen's Chapter XLIII Q&A 404

Thiessen's Chapter XLIV Q&A 408

Thiessen's Chapter XLV Q&A 412

Thiessen's Chapter XLVI Q&A 414

Thiessen's Chapter XLVII Q&A 416

Critique of Chafer's 1948 Eschatology 418

Critique of Chafer's Volume IV Ecclesiology and Eschatology Introduction 418

Chafer's Systematic Error 419

A Critique of Dr. Chafer's Eschatology 422

Dr. Chafer's List of Predicted Events. 429

Critique of Geisler's 2002 Eschatology 433

Chapter 9 Eschatology Conclusion 435

Appendix Penny Pulpit Essays on Eschatology. 439

Msg #1939 The Last October? 439

Msg #1940 Then Shall be Great Tribulation 440

Msg #1941 Rapture then the Marriage Supper 441

Msg #1942 Seven Years, Jacob's Trouble 442

Msg #1943 The Battle of Armageddon 443

Msg #1944 Die Once or Die Twice, Choose Wisely 444

Msg #1342 Prophetic Truth and Accuracy 444

Msg #1440 Don't Be Left Behind 446

Msg #1441 The 7 Year Tribulation is not Allegorical! 446

Bibliography for Theology 448



Preface

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As a USAF retired systems engineer turned Baptist Preacher of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and armed with a staunch belief in the preserved accuracy of the inspired Scriptures, I praise the Lord that he has provided me the unique opportunity to assemble “A Systematic Theology for the 21st Century.”

As a systems engineer for thirty years (since 1972), I focused on systems analysis. Systematic theology has intrigued me ever since my first Bible institute course in 1975. I have amassed multiple systematic theology books and never found one that is wholly Biblical. In 2013 my seminary work at Louisiana Baptist Theological Seminary, under Dr. Steven Pettey, assigned me to read and analyze six volumes of “Systematic Theology” by Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder and previous president of Dallas Theological Seminary. Initial critique of this neo-evangelical's voluminous, wordy, often unorganized work, answered the question, “Is there not a cause?” A Systematic Theology for the 21st Century is indeed a valid need. It cried out to be written and it was a work that I was privileged to endeavor.

God says he built man with an inner knowledge of the Creator's eternal power and Godhead. Further, God reveals from heaven, to every man, his wrath against all ungodliness. This true Light “lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” The Bible says the righteous God, The LORD of hosts, tries the reins and the heart of every man. The prophet Jeremiah writes of God, “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” The psalmist says, “my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.” With his tugs on the reins of your heart, you have come far in your studies, be sure that you have come to a knowledge and submissive acceptance of God's only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The beloved Apostle John wrote, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

Every Bible student is encouraged to follow through a list of Bible verses called by some the Romans road to heaven. The believing Bible student is encouraged to memorize them. That quintessential list of verses is John 3:16-19, 36, 5:24, Romans 3:10, 23, 5:8, 12, 18-19, 6:23, and 10:9-13. That last reference is God's formal acceptance policy for your receiving his free gift of salvation and eternal life. Got life? The beloved Apostle John writes, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Selah! It is Hebrew for “go-figure”, and it intends that you pause, meditate, and consider what you just read.

After due consideration of the sole source of a systematic theology in Volume 01 – Prolegomena and a Volume 02 – Bibliology, an appropriate course of study would entail the study of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. That is the course of study for Volume 03 – Theology, Volume 04 – Christology and Volume 05 – Pneumatology. Such a discipline establishes a foundation for the other studies of this systematic theology. Volume 06 through 08 pursue the plight and salvation of man with titles Anthropology, Hamartiology, and Soteriology, and finally Volume 09 through 11 pursue the doctrines of the church, angels, and last things, in titles Ecclesiology, Angelology, and Eschatology. The set concludes with a Volume 12 – Epilogue.

Information in this volume on eschatology, the doctrine of last things, was extracted from notes and slides of a “Hunt for the Last October Bible Prophecy Conference” preached annually by this author for twenty-two years. Each October service at Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY, addressed prophecies about the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Slides of that conference are published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/last_oct .

When I began work on my Ph.D. in 2014 I set a goal to finish this Systematic Theology for the 21st Century in a five year period. When I finished my Ph.D. in 2017, I reestablished the same goal. This year, after publishing at least a draft of all twelve volumes in 2019, the goal remains. My plea for critique and correction also remains the same. I prefer friendly and constructive critique, but have found the hostile ones to be enlightening and beneficial for rounding out a stronger defense of truth. Feel free to engage in this effort, the many inputs I have received have strengthened the cause.

There is a cause.





Volume 11 Eschatology – The Doctrine of Last Things

The Holy Bible, as “Thus saith the LORD”, portrays the past, the present and the future; that is all the past of this universe, all the present of our circumstance, and all the future through eternity.


Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” (Revelation 1:7)1


We now embark on a Bible study of the doctrine of last things. Closing Matthews nineteenth chapter Jesus said, “But many that are first shall be 'eschatos' and the 'eschatos' shall be first” (Matt.19.30). Consequently a study of “last things” has come to be called eschatology. That suffix, ology, requires that everything that could be thought of, considered, pondered or explored about a subject be put into logos, i.e. put into word. The last volume of a Systematic Theology for the 21st Century will thus be a thorough exposé of the Biblical prophecy that reveals all that lies ahead for mankind.

The Holy Bible spends no effort proving the existences of God, life after death, nor the resurrection of the dead, nor shall I. What God declares plainly need not be debated philosophically, and so this work differs from all previous eschatology works, as it focuses only on what God has revealed for the last and closing chapters of man.

The fulfillment of Biblical prophecy of end times has, in the past, by sincere but mislead scholars and theologians, been shrouded in mystery and allegorical misinterpretation. It need not be. When a Bible student keeps God's larger picture in focus, the coming Kingdom age, where the Messiah, the only begotten Son of God, rules this world from the throne of David set in God's holy hill of Zion, is no mystery, but a mainstay of Biblical prophecy! A mainstay that is categorically denied by the apostate “Holy” Roman Catholic Church and her confused mislead Protestant children.

The prophecy of the closing of the church age wherein there is no Jew or Gentile, and the opening of the Kingdom age wherein the twelve tribes of Israel are the predominate focus, is disconcerting to Catholics, but it need not be to a sincere Bible student. End time prophecy is not shrouded in mystery as were many aspects of the church age.

Dr. C. I. Scofield, in his book “Prophecy Made Plain”, provides a good insight to this distinction.


In Matthew 16.18 Christ announced a purpose which, as Paul informs us in Ephesians 3, involved the disclosure of a mystery which had been entirely hidden from the past ages: “I will build my CHURCH.”

The KINGDOM was no mystery. The Kingdom is the great theme of the prophets. From Isaiah to Malachi the burden of the prophetic testimony is the Kingdom to be set up by the Messiah, David's great Son, but who was to be also “the mighty God, the everlasting Father” (Isa.9:6).

In the fullness of time John the Baptist first, and then the Christ, came preaching “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” “But His own received Him not.” Israel would not have her King “meek and lowly” (Zech.9:9; Matt.21:1-5), and so, when His rejection by the bulk of the nation became manifest, the Kingdfom was postponed, and Christ announced the mystery, the Church.2


Consequently some Bible prophecy is shrouded in mystery, but not the prophecies of the end times. For example when Hosea wrote “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hos.11:1). Or when God told Jeremiah, “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rahel weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for his children, because they were not” (Jer.31:15). And again when it was spoken by the prophets “He shall be called a Nazarene” (Matt.2:23). These prophetic utterances were shrouded. An OT student of Biblical prophecy could not have discerned these, they were mysteries, often not even comprehended by those who wrote them (1Pet.1:10-11)3, but they are revealed to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible prophecies of the last times are not shrouded in mystery. When they have a “latent and deeper meaning than at first appears”, it is now our task to “rightly divide the word of truth,” and to “discern the times” (Matt.16:3). We have the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and we have the “Comforter” sent from the Father to teach us all things (John14:26). Consequently we can discern the times and know the things which shall be hereafter.

When Ezekiel was a student of Biblical prophecy, he answered wisely. In Ezek. 37 God had set him down in a valley of dry bones, very many, and very dry, and God asked him, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Now when Origen of Alexandria Egypt (184-253 AD), the Father of the Roman Catholic Church, the Father of their Allegorical Method, the Father of their Bible Criticism, answered that question, he answered foolishly. Origen of Alexandria Egypt supposed that in 70 AD, when Titus annihilated every Jew in Palestine that the Jews were annihilated forever. He then changed up the Bible so a “Holy” Catholic Church could completely take the Jews place and abscond with their promises. Origen of Alexandria Egypt answered poorly, but Ezekiel answered wisely.


The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.

Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD (Ezek.37:1-6).


When God says he will do something, whether it be the restoration, salvation, and resettlement of all Israel in the promised land, or wolf laying down with a lamb, it behooves a Bible student of prophecy to learn from Ezekiel's answer, and trust in a “jot and tittle” fulfillment of God's prophecies.

Again C. I. Scofield expertly conveys the importance of this study of Biblical prophecy of the end times.


Think what the prophetic student is occupied with; think of the vastness of the subject with which the prophetic Word deals; think what a pageant that it is which passes before the eye of the student of prophecy.

We open the pages of the prophetic Word, and we see passing before us the magnificent panorama of the future of the nations. Our God unfolds to us that which He is doing here and there in this world; and not only that, He lifts the veil and shows us that which He is going to do in the future. Through the prophetic Word, and through that alone, we look over into the great hereafter, and see that which is to be. We look into an open Heaven with all its joys and glories, the goal of our own desire; and we look into an open Hell. All this is in the prophetic Word. The mightiest subjects, the greatest thoughts that can possibly fill the mind are those with which the prophetic Word is occupied. Think of it! We are permitted to see in prophecy the unfolding of God's majestic purposes as regards His ancient people. We are permitted to look to the end or our own age, the Church age. We see the kingdom age unfolding beyond the Church age. We are permitted to see the establishment upon this earth of a universal monarchy under the rule and reign of the Son of God Himself. Why, if it is possible for any kind of knowledge to lift us up above ignoble things, to give us that breadth of vision and of thought which certainly are essential to all noble character, it is the prophetic Word which will do it, and the prophetic Word only.4


Your study of eschatology, the doctrine of last things, entails a believing study of Biblical prophecy. May God bless your studies.


Chapter 1 Eschatology Preliminary Essays


When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes” (Matthew 24:15-18).


I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.... He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:16-17,20)


Eschatology is the study of last things. Coming from the Greek, “But many that are first shall be last (escatos – eschatos) and the last (escatos – eschatos) first” (Mark 10:31), and “ology”5, which is a word, a discourse, a doctrine, a teaching. There is no greater testimony of intimate friendship than when one reveals all their future plans and aspirations to their friend. Jesus said it this way, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you” (John 15:15). The Lord Jesus Christ materialized this intimacy in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and believers on an intimate basis with Christ can read its pages with an ear to hear.6

Never has the study of eschatology been more pertinent for the Bible believer. America is on the very edge a global ruin of Biblical proportions and Christians need to be students of Bible Prophecy as never before. The question on the minds of unbelievers, and professed believers alike is, “Is this the end?” An honest believer, having the lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, as the way, the truth and the life, needs a clear answer to the question in his presentation of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Two premises must be highlighted in a Biblical study of eschatology. First, and foremost throughout, is that Biblical prophecy about the end times is more about Israel than it is about the Church. The Roman Catholic indoctrination of Christendom supposed that the catholic church replaces Israel in God's plans and promises. That is to be contended throughout this volume. Satan has concocted that great Roman Catholic lie.


In Clemens and Scofield's book “The Jewish Question” the problem is addressed succinctly,

The eleventh chapter in the great Epistle to the Romans is perhaps the least studied of all in this Epistle of our salvation. It contains not alone deeply interesting truths, but is of great importance and puts before us most solemn facts. The Holy Spirit unfolds here the purposes of God concerning the Jewish race. The knowledge of Israel's place and position in God's revealed plan is of incalculable importance. All the confusion in doctrine and practice we see about us, is more or less the result of a deplorable ignorance which exists throughout Christendom concerning Israel's place and future. The carnalizing of the professing church has been the result of this ignorance. All Christendom attends to Israel's earthly calling, and not only fails in it most misera- bly, but also dishonors God and His Word.

If it were possible to straighten out the confusion existing about us in the professing church, the proper starting point would be, no doubt, to teach God's purposes concerning Israel.7


A second premise to be highlighted in a Biblical study of eschatology is that just as Biblical prophecy was literally fulfilled in the past, even so, it is to be fulfilled in prophecies concerning the last days. The allegorical method of Biblical interpretation8 is to have no place in understanding Biblical prophecy, nor any other Bible doctrine. There are a myriad of Old Testament examples of prophecy literally fulfilled. Let's examine an applicable one from Amos.

At the zenith of its power Israel, being the ten northern tribes separated from Judah, installed a second Jeraboam as its king (2Kings 14:23-29) and God raised up a herdman of Tekoa to prophecy what was to happen in Israel, and in the “house of Jacob” (Amos 1:1).

And (Amos) said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither” (Amos 1:2). C. I. Scofield details in his introduction to Amos, “Nothing could seem more improbable than the fulfillment of Amos' warnings yet within fifty years the kingdom was utterly destroyed.”9

In Amos 7 God begins a judgment against Israel, “Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth...” (Amos 7:1).

Amos intercedes, “And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small” (7:2).

Curiously the LORD God responds, “The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD” (7:3).

Here is an instance where judgment is promised, judgment is justified and well deserved, and yet when Amos intercedes God repents of what he was allowing in Israel.

Next, “Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part” (7:4).

Again Amos, the prophet of God, intercedes, “Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small” (7:5).

Again, the LORD God honors the intercession of his prophet Amos. The Bible says, “The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD” (7.6).

The Holy Bible, as the infallible, inerrant, verbally inspired revelation from God, not only tells what happened in the past, it tells us what happens. An authentic believer, indwelt by the Comforter who leads them into truth, reading Amos 7, learns some things about the Lord his God.

Amos' intercessions had twice delayed God's judgment , and now God gets out a plum line so that Amos can see how very crocked the nation of Israel has become:


And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword (Amos 7:8-9)


It still takes God fifty years of long suffering and prophetic warning before he brings the sword against Israel. The prophets Joel, and Obadiah had previously given Israel ample warning of upcoming destruction. Hosea, contemporary with Amos, writes a book full of God's justification for Israel's complete destruction. The prophecies made by Isaiah all through Israel's demise under the Assyrian sword, were thorough, were fulfilled to the letter, literally, not alegorically.

Consequently America does not need a prophet to stand up and say,


Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD (Amos 5:16-17).

America does not get such a heralding prophet because she has sixty-six books written by twenty-seven authors over 1,59210 years. The Holy Bible is her herald; it gives God's modus operandi, as it were, when dealing with sin filled nations. America has discarded the message, and in the twenty-first century it is about ready to stone its messengers. A student of Bible prophecy, if he is a believer, is not just enlightened by God's word, he is ennobled by it. Not to prophecy gloom and doom, but to preach the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to every creature. (Matt 28, Mark 16, Luke, John 20:21, Acts 1:8)

And so America has ample prophetic warnings. In following this pattern of Amos, twice God has repented of a judgment that had begun. In 2001, on 9/11 Islamic Jihadists struck at what they called “The Great Satan” trying to bring the United States of America to its knees. America revived in an anthem of “God Bless America” and “The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD” (Amos 7:3).

In 2008 newly elected President Barack Hussein Obama went to Egypt, apologized to the Muslim world, promised an Arab Spring, and called Israel “occupiers of Palestinian land.” After his 2012 reelection, a group of Muslims declared themselves a Caliphate, purposed to once again pursue the Islamic goal of taking over the world. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) with the self declared Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared its intentions to rule the world in 2014.

The left wing President Barack Hussein Obama's despise for Israel, socialized medicine, failed economy, and radical, subversive foreign and global policies had America lined up for destruction. Again, however, the LORD God honors the intercession of his people. The Bible says, “The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD” (7.6).

In 2016 America voted for a “Make America Great” agenda with Donald Trump for president. And in October of 2019 the ISIS Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was dead and their whole effort was brought to complete ruin under relentless attacks directed by President Donald Trump. In his four years President Donald Trump rebuilt America's economy, foreign policies, and Israeli relations with a new embassy in Jerusalem and a revolutionary Middle East peace accord.

In 2020 however, when God's plumb-line was held up to America's corruption, she is found crooked and overdue for God's judgment. There exists a brazen hatred and rebellion against every conservative move that was made in President Trump's four years.

In 2020 Marxists college students trained by leftist college professors, aided and abetted by MSNBC, CNN, a trove of left wing news media, and financed by elitist big tech billionaires, have declared their intentions to burn this constitutional democracy to the ground and initiate socialism and Marxist communism in the United States of America. The left wing liberal Democrats, joined by radical leftists, made league with the anarchists in an effort to overthrow their arch nemesis who was draining their swamp.

All eyes are presently on the Bible prophecies of the end times.


And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matt 24:6-8).


The promises that God made in his inerrant, infallible, verbally inspired Holy Bible are going to be completely fulfilled. Jesus called this “jot and tittle fulfillment”;


For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.... And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail (Mt 5:18, Lu 16:17).


Further, important in the study of Biblical prophecy of last things, the scriptures that portray, foreshadow, depict and predict a significant future event will be fulfilled in the same “jot and tittle fulfillment.”11

Making a grand study of all those extremely accurate insights, depictions and prophetic events is quite like assembling a jig-saw puzzle. Such puzzles are best assembled by assembling the frame first, then sorting individual pieces into the areas where they seem to fit in the best. Get the framework of Biblical prophecy right and other pieces start falling into place and the big picture starts coming into view.

The Catholic Church, Roman or Protestant, teaches that we are presently in the tribulation period, and that they, as the replacement of God's chosen people Israel, will usher in the kingdom age and rule the world with Christ. They have the big picture completely amiss. They have not assembled the framework for an accurate Biblical prophecy, thus they despise the teaching of the rapture and removal of the church, and the regathering and salvation of Israel. Clearly the great tribulation comes after the removal of Christ's church, then there is coming a time of “Jacobs Trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7). “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be(Matthew 24:21).

Study and know the truth of the end times. It is predominately about the regathering and restoration of God's chosen and elect people Israel. In this study of eschatology be a careful student of the Word of God, there are many deceived, and deceivers out there. Our Lord Jesus Christ said it would be so. Jesus also said that the scriptures in the book of Daniel are key, and the starting point for those who would understand his second coming.


And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:... And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!... For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matt 24:14-16, 19, 21)


Daniel became God's “greatly beloved prophet” and he sent the angel Gabriel to him to clarify the grand outline and full timing of Christ's first and second coming. For the Bible believer, Daniel 9 is a treasure trove for understanding the doctrine of last things. Again, Jesus said so. Here is what the angel Gabriel says to Daniel,


Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy (Daniel 9:24).


A diligent Bible student should take careful note and fully comprehend the six things that will be complete in the seventy weeks called out here for Israel's future. Further noting that Gabriel goes on to detail how the first sixty-nine weeks unfold, and that the making an end of sins, the reconciliation for iniquity, the bringing of everlasting righteousness, and the sealing of vision and prophecy all occur after the seventieth week.

So when Gabriel tells Daniel seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and thy holy city, and it is a day for a year; after four-hundred and ninety years, sins will be ended and reconciliation for iniquity will be made! Praise His holy name! Glory Hallelujah! How is that going to work?

What happened that this prophecy is not already fully completed? It seems that it should have been completed just seven years after the Messiah was cut-off (Daniel 9:25-2612). It is obvious that there was a great unseen valley lying between these two mountain peak prophecies, Christ the crucified servant, and Christ the reigning King. That mysterious span of time is called the dispensation of grace in Ephesians 3. It is the time of the Gentiles, and it is not accounted in this seventy week timing laid out for Daniel's people and Daniel's holy city. That Jewish time cycle will begin again when the dispensation of grace comes to a close, and there is still that seventieth week, that seven year period, yet to unfold.

That is the very best, most Biblically accurate framework for understanding the doctrine of last things. It is the framework expounded in this dissertation. It is dispensational. It reproves the gross errors and assumptions of Roman Catholic doctrine about the role of the Holy Catholic Church for their bringing in a non-millennial reign of Christ. It offends Protestant theologians who hold to covenant and replacement theology. But it is the clearest fit to a thorough jot and tittle fulfillment of all the Bible prophecies of the end times. Baptists who want to include a little of John Calvin's horrid Covenant and Replacement Theology in their doctrine, have no place to stand in the study of Biblical Prophecy of the end times. Further, when one rejects Covenant Theology and its evil twin, Replacement Theology, there is no footing for any mid-tribulation or post-tribulation rapture of the church. Those positions are framed and held by Protestants who want to hold onto their Covenant and Replacement Theology. With a clear understanding of God's dispensations, the study of Biblical prophecy of the end times is enlightening, ennobling and edifying. It is straight up Bible.

This substantial framework for understanding the doctrine of last things is so foreign to all Protestants, Orthodox, and Catholic teachings that its defense in this volume might seem overbearing. Ergo this introduction will include four detailed examinations of Biblical prophecies pertinent to these end time teachings. Carefully examine here 1) The Trumpet Calls, 2) The 70th Week of Daniel 9:24, 3) The End of the Dispensation of Grace, and 4) The Time of Jacob's Trouble. They will build a strong baseline for understanding all the end time prophecies of the Bible.

The Feasts of the LORD are Prophetic

When studying eschatology, the doctrine of last things, we love to ask with the disciples, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matt 24:3), but such a study should begin with a larger look at God's prophetic portrayals depicting both Christ's first advent and Christ's second advent. Christ came to die, first advent, he is coming to reign, second advent, and the two advents are succinctly portrayed in seven holy feasts and their seven holy convocations. It is important that a diligent Bible student focus on the larger framework before delving into where and how individual pieces of prophetic revelation fit in.

The LORD God uses seven feasts to show upcoming events in his redemptive plan for mankind. These seven feasts are thus prophetic of upcoming events and worthy of study in eschatology. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts (Lev 23:1-2).

The study of Biblical prophecy is necessarily the larger part of studying the Biblical prophecies of last things, and a short study of the seven feasts unfolds a tremendous insight of the big picture. Four of the holy convocations have already been fulfilled in Christ, the last three holy convocations, contained in the feast of trumpets on the 1st, 10th , and 15th of the Hebrew's seventh month, have not yet been fulfilled. These last three feasts prophetically point to the complete regathering and restoration of Israel in God's promised land, to dwell in perfect peace, safety, and righteousness, as God's Messiah (Hebrew), or Christ (Greek), reigns from God's “holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:6). Such a fulfilled promise is boldly spoken of by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11.


I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. … And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins (Rom. 11:1, 26-27).


The feasts that the LORD God established for Israel all portray, foreshadow, depict, and predict a significant event in Christ's advents. The seven feasts and their holy convocations are called out in Leviticus 23 and four of them have already had their foreshadowed depiction portrayed in Christ. These four unfolded make excellent example of how the latter three foreshadow and predict upcoming events in his second advent.

Each of these feasts has a holy convocation and a sabbath day associated with them. A convocation is an assembly assembled by a summons, and these are holy convocations. A sabbath is a day of rest, and these are holy sabbaths. The feast day sabbaths fall on a day of the month, not on a particular day of the week. Leviticus 23:3 first details the weekly sabbath because of this common confusion. “Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings” (vr. 3). It is important to understand that the feast day high sabbaths may occur on any Sunday through Saturday day of the week, they align with a date on the calendar, not on a day of the week.13

Let us examine all seven of these feasts. “These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons” (Lev. 23:4). As has been stated and will herein be shown, the first four have already been fulfilled in Christ.

The Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread


In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’S passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread (Lev 23:5-6)


The Apostle Paul makes clear how Christ is the fulfillment of these two foreshadowed depictions.


Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1Cor. 5:7-8).


Do not be confused about this effect of leaven. Remember Jesus' rebuke to his disciples when they misconstrued, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees... and the leaven of Herod” (Matt 16:6, Mark 8:15).14

This analysis will barely scratch the surface of Christ our passover lamb. He was selected and separated from the flock on the tenth of Abib, in the triumphal entry of Palm Sunday, and slain on the fourteenth day, on a cross of Calvary, exactly as required for the passover lamb in Exodus 12. But it must suffice here only to shew that the first two feasts called out in Leviticus 23 are completely fulfilled in Christ.

The Feast of First Fruits

The third feast for the Hebrews we call the feast of first fruits.


Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it” (Lev 23:10-11).


Again the Apostle Paul clarifies how this fits Christ prophetically.


But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death (1Cor. 15:20-26).


C. I. Scofield correctly states it “This feast is typical of resurrection – first of Christ, then 'Them that are Christ's at his coming.”15


Pentecost

The fourth feast, already fulfilled in type by the Lord Jesus Christ, is that of Pentecost.


And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD (Lev 23:15-17).


Again an insightful observation on this Penticostal fulfillment is made by C. I. Scofield:


The anti-type is the descent of the Holy Spirit to form the church... The wave loaves were offered fifty days after the wave sheaf. This is precisely the period between the resurrection of Christ and the formation of the church at Pentecost by Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4, 1Cor 12:12,13). … With the wave sheaf no leaven was offered, for there was no evil in Christ; but the wave-loaves, typifying the church, are “baken with leaven,” for in the church there is still evil (Matt 13:33, leaven in the kingdom of heaven, Acts 5:1, 10, Ananias and Sapphira, 15:1 Certain men taught the brethren and said “Except ye be circumcised ye cannot be saved.)


Thus four of the seven feasts that the LORD God established pointed to, typifies, foreshadowed, and depicted events fulfilled in Christ. It is most certainly expected that the remaining three do as well.

The Feast of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles

The feast of trumpets is all about the future and final regathering of long dispersed Israel. This final regathering of the twelve tribes is a hallmark of Bible prophecy. It was absolutely denied by the Holy Roman Catholic Church (which was not holy or catholic). It is denied by Protestant /Reformed theologians who hold to Covenant Theology, supposing that the Catholic Church, has replaced Israel and all their promises, must be allegorically applied to the church (which is called Replacement Theology). Yet the regathering and restoration of Israel, in holiness, is literally and absolutely God's everlasting covenant for the twelve tribes. (Jer 31:33-40). It is promised by God as sure as there is night and day (33:20-22)!


And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins (Romans 11:26-27).


As was said, the future and final regathering and restoration of long dispersed Israel is a hallmark of end time prophecy. Those who dismiss it are destined to completely confuse all end time Biblical prophecy. The Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles are all situate in the seventh month of the Hebrew year to prophetically point out, to Christians and to Jews, that there is coming a regathering, a restoration, and a salvation to the Jews.

The Hebrew memorial of blowing of trumpets entailed three holy convocations (a group gathered in response to a summons). On the first day of the seventh month, called a memorial of blowing of trumpets, there was a sabbath, and a holy convocation (Lev 23:24-25). On the tenth day of their seventh month, on the day of atonement, there was a sabbath, and a holy convocation (vr. 27, 32). And on the fifteenth day of their seventh month, the feast of tabernacles, there was a sabbath, and a holy convocation (vr.34-35).

The Feast of Trumpets gets its name from Leviticus 23:23-25.


And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD (Lev 23:23-25).


Two trumpets were was used to summon an assembly. “Make thee two trumpets of silver; ... that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps”(Num 10:2). After the two trumpets sound, “all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation” (vr. 3)16.

The “memorial for the blowing of trumpets” is all about the gatherings of Israel, and the feast of trumpets on the first day of their seventh month is indicative of the final regathering, and restoration of Israel at Christ's second advent.

C. I. Scofield says of this feast:


Note 2 (Lev. 23:24) The feast of Trumpets, Leviticus 23:23-25. This feast is a prophetical type and refers to the future regathering of long-dispersed Israel. A long interval elapses between Pentecost and Trumpets, answering to the long period occupied in the pentecostal work of the Holy Spirit in the present dispensation. Study carefully ; Isaiah 18:3; 27:13 (with contexts); Isaiah 58:1-14 (entire chapter), and ; Joel 2:1-3:21; in connection with the "trumpets," and it will be seen that these trumpets, always symbols of testimony, are connected with the regathering and repentance of Israel after the church, or pentecostal period is ended. This feast is immediately followed by the day of atonement.17


The Feast of the LORD: the Day of Atonement is referenced in Leviticus 23:26-28.


And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God ...It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath (Lev 23:26-28, 32).


The atonement in this feast is all about the salvation of Israel and is indicative of the day when God is “to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness” (Dan 9:24). That is the full fulfillment of atonement. In the dispensation of grace the believers' sins are atoned for (Rom 5:11, “we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”), but this Day of Atonement is indicative of an even larger fulfillment, it is a salvation out of Jacob's trouble (Jer 30:7).

C. I. Scofield says of this feast:


Note 3 (Lev. 23:27) The day of Atonement, Leviticus 23:26-32. The day is the same described in Lev. 16., but here the stress is laid upon the sorrow and repentance of Israel. In other words, the prophetical feature is made prominent, and that looks forward to the repentance of Israel after her regathering under the Palestinian Covenant, Deuteronomy 30:1-10 preparatory to the second advent of Messiah and the establishment of the kingdom. See the connection between the "trumpet" in Joel 2:1 and the mourning which follows in verses Joel 2:11-15.

Also Zechariah 12:10-13 in connection with the atonement of Zechariah 13:1. Historically the "fountain" of Zechariah 13:1 was opened at the crucifixion, but rejected by the Jews of that and the succeeding centuries. After the regathering of Israel the fountain will be efficaciously "opened" to Israel.18


The Feast of the Tabernacles is depicted in Leviticus 23:33-43.


And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD. On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein....42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Lev 23:22-36, 42-43)


Israel's dwelling in booths, earning this feast the title, Feast of Tabernacles, states for us “This world is not my home, I'm only passing through.” It was meant to clarify that for Israel as well; for them, there is coming a permanent dwelling place.


C. I. Scofield says of this feast:


Note 1 (Lev. 23:42) The feast of Tabernacles, Leviticus 23:34-44 is (like the Lord's Supper for the church) both memorial and prophetic --memorial as to redemption out of Egypt Leviticus 23:43 prophetic as to the kingdom-rest of Israel after her regathering and restoration, when the feast again becomes memorial, not for Israel alone, but for all nations. Zechariah 14:16-21. 19

Although the prophetic portrayals in these last three feasts are all about the restoration and salvation of Israel in the promised land, around and under the throne of David, occupied by their Messiah and situate in God's holy hill of Zion, they do reveal some things about believers in this dispensation of grace. Events that unfold for the congregation of Israel very often depict and picture those in a believers life. We are tabernacled in flesh, have had an atonement, and will have a holy convocation announced with a trumpet. These are spiritual fulfillments, mirrored fulfillments or foreshadowed fulfillments of these upcoming events. Our Lord declared to his disciples that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), but that does not disavow the actual upcoming Millennial Kingdom age; it is a spiritual fulfillment of a grander, more complete, final fulfillment.

Prophecy always has a final and complete fulfillment. The promised regathering of Israel is the final target and complete fulfillment of these three feast days. Prophecy has a near fulfillment that aligns with, and resonates with this far term fulfillment. However sporadically Israel observed these feasts, then and now, they point to a final regathering, salvation and restoration Israel. There are near term and partial fulfillment's of their regathering and, further, prophecy has what one might call a mirrored fulfillment, or a shadowed fulfillment20, but never let these eclipse the upcoming, complete, primary, jot-and-tittle fulfillment that the Bible is depicting.

Consequently, these three holy prophetic feast days are mirrored in this age of grace wherein Bible believers listen for a trumpet; we long for a holy convocation in the clouds when the Bridegroom calls for his Bride with a trumpet voice that says “come up hither”; we see in scripture a holy convocation at the Bema Seat of Christ; and we know of a holy convocation at the wedding table with Christ as we began our forever tabernacling with Christ in reality.


But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.... Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober (1Thes 5:1,6).


Israel should certainly be listening for a trumpet, commemorated in these three feasts. But Bible Christians are also listening for a trumpet that will call us out of this world. Keep your nose to the ground, your eye on the clouds and your ear toward the heavens listening for the trumpet. The ecclesia will have such a trio of holy convocations.

This mirrored fulfillment, or shadowed similarity, must never take away from the complete and final fulfillment of a prophecy. Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. … The Roman Catholic and Reformed Covenant theologians have tried to deny and erase God's final and promised regathering and restoration of the nation of Israel. That leaven has seeped into their ecclessiology and eschatology. Buyer beware, is the caveat emptor in contract law. As stated previous, the Lord Jesus Christ materialized the “friend speaking to a friend” intimacy in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and only those believers on such an intimate basis with Christ can read its pages with an ear to hear. Consequentially, what one grasps in the study of eschatology is a good indicator of their standing in the intimacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christendom on a whole has failed this test of intimacy, and the Catholic Church, whether Roman or Reformed, Episcopal, Methodist or Pentecostal, is herein and on this ground shown to be apostate in its grasp of eschatology.

And so the LORD God concludes the chapter on his feasts, “And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD” (Lev 23:44). These feasts, holy convocations, and holy sabbaths are given to Israel to prophetically display what God was going to do in his redemptive work. The first four feasts, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Pentecost, have been fulfilled in Christ, the last three, the Memorial of Trumpets, Atonement , and Tabernacles are looming in Israel's future. When we understand these prophetic portrayals we can better understand what is looming in our future as well.


The 70th Week of Daniel 9:24

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Daniel 9:24.


When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Matthew 24:15.


Jesus said that Daniel is a key starting point for those who would understand his second coming (Matt 24:15). Daniel became God's “greatly beloved prophet” and he sent the archangel Gabriel to him to clarify the grand outline and full timing of Christ's first and second coming. For the Bible believer Daniel 9 is a treasure trove for understanding the doctrine of last things. Again, Jesus said so.

Gabriel says to Daniel, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy” (Dan 9:24). A Bible student should carefully comprehend the six things that will be complete in seventy weeks. 1. finish the transgression, 2. and to make an end of sins, 3. and to make reconciliation for iniquity, 4. and to bring in everlasting righteousness, 5. and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and 6. to anoint the most Holy.

When Israel sent twelve spies into God's promised land and only Caleb and Joshua believed God, God sentenced Israel to forty years of death in the wilderness; a day for a year (Num 14:3421). When Ezekiel lay on his side for four-hundred and thirty days to portray the siege of Jerusalem, it was a day for a year (Ezekiel 4:622). When the Angel Gabriel tells Daniel seventy weeks are determined for thy people and thy holy city, it is a day for a year. Seventy, seven day weeks “to finish the transgression”, that is four-hundred and ninety years. And then comes “an end of sins”. Thus, a mere four-hundred and ninety years are required “to make reconciliation for iniquity.” Gabriel breaks it out for Daniel as sixty-nine weeks till Messiah's first advent, and then one more week, i.e. a seven seven year period, to bring in everlasting righteousness. Thus there should be, and was, four-hundred and eighty-three years till Messiah is cut off, and then just seven more years to seal up the vision and prophecy. That is just four-hundred and ninety years of the Jews dwelling in God's promised land, and then God would anoint the most Holy as King of kings, and Lord of lords. Praise His holy name! Glory Hallelujah! How is that going to work?


Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Daniel 9:25-27


This timing pertained to the Jews, not the Gentiles. It is to, and for, Daniel's people and Daniel's holy city. Seven weeks to build Jerusalem, sixty-two weeks to bring in, and cut off Messiah, and then in one final remaining week, one seven year period, “to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity...” (Dan 9:24-27). That, oh sincere Bible student, will be “a great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world” (Matt 24:21). Again, “Whoso readeth, let him understand.

For Gentiles, the dispensation of grace or the church age is a parenthesis in this four-hundred and ninety year schema. It has lasted almost two-thousand years now. It will end very abruptly before the horsemen of Revelation 6 begin to ride. Don't set dates, but two-thousand years after the cross of Christ, will be 2030 A.D. Allowing this week of transition, and believers should be getting antsy in 2023 as Donald Trump's second term would have drawn to a close, and now socialist / Marxist communism begins to overtake the USA. An ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times!” This Marxist turn of America could very well be the beginning of the end, given that one day all nations will be aligned against Israel, … God said so. What leftist socialists have done to get rid of their arch-nemesis is vile and deceitful, but Christians are still commanded, “In everything give thanks.... Rejoice evermore.”

It is left as an exercise for the Bible student to explore this seventieth week more fully, but three things are certainly clarified in such a study. First, in defiance of all the Roman, Orthodox, Protestant, Reformed, and Modernist teachings, and lack of teachings, about the end times, despite their development and heavy reliance on Covenant Theology and Replacement Theology, Israel, not a holy or wholly catholic church, plays the predominate role in eschatology. The promises made to Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel, promises yet to be fulfilled with jot-and-tittle literal accuracy, promises clarified, solidified, and put into the Hebrew calendar in Daniel 9:24, must be the major ingredient of a Biblical eschatology.

Second, Daniel 9:24-27 reveals an upcoming seven year period called out as the seventieth week. In Gabriel's accounting there are sixty-nine weeks leading up to the first advent of Christ (vr 25-26). Those sixty-nine weeks unfold in four-hundred and eighty-three years of already fulfilled prophecy, which aligns with other scripture (both Num 14:34 and Ezek 4:6) making a day for a year representation legitimate and reasonable, and the seventieth week is yet to be fulfilled. The seven year period yet to unfold in the timing and promise revealed in Daniel fits like a glove around the other sevens revealed in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. In that seven years of upcoming tribulation there is a trio of sevens that unfold; there are seven seals on the book, seals that are, one by one peeled off the book … “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see” (Rev 6:1); there are seven trumpets, trumpets that, one by one sound a warning of the wrath to come … “And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. … 6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.” (Rev 8:2,6); and there are seven vials of the wrath of God, vials that, one by one, are poured out, … “And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth” (Rev 16:1).

The seventieth week, the seven year period yet to be fulfilled in the promise and timing given to Daniel, a revelation and promise about his people (Hebrews) and his holy city (Jerusalem), will thus be fulfilled in a great tribulation period. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt 24:21).

The third obvious observation from the study of Daniel 9:24-27 is that the seventieth week is to be divided in the midst. In the midst of that week, there will be “the overspreading of abominations... even until the consummation” (vr. 27). That division in the midst is clearly revealed in other scriptures to be at the three-and-a-half year center point of a seven year tribulation period.


Daniel 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days (6 years, 4 months, 20 days23); then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

Daniel 12:11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days (3 years, 7 months).

Daniel 12:12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days (3 years, 8 ½ months).

Revelation 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days (3 years, 6 months), clothed in sackcloth.

Revelation 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days (3 years, 6 months).


Anyone who has observed Easter bouncing around on our spring calendar knows that the Hebrew lunar calendar does not regularly align with our Gregorian solar calendar; Easter is always the Sunday after the Hebrew Passover that falls on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month Abib, now called Nissan. Nor does the fall Hebrew holy day Yom Kippur always fall in the last week of September on our solar calendar. To keep the Hebrew lunar calendar, which has twelve 30 day months, in sync with the solar year, they add a month every seven years (approximately). This month addition is seen in Daniel 12 in the last half of the seven year tribulation period, and in Daniel 12:12 there is an additional month and a half buffer added. Don't let “scholars” who try to use misappropriations of the Hebrew's 360 day year, or wave their hands over the additional thirty days in Daniel 12's time-line jerk you around.

The half of the a seven year tribulation period, or 3 ½ years, is also represented as a year, a couple years, and a half a year in the following scriptures.


it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished... And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. (Dan 12:7, Rev 12:14).


Also if one should divide the 404 verses of the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the midst, at verse 202, they would find Revelation 12:8. Therein one would find more evidence about “the midst” of Daniel's seventieth week; “and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he ('the prince that shall come') shall make it desolate,...” It is not a coincidence that this center section of the Revelation of Jesus Christ states that:


And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him (Rev 12:7,8,9).


This marks the center of the Revelation and the center of the great tribulation. It is when the Beast is revealed, when Hebrews should flee from Jerusalem. Observe C. I. Scofield's insightful note about the Beast that is herein revealed:


Note 2 (Rev. 19:20) The Beast, Summary: This "Beast" is the "little horn" of Daniel 7:24-26 and "desolator" of Daniel 9:27 the "abomination of desolation" of Matthew 24:15 the "man of sin" of 2 Thessalonians 2:4-8 earth's last and most awful tyrant, Satan's fell instrument of wrath and hatred against God and the Jewish saints. He is, perhaps, identical with the rider on the white horse of Revelation 6:2 who begins by the peaceful conquest of three of the ten kingdoms into which the former Roman empire will then be divided, but who soon establishes the ecclesiastical and governmental tyranny described in Dan. 7., 9., 11.; Re 13. To him Satan gives the power which he offered to Christ. ; Matt 4:8; Matt 4:9; Revelation 13:4. See "The great tribulation," Psalms 2:5.24


The certainty of the seven year period contained in the seventieth week of Daniel 9 is clearly divided in its midst. In Biblical prophecy of the end times Jesus spoke of the “abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet” and in Daniel that “Beast” comes in the “midst of the week.” Thus, the seven years are divided into two 3 ½ year periods. “Whoso readeth, let him understand.” The visions and dreams of Daniel the prophet are key to unlocking the doctrine of last things, and the clock and calendar of those things tics and clicks on Daniel 9:24.


Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Daniel 9:24.


The Bible Student who would understand eschatology needs to,


Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2Tim 2:15.


The End of the Dispensation of Grace

The Apostle Paul specifically names two dispensations when he writes to the saints which are at Ephesus. “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him (Eph 1:10). This dispensation, the “dispensation of the fullness of times”, is called out in Paul's introduction, and is obviously the last dispensation. In the dispensation of the fullness of times all the stewardship tests for all of mankind are completed. Remember that “stewardship” and “dispensation” are synonymous, coming from the same Greek root word. The last of the seven dispensations, this ending dispensation of the fullness of times must include an “end of sins, and reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness...” as promised to God's beloved prophet Daniel (Dan 9:24). Jesus references this dispensation as the kingdom, and we know it includes the King of kings setting on the throne of David in God's holy hill of Zion.

The Apostle Paul also calls out a “dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph 3:1-3). The marvelous intent of this dispensation of grace, which was previously a mystery (vr.3,9), a mystery now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit (vr.5), a dispensational age wherein “the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (vr.6),...25 the marvelous intent is stated as, “that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (vr.10). God clearly calls out this intent for his church in the previous chapter (2:6-7)26.

Make no catholic mistake here, this dispensation of grace will come to an end, and the next dispensation of the fullness of times will begin. It will end in troublous times, as it was in the days of Noah (Matt 24:37-39, Luke 17:26-27),... as it was in the time of Sodom and Gomorrah (Luke 17:28-30). The study of how our present dispensation of grace ends, and how the next dispensation, the dispensation of the fullness of times, is ushered in is a critical study because Roman Catholic and Protestant teachings, with their Covenant Theology, completely deny both dispensations, and acknowledge no transition! The Biblical transition, between these two dispensations, begins with the rapture of the church, proceeds through seven seals, seven trumpets, seven vials of the wrath of God, and finally comes to a close with a battle of Armageddon. That battle ushers in the last dispensation, the Kingdom age. The Bible student must keep his inerrant, infallible, verbally inspired Holy Bible open and this larger picture in view. Don't settle for any catholic allegorical interpretation of scripture, Jesus teaches “jot and tiddle” fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. Don't settle for an ecumenical, modernist, copyright bible that represents what ecumenical modernists think God meant to say. Remember they are required to have sixty-thousand “major deviations” for each succeeding copyright!

All this, in a detailed study of Biblical prophecy, is called the study of end times, eschatology in Greek. Troublous times are arising in America. Being a student of the end times is to be a great comfort to Christians, as Paul explicates in 1Thes. 4:18, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

The seven year transition period between the dispensation of Grace, that we are presently in, and the dispensation of the fullness of times, where Christ sits on the throne of David for 1,000 years, causes great consternation for catholic Christendom. It is, however, in perfect accord with Bible prophecy. Recall that the Holy Roman Catholic Church, which is not holy, nor catholic, has taught for 1,721 years that it replaces Israel and ushers in a kingdom reign of Christ through its Vatican City. In their Roman Catholic teachings there is no rapture of the church, no seven year tribulation period, and no transition to the next dispensation, because they recognize no Bible dispensations, and suppose we are presently in the great tribulation. They teach no salvation of the literal Jews, no literal millennial reign of Christ, and no coming likeness to the days of Noah or Sodom. They teach only that their infallible pope, ruling from their impeccable Vatican City, will usher in a kingdom and hand the keys back to Christ at his return.

Three things further that a Bible student of prophecy needs to consider, a good Roman Catholic who attends a church or reads a book that might believe and propagate these Bible truths, must go to his priest and confess this as a sin. Just as troubling know that the majority of the world believes Roman Catholicism is Christianity. And even more troubling know that all Protestant main line denominations carry this gross error around in their covenant theology. These are troubling because the student that would pursue Bible truth, must continually buck against the majority, against mainline denominations, against “orthodoxy”,and against men in long black dresses and long degrees who call themselves “clergy”. Could every Protestant theologian, clinging to his covenant theology, and his replacement theology be wrong and the Holy Bible be right? Jesus said it would be so. Jesus said it would be worth it.

In the Bible, big picture, the two dispensations called out by the Apostle Paul fit very succinctly into five previous stewardship tests and covenant theologians are only covering up for blunders in Roman Catholic theology. Yea verily, if a Bible student is going to comprehend Bible prophecy of the end times, they must set aside Catholic teachings completely, consciously trash covenant theology, consciously reject all replacement theology, and be a student of the Bible and its seven dispensations, i.e. periods of stewardships given to prove mankind depraved in seven ways.

Some will not be able to clear that hurdle. When one has swallowed misinformation all their life, it is dreadfully hard to let it go. But the Holy Bible is a powerful enlightener when it comes to the doctrine of last things. In fact it claims to be an all powerful living book (Heb 4:12, 2Tim 3:16-17).

Again let's review seven dispensations depicted in the Bible. One cannot account for a thorough coverage of Biblical eschatology (or anthropology, or ecclesiology) without a consideration of the great stages of stewardship wherewith mankind has been and will be tested. A systematic review of the whole of Scripture discovers seven distinct stewardship tests for man.

C. I. Scofield (1843-1921), genius Bible scholar and one of the founders of Christian fundamentalism, is not the founder of dispensationalism, as Catholics and Calvinists contend. Nor is the founder John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), the Anglo-Irish Bible teacher and renowned Plymouth Brethren theologian. These men popularized, advanced and defended the clear Bible teachings of dispensationalism, but Bible doctrine does not have human founders.

Scofield documents dispensationalism very clearly. The seven dispensations that the Bible portrays are A. Innocence (Gen. 1:28), B. Conscious (Gen.3:23), C. Human Government (Gen. 8:20), D. Promise (Gen. 12:1), E. Law (Exod. 19:8), F. Grace (John 1:17, Eph. 3:1-6), and G. Kingdom (Eph. 1:10).

In each of these dispensations man is given a set of rules or expectations from his Creator, and given a period of time wherein he is held accountable. Each dispensation ends in mans utter failure; Innocence – the Fall, Conscience – the first born man becomes the first first degree murderer and “the imaginations and thoughts of (man's) heart” brought about the world flood, Human Government – The Tower of Babel, Promise – Israel's bondage in Egypt, Law – The crucifixion of our Lord, Grace – As it was in the days of Sodom, and Kingdom – After the thousand years, Satan is loosed and quickly deceives the nations which rise up against Christ's throne.

The dispensations as distinguished, exhibit the majestic, progressive order of the divine dealings of God with humanity. They show 'the increasing purpose' which runs through and links together the ages, from the beginning of the life of man to the end in eternity.27 These distinct dispensations are important for one who would,

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth(2Tim 2:15).


The Lord Jesus Christ does not step in to be the salvation of Israel, as stated in Romans 11, through the church in the time of the Gentiles. This church age, the age of grace, this present dispensation, comes to a close with the rapture of the church (1Thes 4, 1Cor 15), the judging of the saints (1Cor 3:12-15) at the Bema seat judgment, and the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:9).

As those things take place in heaven things degrade here on earth as the seven seals are removed, one by one, from the seven sealed book. The seventh seal reveals seven angels (Rev 8:1-2) that announce and give a foretaste of the wrath to come. The seventh angel sounds his trumpet and announces, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Through all of this the church is not the witness here on earth as it was in the times of the Gentiles. Instead there are a hundred-and-forty-four thousand virgin male Jews, and two ordained and indestructible witnesses in Jerusalem.

Some covenant theologians, in blatant error but in the majority in Christendom and in “Orthodoxy” (i.e. of Roman Catholic roots), try to muddy the water with a post-tribulation rapture or a mid-tribulation rapture, but the Bible clearly depicts that the church age saints, born-again, indwelt saints, differ markedly from tribulation saints. The latter enduring to the end for a physical salvation; the former with an Acts 2021 conversion and quickened inside them eternal salvation. And the ordained witnesses during the tribulation period are from the twelve tribes of Israel, not from nations of Gentiles.

The nations of Gentiles are about to be judged with the wrath of God poured out of seven vials, the then led into the Battle of Armageddon and destroyed. Then, and only then is the final dispensation ushered in. It is after all nations pit themselves against Israel, and our Lord Jesus Christ, as King of kings and Lord of lords, comes riding in on a white horse and “saves” Israel, that the final dispensation, the Kingdom Age, is established with Christ on the throne of David in God's holy hill of Zion for 1,000 years.

If a Bible student does not keep the big picture in view, he will get lost in the details and mislead by the false teachers. “He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” is purposefully repeated by Christ seven times (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29, 3:6, 13, 22).

This dispensation will end, the next dispensation will be usherd in. Israel will be saved, and Christ will sit on the throne of David in God's holy hill of Zion. There will be an end of sins, and everlasting righteousness will be ushered in. Praise the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.



The Time of Jacob's Trouble


Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: It is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:7)


The seven year tribulation, revealed to be the seventieth week of Daniel 9:24, is herein called “the time of Jacob's trouble.” The main point of this article is just that, the seven year tribulation period is not Israel's trouble, not Judah's trouble, not Gentile's trouble, and not the Church's trouble, it is indeed the time of Jacob's trouble. Notice also that “he (Jacob) shall be saved out of it.” In fact, one could tag the language of the Apostle Paul right onto that revelation, “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Romans 11:26-27).

Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, had his name changed to Israel, “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Genesis 32:28). And again,


And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land” (35:9-12).


In an annual read trhough the Bible it is insightful to see how God carefully distinguishes these two names. In God's Word there is a lot in a name. Jacob, because he came from the womb holding Esau's heel, means supplanter or one who wrongfully seizes the place of another. That name is used to emphasize the humanity, the flesh, the carnality and/or physical quality of Abraham's grandson.

Israel, has its meaning given in the verse above, and that name is used to emphasize the spiritual and sanctified quality of Jacob. This contrast of these names can be better understood by contrasting the Bible's 603 uses of “children of Israel” (39 in prophets, 14 in NT) with the three uses of “children of Jacob.” So too in the four uses of “Sons of Israel” with the eleven uses of “sons of Jacob.” That comparison is left as an exercise for the Bible student.

In the text before us it is “the time of Jacob's trouble” indicative of the flesh and carnality of the whole nation of Israel, i.e. all twelve tribes, and in Romans 11 it is “all Israel shall be saved:” and the Deliverer, “shall turn away the ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant with them when I shall take away their sins.

When will this prophecy take place? When will God take away the ungodliness from Jacob and remove their sins? Clearly it did not happen when God brought Judah (and only Judah) out of the Babylonian captivity and established them back in God's promised land. And just as clearly, it is to happen when God finishes the transgression, makes an end of sins, makes reconciliation for iniquity, brings in everlasting righteousness, seals up the vision and prophecy, and anoints the most Holy, exactly as prophesied in Daniel 9:24. The “jot and tittle” fulfillment of these revelations will be in that as yet unaccounted for seventieth week of Daniel 9:24, wherein the seven day week represents the seven year period.28 In that week the great tribulation will unfold.

The opening of the seven sealed book in the Revelation of Jesus Christ has everything to do with the judgment of nations and their dealings with God's chosen nation, Israel, and nothing to do with the church. After the Lamb opens the seven seals, after the silence in heaven is broken by seven warning trumpets, and after the “great and marvelous” seven last plagues are poured upon the earth, as men “gnaw their tongue for pain and blaspheme the God of heaven and repent not of their deeds”, God gathers them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue “Armageddon!”

The seventieth week of Daniel is the time of Jacob's trouble. It has ntothing to do with the church, nor the church age, and everthing to do with “he (Jacob) shall be saved out of it” and “there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer...” Pay close attention to this larger picture. It is completely obscured by the Replacement Theology of the “Holy” Roman “Catholic” church. Luther, Zwingly, Calvin and other Protestants never protested this gross error and their blundering around with Covenant Theology now protests the rapture, the seven year tribulation period, and the millenial reign of Christ, just like their mother did. They try to appease and engulf unsuspecting Baptist (non-Protestants) with compromised talk of a post-tribulation or mid-tribulation rapture. Don't be drawn in. The time of Jacob's trouble is “Jacob's trouble”, the church has been caught away out, and is attending a Bema judgment (1Cor 3) and a marriage supper (Rev 19:9).

Consider next the end of this time of Jacob's trouble and the salvation of all Israel in a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.



The Battle of Armageddon

And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.... And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. (Revelation 14:14-20, 16:16)


After the rapture of the church, their “Bema Seat” judgment and marriage supper of the Lamb; after the seven seals are removed from the book written within and on the backside, after the seven trumpets break the silence of heaven, after the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stood in the holy place, and lashed out to destroy Israel and after the seven vials of the wrath of God are poured out on the world, then, and not until then, the time of Jacob's trouble is culminated and the physical and literal salvation of Israel is accomplished in the Battle of Armageddon.


And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:11-16)


The division of the 2nd coming of Christ into two phases, one where he comes for his saints, and one where he comes with his saints, one where he meets us in the air, and one where his foot touches down on the Mount of Olives, causes consternation in catholics, but it is in perfect harmony with the revelations found in the Holy Bible. This well rehearsed verse verse, wherein our Lord Jesus Christ comes riding in on a white horse, marks the beginning of the Battle of Armageddon, and the end of “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time.” The Bible says:


Behold the day of the LORD cometh... For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; … Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations,... And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which shall cleave in the midst thereof..., and there shll be a very great valley. (Zech 14:1-9).


Armageddon is the culmination of the week of tribulation, and ushers in the kingdom age where Christ is indeed, literally and physically present, King of kings, and Lord of lords.

In the Old Testament God builds a Temple for his people, in the New Testament God builds his people for a Temble, and at the rapture of the Church that presence of the Holy Spirit of God is caught up out of this world.

The Apostle Paul reveals to the church of the Thessalonians,


And now ye know what withholdeth that he,... the man of sin,... the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God, … ye know what witholdeth that he might be revealed in his time... only he (the Holy Spirit of God) who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. (2Thes 2:6, 3,4,7,8).


Paul goes on with revelation about this son of perdition,


Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (2:9-10)


It is appropriate right here to stop and closely examine that revelation, “they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved”. It is possible that someone reading this article might not be saved. A vain curiosity about the Battle of Armageddon may have brought you to this page. Or, perhaps, one reading this is with an unsaved individual, and they need to rehearse this gospel truth out loud.

Jesus said, and caused to be recorded in the Holy Bible, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17). You need to be saved.... Saved from what? Saved from condemnation! “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (3:18).

There are only two kind of people in this world, SAVED, and UNSAVED. Which are you, and how certain are you? The SAVED have everlasting life. Those not SAVED from their condemnation have the wrath of God hanging over their head, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (3:36).

Jesus goes on with great emphasis on this truth, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (5:24).

If you have not ben passed from death unto life you are still under condemnation and trudging a path towards the wrath of God You need to be saved from that condemnation.

Paul lays out this plight of mankind in a letter toall that be in Rome and it clarifies that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God; … But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 3:23, 5:8). And how Christ has the power to reconcile you to your Creator,


Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:... Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.(5:12,18-19).


Understand here, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (6:23).

Now if I got my sweet wife a dozen roses and a box of Russel Stovers, and said, “I have a gift for you, because I love you so, I will give it to you if you weed two rows of my garden and clean out my garage...” It isn't really a gift any more is it. Religions ask us to do something to receive salvation, but there is no penance, or bead counting, or prayers to graven statues that can get us into the kingdom of God! No good works, of any kind can “purchase” the gift, else it is not a free gift. It is only the acceptance of the gift that is required and the formal acceptance is given by God as,


That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Rom 10:9-10).


The importance of ones salvation is hammered home with Paul's next revelation to the church of the Thessalonians, “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2Thes 2:11-12)

It has never been easier to be saved than it is right now, one should be saved before the strong delusion depicted in this verse comes, and before the man of sin, depicted earlier, is revealed.

Satan wants to destroy Israel (Rev 12:12-13), and to be like the most high God (Isa 14:14). He sets up his own trinity as it were, in the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet (Rev 16:13). He has his own kingdom with armies, his own church called Mystery Babylon (which looks remarkably like the Roman Vatican), and his own City of Babylon. Babylon and Mystery Babylon are destroyed leading up to Armageddon, and the dragon, the beast, the false prophet, and the armies marching against Jerusalem, the city of God, are all destroyed in the Battle of Armageddon.

In this great battle, concluding the seven year tribulation period, wherein the last vial of the wrath of God is poured out (Rev 16:16-1729), the nations of the earth are gathered together (Zeph 3:8, Zech 14:230), the blood rises even unto the horses bridle (Rev 14:2031), the Beast and False Prophet are defeated (Rev 19:19-2032), the remnant that had the mark of the beast are slain (Rev 19:2133), and the dragon, that old Serpant, which is the Devil, and Satan, is bound for the 1,000 years of the millennial kingdom reign of Christ (Rev 20:1-334).

And so, Armageddon, the ancient hill and valley of Megiddo, west of Jordan in the plain of Jezreel, is the appointed place for the beginning of the great battle in which the Lord at his coming in glory, will deliver the Jewish remnant beseiged by the Gentile world powers under the beast and false prophet (Rev 16:13-15, Zech 12:1-9).

Apparently the besieging hosts, whose approach to Jerusalem is described in Isaiah 10:28-32, are alarmed by the sign which proceeds the Lord's coming (Matt 24:29-30), and have fallen back to Megiddo after the events of Zech 14:2. This is where their destruction begins, a destruction consummated in Moab and in the plains of Idumea (Isa 63:1-6). This battle is the first event in the “day of Jehovah” (Isa 2:12), and is the fulfillment of the smiting stone prophecy of Daniel 2:35.

That is a lot of information given as an introduction to eschatology. It is intended to seal the big picture in the mind of the Bible student who will further explore the incredible details revealed for our learning and for our comfort.

In “Prophecy Made Plain” C. I. Scofield calls the study of prophecy “ennobling”:


And when he had spoken unto me I was strengthened” (Dan. 10. 19). That is the statement of Daniel as to the effect upon him of a prophetic communication. Daniel knowing, as he says, “from books” (probably from the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel) that the time for the deliverance of Israel from the Babylonian captivity was near at hand set himself – by confession and prayer, confessing his sins and the sins of his people, and seeking the face of the Lord – to know more definitely the things concerning the future of Israel, and he describes, in the words of the text, the effect upon himself of the revelation received. An angel was sent to enlighten him as to the subject about which he desired to know, and the effect of it was that he was strengthened. There was, then, a direct result, an effect upon the man himself.

Our theme then is the influence upon character and conduct of prophetic truth.... There is a great deal of the study of prophetic truth, and a great deal of the hearing of the exposition of prophetic truth, which has no effect upon conduct or character, simply because it is heard or studied without faith. We bring to it a sort of vulgar curiosity. We desire to know what all these images, and beasts, and horns signify, believing in a way that there is in them some unfolding of that which is to come to pass if one can but hit upon the right interpretation. We may come to the study of prophetic truth with that mind and derive no profit whatever. It is therefore a believing understanding of prophetic truth which has an influence upon either character or conduct. …

It is peculiarly the prophetic part of Scriptures which brings us into intimacy with God. … nothing brings us into such moulding intimacy with God as the believing study of prophecy. ...

Think again how the knowledge acquired in this peculiar intimacy is inconceivably large and ennobling; think what the prophetic student is occupied with; think of the vastness of the subject with which the prophetic Word deals; think what a pageant that it is which passes before the eye of the student of prophecy.

We open the pages of the prophetic Word, and we see passing before us the magnificent panorama of the future of the nations. Our God unfolds to us that which He is doing here and there in this world; and not only that, He lifts the veil and shows us that which He is going to do in the future. Through the prophetic Word, and through that alone, we look over into the great hereafter, and see that which is to be. We look into an open Heaven with all its joys and glories, the goal of our own desire; and we look into an open Hell. All this is in the prophetic Word. The mightiest subjects, the greatest thoughts that can possibly fill the mind are those with which the prophetic Word is occupied. Think of it! We are permitted to see in prophecy the unfolding of God's majestic purposes as regards His ancient people. We are permitted to look to the end or our own age, the Church age. We see the kingdom age unfolding beyond the Church age. We are permitted to see the establishment upon this earth of a universal monarchy under the rule and reign of the Son of God Himself. Why, if it is possible for any kind of knowledge to lift us up above ignoble things, to give us that breadth of vision and of thought which certainly are essential to all noble character, it is the prophetic Word which will do it, and the prophetic Word only.35


May God bless your study of eschatology, the doctrine of last things.



Chapter 2 The Things Seen, Which Are, and Which Shall Be

When our Lord Jesus Christ gave his Apostle John his Revelation he commanded, “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter” (Rev 1:19). The latter of these three is eschatology. The first is, of course, what John wrote in his gospel record and in his three epistles, i.e. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it...)” (1John 1:1-2a). That constitutes, for the Apostle John, “The things which thou hast seen.

The things which are;” were written by the Apostle John when he wrote the seven messages to the seven churches. When John, the last living Apostle, wrote in the end of the first century A.D. the “things which are,” they consisted of the local independent autonomous churches. The fact that there were seven messages to seven churches emphasizes both independence and completeness. Ergo the church is not “catholic” and specific time periods for this present age, i.e. the church age, are revealed in these seven messages. Thus the first chapter of Revelation is relegated to Jesus' first category, “The things that thou hast seen;” the second and third chapters are relegated to “the things which are;” and chapters four through twenty two “the things which shall be hereafter.” The latter being a major part of the eschatology that is to be examined in this volume.

Before correlating those nineteen chapters of the Revelation of Jesus Christ with the doctrine of the last things, it needs to be said that the seven messages to the seven churches correlates to the church history that we have seen transpire in the last two thousand years. Ergo, the seven messages are prophetic of what was to unfold in time, and might well be considered in an eschatology work. Their unfolding in history is not a coincidence and a thorough exposition of that correlation can be found in this work in Volume 9, “Ecclesiology – The Doctrine of the Church.” In that that unfolding of church history has already occurred and we are presently in a Laodicean Church Age, it will suffice here only to carefully examine C. I. Scofield's note about the seven churches:


Note 3 (Rev. 1:20) The messages to the seven churches have a fourfold application:

(1) Local, to the churches actually addressed;

(2) admonitory, to all churches in all time as tests by which they may discern their true spiritual state in the sight of God;

(3) personal, in the exhortations to him "that hath an ear," and in the promise "to him that overcometh";

(4) prophetic, as disclosing seven phases of the spiritual history of the church from, say, A.D. 96 to the end. It is incredible that in a prophecy covering the church period, there should be no such foreview. These messages must contain that foreview if it is in the book at all, for the church does not appear after Revelation 3:22. Again, these messages by their very terms go beyond the local assemblies mentioned. Most conclusively of all, these messages do present an exact foreview of the spiritual history of the church, and in this precise order. Ephesus gives the general state at the date of the writing; Smyrna, the period of the great persecutions; Pergamos, the church settled down in the world, "where Satan's throne is," after the conversion of Constantine, say A.D. 316. Thyatira is the Papacy, developed out of the Pergamos state: Balaamism (worldliness) and Nicolaitanism (priestly assumption) having conquered. As Jezebel brought idolatry into Israel, so Romanism weds Christian doctrine to pagan ceremonies. Sardis is the Protestant Reformation, whose works were not "fulfilled." Philadelphia is whatever bears clear testimony to the Word and the Name in the time of self-satisfied profession represented by Laodicea.36


The real key in understanding what Christ has revealed in the last nineteen chapters of his revelation, i.e. eschatology, only comes when one understands that God works with man in seven distinct dispensations. Christ gives to the Apostle John three distinct time divisions to write down. When John wrote “what he had seen,” i.e. Jesus before his ascension, he recorded the transition period between the dispensation of law and the dispensation of grace. When he recorded “the things which are,” i.e. the seven messages to the seven churches (Rev 2-3), he wrote about the dispensation of grace. When the Apostle John wrote “the things which shall be hereafter” he recorded the transition period after the dispensation of grace and before the dispensation of the kingdom (Rev 4-19), then the kingdom (Rev 20), and then the new heaven and the new earth (Rev 21-22). If one does not rightly divide God's seven dispensations they cannot rightly divide the word of truth, and they certainly cannot construct a Biblical eschatology.

If one does not clearly distinguish and delineate the seven year transition period between grace and kingdom dispensations, the period where the seven sealed book of judgment is being unsealed, trumpeted, and then vialed out, the period where the 144 thousand Jews are the gospel witnesses because the church has been raptured out, well then there will be great confusion throughout every aspect of their eschatology. It is quite like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, wherein, in wisdom, one puts the frame together first. Again Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant denominations reject dispensational doctrine and cling to a Covenant and Replacement Theology. They have no framework for their eschatology because they consider it to be “the completion of the Church” with no consideration of the redemption of Israel. Concerning eschatology and the second advent in particular Charles Hodge(1797-1878), a Presbyterian Minister, Princeton Theologian, and Father of Printed Systematic Theologies, confesses a great shortcoming concerning Biblical prophecy:


“This is a very comprehensive and very difficult subject. ... This task cannot be satisfactorily accomplished by any one who has not made the study of the prophecies a specialty. The author, knowing that he has no such qualifications for the work, purposes to confine himself in a great measure to a historical survey of the different schemes of interpreting the Scriptural prophecies relating to this subject.”37


In other words Charles Hodge, the Father of Systematic Theologies, the genius, author, communicator, Presbyterian Theologian Extraordinaire, did not have a clue about the last nineteen chapters of the Revelation of Jesus Christ! He bows out to a supposed “prophecy specialist”! Protestants did not protest nor break away from the errant teachings of the Holy Roman Catholic Church (which was neither holy nor catholic). They carried on, and still carry on, a rejection of the millennial reign of Christ, a rejection of the dispensational teachings of scripture, and a rejection of the pre-millennial, pre-tribulational rapture of the church. Charles Hodge was at a loss of words in his eschatology, … Charles Hodge D.D., principal of Princeton Theological Seminary, at a loss for words.

Even Augustus Strong (1836-1921), American Baptist Pastor & Theologian, supposes with Schleiermacher that “Eschatology is essentially prophetic; and is therefore vague and indefinite, like all unfulfilled prophecy.”38 Those who reject dispensationalism cannot discern Bible eschatology.

Thus, in this introduction to a Biblical eschatology, we need to clearly outline the seven dispensations and review the transition periods between each. We also need to examine the Covenant Theology and Replacement Theology which keeps Roman Catholicism and Protestant Reformers from the truth of dispensationalism. One can safely say that all of “Christendom” is pursuing this false teaching. The Roman Church conceived it, John Calvin constructed it, the Protestant Church pursued it, and Reformed Theology embraces it. Ergo every mainline denomination of Christendom is tainted by Covenant Theology. Further every false cult of Christianity sprang from this wild root of apostate error. Consequently, this introduction must also briefly survey some of the foolish gangling that comes from Covenant Theology. First examine the clear dispensations outlined in God's Word.


Chapter 3 Good Eschatology Requires Good Dispensationalism

One cannot account for a thorough coverage of Biblical eschatology without a consideration of the great stages of stewardship wherewith mankind has been and will be tested. A systematic review of the whole of Scripture discovers seven distinct stewardship tests for man. Since the concept of the progressive testing of man in these stewardship phases, properly called dispensations, insults and assaults Roman Catholic Church doctrine, and that of its Protestant offspring, the Biblical basis for this teaching needs careful development up front.

A preliminary development of dispensationalism was given in the doctrine of man, Vol 6 Anthropology, because of the stewardship of man that it captures. Another development of dispensationalism is pursued in the doctrine of the church, Volume 09 Ecclesiology, because the church age has a beginning and a closing that is crucial to that doctrine. Dispensational truths are presented again here in order to understand the doctrine of last things. One cannot understand the second coming of Christ without discerning the transition from the dispensation of grace into the last dispensation, “the dispensation of the the fullness of times,” called the Kingdom Age. For that reason a solid understanding of the seven dispensations is vital to Biblical doctrine. That understanding can be achieved by going through Chapter 5 of the Anthropology volume and/or Chapter 2 of the Ecclesiology volume and/or this volume pursuing the doctrine of last things. A brief outline of these seven dispensations is included below:


God's Seven Dispensations Outlined

The First Dispensation – Innocence (Gen 1:28 Scofield Note)

The Second Dispensation – Conscience (Gen 3:23 Scof. Note)

The Third Dispensation – Government (Gen 8:21 Scof. Note)

The Fourth Dispensation – Promise (Gen 12:1 Scof. Note)

The Fifth Dispensation – Law (Exod 19:8 Scof. Note)

The Sixth Dispensation – Grace and Truth (John 1:17, Eph 3:1-6)

The Seventh Dispensation – The Kingdom (Eph 1:10 Scof. Note )


Much more needs to be said about these dispensations. It is necessary to be systematically aware of their presence in the big picture. Mankind is given thorough and complete testing and opportunity in seven distinct phases, covering seven thousand years, and is repeatedly found lacking in each stewardship and dispensation. Dispensationalism is key to comprehending the larger picture of all of Scripture.

An understanding of dispensations is best introduced starting in the book of Genesis. So is an understanding of God, an understanding of man, and an understanding of redemption. But presuming some understanding of those three, let us focus on the very first dispensation, which is often called “Innocence.” Most simply, a dispensation is a period of time where stewardship is tested. Stewardship and dispensation come from the same root word, oikonomia in Greek.

The First Dispensation – Innocence

God placed man in the Garden of Eden with a specific requirement of obedience. He was left in that testing for a period of time to “see” how he would fare39. He fared poorly, and was consequently removed from the Garden. There were consequences for his failure and that period of testing, for all mankind, was abruptly ended. Now a new set of guidelines must be determined, a new testing of mankind would be pursued.

In that scenario there is a general set of guidelines which define a dispensation (Greek - oikonomiaoikonomia translated in English “dispensation,” four times and “stewardship,” three times). It is defined in the lexicon, the management, oversight, or administration of a household or of other property- usually owned by another. A dispensation contains 1) a set of rules, guidelines or expectations given by God, 2) a period of time wherein man is tried or tested under the guidelines, and 3) a distinct ending of the testing period wherein (it shall be seen as the pattern develops) man fails to live up to the guideline. The word dispensation is used four times in the Holy Bible (1Cor 9:17, Eph 1:10, 3:2, and Col 1:25). Additionally it is translated stewardship three times (Luke 16:2, 3, 4). The understanding of stewardship might better refine what a dispensation is because as a steward one is left in charge of what belongs to another, there is a period of time where they are accountable, and there is a definite ending wherein “the Lord of the vineyard” returns (cf Matt 21:33-46). The first dispensation, innocence in the Garden of Eden, illustrates well these three concepts of a dispensation.

C. I. Scofield provides this concise explanation of the first dispensation:


Scofield Note 4 (1:28, heading) A dispensation is a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God. Seven such dispensations are distinguished in Scripture. (See Gen.1:28 note 5).

Scofield Note 5 (1:28 And God blessed them...) The First Dispensation: Innocency. Man was created in innocency, placed in a perfect environment, subjected to an absolutely simple test, and warned of the consequence of disobedience. The woman fell through pride; the man deliberately. 1 Timothy 2:14 God restored His sinning creatures, but the dispensation of innocency ended in the judgment of the Expulsion Gen.3:2440


The Second Dispensation – Conscience

What were the rules after man was removed from the Garden of Eden? C. I. Scofield labeled the second dispensation Conscience.” Therein man did what was right in his own mind. In the dispensation of conscience the first born man became the first first-degree murderer. Note particularly in that murder report, that man was not to take vengeance or retribution on Cain for his act of murder. Instead man had to answer for himself before a Holy God. Note also that a blood sacrifice was required in this age of conscience. Even if the learned scholar cannot find it in Genesis chapter four, the Bible believer knows the principle well from Hebrews 9:22, “And almost all things are by law purged with blood; and without the shedding of blood is no remission (of sin).”

How did this dispensation of conscience end?


And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart (Gen 6:5-6).


C. I. Scofield provides this concise explanation of the second dispensation:


Scofield Note 2 (3:23 Therefore the Lord God...) The Second Dispensation: Conscience. By disobedience man came to a personal and experimental knowledge of good and evil--of good as obedience, of evil as disobedience to the known will of God. Through that knowledge conscience awoke. Expelled from Eden and placed under the second, or ADAMIC COVENANT, man was responsible to do all known good, to abstain from all known evil, and to approach God through sacrifice. The result of this second testing of man is stated in Genesis 6:5 and the dispensation ended in the judgment of the Flood. Apparently "the east of the garden" Genesis 3:24 where were the cherubims and the flame, remained the place of worship through this second dispensation.41


The flood brought the second dispensation to an expedient end. A new dispensation would now begin.


The Third Dispensation – Government

When man's conscience before God was unable to keep him from evil, God installed a dispensation wherein man was accountable to man to curb him from evil. C. I. Scofield labeled the third dispensation “Government.” Human government has three primary responsibilities in this endeavor, 1) to promote the good, 2) to punish the bad, and 3) to protect the innocent. These primary functions of a government are carried to our current day. It is intended to keep a restraint on man's depravity, iniquity and evil. It finds its root and basis in God's command,


And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man (Gen 9:5-6).


Of course much more could be said about this dispensation, but consider that it did have other provisions, like shortened life spans, the eating of meat, and its tower of Babble consequence (Gen 6:3, 9:3, 11:3). Note also that this dispensation did not formally end, it just got dispersed to all the nations of the world when they dispersed with confounded languages. In that sense the role and principles of human government continue until today.

C. I. Scofield provides this concise explanation of the third dispensation:


Scofield Note 1(Gen.8:21 ...the Lord said in his heart...) The Third Dispensation: Human Government. Under Conscience, as in Innocency, man utterly failed, and the judgment of the Flood marks the end of the second dispensation and the beginning of the third. The declaration of the Noahic Covenant subjects humanity to a new test. Its distinctive feature is the institution, for the first time, of human government--the government of man by man. The highest function of government is the judicial taking of life. All other governmental powers are implied in that. It follows that the third dispensation is distinctively that of human government. Man is responsible to govern the world for God. That responsibility rested upon the whole race, Jew and Gentile, until the failure of Israel under the Palestinian Covenant (Deu 28.-30:1-10) brought the judgment of the Captivities, when "the times of the Gentiles" (See Luke 21:24; Rev.16:14) began, and the government of the world passed exclusively into Gentile hands ; Daniel 2:36-45; Luke 21:24; Acts 15:14-17. That both Israel and the Gentiles have governed for self, not God, is sadly apparent. The judgment of the confusion of tongues ended the racial testing; that of the captivities the Jewish; while the Gentile testing will end in the smiting of the Image (Dan. 2) and the judgment of the nations (Matt.25:31-46).42


Anyone can see this third dispensations initial, and then repeated failures on man's part. In any event there was a failure of government to restrain man's evil and God moves on to a new trial. The first three dispensations are applicable to all of mankind. The next two are applicable to a select group, God's chosen.


The Fourth Dispensation – Promise

With the failure of nations in curbing man from iniquity God chooses to construct one particular and peculiar nation and calls Abram as the father of this chosen nation. He gives Abram profound promises and Abram believes God. C. I. Scofield labeled the fourth dispensation “Promise.” Much more could be said about this dispensation of promise but suffice it to say some of the promises were unconditional and are yet to be fulfilled, i.e. Israel will occupy all of the promised land in peace and safety. The dispensation closes with the seed of Abraham still holding the promises. They have divided into twelve tribes of Israel, but they are in bondage in Egypt.

Dispensations are divinely ordered stewardships by which God reveals himself, reveals man's depravity, and reveals his longsuffering. It becomes increasingly apparent that every stewardship testing of man ends in man's failure. The fact that there are seven such stewardship tests emphasizes that God is giving man every opportunity to do right. Yet each dispensation ends in the abject failure of man.

C. I. Scofield provides this concise explanation of the fourth dispensation:


Scofield Note 1(Gen 12:1 Now the Lord ...) The Fourth Dispensation: Promise. For Abraham, and his descendants it is evident that the Abrahamic Covenant (See Gen.15:18 note) made a great change. They became distinctively the heirs of promise. That covenant is wholly gracious and unconditional. The descendants of Abraham had but to abide in their own land to inherit every blessing. In Egypt they lost their blessings, but not their covenant. The Dispensation of Promise ended when Israel rashly accepted the law (Ex.19:8). Grace had prepared a deliverer (Moses), provided a sacrifice for the guilty, and by divine power brought them out of bondage (Ex.19:4) but at Sinai they exchanged grace for law. The Dispensation of Promise extends from Genesis 12:1 to Exodus 19:8, and was exclusively Israelitish. The “dispensation”must be distinguished from the “covenant”. The former is a mode of testing; the latter is everlasting because it is unconditional. The law did not abrogate the Abrahamic Covenant (Gal.3:15-18) but was an intermediate disciplinary dealing "till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made" (Gal.3:19-29; 4:1-7). Only the dispensation, as a testing of Israel, ended at the giving of the law.43


Of all the failed dispensations, the failure under this one, Promise, may have been more providentially driven than depravity driven, but it still depicts a failure. The failed Innocence dispensation brought death, The failed Conscience dispensations brought the destroying flood, the failed Government dispensation brought Babble, and the failed Promise dispensation ends in Israel's bondage. In the fifth dispensation God would lay down the law for his chosen nation Israel.


The Fifth Dispensation – Law

The promised seed of Abraham, which were to inherit God's promised land, were redeemed from bondage in Egypt and read the Law of God by God himself. This began the dispensation called Law. The children of Israel agreed to obey all the laws of God. God agreed to bless them and give them all the promised land if they did. A quick read through the book of Judges confirms that they did not, and thus he did not.

It needs to be clarified that the law was only given to the promised seed of Abraham, i.e. the twelve tribes of Israel. It was not given to Gentile nations. It was not given as a model law for Gentile nations to pattern their laws after, and it was not given as a model law for the Christians, or the pious, or the religious. It was given to keep Israel a holy and a peculiar people in all the earth (Exo 19:5, Deut 14:2, 26:18, Psalm 135:4). The severe penalties of death by stoning were given so that this holy, peculiar people could “put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear” (Deut 21:21, cf 17:17, 19:19, 22:21, 24:7).

Consternation is dolled out to Christians who do not understand the dispensations, this dispensation particularly, and this purpose of the law. First because many religionists and “Clergy44 construct some form of works salvation where they pick a few choice laws and disregard others. Second because Christians themselves are confused and troubled about God having a man stoned because he picked up sticks on a Sabbath (Num 15:32-36). And third because the world mocks the Christian because he does not know how to explain the conflict between law and grace. Such consternation is relieved when one understands the realities of the dispensation of law. It is for Israel's peculiarity and for Gentiles learning (Gal 3:24-2545).

Although the law, given to God's chosen nation Israel, is not set as a model for other nations to follow there are many moral principles and civil laws which are exemplary models for other Gentile nations. Many of our US laws are based on God's laws for Israel. Our Creator's requirements for moral right and wrong are discernible. Criminal laws for murder and manslaughter, civil laws for stealing, property damage and restitution can certainly find a place in our legal systems. But the death penalty punishments and the eye for an eye consideration must be left in their context for the dispensation of law and their focus on Israel's peculiarity. All of Israel's dietary laws, ceremonial laws, and other laws designed to keep Israel a peculiar people must be kept in their proper context, in order to rightly divide the Word of Truth.46

And so Israel was given a myriad of laws to keep her a holy people, a peculiar people, and a chosen nation of God. Israel failed, but God's promises remain centered on his chosen people. After her chastisements only one tribe remained. The Hebrews are now called Jews, because the only tribe left in Israel at the coming of her Messiah was Judah. The only begotten Son of God came as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, to be the king of the Jews. But after being under law for fifteen hundred years (BC 1492 – 30 AD) the lawyers, scribes and Pharisees of the Jews rejected their king. Indeed they had the Romans crucify him under Roman law fulfilling many Bible prophecies about the Messiah (Greek Christ).

C. I. Scofield provides this concise explanation of the fifth dispensation:


Scofield Note1 (Ex.19:8 ...we will do...) The Fifth Dispensation: Law. This dispensation extends from Sinai to Calvary--from Exodus to the Cross. The history of Israel in the wilderness and in the land is one long record of the violation of the law. The testing of the nation by law ended in the judgment of the Captivities, but the dispensation itself ended at the Cross.47


Although the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah and King, their King did not reject them. The promise of God is emphatic, the Christ will sit on the throne of David and rule and reign the twelve tribes of Israel as he said. But after they rejected him as their king, he goes to the Gentiles, and temporarily the Gentiles become his people. That makes for a separate and distinct dispensation, the dispensation of grace, the age of the church.

The Sixth Dispensation – Grace and Truth

Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt 21:43).... “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

In the sixth dispensation the promises that were made to the Jews are temporarily set aside and God's grace was extended to all people. “For by grace are ye saved through faith” (Eph 2:8a) is the hallmark of this dispensation. The salvation available in this dispensation differs from any other: individual's are Converted – Justified – Quickened – Indwelt – and Immersed-in-Christ (Matt.18:3, Rom.5:1, Eph.2:1, Rom.8:9, Rom.6:3). They are consequently sealed by the Holy Spirit of God and that new-birth, salvation, conversion, cannot be undone. It has been said, “In the Old Testament God made a temple for the people, in the New Testament God makes a people for his temple48. A whole volume of this systematic theology deals with soteriology. Suffice it to say here that it has never been easier for man to be in a right relationship with his Creator, Jehovah God, and yet this dispensation of Grace and Truth (John 1:17) is destined to end “as it was in the days of Noe,... as it was in the days of Lot...” (Luke 17:26, 28).

C. I. Scofield provides this concise explanation of the sixth dispensation:


Scofield Note 1,2,3 (John 1:17 Grace. Summary)

(1) Grace is "the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man. . . not by works of righteousness which we have done (Tit.3:4 - 5).

It is, therefore, constantly set in contrast to law, under which God demands righteousness from man, as, under grace, he gives righteousness to man (Rom.3:21 - 22; 8:4; Phil.3:9). Law is connected with Moses and works; grace with Christ and faith (John 1:17; Rom.10:4-10). Law blesses the good; grace saves the bad (Ex.19:5; Eph.2:1-9). Law demands that blessings be earned; grace is a free gift (Deut.28:1-6; Eph.2:8; Rom.4:4- 5).

(2) As a dispensation, grace begins with the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom.3:24-26, 4:24 - 25). The point of testing is no longer legal obedience as the condition of salvation, but acceptance or rejection of Christ, with good works as a fruit of salvation (John 1:12 - 13; 3:36; Matt. 21:37; 22:24; John 15:22, 25; Heb.1:2; 1John 5:10-12). The immediate result of this testing was the rejection of Christ by the Jews, and His crucifixion by Jew and Gentile (Acts 4:27). The predicted end of the testing of man under grace is the apostasy of the professing church (See "Apostasy" 2Tim.3:1-8 note) and the resultant apocalyptic judgments.

(3) Grace has a twofold manifestation: in salvation (Rom.3:24, refs) and in the walk and service of the saved (Rom.6:15, refs). 49


The dispensation of grace will come to an end, and it will end in a failure of mankind. It is man's failure in accepting God's simple plan of salvation (Heb 2:3). The ending of the sixth dispensation and the beginning of the seventh and final dispensation is really the beginning of a Biblical eschatology. The doctrine of last things includes the closing of the Church age, called the dispensation of Grace and Truth, and the ushering in of the last dispensation.


The Seventh Dispensation – The Kingdom

And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:31-33 emphasis added). “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever (Rev.11:15 emphasis added). “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev 19:16 emphasis added).


It has been resoundingly promised that the Jewish Messiah (Greek Christ) would be the King of the Jews, i.e. the King of Israel, who sits on the throne of David. That fact is hated by Satan and refuted with tenacity by the Roman Catholic Church and her children. The despise of that coming kingdom has freely flowed into the doctrine of the Roman reformers. The persistence of the denial has caused the rejection of all dispensational teaching in the wide gate and broad path of Christendom. That broad path is called “supersessionism” and it is unfortunate that so many Baptists are ignorant of its devices.

A study of Biblical eschatology will center on the fact that this kingdom will be ushered in at the second advent of Christ. It will last for the thousand years that Christ promised in Revelation chapter twenty, so it is called the “Millennial Kingdom.” It will be preceded by a judgment of the nations which will end “the times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:2450) and be called the seven year tribulation and the seventieth week of Daniel (Dan 9:24). This Great Tribulation has 144 thousand virgin males (Rev. 14:1-5), from the twelve tribes of Israel (Rev.7:2-8), preaching the gospel. It will not be the church preaching the gospel during this seven year transition period, it will be these 144 thousand virgin male followers of the Lamb (Rev 14:4). The Church is removed in a pretribulation rapture, else they would be in competition with the 144 thousand Jews. Again the whole key to understanding “the things which shall be hereafter” requires that one believe in the Millennial Reign of Christ as the seventh dispensation of the Holy Bible.

C. I. Scofield provides this concise explanation of the seventh dispensation:


Scofield Note 3 (Eph 1:10 ...dispensation of the fullness of times...) The Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. This, the seventh and last of the ordered ages which condition human life on the earth, is identical with the kingdom covenanted to David (2Sam. 7:8-17; Zech. 12:8).

Summary; (Luke 1:31-33; 1Cor. 15:24 Summary) and gathers into itself under Christ all past "times":

(1) The time of oppression and misrule ends by Christ taking His kingdom (Isa. 11:3 - 4).

(2) The time of testimony and divine forbearance ends in judgment (Matt. 25:31-46; Acts 17:30 - 31; Rev. 20:7-15).

(3) The time of toil ends in rest and reward (2Thes.1:6 - 7).

(4) The time of suffering ends in glory (Rom. 8:17 - 18).

(5) The time of Israel's blindness and chastisement ends in restoration and conversion (Rom. 11:25-27; Ezek. 39:25-29).

(6) The times of the Gentiles end in the smiting of the image and the setting up of the kingdom of the heavens (Dan 2:34 - 35; Rev. 19:15-21).

(7) The time of creation's thraldom ends in deliverance at the manifestation of the sons of God (Gen. 3:17; Isa. 11:6-8; Rom.8:19-21).51


But even the Kingdom age, where Christ physically rules and reigns over the whole world, ends with an insurrection . That insurgence is short lived and mankind steps off into eternity and streets of gold. This short survey of the seven dispensations builds the framework for the study the stewardships of man in anthropology, the study of the church age in ecclesiology, and the study of last things in eschatology. Christendom's many misunderstandings of the Bible and its end times comes from those who have rejected dispensationalism and embraced supersessionism, i.e. Replacement Theology, and Covenant Theology. Be careful to rightly divide the Word of Truth in these areas, and dispensationalism is key to the divisions.

As was stated previous, grasping these dispensations, these great spiritual divides in God's dealings with man, these stewardship tests of mankind, is key to rightly dividing the word of truth. It is paramount for comprehending anthropology, ecclesiology and eschatology in ones systematic theology. It is, consequentially, covered in Volume 8 Anthropology, Volume 9 Ecclesiology, and Volume 11 Eschatology. May God richly bless the student of Scripture that comprehends these great divides.


Dispensational's Alternative, Supersessionism

Supersessionism is a big word that simply captures the belief that the Catholic Church completely replaces Israel. Its main tenets are found in Replacement Theology and Covenant Theology. One cannot comprehend a Biblical doctrine of the church or of the last things while holding to these ideological moorings that the Catholic Church is the centerpiece for all Bible revelation and all Bible prophecy. The flaws of supersessionism are rehearsed and exposed in this essay.

The denial of the Bible's dispensational teachings started with the Roman Church. After the annihilation of the Jews, and Jerusalem in 70 AD. Catholic Church Fathers Saint Clement of Alexandria (150 – 215 AD), and his student Saint Origen of Alexandria (184 – 253 AD) supposed that Judaism was gone forever, and supposed that the Church (they supposed it to be catholic) should thus absorb all the promises given to the Jews. Given that the Bible clearly promised the regathering of Israel, and their inheriting the Promised Land, this would have been an impossible task, but Saint Origen, known as the Father of the Allegorical Method, found a way to dismiss any literal rendering of Scripture whenever it pleased “the Catholic Church.” Consequently the allegorical method of hermeneutics has been the mainstay of the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformers to this day.

Supersessionism, Replacement Theology, and Covenant Theology are so brazenly unBiblical that it is often an embarrassment to claim it's tenets publicly. A less toxic summary of supersessionism is expressed by the neo-evangelicals who spend their days tip-toeing around it and pretending that it is not so bad. Michael J. Vlach, writing in a journal for John MacArthur's Masters Seminary, tries to back away from the toxicity by saying:


Replacement theology or supersessionism is not a ‘one size fits all’ perspective. There are variations within this view. Punitive supersessionism emphasizes Israel’s disobedience as the reason for its displacement as the people of God. Economic supersessionism emphasizes that national Israel’s role as the people of God expired with the coming of the New Testament church. Structural supersessionism is an approach to the canon that minimizes the role of the Hebrew scriptures. Within supersessionism strong and mild forms are discernible. Strong supersessionism does not believe in a future salvation or restoration of Israel. Mild supersessionism believes in a salvation of the nation Israel but no restoration to a place of prominence.52


The whole concept of Covenant Theology, with its basis in supersessionism, is likewise an embarrassment to those who would defend it against Bible truth. Consequently there is little written by its proponents, who defend it with tradition, i.e. it is orthodox, (and catholic) and “we” have always believed this way. They will paint dispensationalists and teachings about the rapture as a Johnny-Come-Lately doctrine that could not possibly be true.

Who better to refute Covenant Theology than a Friends of Israel executive director and author, and in his writing, James Showers also delineates the facts of Covenant Theology which ofttimes even its proponents fail to mention. It is worthwhile in this effort on ecclesiology and eschatology to include all three parts and the conclusions of Dr. Shower's “The Facts And Flaws of Covenant Theology.”53 That article is copied in its entirety in A Systematic Theology for the 21st Century, Vol 9 Ecclesiology, Chapter 2, page 36-49 (Available at www.TruthAboutTheChrist.com ).


Chapter 4 Cambron's Bible Doctrine - Eschatology

To this point much has been said to give Biblical eschatology strong legs to stand on. With adequate warning that orthodoxy is dangerous in this field we can proceed to a good Bible doctrine of it. A solid Biblical Doctrine must form the basis and starting point for a systematic theology and there is no truer, or more thorough, published, Baptist, and Biblical doctrine than that of Dr. Mark G. Cambron.54 His teachings at Tennessee Temple Bible School establish a solid doctrine essential for building a solid systematic theology. His book, Bible Doctrines55 will, with the permission of the Cambron Institute56, be given in block quotes throughout this effort. The book is readily available through http://www.thecambroninstitute.org, and it forms a strong foundation for this Systematic Theology.57

Believing in the verbal inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and believing that every single word is directly chosen by God, it is important to preserve and defend the doctrines extracted from Scripture and presented by Dr. Cambron. Below, in a block quote of his book, is his extensive analysis of Eschatology:[block quote of Dr. Cambron's Bible Doctrines block quote pg 205-238, Zondervan page 249-288]


Cambron's Chap IX Eschatology - The Doctrine of Last Things

Pg 205-207

Outline For Chap IX Eschatology

Sections I - V

Sections VI - XII

I. Physical Death.

Death Is Not a Cessation of Being.

Death Is Not Soul Sleep.

Death Means Separation.

II. The Bodily Resurrection.

A. The Fact of Resurrection.

B. The Nature of the Resurrection.

C. The Time of the Resurrection.

III. The Intermediate State.

Before the Cross.

At the Time of the Cross.

After the Cross.


IV. The Second Coming of Christ.

A. The Importance of the Doctrine.

B. The Meaning of the Second Coming.

C. The Events of the Second Coming.


V. The Antichrist.

His Person.

His Titles.

His Forerunners.

His Work.

His Career.

His Time.

His Appearance.

His End.


VI. The Tribulation.

The Tribulation of the Body of Christ.

The Tribulation of Israel.

The Great Tribulation.

VII. The Battle of Armageddon.

What It Is Not.

What It Is.

VIII. The Millennium.

The Fact of the Millennium.

The Description of the Millennium.

The Types of the Millennium.

The Conditions During the Millennium.

IX. The Judgments.

Judgments of the Christian.

Judgment of the Nations.

Judgment at the Great White Throne.

X. After the Millennium.

Satan Loosed.

Nations Gathered.

Army Destroyed.

Satan Doomed.

XI. The Future of the Wicked.

The Scriptural Teaching.

The Terms Used.

The Theories Proposed.

XII. Heaven.

First Heaven.

Second Heaven.

Third Heaven.


Page 208

- Chap IX ESCHATOLOGY Eschatology is the doctrine of last things.

I. Physical Death

The Bible always gives sufficient information for the faith of the believer. The Bible was never proposed merely for his curiosity. God teaches finite beings to walk by faith in the unexplained infinite.

A. Death Is Not a Cessation of Being.

Thirty-five hundred years ago Job asked, “If a man die, shall he live again?” This question has been asked for millenniums. It is still a universal question. It is a subject of perennial interest. That those whom we love should die and be buried does not seem right; and it is not! God never made man to die; He created him to live and to have fellowship with Himself. But sin brought death and the grave, thus separation from God.

Should the Lord tarry, everyone reading these words, the author included, shall die, for death has passed upon all men (Rom. 5:12).

A poem lasts longer than the poet; the voice on the recording tape can be heard years after the recording artist is dead; pictures of dead loved ones remain, even after the loved ones are gone.

Things on this earth are not equal. The rich have always oppressed the poor; the wicked have always prospered over the righteous. Human justice demands an equalization of all things in a life after death. We are living in a changing world. The robins build their nests, even as they did in the garden of Eden, and animals possess the same characteristics as they did at the beginning. However, man does not live as he used to, even as he did twenty-five years ago. Although this be true, the inquiring mind of man remains the same, still asking the question, “If a man dies, will he live again?” There is a universal belief in a life after death. If you go to the darkest part of Africa, where Christ has never been preached, you find that people there believe in a life after death. Why do some heathens burn their wives? Why do some bury food with the corpse? They believe that the departed one must have a companion and food on his journey beyond the grave. The Egyptians furnished a charter, a book for the journey, and placed it with the corpse. Why do the birds fly south? Instinct in them proves there is a southland.

The heart of man, and his inward instinct are proofs that there is a life hereafter. Both physiology and philosophy maintain there must be a life after death. pg209

There are two great reservations:

1. Reservation for the Christian. “Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . hath begotten us . . . to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (I Peter 1:4). In Philippians 1:23 the Apostle Paul used the word “depart” as describing death. By this he did not mean that he would cease to exist. Depart means “to depart.” Did he mean to depart to the grave with Christ? Of course not, for Christ is not in the grave; He is in heaven. II Corinthians 5:8 makes the meaning of departure even clearer when it says, “We are confident . . . and willing ... to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” The word “present” means “to be at home with.” The death of a Christian, therefore, is pictured as a ship pulling up anchor and setting sail for home; in other words, the death of a Christian means “going home.”

2. Reservation for the Ungodly. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (II Peter 2:9).

B. Death Is Not Soul Sleep.

The word “sleep” in Scripture, concerning the dead in Christ, means “rest.” It does not mean “unconsciousness.” The body may die, but the soul and spirit will never die. In the resurrection it is the body that is raised, not the soul and spirit. The Scriptures clearly state that the soul is absent from the body, present with the Lord; and that the souls and spirits are fully awake and aware of things round about them. A perfect illustration of the above truth is found in Revelation 6:9, 10: “When he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Here we see the disembodied souls, alive, and reasoning with God.

The Apostle Paul says, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). “To live” meant that Paul had perfect fellowship with the living Christ. If death were the end, why would Paul say, “and to die is gain?”

C. Death Means Separation.

Death in Scripture always means “separation.” Physical death is the separation of the soul and spirit from the body. Spiritual death is the eternal, complete, final separation from God (Rev. 21:8).

Life means “union” (John 3:16). Death means “separation” (Rom. 8:35-39). The ego, the “I,” lives in the house of flesh. You are not a body, having a soul and spirit, but you are a soul and spirit possessing a body. Scientists used to tell us that the bodies in which we live change every seven years; now they say that they change every seven days. Our bodies may change, but we ourselves, that is, our ego, never changes. People cannot see us, pg210 the ego, but only the house, or tent, in which we dwell. Death is the departure from this house (II Peter 1:13,14; Phil. 1:21,24; Gal. 2:20; II Cor. 5:6,7; Job 19:26; Luke 16:26; II Tim. 4:6; II Cor. 12:2). People have been burying bodies for six thousand years; just the bodies, not the persons.

The soul is the seat of feeling and appetite; from Scripture we believe it is the exact counterpart of the body. The spirit is the seat of man’s intelligence. When Samuel was called up by the request of Saul, it was his spirit that appeared, not his body. Death, then, is not a circle, or a square. We shall not be formless if we depart this life, but our souls and spirits shall be fully conscious, existing in the same form and shape as our bodies.

Memory may be seated in the brain, but the brain is not the source of thought. We may remember things that happened ten years ago, but we do not have the same brain that we had ten years ago. I possess a brain, but the brain is not I. Death simply means, “I have departed”; I am separated from my body.

II. The Bodily Resurrection.

A. The Fact of the Resurrection.

1. Anticipated in the Old Testament. Such terms as “in the latter days,” “awake and live,” are indications of a resurrection. The Old Testament contains many types of the resurrection. Joseph was counted dead, but he came back to his father; Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, and then was released; Daniel was placed in the lion’s den, a place of death, but came out alive; Israel died in the wilderness, and a new Israel went in Canaan. All of these are figures of the resurrection. The following Scriptures verify the resurrection. “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” (Is. 26:19). See also Job 19:26, 27; Psalm 16:9, 11; Daniel 6:23; 12:2; Matthew 12:40.

2. Revealed In the New Testament. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (I Cor. 15:22). “I have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust” (Acts 24:15). See also Matthew 22:30-32; Luke 14:13, 14; 20:35, 36; John 5:28, 29; 6:39, 40, 44, 54; I Thessalonians 4:14-16: II Timothy 1:10. Christ did not come to save my soul only, but all of me: my soul, spirit, and body. All of me is to be saved.

B. The Nature of the Resurrection.

Death is never set forth as the hope of the believer. In Corinth (I Cor. 15) some had declared that there was no bodily resurrection, but in the above chapter Paul rebukes them for this false doctrine and proves to them that there is a resurrection (by Christ’s own resurrection): if one does not believe in man’s resurrection, then it is impossible to believe in Christ’s resurrection; and if Christ had no resurrection, there is no Gospel, and if no Gospel, we are not saved. pg211

Satan has always been against the Word, and he has many weapons trained on it. The revelation he most despises is that of the resurrection. Materialism denies the resurrection altogether. Spiritualism denies the bodily resurrection. We are never to doubt the resurrection. “I forgot God when I said, How can this be?” Whether man believes, or understands the resurrection means little; it is true, nevertheless.

Some people cannot believe that flesh and bones shall be perfect. When speaking of Christ’s resurrection, they maintain that it was a spiritual resurrection. We know by this statement that they do not know what they are talking about. Jesus Christ’s spirit was not put in the tomb; only His body was. The Roman soldiers were not stationed at the sepulcher to guard His spirit, but to guard His body. It was His body they guarded; it was His body which arose from the dead! One Scripture used by those who believe only in a spiritual resurrection is I Corinthians 15:44: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” Notice that the verse does not say “a spirit body,” but “a spiritual body.” The natural body is controlled by the soul; the spiritual body shall be controlled by the Spirit; hence, a spiritual body.

1. Theories Proposed.

a. Germ Theory. This is an old Jewish belief found in the Talmud. According to it, in man there is a little bone, called a “luz,” which death can not destroy, and out of that germ the body will be resurrected. Some Christians hold to this theory, using I Corinthians 15:36, 37 for support.

b. Identity Theory. This is the belief that the body in the resurrection will be raised just as it was buried. A body buried with an arm missing, will be raised with an arm missing; an infant buried will be an infant raised; a lunatic buried, a lunatic raised. The Mohammedans hold to this theory. If this be true, we will not be like Jesus.

c. Reincarnation Theory. This idea supposes that when a man dies he goes immediately into another body. If this should occur, we would not be “at home” with the Lord. When a person dies, he is not a complete human being; he can only be so by a bodily resurrection (I Thess. 5:23).

d. Intermediate Body Theory. This theory contends that the believer receives his resurrected body immediately upon his death. It is based on II Corinthians 5:1-4: “We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” But the above Scripture refers only to those believers who are living when Christ comes.

2. Truth Believed. The resurrection is by Divine Power! “God giveth a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed his own body” (I Cor. 15:38). Jesus Christ’s own resurrected body was proved to be flesh and bone. When Christ appeared unto the disciples, pg212 He remarked, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39). Christ did not say that there were no spirits, but that a spirit does not have flesh and bones. Ezekiel 37 pictures the resurrection of Israel; flesh, bones and spirit are mentioned, but no blood.

The law demanded the shedding of blood, and Christ shed his blood to pay for that demand. In the resurrection, all will be raised without blood; life will be in the spirit of man.

[The Lord Jesus Christ] shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:20, 21). Our bodies, the same ones that may be planted in death, will pass under a great transformation and be raised. If we should plant a lily, a lily will come up; if we plant wheat, wheat will come up; if we plant tares, tares will come up; if we plant human bodies, glorified human bodies will come up. God looks upon the cemeteries as nothing but harvest fields. The seeds in these harvest fields are the bodies of the dead, and the harvest is the resurrection.

And we shall be changed” (I Cor. 15:52c). Yes, a great transformation will take place, but it will be the same body, for the resurrected body of Christ proves that it will be the same body, as He bore in His resurrected body the print of the nails.

I Corinthians 15:42-44 describes fully the resurrection of the just (God tells nothing of the bodies of the damned in their resurrection): “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.” A dead body is a corruptible body. A live body is a mortal body. Nothing is ever said in Scripture of planting a mortal body. A corruptible body is subject to decay and dust, but one day it will be raised in incorruption, a body fit for heaven, that can never be subject to corruption again. “It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory.” These vile bodies have been dishonored by sin, but one day they will be raised in glory like unto the glorious body of our Lord. “It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.” Sin has made us weak, also. The weakest thing in the world is a dead body. In order for a dead man to move, he must be moved. He has eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear; he makes no protest about being put in a coffin and placed in a grave. There is no resistance in a dead body. These same weak bodies shall be raised with great power.

Notice what man can do for the eyes today, but think what God will do. The resurrected believer will be able to see spiritual beings. Mortal man has the microscope and telescope, but, oh, what eyesight our new bodies will have! Today we have limits of speed, but in the resurrection there will be no limit. Do not make present standards the limit of our future standards. “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” The natural body is our animated body, containing flesh, bones and blood. Our resurrected spiritual bodies shall not be spirit-bodies, but spiritual; they will be bodies composed of only flesh and bone, no blood, dominated by our spirits.

C. The Time of the Resurrection.

As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (I Cor. 15:22). All men shall be raised from the dead, but not all at the same time. The Scriptures plainly declare pg213 that there are two resurrections, and not a general resurrection. They are the first, and the last resurrection (Rev. 20:5, 6).

1. The First Resurrection. The first resurrection includes Christ, and all believers of all ages. Their resurrection occurs at different intervals. Christ at one time; the Church at the Rapture (before the Tribulation); and the Old Testament saints and Tribulation saints after the Tribulation.

a. Christ the Firstfruits. “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (I Cor. 15:20). The firstfruits was God’s pledge that the entire harvest would come later. Christ’s being the Firstfruits is God’s pledge that the harvest will be coming later. “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19b). There are records of others being raised from the dead, but these were “resuscitations,” or restorations; they died again. Christ liveth to die no more! “Behold, I am alive for evermore” (Rev. 1:18b).

b. The Saints at Christ’s Resurrection. “The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” (Matt. 27:52, 53). On one occasion, the Lord Jesus said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). Christ did die and was planted as a corn of wheat, but when He was raised from the dead, He brought forth much fruit with Him.

This fruit was the saints who arose immediately after His resurrection. We do not know how many were raised, nor do we know where they went. They may have gone up to heaven with him, for remember, he was the Firstfruits, and we know that in the Feast of Firstfruits, a sheaf of the wave offering was waved before the Lord. There was more than one grain in the sheaf. Thus, we are led to believe that there were more people in the firstfruits to go to heaven than just Christ.

c. The Body of Christ (The Church). The Church will have a resurrection of its own.

The dead in Christ shall rise first” (I Thess. 4:16). The Church was never known in the Old Testament (See Chapter VII). Therefore, the Old Testament prophets saw nothing of its Spiritual baptism, rapture, resurrection and transformation. The Church was a mystery hid in God; it was first revealed to the Apostle Paul (Eph. 3:1-9). However, the old Testament saints did know of their own resurrection, which shall occur after the Tribulation (Dan. 12:2, 13).

The resurrection of the Church was revealed to the Apostle Paul; it will occur before the Tribulation. “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev. 3:10). See also I Thessalonians 1:10.

There has been over nineteen hundred years since Christ the Firstfruits has been raised.

The time of the resurrection of the Church is not known.

d. Old Testament and Tribulation Saints. This phase of the first resurrection takes place after the Tribulation, at least seven years after the Church is raised. It includes all saints who do not belong to the Body of Christ. “Go thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days” (Dan. 12:13). See also Daniel 12:1,2.

2. The Last Resurrection. The last (or second) resurrection occurs after the pg214 Millennium, and shall include all the wicked dead. They shall be raised to stand before the Great White Throne. “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Rev. 20:5, 6).

III. The Intermediate State.

Where are the dead? is the question on the lips of all mankind. The only true and correct answer is given by the Word of God. Other answers, such as those given by spiritualism, are nothing but a babel of voices. Various cults have preyed upon unsuspecting souls, taking them captive at the Devil’s will.

The following are things to remember as we explain the intermediate state, the state of man between death and resurrection: Death is the separation of the soul and spirit from the body. The soul and spirit are together in death. The soul is the seat of the appetite, and the spirit is the seat of knowledge, and they both function in death, as shown by the example of the rich man in Hades. He was in torment; he had feelings. He reasoned; thus, his spirit and soul were together.

The word “Sheol” and the word “Hades” are the same. “Sheol” is the Old Testament Hebrew word. “Hades” is the New Testament Greek word. We know they are the same, for the Apostle Peter, at Pentecost, quoted from Psalm 16, saying, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [hades], neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 2:27). Psalm 16 uses the word “Sheol” for hell (Hades). Thus, Hades and Sheol are the same. This is the place of departed souls and spirits. The mistranslation58 of the words “Sheol” and “Hades” by the King James translators has caused much trouble in the Church today. They translated these words to mean hell (the place of everlasting punishment), grave, pit, and the like. The wrong translation has led people to believe that the grave is the only hell. Sheol and Hades are the names of the same place for the departed spirits of man.

1. These words are never found in the plural.

2. Sheol and Hades are never located on the face of the earth.

3. The Bible never speaks of an individual’s Sheol.

4. Man never puts anyone in it, as the grave.

5. Man never digs or makes a Sheol, or Hades.

6. The Bible never speaks of a man touching Sheol.

7. The Bible never speaks of a body going into Sheol, but with one exception, and the exception proves the rule. Korah (Num. 16:28-33) defied the leadership of Moses and the pg215 priesthood of Aaron, and influenced many in Israel against them. God showed His displeasure by causing the earth to open up its jaws and swallow Korah and his family.

The King James Version says that he went down alive into the pit, which should be translated “Sheol”59 (Num. 16:33).

In Luke 16:19-31 we have the true account of Lazarus and the rich man both dying and existing in the intermediate state. There are some who claim that this story was only a parable. The Word does not so state. In all of His parables, the Lord never mentioned proper names, as He does here. If it were a parable, it would be true, for every parable that He spoke was built upon the truth (Matt. 13:3).

The following is a common interpretation of this so-called parable: Rich man — the Jewish nation, rich in what God has given him.

Lazarus — the Gentiles — poor at the door of the rich man.

Both died — end of the dispensation, when both are blessed by the Gospel.

Why say this refers to Jew and Gentile, when the Scriptures do not say so? Why did the Lord use the rich man in picturing the Jewish nation, when in the preceding passages he was warning the rich? The idea of the Jews ever requesting aid of the Gentiles is far-fetched.

There is no gulf between the Jew and the Gentile. No Gentile nation has ever begged from the Jews as Lazarus begged bread from the rich man.

If the Jewish nation died (pictured by the rich man), who were the five brethren who were left? We still contend that this is a true account of two men who died and went to Hades.

A. Before the Cross.

The Cross is the dividing line of many Scriptural truths. We shall discuss the question, where did men go at death before Christ died upon the Cross? We shall show that they all went to the same place — Hades (Sheol) — but in different parts.

From Numbers 16:33 we learn that Sheol, or Hades, is somewhere inside the earth.

They, and all that appertained to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.” From Luke 16:19-31 we see that Hades was in two compartments: Abraham’s Bosom, the place of the departed righteous, where Lazarus went; and the place of torment, where the rich man went. A great gulf separated these two sections.

Since we know that Sheol (Hades) is somewhere in the earth, and that it is composed of two compartments, we turn to the Lord Himself to find the exact location. “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt.12:40). Ephesians 4:9, 10 makes this clearer still. “Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the pg216 lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.” Philippians 2:9, 10 says, “God . . . hath highly exalted him . . . that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.” This speaks of the future adoration of Christ by all creation. However, we want to call attention to the above underlined words. To go “under the earth” means to submerge, as a submarine which goes under water. Thus, we conclude that Sheol (Hades) is in the heart of the earth, composed of two sections, one part for the righteous dead and the other for the unrighteous dead, with a great gulf fixed between them. By the Lord’s revelation of the rich man and Lazarus, which occurred before He died on the Cross, we see where all men, whether righteous, or unrighteous, went after death, before the Cross.

B. At the Time of the Cross.

Under this heading we shall deal with only two persons, the Lord Jesus, and the penitent thief. Upon death, the Lord Jesus went to Hades. We know this from Psalm 16:10, which says, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol60; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.” The Apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost, quoted from this same passage, but, of course, he used the Greek word “Hades,” instead of “Sheol.” These words describe the resurrection of Christ, while fully stating that he went to Hades. We see this by the use of the word “leave.” The Holy Ghost would not have employed the word “leave” if he had not gone there. As to the thief on the cross, he went to Hades with Jesus, into the compartment reserved for the righteous dead. “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23: 43b). How many days was Jesus in Hades? Three days. On the first of the three days, the thief was to be with Jesus in paradise; therefore, we learn that paradise was another name given to Abraham’s Bosom, which was the place of the righteous dead.

C. After the Cross.

Now where do the departed go at death? The unrighteous still go to Sheol (Hades), awaiting the last judgment.

The righteous, praise the Lord, go at once to heaven to be with the Lord. “We are confident . . . and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (II Cor. 5:8). When Christ arose from the dead “he led captivity captive” (Eph.

4:8). Christ emptied Hades (Sheol) of all the righteous, and took them and paradise with him to glory. Paradise was, at one time, in the heart of the earth; now it is in the third heavens. “I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for a man to utter” (II Cor. 12:2-4).

pg 217

IV. The Second Coming Of Christ.

A. The Importance of the Doctrine.

It is said that one out of every twenty-five verses of the New Testament speaks of the Second Coming, while in the Old Testament there are eight verses concerning the Second Coming to every verse concerning the First Coming. In the promise of a Redeemer (Gen. 3:15), the Second Coming is mentioned before the First Coming. “It shall bruise thy head [occurs at the Second Coming], and thou shalt bruise his heel [occurred at the First Coming, upon the Cross].”

1. Testimony of Our Lord. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3). See also Matthew 24, 25; Mark 13; Luke 21.

2. Testimony of Angels. “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

3. Testimony of Peter. “He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you” (Acts 3:20). See also I Peter 5:4; II Peter 1:16.

4. Testimony of Paul. “I thank my God always on your behalf . . . that in every thing ye are enriched by him . . . so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 1:4-7). See also Romans 11:26: I Corinthians 15:23; II Corinthians 5; Philippians 3:20; Colossians 3:4; I Thessalonians (all); II Thessalonians 1:7, 10; I Timothy 6:14; II Timothy 4:8; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 9:28.

5. Testimony of James. The prophets, quoted by James, represent the Lord as saying, “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up” (Acts 15:16). See also James 5:7.

6. Testimony of John. “Beloved, now are we the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2). See also I John 2:28, and the Book of Revelation.

7. Testimony of Jude. “Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints” (Jude 14).

B. The Meaning of the Second Coming.

1. Negative.

a. It Is Not Death. Death is the departing of the saint, not the coming of the Lord. The Lord will come, but death may never come. pg218

b. It Is Not the Fall of Jerusalem. Luke 21:20-24, and I Thessalonians 4:13-18 did not occur when Jerusalem fell. The second coming of Christ is connected with the gathering of Israel, not the scattering.

c. It Is Not the Coming of the Holy Spirit. Christ said that He would send another (John 14:16). I Thessalonians 4: 13-18 did not occur when the Holy Spirit came. Notice that all of the Epistles which speak of the Second Coming were written after Pentecost.

d. It Is Not the Conversion of a Sinner. If this is true, He has come millions of times.

According to I Corinthians 15:51-57, the dead would have to be raised every time a soul was saved, and then get back into the grave, waiting for another to be saved.

e. It Is Not the Diffusion of Christianity. By this some mean the spreading of the Gospel. But remember, this same Jesus, a personal Christ, is to come again.

f. It Is Not the End of the World. When Christ comes, the world will not be destroyed, for He will reign a thousand years after He appears.

2. Positive.

a. It Will Be a Personal Coming. John 14:3 says, “I will come.” We are not to expect a spirit, but a Spirit in a body. I Thessalonians 4:16, 17 uses the word “himself.” Acts 1:11 declares “this same Jesus”; not some other person or thing is expected, but Christ Himself.

b. It Will Be a Visible Coming. “As the lightning cometh out of the East, and shineth even unto the West; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24:27). See also Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 1:7.

c. Meaning of the Words Used.

(1) Parousia. This means the personal presence, the coming presence. It is spoken not only of the coming of the Lord, but of the coming of other men (I Cor. 16:17; II Cor. 7:6,7; Philippians 1:26). Concerning the coming of the Lord, it is at that moment, when absence ceases and presence begins (Matt. 24:3, 27; I Cor. 15:23; I Thess. 2:9; Jas. 5:8).

(2) Epiphaneia. This simply means “appearing.” It is used of both advents (II Tim. 1:10; II Thess. 2:8; I Tim. 6:14; II Tim. 4:1,8; Titus 2:13).

(3) Apokalupsis. The literal meaning is “unveiling revelation.” It emphasizes the visibility of the Lord’s return (II Thess. 1:7; I Peter 1:7, 13; 4:13. It is used also for men: Romans 8:19; II Thessalonians 2:3,6, 8).

d. It Is a Coming in Two Phases.

(1) When Christ Comes for His Saints in the Air. “We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him” (II Thess. 2:1).

The promise of Christ’s return of Acts 1:9-20 was given before the Rapture was revealed.

Hebrews 9:28 has nothing to do with the Rapture.

(2) When Christ Comes with His Saints to Earth. “Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints” (Jude 14).

(3) These Two Phases Are Vastly Different.

(a) Different in Character. “For His people” is an act of faith; “with His people” is an act of judgment.

(b) Different in Manner. One is secret, the other is a manifestation.

(c) Different in Place. “For His people” — in the air (I Thess. 4:17); “with His people” — to the earth (Zech. 14:14). pg219

(d) Different as to Time. “For His people” occurs before the Tribulation (Jacob’s trouble); “with His people” occurs after the Tribulation (Jacob’s trouble). We are never told in Scripture to look for signs preceding His coming for His saints, but men are told to look for signs before He comes with His saints (Compare II Thess. 2:1-3 with Is. 13: 6-9).

(e) Different as to Dispensations. Coming “for His saints” occurs at the beginning of the dispensation of Tribulation; coming “with His saints” occurs at the beginning of the dispensation of the Millennium.

(f) Different as to Purpose. Coming “for His saints” fulfills His promise to gather His people (John 14:3); coming “with His saints” as a man of war, His promise to overthrow His enemies (Jude 14).

(g) Different as to Relation. “For His saints” is the adoption of the children of God; “with His saints” the time that the sons of God are manifested to the world. (Rom. 8:19,23).

C. The Events of the Second Coming in Relation to the Body of Christ.

As we deal with the Rapture of the Church, we recognize the fact that the word “rapture” is not a Scriptural word. The Rapture is, however, a Scriptural fact.

1. The Resurrection of the Dead in Christ. “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (I Thess. 4:16). The very first thing that happens is the resurrection of the body of Christ. Certainly this will include all who die before reaching the age of accountability, such as babes, the mentally retarded, and the like. If Christ does not come, there will be no resurrection, and if no resurrection, then man shall be an eternal spirit. If diamonds can be made from soot, sapphire from clay, and opals from sand, what will God make out of our bodies? It will be wonderful, will it not? 2. The Renovation of the Living in Christ. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. . . . and we shall be changed. . . . And this mortal must put on immortality” (I Cor. 15:51-53). The Christian is one who is not looking for death, but for the conqueror of death. The words “we shall not all sleep” mean “we shall not all die.” What a glorious hope this is! What a shout that will be that day! “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (I Cor. 15:55). Isn’t it a blessed hope that it is possible for us to go without dying? No man, not even a Christian, wants to die.

That is natural. The Christian, however, is one who is not afraid to die. The Christian is the only person who has a hope of never seeing death. Yes, we know the Scripture says, “It is appointed unto men once to die.” But the Scripture does not only say all men! The changing of us who are alive and remain at His coming is not death, for we shall not all die! 3. The Rapture of All in Christ. “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind . . . as that the day of the Lord is at hand” (II Thess. 2:1, 2). The above Scripture, and the phrase, “we all shall be changed,” eliminates the possibility of a partial rapture.

The entire Body of Christ will be raptured (caught up); it will be a rapture, and not a pg220 rupture. The Body of Christ will be complete. No member of His Body will be left to go through the Tribulation. Some say, “How can this be?” God took Elijah up without death; He can take a million, or ten million up just as easily.

The Rapture of the Church will cause a great separation. All unbelievers will be left here to go through the Tribulation. The Rapture of the Church will be the means of a great reunion. “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (I Thess. 4:17). What a great word is “together”; all of our loved ones in Christ “together” once more.

We should live soberly, righteously, and godly . . . looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). What do we mean by “looking for Christ”? It does not mean that we believe that He may come at any moment61, but that we are looking for Him to come. Are you looking for Him today? Are you looking for Him tonight? That is what the Scripture means by “looking for Him.”

V. The Antichrist.

I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). While this verse speaks of Christ as the seed of the woman, it also prophetically declares the Antichrist as being the seed of the serpent. The seed of the serpent, the Antichrist, is mentioned first in the first book of the Bible, and described fully in the last book of the Bible; it can be traced in between as well. This is very significant.

A. His Person.

The Early Church taught that Nero was the Antichrist, and that when he died he would be raised from the dead. In the eleventh century the Waldenses, Hussites and Wycliffites declared that the Roman Catholic Church was the Antichrist. The Roman Catholic Church, in turn, declared that Napoleon was the Antichrist. During World War I Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany was thought to be the Man of Sin. Many men will be proposed for this office, but it is useless to speculate, for he will not be revealed until after the Rapture of the Church (II Thess. 2:1-12).

He Is a Man! “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred three score and six” (Rev. 13:18). Notice the Scripture says he has the number of a man. Man’s number is 6.

God says his number is 6-6-6: he is a man; he is a man; he is a man! He is not the Roman Catholic Church; he is not a system; he is a man. He will rule in Jerusalem, and not in Rome.

1. He Will Be a Jew. “Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers” (Dan. 11:37a).

God of his fathers” means Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. “I am come in my Father’s name, pg221 and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (John 5:43). The word “another” implies “another Jew.” The name Antichrist is a Jewish title, and the Jews will not accept a Gentile as their Messiah.

2. He Will Be a Genius. He will be the most remarkable man the world has ever seen apart from Jesus Christ.

a. An Intellectual Genius. “In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up” (Dan. 8:23). See also Ezekiel 28:3.

b. An Oratorical Genius. “He shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries” (Dan. 11:21b). He shall be a mockery and an imitation of Him of whom it is said. “Never man spake like this man.”

c. A Governmental Genius. He rises from obscurity to power. He is the “little horn” spoken of in Daniel 7 and 8, and the “beast” of Revelation 13 and 14. All kings will give their power to him.

d. A Commercial Genius. No one will be able to buy or sell without his seal. “No man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:17).

e. A Military Genius. “I saw, and behold a white horse; and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer” (Rev. 6:2). “Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Rev. 13:4b).

f. A Religious Genius. He demands to be worshiped as God. “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (II Thess. 2:4).

g. A Financial Genius. “He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps” (Dan. 11:43). See also Ezekiel 28:4,5.

B. His Titles.

1. Man of Sin. This is the most important and most terrible of all his titles. All the sins of man will be embodied and headed up in him. “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (II Thess. 2:3).

2. Son of Perdition. The above Scripture declares him to be the son of perdition, also (II Thess. 2:3).

3. The Lawless One. “Then shall that Wicked [lawless one] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (II Thess. 2:8). Christ is the righteous one; the Antichrist is the lawless one.

4. The Lie. “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a [the] lie” (II Thess. 2:11). Jesus Christ is the Truth; the Antichrist is the Lie. John 8:44 says that the Devil is a liar “and the father of it.” “It” refers to “the lie.” pg222

5. The Antichrist. “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time” (I John 2:18).

6. King of Babylon. Babylon is always the seat of Satan. Babylon shall be revived in the last days, and the Antichrist shall reign over it (Rev. 17 and 18).

7. The Little Horn. “Out of one of them came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. . .

And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up” (Dan. 8:9, 23). See also Daniel 7:8.

8. The Willful King. “The king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done” (Dan. 11:36).

9. The Assyrian. “O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation” (Is. 10:5). See also Isaiah 10:12, 24.

10. The Beast. (Rev. 13, 17, 19).

C. His Forerunners.

Some are seen in the Scriptures, and some out of the Scriptures.

1. Cain. He denied the blood and was a liar and murderer (I John 3:12).

2. Nimrod. His history preceded the calling of Abraham to the Promised Land. The Antichrist will precede the call of the seed of Abraham and enter into the Promised Land the second time. Nimrod means “rebel,” While the Scriptures speak of him as being a mighty hunter, in reality he was not a hunter of animals, but a hunter of souls. He was “a mighty man against the Lord.” So the Antichrist will be.

3. Saul. This king of Israel was demanded by the people, but he was against the anointed of the Lord. The Antichrist will be the choice of the people also, and he will be against God’s anointed.

4. Absalom. Absalom means “father of peace”; yet he denied his father. He posed as a man of peace and tried to steal the kingdom. So will the Antichrist.

pg223

ABSALOM ANTICHRIST.

1. A Man of Beauty 1. The same.

2. Tried to gain the kingdom by flatteries. 2. The same.

3. Set up a pillar to himself. 3. The same.

4. Came to a violent end. 4. The same.


5. Nebuchadnezzar. He was the first world ruler, who became the forerunner of the last world ruler.

6. Antiochus Epiphanes. He was the mad man who sacked Jerusalem, killing four hundred thousand Jews. He took a sow and burned it upon the altar. The Antichrist, too, shall profane the altar.

7. Alexander the Great. He was known as the “Unsatisfier.” He was a military genius who never suffered defeat. He sought to be worshiped as the Son of God. The same will be true of the Antichrist.

8. Caias Caligula. This Roman Emperor was considered mad. No doubt he was possessed by a demon. The Antichrist shall be fully possessed by the Devil.

9. Nero. During his life he was thought to be the Antichrist by the early Christians.

Many believed that when he died he would be raised from the dead. The Antichrist shall be raised from the dead.

10. Charlemagne. This man was considered a great warrior and statesman. The Antichrist shall he considered the same.

11. Napoleon. He thought to revive the Holy Roman Empire. This figurative empire is considered to comprise those countries whose lands are washed by the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Napoleon planned a new Jewish kingdom and Sanhedrin. The Antichrist will accomplish many of these same plans.

12. Kaiser Wilhelm. This leader of the German Empire had the same objective as Napoleon. It is said that every general carried a map of the Holy Roman Empire.

13. Mussolini. There were no doubts as to the objectives of this man. At one time he made a map of the old Roman Empire and included England in it. England protested, but the map remained. The Antichrist will not only make a map, but he will make a kingdom with all empires in it.

pg 224

D. His Work.

His work shall be motivated by Satan, ruling the world and trying to destroy the Jew (Is. 10:12-27).

E. His Career.

Remember, this is the mocker and mimic of Christ. He shall claim a reincarnation. His birth shall be obscure; he will begin as a mere man in world affairs; but he will be rapidly promoted until he becomes ruler of the entire world. Daniel 9:27 states that he will “confirm the covenant” with the Jews. “Confirm” means to “recognize.” What covenant is Israel interested in? The Mosaic Covenant. For the first three and one-half years of the Tribulation the Jews will be allowed to worship in their new temple. This would have been hard to believe a hundred years ago, for then only a handful of Jews lived in Palestine. But look at Israel today. She is recognized as a nation; she has a government, an army, an air force; she is doing business with the rest of the world. There are literally hundreds of thousands of Jews back in the land. Here is Israel as a nation; why do they so exist? Is this the last regathering? Are they waiting for the Messiah? No. For the most part, Israel has returned to the land in unbelief. They do not even believe the God of their fathers, much less in their rejected Messiah. What, then, is Israel waiting for? She is waiting for the rise of the Antichrist, although she knows it not. He is to confirm the covenant. Therefore, there must be a nation with which the Antichrist can confirm the covenant. Here is Israel waiting for the Antichrist.

I saw one of his heads as it was wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast” (Rev. 13:3). According to this Scripture and Revelation 17, we see that the Antichrist shall suffer death, that he shall die. The words “deadly wound” are better translated “death stroke.” Revelation 13:12 has the phrase, “whose deadly wound was healed,” which describes fully the death and resurrection of the Antichrist. See also Revelation 13:14. No wonder the world will wonder after him and say, “Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Rev. 13:4).

He shall be the seventh of seven kings who shall be world rulers. When he dies and is resurrected he becomes the eighth ruler of the world. The world shall be divided into ten kingdoms, overlorded by ten rulers, “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (Rev. 17:13).

No doubt he comes to the ascendancy of world rule in the seventieth week of Daniel. He demands to be worshiped as God at this time, and thus he marks the beginning of The Day of the LORD.

F. His Time.

He has not yet been revealed, but it is possible in the light of present-day events, that somewhere in the world he is alive today. He will not appear as the Antichrist until the old Roman Empire is revived, composed of the ten-toed kingdom of Daniel 2 and the ten pg225 horned beast of Revelation 13 and 17. Another thing that must come to pass before he is revealed is the Rapture of the Church.

G. His Appearance.

He shall be a Jew by birth, a Roman by citizenship, and a Syrian by nationality. “Out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land” (Dan. 8:9). He marches on to conquer the nations of the south, and the east, and the west, He does not conquer the north, for that is where he shall come from — Syria!

H. His End.

Then shall that lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (II Thess. 2:8). See also Revelation 19:20.

VI. The Tribulation.

There are three distinct tribulations in the Scriptures, and unless they are distinguished from each other, confusion will result. While the Word says that the Body of Christ is enduring tribulation, it also says that Israel shall have tribulation. Then there shall be three and one-half years of great tribulation, such as the world has never seen. At this point many get confused — by the combination of these three into one tribulation. They are distinctly separate, however. First, there is the Tribulation of the Church, which is for the Body of Christ and is now present. Second, there is the Tribulation known as Jacob’s Trouble, which lasts seven years and is future. Finally, there is the Great Tribulation, which commences in the midst of Jacob’s Trouble and lasts for three and one-half years.

The first Tribulation is for the Church and is brought about by Satan. The second Tribulation is upon Israel and is brought by God. The Great Tribulation is pronounced upon Israel and the world and is brought by God through Satan.

A. The Tribulation of the Body of Christ.

There is no denying that the Church is enduring tribulation. “For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know” (I Thess. 3:4). “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (II Tim. 3:12). It is the nature of the Church to suffer. The world lieth in the hands of the wicked one; we being of heavenly origin, are bound to be persecuted by Satan and his cohorts. The Church is a Body; as it is natural for it to suffer, one member may be suffering while the others are not; yet, one member cannot be hurt without the entire body suffering.

Paul, in speaking to the Colossians, said, “[I] now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” (Col. 1:24). Notice that the word “afflictions” is the Greek word pg226 thlipsis, meaning tribulation. This is the same word that is used of the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation. Also, we call attention to the words “afflictions of Christ”: the definite article should appear before “Christ,” making it read “the afflictions of the Christ.” Thus, it is the Tribulation of the Christ, or the Body of Christ, the Church. As it is natural for the Body to suffer, and as the Colossians were not suffering, Paul had to make up for what was lacking on the part of the Colossians. He so states in this verse. If this were not so, how could he be suffering for the Colossians? He had never been there; he only knew a few of the Christians there; he was in Rome, hundreds of miles away from them, How could his suffering in Rome be effective for them in Colosse? The only answer is that he had to make up for the lack of suffering on the part of the Colossians. In Colossians 1:13 Paul speaks of the Church as being the kingdom of God’s dear Son, and then in verse 24 he emphasizes its sufferings, or tribulation.

John states the same thing in Revelation 1:9 (R.V.62): “I John, your brother and partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” Verily, the Church is enduring tribulation — it is the Tribulation of the Christ.

B. The Tribulation of Israel.

A more familiar term is “Jacob’s Trouble.” “Alas! for that day is great. so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer. 30:7).

This period lasts for seven years, and is known as the 70th week of Daniel. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined, And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week” (Dan. 9:24-27).

By these verses we learn that seventy weeks, four hundred and ninety years, were determined for Daniel’s people, the Jews. From the time that the command came to rebuild Jerusalem to the time when Messiah (Christ) was cut off, was sixty-nine weeks, or four hundred and eighty-three years. Between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week is a gap, known as the Church Age, which Daniel knew nothing about, nor did any other Old Testament prophets (Eph. 3:5). We know that these seventy weeks have to do with Israel alone. The years during the Church period have, we must confess, been lean years for the Jews. It seems that God has forsaken them, but He has not. After this Church Age is completed, known as the “fulness of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:25), the Church will be raptured, and the Lord shall give full attention to the Jews (Israel) again. This will be the pg227 seventieth week, known as the Tribulation, which lasts seven years.

The Church will not go through any part of this seven-year Tribulation. The fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation fully describe the Rapture of the Church before the Tribulation. Chapters six through nineteen then deal with the Tribulation. The Tribulation is identified when the Antichrist confirms the covenant with the Jews. It is concluded with the revelation of Christ in judgment.

C. The Great Tribulation.

While it is still Jacob’s Trouble, judgment shall be intensified the last three and one-half years of the Tribulation. It is marked by the breaking of the covenant by the Antichrist, and by the revelation of the Antichrist as the Lie. “In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the over-spreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Dan. 9:27). The Lord Jesus re-emphasized this truth when He added some details to the above quoted Scripture: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. . . . For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt. 24:15, 16, 21). From the words of Daniel and the Lord Jesus we learn that in the middle of the Tribulation the Antichrist breaks his covenant with the Jews, causes the revived sacrificial rites to come to an end, and places himself in the holy place, which is described as the abomination of desolation. II Thessalonians 2:4 describes this event in added detail: the Antichrist “opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” During this last three and one-half years, when the Antichrist shall demand to be worshiped as God, man will not be able to buy or sell without his mark (Rev. 13:17).

Many times the question is asked, “Will anyone be saved during the Tribulation (including the Great Tribulation)?” Yes, people will be saved, even during the first three and one-half years of the Tribulation. The departure of the saints will convince many unbelievers of the truth of the Gospel; however, these believers will not be part of the Body of Christ. Some may question these statements by using the following verses: “Then shall that lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a [the] lie: that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thess. 2:8-12).

The above verses seem to teach that if one has rejected Christ before the Rapture he will not be able to be saved during the Tribulation. But we call attention to the fact that God pg228 causes them to believe the Lie, and they will not be able to believe the Lie until the middle of the Tribulation period, as the Antichrist will not be revealed, as such, until then. Therefore, we are led to believe that the invitation will still be given men to be saved during the first three and one-half years of the Tribulation. But if they reject Christ during this time, God shall give them strong delusions to believe the Lie, and it will be impossible for them to be saved during the last three and one-half years of the Tribulation.

The natural question then arises, “Will anyone be saved during the last three and one-half years?” Revelation 7 declares emphatically that there shall be countless numbers of Jews and Gentiles saved during this period, known as the Great Tribulation. Those saved during the Great Tribulation will be those who have never heard the Gospel and have not taken the mark of the beast. Their salvation will be brought about by the preaching of a great evangelistic movement, which will be composed, we believe, of the 144,000 Israelites (Rev. 7:4-8).

You may ask, “How, then, will it be possible for them to be saved when the Holy Spirit has been taken up out of the world?” Let us turn to Moffatt’s translation and read: “For the secret force of lawlessness is at work already; only, it cannot be revealed till he who at present restrains it is removed” (II Thess. 2:7). The Holy Spirit will not be taken up out of the earth, but will take His restraining hand off sinful man and give him up fully to his sin. The Holy Spirit will still be here, for He is omnipresent. He will not manifest himself during the Great Tribulation as He did before the dispensation of grace. Again we remind you that the Great Tribulation ends with the coming of Christ to this earth.

VII. The Battle Of Armageddon.

Whenever a great battle is fought, people fear that it is the Battle of Armageddon. In order clearly to understand this battle, let us find out first what it is not, and then what it is.

A. What It Is Not.

1. It Is Not World Wars I and II.

2. It Is Not the First Battle of Gog and Magog. This battle is composed of the forces of the Northern confederacy (Russia and her allies). It is not much of a battle, but God rains fire and brimstone upon the armies and country. This occurs at the beginning of the Tribulation.

3. It Is Not the War in Heaven. This battle is described in Revelation 12:7-17. It concerns the forces of Satan being defeated by Michael and his army.

4. It Is Not the Second Battle of Gog and Magog. This is the concluding battle of all battles, whether physical or spiritual. It is fought after the Millennium, when Satan is loosed for a season and deceives the Gentile peoples (Rev. 20:7-9). Fire comes down pg229 from heaven and destroys them.

B. What It Is.

1. The Participants. I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army” (Rev. 19:19). This is the seed of the serpent fighting against the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15). It is the conflict between Christ and the Antichrist.

2. The Place. The plain of Esdraelon is the place of this battle. It is an ancient battleground. Gideon fought there; Saul and Jonathan were killed there; Josiah was killed by Pharaoh there; the Greeks and Romans battled there; and Napoleon suffered his first defeat there.

3. The Time. The battle occurs at the end of the Great Tribulation, just before the Millennium begins.

4. The End. The end of this battle results in the complete annihilation of the Antichrist’s army. The Antichrist and the False Prophet are then cast alive into Hell. “The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Rev. 19:20).

VIII. The Millennium.

The Millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ immediately following the Great Tribulation. Millennium is not a Scriptural word, but it is a Scriptural truth.

A. The Fact of the Millennium.

1. The Lord Has Decreed It (Ps. 2).

2. Christ Taught It (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21).

3. The Scriptures Teach It (Is. 2, 11).

4. The Psalmist Described It (Ps. 72).

5. The Angels Declared It (Luke 1).

6. The Transfiguration Pictures It (Matt. 16:28; 17:1).

7. A Gospel Outlines It (Mark 6:45-56).

8. The Apostles Preached It (Acts 2, 3). pg230

9. Nature Longs For It. (Rom. 8).

B. The Description of the Millennium.

1. The Thousand Years (Rev. 21:1-7).

2. The Age to Come (Eph. 1:21).

3. The Day of the LORD (Rev. 6:12-17; Joel 2:10, 11,30, 31; Hag. 2:6,7; Matt. 24; Zech. 14:1-5).

4. In That Day (Is. 4:2; 2:11, 17, 20, 21; 11:11).

5. The Restitution of All Things. “(The Lord] shall send Jesus Christ. . . . whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:20, 21). Some use this verse as meaning the restitution of Christ-rejecting sinners, and even the Devil. But notice that the above verse says, “which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets.” The prophets say nothing of the restitution of the Devil and sinners.

a. Israel to the Promised Land (Is. 11:10-12).

b. Repentance of the Nations to Jehovah (Zech. 12: 10-14).

c. The Removal of the Band of Iniquity (Zech. 3:9).

d. Restoration of Rain (Joel 2:23-29).

e. Re-engraving of Jehovah’s Law (Jer. 31:28-37).

f. Redistribution of the Land (Ezek. 48).

g. Reconstruction of Jerusalem (Is. 62; Ezek. 40).

h. Restitution From Bondage of Fear (Is. 14:1-3; Jer. 33:14-16).

i. Restitution of Jehovah’s Love (Zeph. 3:16-20).

6. The Regeneration of All Things (Matt. 19:18; Is. 32).

7. The Falling Stone (Dan. 2).

C. The Types of the Millennium.

1. The Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25).

2. The Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23).

3. The Sabbath. It is that rest to come.

4. The Kingdom of Israel Under Solomon’s Reign. This was an absolute reign of peace.

D. The Conditions During the Millennium. pg231

1. The Church, It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him we also shall live with him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us” (II Tim. 2:11, 12). Wherever the Lord shall be, there we shall be with Him (I Thess. 4:17). We shall reign, and we shall judge over angels and the world. I Corinthians 6:2, 3 says, “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world. . . . Know ye not that we shall judge angels?”

2. Satan. Satan shall be sealed and bound for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-7). The Antichrist is cast into the lake of fire before that (Rev. 19:20).

3. Israel. She shall become the head of all nations again, and will not remain the tail as she is today (Is. 2:1-4; 11:3, 4; 61:5; Zech. 8:23; Deut. 28:13).

4. The Nations of the World. All nations will have to come up to Jerusalem year by year and worship Jehovah there. If they do not keep the yearly Feast of Tabernacles, God will cause no rain to fall upon that nation (Zech. 14:16; Is. 2).

5. Mankind.

a. Spiritual Condition. Some have been led to think that there will be no sin during the Millennium, but there will be. Human nature has never changed from one dispensation to another. There will be universal adoration of Christ (Heb. 8:11; 2:14; Phil. 2:10, 11), but it will be feigned obedience upon the part of many. For example, many in prison obey their warden, not because they love him, but because they must.

Where will these sinners come from, as the Millennium begins with only born-again believers? They will be born of saved parents who came out of the Tribulation alive.

b. Physical Condition. Human life will be lengthened. Some will be able to live throughout the Millennium. There shall be death during this reign of Christ, also — death, not to the believer, but to the unbeliever. No babes or children shall die. When the sinner becomes one hundred years old and still rejects Christ, he shall be cut off by death.

There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed [cut off]” (Is. 65:20).

c. Moral Condition. This will not be a period of absolute perfection. However, sin will not be allowed to raise its head. Christ shall rule with a rod of iron (Ps. 46:9; Is. 2:4).

Sin, nevertheless, will be committed in the hearts of men.

6. Creation.

a. Physical. When Adam fell, the earth was cursed (Rom. 8:18-23). Man has accomplished wonders with his irrigation systems, and the like, but look what God will do! “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose” (Is. 35:1). See also Isaiah 55:13. Creation shall be restored completely; no more earthquakes; no more storms, famines and pestilences (Joel 2).

b. Animal Creation. Before man sinned, God had put the fear of man in the animals.

They ate the grass of the fields. During the Millennium they shall revert back to the same pg232 order which He had intended for them (Is. 11:6-9). “And a little child shall lead them” (Is. 11:6) means that a child, during the Millennium, shall literally lead animals around. It is not speaking about children leading sinners to the Lord.

IX. The Judgments.

The Bible does not teach a general judgment. Instead, it informs us that there are many judgments, some past, some present and some future. For example, there is the past judgment upon Sodom and there is the future judgment upon Babylon.

A. Judgments of the Christian.

1. Judgment on Sin. When did this occur? For the Christian this is a past judgment, for all of our sins were judged at Calvary. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (I Peter 3:18). “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24). See also Galatians 3:13; John 3:16; Isaiah 53:5,6.

2. Judgment on Christian Service. No Christian will have to be judged for his sins; they have already been judged upon the Cross of Calvary. The Christian will have to answer to God for his works. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (II Cor. 5:10). Yes, the Christian has escaped the future judgment of the wicked (“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life” —John 5:24, R.V.63), but he shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive rewards for the deeds done in the body. The words, “judgment seat,” are from the Greek word “Bema,” better translated “Rewarding Stand.” This will be set up when Christ comes. “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Rev. 22:12).

There are several crowns that the Christian may achieve:

a. The Crown of Life. “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him” (Jas. 1:12). See also Revelation 2:10. This is rewarded for faithfulness, even unto death.

b. An Incorruptible Crown. “Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible” (I Cor. 9:25). This is a reward for those who live separated lives unto the Lord.

c. Crown of Rejoicing. “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?” (I Thess. 2: 19). This is the soul-winner’s crown.

d. Crown of Glory. “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away” (I Peter 5:2-4). pg233 This is the shepherds’, pastors’, or ministers’ reward.

e. Crown of Righteousness. “There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” This crown goes to all who love His second coming.

If you love His appearing, you will talk about it. All doctrines are headed up by the Second Coming.

B. Judgment of the Nations.

This takes place at the beginning of the Millennium, the thousand year reign (Matt. 25:31-46). A better name for “nations” is “Gentiles.” This is the judgment of all Gentiles who come out of the Tribulation alive. There are three classes of people mentioned: sheep, goats and brethren. The brethren are the Jews; the sheep are the righteous; and the goats are the unrighteous.

The righteous (sheep, Gentiles) go into the kingdom, then on to eternal life. The unrighteous (goats, Gentiles) are sent immediately to the lake of fire; therefore, they will not be judged at the Great White Throne. They go there a thousand years sooner than the wicked dead.

There are those who contend that this is a judgment of works and that men go to heaven or hell on the basis of their works; for, they say, the Scriptures state that this judgment is based upon the words “inasmuch as ye have done it, or inasmuch as ye did it not.” However, we will show that it is still a judgment based upon faith. The Lord, here, is the judge, and He does mete out judgment on the basis of the words “inasmuch as . . . But let us ask, What prompted the sheep nations to minister to the brethren, the Jews, during the Tribulation? They did it because they accepted the brethren’s preaching. Do you think that they would have visited, clothed, fed and ministered to the brethren during the Tribulation if they had not believed? Remember, the Tribulation is going to be a time of peril. Man will not be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast. The sheep (Gentiles) defy this order, reject the mark of the beast, and accept what the brethren preach. We know they accept Christ, for the Lord has said, “He that receiveth you receiveth me” (Matt. 10:40). Again we emphasize that the sheep (Gentiles) are saved because of their faith in Christ, for Revelation 7:14 declares it so: “He said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation [the Great Tribulation], and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” The unrighteous nations (goats, Gentiles) are cast into hell because of their unbelief.

They rejected the brethren, thus rejecting Christ.

C. Judgment at the Great White Throne.

This great judgment is found in Revelation 20:11-15: “I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead pg234 were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.” It is the judgment only of the wicked dead who have been raised at the last resurrection. No born-again believer shall appear here. The wicked dead are not to be tried as to whether they are going to heaven or hell; it has already been determined that they are going to hell, for they died condemned (John 3:18). This judgment is to determine the degrees of punishment, “according to their works” (Rev. 20:13).

There are two witnesses against them: The Book, and the Books; that is, the Book of Life, and the Book of Works. We do not know what the different degrees of punishment will be.

X. After The Millennium.

When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breath of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them” (Rev. 20:7-9).

This is the war that ends all war. It is the final conflict of the universe.

A. Satan Loosed.

As he is loosed for a short time, he tries one more thrust at God.

B. Nations Gathered.

We ask ourselves, Who could Satan organize among the Gentiles to fight against God? None other but those unsaved who are ninety-nine years old and younger, who have been born during the last century of the Millennium.

Notice that no army has gathered against them.

C. Army Destroyed.

Fire comes down from heaven and destroys them.

D. Satan Doomed.

He is then cast into the lake of fire prepared for him and his angels.

XI. The Future Of The Wicked.

It is not hard to think of everlasting life, but it is hard to think of an eternity in hell; nevertheless, it is true. pg235

A. The Scriptural Teaching.

1. There Will Be a Day of Judgment (Acts 17:30, 31).

2. Every Man Will Be Judged for His Works (Rom. 2:16; Rev. 20:12).

3. It Is Eternal (Mark 9:43-48). See also Matt. 13.

4. There Will Be Degrees of Punishment (Rev. 20:12; Rom. 2:5, 6).

5. There Will Be a Resurrection of the Unjust As Well As of the Just (John 5:29).

6. Language Describes It (Matt. 25:46; Mark 9:45-48; John 3:36).

7. All Is Based Upon the Character of God as Righteous.

B. The Terms Used.

The following are the places where wicked human beings and angels are, or shall be sent to:

1. Sheol. This is the Old Testament word describing the place of the departed wicked.

2. Hades. This is the New Testament Greek word, describing the immediate state of the wicked dead; it is the same as Sheol. There is nothing in the Bible that speaks of an eternal Hades, or Sheol.

3. Tartarus. This is the place where the wicked angels are chained; it is a place of darkness.

4. Gehenna. Gehenna was the city dump outside of Jerusalem, whose fire never went out. The Lord Himself likened hell unto it, describing the fires of hell that shall always burn: “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:44).

5. Tophet. “Tophet” is the Old Testament Hebrew word meaning the same as Gehenna.

6. Abyss. This is the place of fallen angels, human beings are never placed here (Rom. 10:7).

7. Lake of Fire. This is found only in the Book of the Revelation. Its meaning is the same as Gehenna.

8. Eternal. Sometimes this word is translated “everlasting.” The meaning is the same.

The punishment of the wicked is eternal. pg236

a. First Interpretation. Thayer translates it to mean “without beginning and without end.”

b. Second Interpretation. This states that “eternal” means “without beginning.”

c. Third Interpretation. This holds that “eternal” means “without ending.” We agree with all three. We do not hold to the interpretation that it means only “age lasting.” Some would have us believe that the wicked will endure hell for just an age. But the word “eternal” describing hell is the same word which describes eternal life (John 3:16), and the everlasting God (Rom. 16:26), and the everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ (II Peter 1:11).

C. The Theories Proposed.

1. Universalism. This is the belief that all will finally be saved, including the Devil.

What would the words “judge” and “judgments” mean if they did not mean judge or judgment. When God speaks about eternal judgment, He means eternal judgment (Acts 3:21-24; I Cor. 15:22; Matt. 18:9; John 3:36).

2. Conditionalism. This false teaching was not found in the Early Church, but it first made its appearance in the nineteenth century. It was reasoned that eternal life is based upon the acceptance of Jesus Christ. If one accepts Him, he has eternal life. If he does not accept Him, he will never live; non-acceptance in this life will result in non-existence in the future life. There is no Scriptural foundation for this theory.

3. Everlasting Punishment. This is based upon Biblical truth, which connects sin with punishment. All sins committed are committed against eternity. He who sins by rejecting Jesus Christ shall endure eternal punishment.

XII. Heaven.

The Scriptures teach that there are three heavens:

A. First Heaven. This is the region of the clouds where the birds fly, the atmospheric heaven.

B. Second Heaven. This is the stellar heaven, where the stars are located.

C. Third Heaven. This is the place where God lives; it is the place where Jesus came from.

The Lord Jesus went through the first and second heaven to get to the third heaven.

Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession” (Heb. 4:14, R.V.64).

Heaven is just as real as the clouds and stars. It is the place where Stephen saw God; the place to which John was caught up by the Spirit. The first thing he saw, was the Lord Jesus. He is the heart of heaven (Rev. 1, Heb. 9:24). Paul, too, was caught up to the third pg237 heaven (II Cor. 12:2). Where is heaven? Does the Bible make it clear? Heaven is always in the north. “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7). See also Isaiah 14:12-14; Psalm 82:1; 48:2.

Is heaven foursquare? Is it a cube? What will man have for his future home? Will it be a small cubby hole in a square city? Is heaven only fifteen hundred miles square? While the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21,22) is foursquare, this is only a city of heaven, which descends as a present for the Bride.

Those who go there will live in perfect peace and perfect love for all time and eternity.

Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels” (Heb. 12:22). 65



Chapter 5 Ironside's Lectures on Revelation

A work on eschatology would be remiss if it did not include H. A. Ironside's 1920, hundred year old, “Lectures on the Book of Revelation.” Henry Allen Ironside (1876 Toronto Canada, 1951 New Zealand) lived through two world wars (WWI 1914-1918, and WWII 1939-1945) and understood from God's Word that no Catholic Church was going to bring peace on earth or usher in a kingdom age. Ironside was a gifted Bible expositor and orator of the 20th century; a genuine dispensationalist. Ironside removes all Catholic and Protestant allegorical interpretation of the Revelation of Jesus Christ and rightly divides the Word of Truth.

Ironside's excellent exposé was written in the face of a preponderance of religious Amillennialism and Replacement Theology. Further Ironside's insights are remarkable because they came after The Great War when many turned focus on the end of the world, and they were revisited after WWII when another such awakening revisited eschatology. In his Preface to the 1930 Edition Ironside said in essence, “I need not change a thing”, as rehearsed below:


The eleven years that have elapsed since these lectures were first issued in printed form, have but given added proof that the system of interpretation followed is the Scriptural one. The word of prophecy is confirmed by the passing of the years. Everything in the Church, in Jewry, and in the world, moves on exactly as predicted in the Holy Scriptures.

It is a matter of sincere gratification to the author, that, in preparing a new edition, in response to the ever-increasing demand for this unpretentious volume, there has not been an interpretation to discard nor a matter of any importance to alter. A few typographical errors have been corrected; an occasional sentence has been recast; here and there an entire paragraph has been altered; but only to make the teaching less ambiguous, or to change awkward expressions so as to clarify the whole. Otherwise this edition is practically the same as that of 1919.

May GOD continue to use it to the awakening of believers to the imminence of the Lord's return, and to the arousing of the unsaved that they may come to CHRIST ere the door of grace be closed.

H. A. Ironside

Chicago, 1l Sept. 1930.


Henry Allen Ironside's “Lectures on the Book of Revelation” is public domain and made available in its entirety on our site www.GSBaptistChurch.com/theology; every Bible student should have a copy of his lectures. This chapter contains his Lectures 1 & 2, and Lectures 5 – 22 (Lectures 3 & 4 are found in the Ecclesiology volume of this effort). Open your Bible's and absorb the truths expounded in Ironside's Lectures.



Lecture 1 The Introduction

(Revelation 1:1-8)

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IT is certainly cause for deep regret that to so many Christians the Book of Revelation seems to be what God never intended it should be - a sealed book. The book of Daniel was to be sealed till the time of the end (Daniel 12:9), but of Revelation it is written: “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand” (Chap. 22:10). It is clearly evident that this portion of Holy Scripture was given for our instruction and edification, but thousands of the Lord’s people permit themselves to be robbed of blessing by it.

Significantly enough, it is the one book of the Bible which begins and ends with a blessing pronounced on those who read and keep what is written therein (Chap. 1:3; 2:7). Surely God did not mean to mock us by promising a blessing on all who keep what they cannot hope to understand! It is only unbelief that would so reason. Faith delights to appropriate every part of the sacred record, and finds that “they are all clear to him that understandeth.” (Prov 8:9).

The true title is given us in the opening verse. It is, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” not” The Revelation of St. John the Divine.” There is no authority for this latter designation, and it shows all too plainly how far some early editor had slipped away from first principles. John was a saint as all believers are saints. He was not a divine! Such a title would have amazed him beyond measure. Nor is the book the revelation of John or of any other servant of God. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ Himself.

The word rendered “revelation,” and sometimes “ apocalypse,” means literally an unveiling, or manifestation. So this book is the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is its one great theme. It presents Him as the Son of Man in the midst of the churches during the present dispensation: and as the Judge and the King in the dispensations to come. If you would learn to appreciate Christ more, read this book, frequently and prayerfully. It reveals Him as the Lamb rejected, soon to reign in glory the Lamb on the. throne!

And observe the title is not in the plural. People often speak of the book of Revelations. There is no such book in the Bible. It is the Revelation - one blessed, continuous manifestation of God’s unique Son, the anointed Prophet, Priest and King. Revelation is the crowning book of the Bible. It is like the Head-stone of Zechariah 4:7 that completes and crowns the whole wondrous pyramid of truth.

Of this vast pyramid the Pentateuch of Moses forms the broad, solid foundation. Upon this is built up the Covenant History. Then the Psalms and Poetical Books. Then the Prophetic Series of the Old Testament. Higher up we have the Gospels and the Acts. Then the Epistles with their deep spiritual instruction; and to complete the glorious structure, this last, solemn, but exceedingly precious book, the Revelation, linking all the rest with the soon-to-be-manifested glory of God.

Or if you think of Holy Scripture as forming a great golden circle of truth, we start with Genesis, the book of beginnings, and go on through the Testaments until we come to Revelation - the book of the last things; and, lo, we find it dovetails exactly into the book of Genesis, and thus perfects the inspired ring! The Word of God is one absolutely perfect, unbroken, and unbreakable circle.

A comparison of Genesis and Revelation will readily make this plain, and show how we have the types in Genesis and the completion of the truth in Revelation: - in the one book the beginning, in the other the consummation.

Genesis gives us the creation of the heavens and the earth. Revelation presents a new heaven and a new earth.

Genesis shows us the earthly paradise, with the tree of life and the river of blessing, lost through sin. Revelation gives us the Paradise of God with the Tree of Life and the pure river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb - Paradise regained through Christ’s atonement.

In Genesis we see the first man and his wife set over all God’s creation. In Revelation we behold the Second Man and His Bride ruling over a redeemed world.

In Genesis we are told of the first typical sacrificial lamb. In Revelation the Lamb once slain is in the midst of the throne.

In Genesis we learn of the beginning of sin, when the serpent first entered the garden of delight to beguile Adam and Eve with his sophistries. In Revelation that old Serpent called the devil and Satan is cast into the lake of fire.

In Genesis we have the first murderer, the first polygamist, the first rebel, the first drunkard. etc.

In Revelation all such, who refuse to accept God’s grace in Christ Jesus, are banished from His presence forever.

In Genesis we view the rise of Babel, or Babylon. In Revelation we are called to contemplate its doom.

In Genesis we see man’s city; in Revelation the city of God.

Genesis shows us how sorrow, death, pain and tears, the inevitable accompaniments of sin and rebellion, came into the world. Revelation does not close until we have seen God wiping away all tears, and welcoming His redeemed into a home where sin, death, pain and sorrow never come.

And so we might go on for an hour, contrasting and comparing these two books, but enough has been cited, I trust, to stir each interested believer to study for himself. What we get ourselves out of our Bibles is, in the presence of God, worth far more than all that another passes on to us. We may learn from each other, but it is best to take nothing for granted; but, like Ruth the Moabitess, to “beat out that she had gleaned”(Ruth 2:17) through meditation and prayer.

But before we examine with some degree of care the opening verses of this remarkable book, it may be well to point out that there are three very distinct views of Revelation presented by those who seek to comment upon, or expound it. They are generally known as the Preterist, Historical, and Futurist. Each of the three systems of interpretation might be subdivided into various, conflicting schools, but the names give the main point of view in each case.

As a rule, the preterists see very little in the book beyond a weird religio-political document supposedly written by some unknown person who took the name of John in order to give acceptance to his writings, or else some other John than the apostle of that name, whose real object was to comfort his Christian brethren in a time of great persecution under one of the Roman Emperors by portraying the final outcome of the stern conflict as a great victory for the saints, resulting in the overthrow of paganism and the recognition of a glorious city of God in its place.

Scholars of The historical school believe they see in the momentous events of the last nineteen hundred years, the fulfillment of the seals, trumpets and vials, and the other special visions of the book. According to this, there can be no possible understanding of Revelation apart from a thorough knowledge of the history of the nations comprising Christendom - the sphere where Christ’s authority is nominally owned. Many and varied are the schools of interpretation founded on this supposition or hypothesis.

Generally speaking, The futurists as a rule consider that the largest part of the book applies to a period still future, and that only the first three chapters refer to the present Church dispensation. Some extreme futurists even relegate these chapters to the end-times also, and so do not see the Church in Revelation at all.

As we go on with our attempt to expound the book, our own position will be seen to coincide with that of the futurists first mentioned, but we reserve for a later lecture the ground upon which this view is based.

Turning again to the text, we note, in verse one, that the Revelation of Jesus Christ was given by the Father to the Son, as David revealed to Solomon All his plans in connection with the building of the future temple. God is represented as being in counsel with our Lord Jesus Christ concerning “things which must shortly come to pass,” and which it is the joy of His heart to communicate to His servants. An angel becomes the medium to make all known to the beloved apostle John, who, in this sense, is to tarry in the Church till the coming of the Lord - that is, his line of ministry carries us on to that blessed event. Note then the order through which the revelation came down to us. God gave it to Jesus Christ, who sent it by His angel to His servant John to show unto His servants the coming things.

He is said to have signified it; that is, He made it known by signs or symbols. It is important to bear this in mind. This book is a book of symbols. But the careful student of the Word need not exercise his own ingenuity in order to think out the meanings of the symbols. It may be laid down as a principle of first importance that every symbol used in Revelation is explained or alluded to somewhere else in the Bible. Therefore, he who would get God’s mind as to this portion of His Word must study with earnest and prayerful attention every other part of Holy Scripture. Undoubtedly this is why so great a blessing is in store for those who read and hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things written therein (ver. 3).

Verses 4 to 8 comprise the salutation. The book is particularly addressed, as a great general epistle, to “the seven churches in Asia.” By the term Asia we are not to understand the continent that now bears that name, nor yet what we speak of as Asia Minor, but a Roman proconsular province which of old was distinctively denominated “Asia.” In John’s day there were many Christian churches already established in that province, and of these, seven are selected to be especially addressed. If any ask why these seven were selected in preference to others (as for instance Colosse and Hierapolis, in both of which were important churches), my answer is that the geographical position of these churches was in keeping with the vision presented in verses 12 to 18. They formed a rough circle in the midst of which Christ was beheld by the seer, standing in His priestly garb, taking note of all that was going on.

But there was more than this: the internal conditions prevailing in these churches were suited to portray the state of the whole sphere of Christian profession in seven distinct periods, from the apostolic days to the close of the church’s testimony on earth. Even the very names of the seven cities, when interpreted, help to make this plain; they become, so to speak, keys to the different periods to which they apply. But the proof of this must be reserved for the next three addresses.

Observe how the three Persons of the Holy Trinity are linked together in the salutation. “He who is, and who was, and who is to come,” is the Lord Jehovah. This is the literal meaning of the mystic name communicated to Moses.

Jehovah” is a compound formed from three words: - The first meaning He is, - The second, He was, - The third, He will be, or He will come. Jehovah is the triune God, hence the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are alike called by this name. But in the present passage it is clearly God the Father who is in view. The Spirit comes before us in the next clause, “and from the seven Spirits that are before His throne.” If it is hard to understand how the one, eternal Holy Spirit can be so pictured, turn to Isaiah 11:1, 2. There we read of the seven Spirits who rest upon the Branch of our Lord Jesus Christ. Note the order given.

1. The Spirit of the Lord.

2. The Spirit of Wisdom.

3. The Spirit of Understanding.

4. The Spirit of Counsel.

5. The Spirit of Might.

6. The Spirit of Knowledge.

7. The Spirit of Fear of the Lord.

In this passage, we see the one Spirit in the seven-fold plenitude of His power. Seven, mentioned so frequently in this book, is the number of perfection, and is so used here. Then, with the Father and the Spirit, we have Jesus Christ as “the faithful Witness” when here on earth, “the First-begotten of the dead” in resurrection glory, and “the Prince of the kings of the earth” when He comes again to reign.

No wonder an outburst of praise and worship follows at this full revelation of His glories: “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” John’s heart was full and could hold in no longer. Adoration and praise were the spontaneous result of contemplation of Christ’s person and offices as Prophet, Priest and King.

Then John heralds the glad news of His coming again. He is going to return - not as a babe, born of woman, but the glorified One descending from heaven; and by a stupendous miracle, every eye shall see Him, while “all the tribes of the earth shall mourn” because of Him. This, I am persuaded, is the true meaning, and refers to Zechariah 12, where all the tribes of restored Israel are seen by the prophet mourning over their past rejection of Christ, and lament their folly, while awaiting His return. John speaks for all the church when he cries with rapture, “Even so. Amen!” Does your heart take up the same glad welcoming shout; or can it be that you are unready to meet Him, and would dread His return?

In the 8th. verse it is the Son who speaks, and now He declares Himself to be Jehovah also, One eternally with the Father. He is the Alpha and Omega - the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet - the beginning and the ending: He created all things; He will wind up all things, and bring in the new heavens and the new earth. He is, and was, and is the coming One, El Shaddai who of old appeared to Abraham - the Almighty. May our hearts be occupied with Himself, and His return be ever for us “that blessed Hope!” (Titus 2:13) ~

end of Lecture 1 ~ ***



Lecture 2 The First Vision

(Revelation 1:9-20)

IN our study of the first chapter last week, we got down to the first Vision of the book. The apostle John tells us that for the Name’s sake of the Lord Jesus Christ he was a prisoner banished to “the isle called Patmos”- a little rocky island in the Mediterranean Sea. There, shut away from all Christian fellowship, God had a greater mission for him than he had ever known in the past.

You remember on the occasion when the Lord Jesus restored Peter’s soul after his fall, He told him how when he was old another would gird him and lead him whither he would not, thus signifying by what death he should glorify God. Then Jesus said, “Follow me.” Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, and said, “Lord, what shall this man do?” The Lord answered, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” You will notice that in that sentence the Lord Jesus very clearly sets forth two things that are often confounded by some Christian teachers - death and the second coming of Christ. He says, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?” and He clearly puts “tarry till I come” in contrast with Peter’s dying before He comes. There is no place in Scripture where death and our Lord’s second coming are confounded. For death, instead of being the second coming of the Lord, is that which is to be swallowed up in victory at that second coming. But, you know, most of us are extremists, so when the Lord said to Peter, “If I will that he tarry till I come,” we are told that this saying went abroad among the disciples that “that disciple should not die”; but Jesus said not that he should not die, but “If I will that he tarry till I come.” And, of course, time proved that their hasty conclusion was incorrect.

And John also died, long years ago; but some years before the end of his earthly life, while on that desolate island of Patmos, where he was banished for his faithfulness, he had a wonderful vision unfolded before him, of truth connected with our Lord Jesus’ second coming, by means of which his ministry abides with us until Christ shall come again. John is absent from the body, but present with the Lord - has been for over 1800 years; but through the ministry given to us in this wonderful book of Revelation, John abides still until Jesus comes, throwing light upon all the complex problems that God’s people would have to meet in this present dispensation, and gives us to understand, as no other ministry does, the great program that God Himself is soon going to carry out.

So we see that the devil really over-reached himself when Domitian banished John to the isle of Patmos; for if he had remained ministering the Word to the saints and preaching to the unsaved, he might not have been able to write the book of Revelation and we might not have the visions this book gives us. But there, shut off from all his service, on that lonely isle, the veil was rolled back, and he was enabled to give us this wonderful record of the unveiling of Jesus Christ.

John tells us he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” The Lord’s Day is a divinely given designation for the first day of the week. I know there are those who tell us the Lord’s Day here is the Jewish Sabbath, which in the Old Testament is called the Sabbath of the Lord; and they tell us that inasmuch as nowhere in the New Testament is the Jewish Sabbath done away with, it should still be observed. But, in answer to that, we may notice that nowhere in all the New Testament, after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, do we ever have any special honor paid to the seventh day - Israel’s Sabbath. On that day, the Lord lay in the tomb. On the morning of the first day of the week, “when the Sabbaths were past”- as the 28th of Matthew puts it, that is, when the Jewish Sabbaths were ended - the Lord rose in triumph from the dead, and that new day became distinctly the Lord’s Day.

You find in the Word of God that “on the first day of the week the disciples came together to break bread”; on the first day of the week the Lord met with His own in the upper room. In connection with their gathering thus together, see the 16th chapter of I Corinthians, 2nd verse: “Upon the first day of the week let everyone of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.” Thus Christian giving and the weekly remembrance of the Lord are linked together. It is safe to say that if Christians everywhere carried this out, there would be no “financial problem” in the church of God to-day.

The first day of the week is preeminently the day for Christians. Whenever the earliest Christian writers refer to the term “Lord’s Day,” they speak of it as the first day of the week; the day after the Jewish Sabbath; the day we Christians call “the Lord’s Day.” I venture to say that people who lived from fifty to two hundred years after the apostle John were far more likely to know what was meant by the term “Lord’s Day” than people who live 1800 years after. I know there are some prophetic students who confuse the Lord’s Day with the “great day of the Lord,” but there is a decided difference in the two terms. The Lord’s Day is not in the possessive case in the Hebrew. The word translated “Lord’s” is an adjective. If it were permissible to say the Lordian day, you would have the exact meaning of this word. Such an adjective has been formed from the word Christ. We say a “Christian spirit,” etc. So the Lordian or Lordly Day is the day on which the Lord Jesus Christ broke the bonds of death asunder and rose, never more to die; and we Christians love to keep this day in memory of Him.

On that day, John says, “I was in the Spirit.” John was far away from any Christian assembly, but he found his pleasure in the things of God. Some Christians you know go to meeting every Lord’s day when at home, but when on their vacations, or away from town, the Lord’s day is just like any other day because nobody knows them. But John, shut away from any Christian association, was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” It is good to see a Christian take his Bible with him when on a vacation, and have daily intercourse with the Lord, or look up someone who does not know Jesus Christ and seek to make Him known to that needy one. See to it that you are in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.

Being “in the Spirit” on the Lord’s day, John had a glorious vision of the Lord Himself. First he heard a voice, then he saw a form. He heard a voice saying, “I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. What thou seest, write in a book,” etc. “And being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks [lampstands].” If I understand it aright, these were not like the candlesticks in the temple and in the tabernacle. Those were seven-branched; six sidebranches, and the central shaft made the seven. But John saw seven separate lampstands. Christ is represented by the seven-branched candlestick in the holy place, and the Spirit of God is represented by the seven lamps upon it. But during His absence - during the time of His priesthood up there in heaven, His people are to be lights for Him in this world. So John sees in this first vision not one candlestick with seven branches, but seven distinct lampstands in the form of a circle, and in the midst of them he sees One like unto the Son of Man girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. It is the Lord judging in the midst of His assemblies.

Then we learn what these lampstands symbolize. They are the seven churches situated in the Roman proconsular province of Asia, and these seven were selected from all the assemblies of God, in order that they might picture for us the whole course of the church’s history until the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His absence, the church of God is responsible to keep a light burning in the midst of the darkness. You remember He said. while here on earth, “I am the Light of the world,” etc., and before He went away, He said to His disciples, “Ye are the light of the world.” He has gone up to the glory, and we and all the members of His church are to shine for Him here.

What kind of light are you giving out for Jesus? Do your next-door neighbors appreciate your Christianity? Do the people that you do business with think much of it? What about the tradesmen and your business associates - all these folks with whom you have to do so much of the time? I would rather get the testimony of the people with whom you have to do than of those you meet in the public assemblies. When a man is really converted, it changes him through and through.

The church of God and individual assemblies of Christians are in this world to shine for Christ. We are here not merely to enjoy the things of Christ ourselves, but to hold up Christ to the world. Speaking of the Lord’s Supper, the apostle says, in I Corinthians 11:26: “For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come.” The word translated “shew” in that passage is the same word that is used elsewhere for preaching; “you preach the Lord’s death.” It is a testimony to sinners, as well as something for the church to enjoy. The church of God is here to shine for Christ, and we shine for Him as He is exalted in our gatherings and manifested in our lives.

I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man.” In many respects He seemed different from what John remembered Him, except when on the Mount of Transfiguration. But he knew who He was - “One like unto the Son of Man.” John had known Him well on earth, and he knew Him the moment He appeared in that glorious vision.

Note how He is described, “clothed with a garment down to the foot” - the priestly garment. He is there in the long, white garments of the high priest, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. The girdle speaks of service. We read of the servant girding himself and waiting upon the table. Here it is a high-priestly service. Our blessed Lord is now serving us at God’s right hand. Looking back to the cross where Jesus hung in sacrifice for us, we rejoice to remember His dying words, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Nothing can be added to, and nothing taken away from, that completed work. But there is another work He is now carrying on for His people. Although up there in the glory, He is serving us still. His people need His help all along the way. The moment you belong to the Lord Jesus, you are brought into living union with our great High Priest at God’s right hand. “He is able to save to the uttermost” all those who come to God through faith by Him, seeing “He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25). He does not ask you to go in your own strength. Trust Him as Saviour, and let Him fill your heart and control your life. He will live His life in you, to His praise and glory. We are to come boldly to a throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find seasonable help. The girdle is a golden one, and Christ’s service is in full accord with God’s holy and righteous ways.

Notice the 14th verse: “His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire.” I said last Sunday night that every figure, every symbol, found in this book is explained somewhere else in the Bible. Turn now to Daniel 7:9-13. There we read of the Ancient of Days and of the Son of Man. Now observe John said that the One in the midst of the seven lampstands was “like unto the Son of Man.” He was undoubtedly linking that up with the seventh chapter of Daniel. He goes on to describe Him as one “whose hair is white as snow.” He had all the appearance of great age, though the Lord Jesus was cut off at the age of thirty-three.

Observe again the 7th of Daniel, verse 9, “And the Ancient of Days did sit, and the hair of his head as pure wool,” etc. Who is the Ancient of Days? In the 7th of Daniel He is the Jehovah of Israel, and to Him the Son of Man comes. But we learn that the Son of Man is Himself the Ancient of Days. In other words, the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. Christ is Himself “God manifest in the flesh.”

Turn to Micah 5:2, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Who is the Saviour born in Bethlehem? He is the One “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” The Lord Jesus Christ is the Ancient of Days, and this is one of the truths that Christians are called to contend for in these times of apostasy. Ministers are telling people that we are all sons of God. They deny Christ’s virgin birth and deity, and say that He is simply the greatest of all teachers sent from God. But that is not enough for the Christian. Christ is God, or we and those in heaven are idolaters, for it is He who is worshiped there, and here. The Unitarian believes in God the Father, but not in the Son; he says, “Don’t draw the lines too straight - Jesus is only a creature.” If that Unitarian is right, I am an idolater, for I am worshiping Jesus Christ. I worship, not Buddha, not Brahma, but Jesus, and own Him as God. Yet some would tell me that it does not make any difference! It makes a tremendous difference, for both time and eternity. It is going to mean all the difference between heaven and hell. For the Lord Jesus says, “Except ye believe that I am, ye shall die in your sins, and whither I go ye cannot come.” We confess Jesus Christ as God manifest in the flesh, the Only-begotten Son of God, the anointed One who came in grace to save lost, guilty sinners. Are you trusting Him as your Saviour?

So we see that this One in the midst is the Son of Man, yet God Himself. The Lord Jesus has that double character, and His place is always in the midst. Jesus in the midst! No company of believers deserves to be called a Christian company that does not give Him that place. But, “Where two or three are gathered together unto My name,” He says, “there am I in the midst.” You remember when He hung on that cross, between two thieves, He saved one of them who turned to Him in faith. When He rose from the dead, and His disciples were gathered together in the upper room, “Then came Jesus and stood in the midst.” In the 5th chapter of the Revelation, John looked and saw the Lamb “in the midst of the throne, in the midst of the elders, and in the midst of the living creatures.” This is the place that ever belongs to the Lord Jesus - the central place, the preeminent place. God must have Jesus in the midst.

But let us turn back to our chapter. “His eyes were as a flame of fire.” John did not know Him in that way on earth, except perhaps as He rebuked the Pharisees; but remember that all who do not accept Him now are going to see His eyes like a flame of fire.

There will be nothing hid from those eyes. They will discern everything that you would fain hide. All will be out in the light, and brought into judgment. Oh, have everything out with Him now. Do you realize that the first time you meet God, you must meet Him with all your sins upon your soul? Have you had a meeting with Him yet? If the first time you meet Him is at the day of judgment, it will be too late. You can have your first meeting with Him in this world. You can meet Him by faith. Do not try to improve or to make yourself better. Come just as you are, without one plea, but that He is the sinner’s Saviour and invites you to come; you will find that those eyes, that are as a flame of fire and look into the depths of your soul, will become filled with tenderest love, and will draw you to Himself.

But John’s description goes on to say: “His feet (were) like unto fine brass.” Brass in the Old Testament is the symbol of judgment. The brazen altar which stood before the tabernacle was that on which the fire of God’s judgment was burning continually. It was of brass, * because brass could stand the fire. You will find throughout Scripture it is a symbol of judgment. And here He has feet like brass; for His ways are in righteousness unyielding. The day is coming when He shall put His feet on everything contrary to truth and righteousness. Everything unholy will be stamped out in divine judgment.

* The peculiar metal referred to was really a very hard copper alloy; but I use the word “brass” as employed in our English Bible.

His voice is as the sound of many waters. When you stand on the cliff by the seaside and hear the sound of many waters, you are awed by their power. Yon ship, which looks so large and strong at the docks, what a helpless thing it is when the ocean rouses itself in furious anger. His voice is as the sound of the billows of the sea - a voice of power. That power, - Put forth in grace, means your salvation; - Put forth in judgment, it means your eternal damnation! You may pass from death into life by hearing His voice now. He can speak to your poor soul, and in a moment create your heart anew. Here is what He says: “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live” (John 5:25 emphasis added) Hearing His voice, believing His word, you live! Have you heard that voice of power? Soon, His people will hear that same mighty voice calling them from earth away, “for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,” and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and the living saints shall be changed. Sometimes Christians become discouraged, but when that voice, like the sound of many waters, says from heaven, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away” (Song 2:10,13), we will be caught up in a moment to meet Him in the air.

He had in His right hand seven stars.” The stars speak of ministry committed to His saints, as responsible to shine by His light and for Him in this world. “They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever” (Dan 12:3). He holds the stars in His right hand. “Out of His mouth went forth a sharp two-edged sword.” It is the Word of God (Hebrews 4:12). Men are trifling with that two-edged sword, but they will find out soon that it is powerful, irresistible.

His countenance was as the sun shining in his strength.” Malachi 4:2; “But unto you that fear my Name, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” When Saul of Tarsus was stricken down, remember what he saw - a light above the brightness of the sun. It was the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. It was this that John saw, and he fell at His feet. But He laid His right hand upon John, and said, “Fear not, I am the First and the Last. I am he that Liveth, and was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death.”

What is death? It is the body without the spirit: “The body without the spirit is dead” (James 2:26). There is no such thing in the Bible as soul-sleeping. The spirit of the man is not in the grave. The body goes down to the grave. But the spirit is in the unseen world. Hades is the condition of the spirit without the body. Christ has the keys of both death and Hades.

In the 19th verse we get the three-fold division of the Book of the Revelation: “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter”- or, “after these things.” “The things which thou hast seen” are the things of chapter one - the first division of the Book of the Revelation.

The things which are” follow in the next two chapters and make the second division. “The things which are” have to do with the present dispensation. The seven churches give us a picture of the whole professing church’s history from the apostolic period to the coming of the Lord Jesus. These two chapters portray the condition of the church on earth, in seven distinct periods. The church’s history ends at the rapture, when Jesus comes as the Bright and Morning Star. That event closes the present dispensation.

The things which shall be hereafter,” chapters 4 to the end, make the third and last division of the book - the things which shall take place after the church’s history ends - the great tribulation, the kingdom, and the eternal state.

But our time is up and I must close for to-night.

~ end of Lecture 2 ~ ***


Ironside's Lectures 3 and 4 are presented in their entirety in Volume 9 – Ecclesiology – Chapter 4 The Prophetic History of The True Church, pg 69.



Lecture 5 The First Vision of Heaven

(Revelation 4)


As we turn from chapter 3 to chapter 4, how different the scenes! We are no longer occupied with the professing church in the place of testimony, nor with events on the earth at all; but a door is opened in heaven, and, escorted by the beloved apostle John, if I may so speak, we are carried far above the shifting scenes of this poor world, and permitted to gaze with awe-struck eyes upon a scene of glory indescribable, and to hear things kept secret from the foundation of the world.

The opening verse begins the third great division of this book - “I will shew thee things which must be hereafter”; the stirring panorama of wonders, both heavenly and earthly, which must take place after the church’s history is ended.

From the close of chapter 3, we never see the church on earth again through all the rest of this solemn book. We read of “saints,” but they are distinct altogether from the church of the present dispensation. Israel comes into view and a great multitude of spared Gentiles, saved out of the great tribulation; but no church, no body of Christ, no bride of the Lamb any more upon the earth!

The fact is patent enough for every careful reader to notice it. What is the explanation of it? Simply this, I believe: we must understand the rapture, of I Thessalonians 4:16, 17, as transpiring between chapter 3 and chapter 4. Of this the rapture of the apostle is the symbol. He sees the door opened in heaven. His attention is turned from earth to glory. He is, in spirit, caught up, and far above all the mists of this lower scene he beholds a “throne set in heaven,” and a Thronesitter upon it. The likeness of this august Being he cannot even attempt to portray. He only tells us he beheld a Presence whose glory was like a jasper and a sardius.

The jasper of the Revelation is not the opaque stone we know by that name. It is later described as clear as crystal (chap. 21:11). It is probably the diamond, the most brilliant of all the precious jewels. The other stone is blood-red, and may really be the ruby. Thus the two together give the idea of glory and of sacrifice. Remembering that many of the first readers of the Revelation were converted Jews, we might ask, What would these stones suggest to them? Surely every instructed Hebrew would instantly recall that they were the first and last stones in the breastplate of the high priest (Exodus 28:17- 20). As these stones bore the names of the tribes of Israel, arranged according to the births of the twelve patriarchs, the one would suggest at once the name Reuben, “Behold a Son,” and the other Benjamin, “Son of my right hand.” It is Christ enthroned; the Son about to reign in power who is before the Seer’s vision. Round about the throne a rainbow, like an emerald, the stone of Judah (“Praise”) is seen, suggesting the perpetuity of the Noahic covenant, and God’s unchanging goodness, despite all man’s failure, folly and wickedness.

But now the fourth verse brings before us a sight never beheld in heaven on any previous occasion: twenty-four thrones (not merely “seats”) surrounding the central throne, and upon them twenty-four elders seated with victors’ crowns (not diadems) upon their heads, and clothed in priestly robes of purest white. Who are these favored ones gathered around the glorious central Being? I do not think we need be in any doubt as to their identity, if we compare Scripture with Scripture and distrust our own imagination, which can but lead us astray.

In I Chronicles, chapter 24, we read of something very similar; and again I would remind you that many of John’s first readers were Hebrews, thoroughly familiar with the Old Testament. Can we question for a moment that every Jewish believer would instantly remember the twenty-four elders appointed by King David to represent the entire Levitical priesthood? He divided the priests into twenty-four courses, each course to serve for two weeks at a time in the temple which Solomon was to build. The same arrangement was in force when our Lord’s forerunner was announced. Zacharias was “of the course of Abiah,” the eighth in order (Luke 1:5).

The priests were many thousands in number; they could not all come together at one time, but when the twenty-four elders met in the temple precincts in Jerusalem, the whole priestly house was represented. And this is the explanation, I submit, of the symbol here. The elders in heaven represent the whole heavenly priesthood - that is, all the redeemed who have died in the past, or who shall be living at the Lord’s return. In vision they were seen - not as a multitudinous host of millions of saved worshipers, but just twenty-four elders, symbolizing the entire company. The church of the present age and Old Testament saints are alike included. All are priests. All worship. There were twelve patriarchs in Israel, and twelve apostles introducing the new dispensation. The two together would give the complete four and twenty.

Then, observe further: these persons are not angels. They are redeemed men who have overcome in the conflict with Satan and the world, for they wear victors’ wreaths upon their brows. Angels are never said to be “crowned,” nor have they known redemption.

There are two kinds of crowns mentioned in this book: - The victor’s crown, and - The ruler’s diadem. The former is the word here used. It refers to the wreath, of laurel or of pine, bound about the brow of the victor in the Greek games; it is the same word so often used in the New Testament when reward for service is the theme. And now, note carefully: no saints will ever be crowned until the apostle Paul receives that crown of righteousness which the Lord revealed to him as his reward. In II Timothy 4:8, he says: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love (or, have loved) His appearing.” The expression “at that day” refers to the day of Christ, when He shall come for His own, and they will all be manifested before His judgment-seat. He says: “Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:12). Surely it follows then that no rewards are given out till He returns for His saints. Therefore there can be no crowned elders in heaven till after the rapture.

This, I believe, is a point of greatest importance to-day; for many are being troubled by the thought that perhaps the great tribulation, of which so large a part of this book treats, has already begun. But all such fears are set at rest when the facts I have been emphasizing are kept in mind. But as I want to dwell a little on this in the next lecture, I forbear further comment now. Only I trust it is clear to all that the elders are the heavenly saints, surrounding the Lord in glory, God the Son sitting on the central throne.

There are circumstances connected with that throne which make it clear that a dreadful storm is about to burst on that world below, from which they are viewed as having so lately come. Lightnings, thunderings, and voices tell of this; and as we go on in the study of the book, we shall see more added from time to time as conditions become increasingly solemn.

Following out the symbolism of the tabernacle, seven lamps of fire are seen burning before the throne, as the seven-branched lampstand burned just outside the veil, before God’s throne on earth - the ark of old. These lamps are said to be “the seven Spirits of God,” a figure which we have already seen (in chapter 1:4) sets forth, not seven distinct Spirits, but the one Holy Spirit in the seven-fold plenitude of His power.

The sea of glass of verse five calls to mind the sea of brass in Solomon’s temple. That sea symbolized, like the laver, the Word of God, for it contained the water used for priestly cleansing, and we are sanctified and cleansed by “the washing of water by the Word.” But this sea is not for cleansing, so it is as crystal, and later, we find the martyred tribulation-saints standing on it. It is the Word of God still, but no longer needed for cleansing, because desert experiences are viewed here as forever passed. But the Word abides, stable and sure forevermore - a glassy sea filled with crystal - firm and glorious, on which the people of God can stand eternally.

The four “beasts”, or “living ones” are in the midst of the throne, where only Deity can dwell, and they are linked with it round about. They represent the attributes of the living God.

- The lion is the well-known symbol of divine majesty.

- The young ox, the divine strength graciously serving man.

- The face of a man indicates intelligence and purpose; it tells us that Deity is no mere blind force, nor the “Great First Cause” or impersonal Law simply.

- The eagle suggests swiftness in detecting evil and executing judgment.

Six-winged and full of eyes they speak of incessant activity and omniscience. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” They cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come,” for all God’s attributes glorify the Eternal Son.

The elders bow in worship at this announcement, and cast their crowns at the feet of Him that sits upon the throne, adoring Him as Creator, saying, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor, and power; for Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” A higher note is struck in chapter five, but the blessed truth is here proclaimed, that He who died on the cross is worshiped by all the redeemed in heaven. There can be no mistake as to the Person. If John chap. I, Colossians I and Hebrews I are all carefully compared with this closing verse, it makes it perfectly clear that it is Christ Jesus, the Son, who created all things. Without Him was nothing made. All things are by Him and for Him. So He it is who fills the throne and is the center of the worship here described.

In a day such as ours, when His glory as the Eternal Son is so often denied, when His true Deity, His virgin-birth, His sinless humanity are all alike flouted by apostate teachers as so much traditional lore to be rejected at will, how refreshing to the soul to turn from earth to heaven and contemplate the glory displayed there as His and the unhindered adoration of His own as they prostrate themselves before His throne. If He be not God, then heaven will be filled with idolaters, for it is written: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”

But we need not for a moment enter such an “if.” He is “God over all, blessed forever,” and He is also Man. God the Son in grace was born of the virgin, and He it is who fills the throne above. Nor will He ever abdicate that throne, even though He shall soon descend to gather His own to Himself, and to reign over all the earth as Son of Man, sitting on the throne of His father David. Both thrones are His, for all glory belongs to Him by the Father’s firm decree. Thus shall all men eventually honor the Son even as they honor the Father.

I add a further word as to the living creatures.

- In chapter 4 we see them linked peculiarly with the throne.

- In chapter 5 they are most particularly linked with the elders.

We have suggested that they represent the divine attributes. During the present age and ere the Lamb takes the book of judgment these are largely seen in angelic ministry. But “Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world [age] to come.” In that day God will work through His redeemed ones, hence the living ones join in the New Song, voicing the joy of the saints in whom the divine glory will be displayed. The living creatures of Ezekiel’s vision and the cherubim on the mercy-seat tell the same story.

~ end of Lecture 5 ~ ***



Lecture 6 The Seven Sealed Book

(Revelation 5:1 - 6:8)


LAST Friday evening our subject was the 4th chapter - the redeemed gathered around the throne of God and the Lamb in heaven. We noticed that the four and twenty elders, seen by John in vision sitting around the throne, represent all the heavenly saints of this and past dispensations. I cannot reiterate, except to remind you that the symbol is evidently taken from the twenty-four elders of the priesthood of Israel. We can see how aptly the entire heavenly company would be represented by these heads of the Levitical priesthood. In heaven there is no special sacerdotal family. All of God’s people are priests.

In the 5th chapter we are still occupied with the same vision as in chapter 4. There we saw the Lord Jesus Christ worshiped as Creator. Here a higher glory is His - He is worshiped as Redeemer. “ ‘Twas great to speak a world from nought; ‘twas greater to redeem.”

The first thing that attracts our attention is what is said of the seven-sealed book in the right hand of Him who sits on the throne. We have already seen in our review of chapter 4 that the Son is on that throne; but we must not forget that it is likewise the throne of God the Father. And so here we have in the Father’s right hand a book written within and on the backside, and sealed with seven seals. When we read of a “book” we must not think of a volume such as we are familiar with, but rather of a roll of parchment. The ancient books of Israel were generally sheepskin rolls; and when we are told that this book was sealed with seven seals, we are to understand that the book was rolled up to a certain point, and there a seal was put upon the edge, so that it could not be opened until that seal was broken. It was rolled up a little farther and another seal put on, and so on, until there were six seals on the edge of the book and one seal closing the entire scroll. When the first seal was opened a certain portion of the book was exposed to view, and so with each one following. When the seventh was broken then the entire book would be unrolled.

What is this sealed book? I will again remind you of a principle which I want to keep before you in all of these lectures, and that is, in studying the Book of the Revelation it is never necessary to fall back on our own imagination as to what a particular symbol means. Every symbol is explained, or alluded to, somewhere else in the Bible. Turn to the 32nd chapter of Jeremiah. The prophet Jeremiah lived in a day just previous to the fall of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar. He had been telling the people of Israel that they were going to be carried captives to Babylon. For seventy years they would be in captivity; but, at the end of that time, they would be restored, and would build again the waste places (ch. 29:10). Hanameel, Jeremiah’s cousin, who had a piece of ground, knew well that it was soon to be absolutely worthless. and he was anxious to get it off his hands and realize what he could from it. He concluded to try to sell it to his prophetcousin who was in prison at the time for the truth’s sake. The Lord said to Jeremiah, “Buy the field.” He was commanded to accept it as though it were really worth having, because the time was coming when it would be worth having; for just as surely as God’s people were going down into Babylon, so surely were they coming back again. That land would be worth far more in that day, and he would have it in his family.

So we are told, in chap. 32:8, that Hanameel came and besought him to buy the field. Jeremiah acquiesced. The title-deeds were made out and sealed and hidden away. The land was purchased by Jeremiah, but he was not going to enter into possession of it. He, too, was to be driven out - to be rejected and set to one side; but some day that sealed roll would be of great value, when the restoration took place. He gave it to his secretary to hide away with a view of making known to his heirs where the deed was which was to give them the title to the land. The sealed book was the title deed to Jeremiah’s inheritance, and when the people of Israel came back from Babylon there would be a man who could go into court and say, “This deed belongs to me. I am Jeremiah’s heir. I have the right to break the seals and take the property.”

With this illustration from the Old Testament before us, we have no difficulty in seeing what the seven-sealed book in Revelation means. The book that John saw in the hand of Him that sat upon the throne is the title-deed to this world; and when God says, “Who is worthy to take the book and to loose the seals thereof?” it is just another way of saying, Who is the rightful heir? Who can say, “I have title to break those seals, title to claim that world, it belongs to me?” Who is worthy to take possession of that world and subject it to himself?

Adam, what about you? Wasn’t that world given to you? When God created you and placed you in the Garden of Eden, did He not say that all of this was yours? Why do you not come forward and take this title-deed and claim your property? Adam says, “I forfeited my inheritance because of sin. It was mine, but I sinned it away. The devil cheated me out of it, and I have no longer any title to it.”

Is there any angel who can step up and take the book? No, not an angel among all the serried ranks of heaven’s hosts can say, “I have title to that world.” Not a man in all God’s universe can say, “ It is mine.” And John says, “I wept much, because no one was found worthy.” But as he was weeping, one of the elders said, “Weep not, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed to take the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” And John looked for the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the majestic roaring King of Beasts, ready to spring upon the prey; but he beheld a Lamb.

Why, the Lamb is the Lion! The Lamb of God is the Lion of Judah’s tribe. The lamb that speaks of innocence, of meekness, of gentleness and sacrifice, is the One who is to go forth as the mighty conqueror and claim this world as His own, and drive all His enemies from before His face. I like the paraphrase from Weymouth where he says, “I saw in the midst of the throne a lamb that looked as though it had been offered in sacrifice” - the Lamb in the very glory of God that will have through all eternity the marks of death upon His glorified body! It is right to sing as we sometimes do,

I shall know Him, I shall know Him,

As redeemed by His side I shall stand;

I shall know Him, I shall know Him,

By the print of the nails in His hand.”

When He came forth from the tomb the print of the nails was there. When John saw Him many years after in vision up there in glory, he saw a Lamb that looked as though it had once been offered in sacrifice; and when we get home to heaven we will never make any mistake in identifying Him. We will never be found worshiping Gabriel instead of Christ; we will not mistake so loving an apostle as John even for his Lord. We will have only eyes for the Lamb upon whose body will be for all eternity the marks that tell of our redemption. Ah, what a sight that will be for God’s beloved people - when we look upon His face, feel His gentle touch, behold the print of the nails in His hands and feet, and see the mark left by the Roman spear in His side!

The prophet Habakkuk describes Him as having “bright beams coming out of His side, and there was the hiding of His power” (Habakkuk 3:4, literal trans.) . There, where the cruel spear pierced Him, is the hiding of His power.

Oh, the Lamb, the bleeding Lamb,

The Lamb of Calvary;

The Lamb that was slain, that liveth again,

To intercede for me.”

Do you know this blessed Lamb of God? Are you acquainted with Him? Is He your own Saviour? Have you cast yourself on His mercies?

It says that the Lamb in the midst of the throne had seven horns. Horns speak of power. In the Old Testament we read of the “strong bulls of Bashan,” of great heads, thick necks, and powerful horns. Israel would thus be accustomed to connect the thought of power with the horns. But it is not a mighty bull that is seen, but a lamb, and the diminutive form of the word, “a little lamb” with seven horns! Just as horns speak of power, seven speaks of perfection. Perfect power belongs to the Lamb of God. And we are told He had seven eyes, which is interpreted as meaning seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the world, which we have connected with Isaiah 11:1, 2. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. “In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” All spiritual graces are His. He is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows, and He it is who gives the Holy Spirit to us.

He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne. What right had He thus to act? Because He went to the cross in infinite grace to pay the great debt of sin, thus to redeem this forfeited inheritance and free it from Satan’s domination. The Lamb has title to the book! The Lamb can claim the title-deed to this world because when He died on Calvary’s cross He purchased the entire world to be His own - in which the glory of God is to be displayed through a thousand wondrous years. It was His because He treated it. He gave it to man, but man forfeited it through sin; and the Lord Jesus Christ bought it all back when He hung on Golgotha’s tree; but for 1900 years He has been waiting patiently up there in the glory until the appointed time for claiming His inheritance. So the book of the title-deeds has been sealed. In this interval, men have been having pretty much their own way down here; the devil has been running things to suit himself, but in a little while Christ is coming again. He is going to put everything right, but He will have to act in judgment to do so. For the very world in which the Lord Jesus died is going to be the sphere in which the glory of God will be displayed, and that not only in the Millennium, but afterward in the new earth, as well as in the new heaven.

The moment that the Lamb takes the book, in verse 8, the four living ones and the four and twenty elders fall down before Him, having every one of them harps, and golden bowls full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. You know, I am very sentimental about the harp. I love it. I always think when I hear the harp being played that it is the instrument I am going to play in heaven. It is a figure, of course, but a very lovely one.

And they sung 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, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” (vers. 9, 10).

It is not merely of themselves they sing, but of all the redeemed; so the living ones, the divine attributes, join in it, too.

And note the great throng suggested by the words of the song. Far more people will be in heaven than will ever be lost in hell! All the babes that died in infancy will be there. What a throng will fill that Home! And oh, how wonderful the fellowship! We shall have the society of all the pure and holy, made pure by the blood of Jesus. But notice carefully what they sing up there. They ascribe their redemption entirely to the Lamb and His work. Those are the saints of God. Then you find another company in the next two verses, but they are angels. You will notice that you have an inner circle composed of sinners that were redeemed. That will be the glory of heaven.

You often hear of the angels singing; but it is remarkable that when you go to the Bible there is only one place where you read of angels singing; it is in the 38th chapter of the Book of Job. The morning stars there are angels, and they sang together when this world in its pristine beauty sprang from God’s hand. But that ancient song was stilled. Sin came in and marred that beautiful creation, and from the time that sin came in we never read again that angels sang. At the birth of our Lord Jesus a multitude of the heavenly hosts praised God, saying, “Glory to God in the Highest,” but we do not read that they sang. It is the redeemed that sing, and they sing “a new song.” It is the song of redemption. Will you be able to sing that song? Angels will praise the Lamb, truly, though it does not say they will sing.

Let me read the passage, “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living ones and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”

What a host! You would think that God had enough without us. Old John Bunyan says, “Oh, this Lamb of God! He had a whole heaven to Himself, myriads of angels to do His pleasure, but this could not satisfy Him. He must have sinners to share it with Him!” If you are ever going to sing up there you will have to start in down here. Can you say, “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed me by Thy blood”?

The angels stand in an outer circle. In other words, the angels stand off and look on and say, “The Lamb deserves all the honor He is receiving.” Then there is a third company, a third circle, embracing all creation. John looks throughout the universe, and he sees every creature extolling the Lamb. The day is coming when all created intelligences will join in saying, “Glory to the Lamb.”

And now the Lamb, having taken the book, proceeds to open the seals. Here I want to pause for a moment in the course of the exposition. Many have come to me since the great world-war began and said, “Don’t you think that, perhaps, the Great Tribulation has already commenced? There have been events following one another in the last few years which so nearly answer to this opening part of the Book of the Revelation that one would be justified in believing we are already in the throes of the Tribulation.” My answer is this: There can be no period of tribulation such as is depicted here until the Lamb breaks the seals of the seven-sealed book. But the Lamb does not break the first seal of this book until the redeemed are seen crowned in heaven; and no redeemed one will ever get his crown until they are taken up at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to the air, and the setting up of the judgment-seat. All the crowns are going to be given out at the judgment-seat of Christ before the Lamb takes the book, and before the seals, are broken.

A lady said to me, “But, dear brother, what tribulation could be worse?” Well, conditions are certainly terrible, but there has never been a war in which the organizations that profess to stand for righteousness have done so much for the soldiers, and the relatives, and the afflicted, as in this awful conflict. Consider the Red Cross, for instance. It was the spirit of sacrifice that caused people to start the society, and many of the founders of it were devoted to Christ; wherever the red cross was seen it was the reminder of the cross of Christ. There will be no Red Cross in the Great Tribulation. The cross of Christ will be so hated then that it will never be seen anywhere. Then look at the Y. M. C. A. I know all about the criticisms, and I have had to speak plainly myself, but the Y. M. C. A. movement was started by a man of God, and its original objective; was to bring men to Christ. Much of their recent work is indeed open to just criticism; it is a shame that it has added to and detracted from its original purpose, yet we can thank God for the New Testament and the comforts it has brought to millions of men. Take the work of the Salvation Army: I have heard scores testify about the Salvation Army preaching the gospel of God in the trenches. Now think of a greater war than this (and it is in the future), a war in which there will be no Salvation Army, no Y. M. C. A., no Red Cross, no Bible Societies, no Christian workers - absolutely no spiritual ministry of any kind to alleviate the awful conditions that will then prevail. The thought is unspeakably terrible, but such a war is predicted in this Book.

But, I repeat, that tribulation time cannot begin until the redeemed are gathered around the Lord in the glory and crowned there. And it cannot be emphasized too much that no saints in heaven now have crowns. The apostle says, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord . . . shall give to me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” “That day” when the saints are gathered around the judgment-seat of Christ: that is the day when they will get their crowns.

Well then, after the church has gone, what is going to take place in the world? When I get to this chapter, I always like to view it this way: that we are in heaven already, the rapture having taken place. Look at it with me from that standpoint. Let us suppose that last night, while things were going on in the ordinary way, suddenly there was a heartening shout heard from the glory and every redeemed one responded to the trump of God: and in a moment the graves were opened, and in every place where the believing dead were resting, the bodies were raised and the living saints were changed. We found ourselves caught away, and we entered with Him into the Father’s house, and gathered around the throne and fell down to worship. We will say that we have had twenty-four hours in heaven. O sinner, you wouldn’t be there. It is saved people I am talking about. At first our hearts would just be too full of Christ to think of anything else. But He, Himself, stirs us at last to think of what He is about to do. We say to ourselves, What is going to be the next thing in that world we have left behind? We look down to that poor scene where we lived yesterday. Men are going on much as before, only in great excitement. Look at the streets of the great cities. We can see the newsboys shouting, “Extra! Extra! a great number of people have disappeared!” There is a rush to get the newspapers to find out all about this strange event. Throngs are crowding the popular churches to hear the Rev. Dr. Ananias and his like give their explanation of the great disappearance of so many people.

I believe there will be lots of church-going for a little while after the rapture of God’s people; they will be crowding into the churches as never before. I think I see the Rev. Mr. Smooth-things standing in his pulpit, with pale, wan face, as he looks at scores of parishioners he hasn’t seen for many years, and thinking to himself, “Now, I see I have got to explain to these people. I have been telling them for twenty years that this talk of the Second Coming is false.”

People who believed in the Second Coming were looked upon as idiotic ranters who didn’t know what they were talking about. I think I hear mutterings down in the congregation: “We trusted our souls to you. You had been to the colleges, seminaries and universities, read a whole library of books, and we believed you when you told us the old idea of salvation by the blood of Christ was all worn out, and that we could save ourselves by culture. We believed you when you said Christ’s second coming was only a fantastic notion; now explain this to us.”

Another cries, “What about my grandmother? She believed in her Bible to the last. She was reading just the other day, ‘In an hour when ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.’ Now Grandmother is gone, and I am here. Now, Doctor, explain all this.”

Oh, there are going to be some wonderful meetings after the Lord has come! There is that world seething with corruption, men’s hearts failing them for fear. Christian statesmen will have gone; Christian business men, people of all ranks who knew Christ will have disappeared. Cities and communities will be in turmoil. What are they going to do? Let’s look at the Book and see.

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come! And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.”

We behold the Lamb as He breaks the first seal, and John hears a noise as of thunder. Thunder speaks of a coming storm, though the scene seems peaceful enough. What is this? A warrior comes forth on a white horse, and a bow is in his hand.

A bow speaks of distant warfare. Horses, as in Zechariah 1, symbolize providential movements.

This rider on the white horse evidently pictures man’s last effort to bring in a reign of order and peace while Christ is still rejected. It will be the world’s greatest attempt to pull things together after the church is gone. It will be the devil’s cunning scheme for bringing in a mock millennium without Christ. How long will it last?

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come! And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.”

He opens the second seal, and a red horse appears. Anarchy, a bloody warfare! “When they shall say, Peace and safety, sudden destruction cometh upon them.” The first effort, down in the world we are supposed to have left, will be to bring in universal peace, apart from Christ; but it will end in universal, bloody warfare, greater far than has ever been known. The rider on the blood-red horse has a sword; it speaks of warfare of a different type altogether from that of the bow: man wrestling with man, nation with nation. Internal strife, class-wars, civil wars, the breaking up of all established order is here set forth.

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come! And I beheld, and lo, a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.”

Very naturally, when he had opened the third seal, a black horse appears, with his rider holding a pair of balances. We have that which inevitably follows world-wide war - world-wide famine. I don’t wonder that people think they have seen all this in the last four years. An effort to bring in universal peace, but almost universal war; and famine in many parts of the world. But, by and by it is going to be all over the world. We know a little better now what this means than when these things were first opened up by men of God. We have had our food sold to us by measure, and we have known much of the high cost of living, but, in this coming day, conditions will be so dreadful that it will be a measure of wheat for a denarius, or three measures of barley for the same amount. The word translated “measure” means just enough wheat to make a man one meal, and the denarius was a full day’s wages. Enough food for one meal for a whole day’s wages! That is, if one is going to eat wheat. Now if they will take barley they will get three meals for a day’s work. What hard conditions! We thought war prices exorbitant, but they are going to be unprecedented in those days of the tribulation.

But see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” The oil and the wine are put in contrast with the wheat and the barley. The wheat and barley are the food of the poor - almost out of reach; but the food of the rich, or the luxuries, are not touched.

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come! And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”

And now he opens the fourth seal, and a pale horse ridden by Death appears. The word rendered pale means green, chrome. We might call it a livid horse, in the sense of being the color of a corpse. Of what is it a picture? Of pestilence, which always follows war and famine. We have known something of that in this last year, but the complete fulfillment awaits a not far-distant day. * * I thought at first of recasting this lecture, as it seemed somewhat too colloquial and localized.

But I concluded to let it remain largely as given. The reader will understand it was delivered during the armistice year, and while the influenza plague was still in progress.

~ end of Lecture 6 ***



Lecture 7 The Fifth and Sixth Seals

(Revelation 6:9-17)


BEFORE examining what is written concerning the breaking of the fifth and sixth seals, it is necessary to say something as to God’s dispensational dealings with His earthly people Israel, and to endeavor to show how the book we are studying links up with the older prophecy of Daniel.

For fifteen hundred years before the Cross, God was dealing in covenant-relationship with this one people which He had chosen to be peculiarly His own, in accordance with His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He separated them to Himself, giving them the land of Canaan as their inheritance, so long as they remained faithful to Him as their unseen King. He gave them His holy law, and declared that if they obeyed His voice they should be the head of all nations and His witnesses to the ends of the earth. On the other hand, He warned them that, if they Were disobedient to Him, if they did not keep His testimonies, if they broke His commandments, if they turned to the false gods of the surrounding nations, He would no longer protect them from their enemies, but would give them up to desolation and scattering, until they judged themselves and turned from their sins, when He would remember His covenant with their fathers, and would restore them to their own land and fulfil all His promises.

They completely broke down under every test; and in accordance with His word ten tribes were carried away by the king of Assyria and a little later the remaining two tribes were deported to Babylon, where they remained in bondage for seventy years. Upon the expiration of this prophetic period they were permitted to return to their own land, that they might be there to welcome their promised Messiah when He should be manifested. Only a remnant of the Jews availed themselves of this privilege, and it was their descendants who were living in Palestine when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared in the fulness of time, only to be rejected by the very nation that had waited for Him so long.

The time of His coming had been very definitely foretold in the book of Daniel. In the ninth chapter we are told that a heavenly messenger brought the word to the prophet that God had appointed seventy weeks to His people and their holy city. These are not to be understood as weeks of days, but sevens of years. The term “weeks” might be simply explained as sevens. Seventy times seven years would be 490 years. It is an appointed period in the course of time, and has to do especially with the Jews and Jerusalem.

This period was divided into three parts,- 7 weeks, or 49 years, in which the streets and the wall of the city were to be re-built. Then, 62 weeks, or 434 years, immediately following the completion of this work, unto the appearing and cutting off of Messiah the Prince. Then, one final week, or 7 years, to complete the cycle, at the end of which the King would be reigning in the holy city and all prophecy fulfilled by the establishment of the kingdom so long foretold. The starting-point is clearly defined as, “The going forth of a commandment to restore and build Jerusalem,” which is the decree of Artaxerxes as recorded in Nehemiah, chap. 2. During the next 49 years the city was rebuilt. Then434 years later, our Lord rode into Jerusalem and was acclaimed by the multitudes as King, the Son of David, but a few days later was rejected and crucified. Thus Messiah was cut off and had nothing.

What then of the last week? Has it been fulfilled? It has not. When His Son was cast out, God cast off the nation, and that week will not be fulfilled till a future day, when He takes up Israel again.

The angel-revealer said to Daniel, “Until the END of the war; desolations are determined.” This gives the whole history of Palestine for the past 1900 years. It has been a great battleground and a scene of almost unparalleled desolation, because Israel knew not the time of their visitation. Their times are not in progress now. God is doing another work. While the Jews are blinded, in part, and wanderers over the face of the earth, He is gathering out the Church, the body of Christ, a heavenly company, who will reign with Christ when He establishes His kingdom of righteousness upon the earth. The last week, of 7 years, cannot begin to run till the Jews are again in the land, and Jerusalem becomes the Jewish capital, after the church has been caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Of this last week the greater part of the book of the Revelation treats. It is only when this is seen that all becomes plain and the prophecy becomes intelligible.

The church was empowered on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit, sent by Christ glorified, came upon the disciples, though the full truth of this wonderful mystery was not made known until Saul of Tarsus became Paul the apostle. To him, and through him to us, was made known the truth of the present dispensation. The church of Christ is one, though men who take His name and claim to be His followers have become sadly divided and have formed many systems, often embracing saved and unsaved alike. But God’s church consists only of those who are born of the Spirit; and all such are by the same Spirit baptized into “the body of Christ” - the church. This special work will cease at the return of the Lord to the air, which is the first stage of His second coming. The second stage will be when He comes to the earth in manifested glory to reign. The 70th, or last week of Daniel, comes in between these two momentous events. The Lord spoke of this period as the “end of the age” in Matthew 24, and He divides it into two parts, “the beginning of sorrows” and “ the great tribulation.”

A careful comparison of our Lord’s great prophecy with the portion of Revelation which we have before us, will, I believe, make it plain that the first six seals answer to the first half of the week “the beginning of sorrows”; while from the opening of the seventh seal we are introduced to the great tribulation itself with all its attendant horrors.

- His warning as to false Christs, implying false hopes of a lasting peace, corresponds to the first seal.

- His declaration that wars and rumors of wars will follow fits perfectly with the second seal.

- In like manner His solemn warnings of famine and pestilence find their counterparts in the third and fourth seals.

The Lord then goes on to foretell a time when His followers shall be ruthlessly slain, and when it will be all one’s life is worth to confess His name. This brings us to the breaking of the fifth seal, when John saw under the altar the souls of those who had been beheaded for the word of God and the testimony of the Lord.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto everyone of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”

Who are these martyred saints, and to what dispensation do they belong? They cannot belong to the church, for as we have already seen, that is represented by the throned and crowned elders in heaven before the first seal is broken. But the 11th chapter of the epistle to the Romans makes it clear that after the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, that is, after the present dispensation has come to an end and the church has been removed to heaven, the blindness will pass away from Israel, and they will realize their true condition and their sin in rejecting their Messiah. Then they shall call upon Him for deliverance.

Thus a new company of saints will be formed upon the earth, altogether different from the present heavenly company. Many of these Jewish believers will be martyred by the Satanic hosts of the last days, and it is these who are seen as having been sacrificed and their souls poured out at the bottom of the altar. They cry for vengeance on their adversaries, for this is fully in keeping with the dispensation of judgment to which they belong; whereas it would be thoroughly contrary to the grace of the present gospel dispensation.

God’s people are taught of His Spirit to pray according to the ruling principle of the specific time in which their lot is cast. This accounts for what often disturbs and even shocks sensitive souls - the so-called imprecatory Psalm. They cannot understand the cries for vengeance that seem so opposed to the grace of God as now made known. And it is no wonder they are troubled and hesitate to take such words upon their lips, for they do not belong to us at all. But they will be exactly suited to the remnant of Israel, suffering for Jehovah’s sake, but with no clear knowledge of an accomplished redemption - waiting for their Messiah to appear and overthrow the last great Gentile confederation, which, as we shall see when we come to chapter 13, will be bent upon their absolute extermination.

To these souls under the altar, invoking the judgment of God upon their merciless adversaries, white robes are given, and they are told that they must wait a little season till the time of Jacob’s trouble is ended and they are joined by their brethren who are yet to be slain, as the hatred to God and His Christ rises ever higher until the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those that know not God, as we read in II Thessalonians, chap. 1.

The opening of the sixth seal gives a marvellous symbolic picture, of such grave import that I must give it to you in its entirety.

John says, “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

It should be evident from the balance of the book that we are not to take this as a literal earthquake, though our Lord’s words in Matthew 24 show us that there will be such phenomena in divers places, terrific in character as the end draws near. Already, perhaps we have had, in the past two decades, some noteworthy reminders and warnings in the many horrors of this nature that shocked the civilized world, but are apparently so easily forgotten within a very short time. But the earthquake of the sixth seal is of a different character altogether. It cannot be merely literal, as the actual islands, mountains, and seas, together with the cities of the nations are still seen to be in existence long after this vision has had its fulfillment. It rather sets forth the complete breaking up of society as now constituted, the destruction of the boasted civilization of our present day. Looked at from this standpoint, we have abundant Old Testament Scripture to throw light upon it and to make plain its awful portents.

We shall be helped, too, if we remember that in the very beginning of the book we are told that the Lord sent and “signified it unto His servant John.” That is, He made it known by signs or symbols. If these be kept in mind we shall be preserved from taking literally what God meant us to take symbolically, and so we shall be more likely to get the mind of the Spirit in regard to the future of both Christendom and Judaism, the two spheres with which this book specially deals.

It is therefore not a world-wide, literal earthquake that the sixth seal introduces, but rather the destruction of the present order - political, social, and ecclesiastical - reduced to chaos; the breaking down of all authority, and the breaking up of all established and apparently permanent institutions.

We may see, I believe, a foreshadowing of this in what has so lately taken place in Russia; the overturning of the throne, the blotting out of the Romanoff Dynasty, the wrecking of all industrial and social order, the fearful orgies of fanatical Bolshevism, blood-red anarchy everywhere holding sway, making wild promises of liberty while destroying every safeguard against the unrestrained brutality of beastlike men. Take as but one horrible instance the attempted abolition of marriage (that which God Himself instituted, at the very beginning of human history, for the sanctity and blessing of His creatures), and the substitution of the degrading custom of forcing all women to be common property, taken by whoever may desire them, and all children born in these abominable conditions to be taken from their parents and reared as children of the State. Natural affection at once receives its death-blow, and all restraint on man’s animal propensities is at an end. Another event that has shocked the world has been the overturning of Russia’s State Church. It is true that it had become unspeakably corrupt, but in their wild desire to destroy it the Soviet Government has declared war on all that bears a religious name, whether human or divine. “No God and no church” is the cry ringing through the unhappy land, and who can foretell what the dreaded future has in store?

Many thought in the past century that they saw the French Revolution portrayed in this sixth seal and it was indeed but an earlier sample of the same conditions we have been considering; so was the break-up of the Roman Empire in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries. But none of these cataclysms, stupendous as they were, fully met the requirements of the prophecy; for the church of the First-born is still here, and the gospel of the grace of God is still being proclaimed to a guilty world. But we have already seen that when the seals are broken the church will be with Christ, waiting for the moment when He will descend to take His world kingdom and establish His authority in righteousness.

But we must now proceed to look at the passage in detail that we may the better grasp its true import.

The sun, we are told, became black as sackcloth of hair. The sun, the source of light and life for this planet, speaks of supreme authority, and is the well-known type of the Lord Himself. “Unto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” Such is Malachi’s declaration concerning the coming of Christ the second time. At present Christendom, at least nominally, owns His lordship. We even date our letters Anno Domini. We speak of Him as our Lord, and profess to receive our governments from His hand. But soon He will be entirely rejected and His word utterly despised. Thus will the sun be blotted out from the heavens, and God will seem to have been dethroned.

Naturally enough this will mean the complete destruction of all derived authority, so we next read, “the moon became as blood.” The moon gets all its light from the sun, just as “the powers that be are ordained of God,” and are appointed by Him for man’s blessing. But all government being thrown down, the lurid glare of anarchy will take its place, for a time at least.

The stars falling from heaven indicate, I take it, the downfall and apostasy of great religious leaders, the bright lights in the ecclesiastical heavens. In Daniel, those who turn many to righteousness shine as the stars. In the first part of our book the stars are said to be the messengers of the churches. So it would seem clear that we are to understand the symbol in the same sense here. After the true church has been caught up to meet the Lord in the air, there will be a vast host of unconverted ecclesiastics left behind; thousands of church dignitaries, both Protestant and Romanist, who, though looked upon as guides in things spiritual, shall be manifested as utterly bereft of divine life - professional clergymen who, despite their pretensions and exalted calling, are simply natural men intruding into spiritual thing, like the Philistines of old who dwelt in the land of Canaan and gave their name Palestine, to the whole thing as though it longed of right to them, while all the time they were unwarranted intruders of Egyptian descent. These are the stars who will be hurled from their places of power and eminence in that awful day of the wrath of the Lamb, and who, apostatizing from the last vestiges of Christianity, will soon become leaders in the worship of Antichrist.

Thus the heavens, the ecclesiastical powers of every description, will depart as a scroll when it is rolled up. The whole fabric of Christendom will be wound up as something obsolete and out of date. Recently, leaders of religious thought, as they are called, have been questioning the finality of the Christian religion, and declaring that out of the chaotic conditions brought about by the war shall arise a new religious conception altogether, superseding that of “the Nazarene” and resulting in the worship of humanity - a new conception of God as immanent in all men and only to be found within the heart of man. That such teachers are correct as to their expectation there can be no doubt, and for this Christian Science, so-called, the New Thought, the New Theology, Theosophy, and kindred cults (all founded on the same basic philosophy), are preparing the world. But as long as the Holy Spirit is here on earth, dwelling in the church of God, the full development of this mystery of iniquity is checked; but as soon as He goes up with the church, the whole profession that is left will be destroyed, and out of its ruins will arise the final Satanic masterpiece of the last days.

The destruction of all organized religion will but intensify the frightful conditions of that dreadful time, however. Men drunk with their sham liberty, and rejoicing in the triumph of a blatant God-defying demagoguery, will for a brief period turn this earth into a great mad-house. The vile orgies of those days will be indescribable, until there shall dawn upon multitudes the realization that the Lamb of God whom they had rejected and whose gentle rule they had spurned has in some way visited their sins upon their own heads. Then we have depicted what someone has called “the greatest prayer meeting of all history,” when “the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the chief captains, the mighty men, the bond and the free” shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, crying out in their sore distress for the mountains and the rocks to cover them and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, “for,” they will cry as with one voice, “the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?

Yet we read of no repentance, no true turning back to God or trusting His Christ - just an awful realization that it is the rejected Lamb with whom they have to do, and whose wrath they would fain escape. They are like those of whom Jeremiah prophesied who will cry in that day of the fierce anger of the Lord, “The harvest is passed, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

Notice the solemnity of the expression, “The wrath of the Lamb.” We are not accustomed to couple the thought of wrath, or indignation, with the Lamb, which has ever been the accepted symbol of gentleness. But there is a terrible truth involved in it nevertheless. For if the grace of the Lamb of God be rejected, His indignation and wrath must be faced. It cannot be otherwise. It is part of eternal righteousness so to do. God Himself will not, and in accordance with the holiness of His nature cannot, have it otherwise; as we read elsewhere, “He cannot deny Himself.” (2Tim 2:13)


Hear the just law, the judgment of the skies:

He that hates truth must be the dupe of lies:

And he who will be cheated to the last,

Delusions strong as hell must bind him fast.”

For such there can be nothing in reserve but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries; and this of a much sorer character than that which befell those who despised Moses’ law, for they now defy God revealed in grace, who has come out to man in the person O f His Son. For such there must be “the wrath of the Lamb.”


Grace like this despised, brings judgment

Measured by the wrath He bore.”


But the wrath of God is even a deeper and more intense form of judgment, which will be poured out upon the earth from the “seven bowls (or vials) of the wrath of God,” and under which the Christ-rejecter must abide for eternity, for it is written, “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Note the hopelessness of the condition here depicted. Abiding wrath precludes any thought of either annihilation or restoration, and tells us that the results of refusing the matchless grace of God are eternal; for that which “abides” is unending.

But I must bring this address to a close, and as I do so I would again remind you that this sixth seal brings us to the end of the first part of that last unfulfilled week of the ninth chapter of Daniel. It divides into two parts, and the Lord Himself defines the first part as “the beginning of sorrows,” while He designates the last part as “the great tribulation.” This is introduced for us in the book of Revelation by the breaking of the seventh seal, and that will come before us after the great parenthesis of the seventh chapter.

The wrath of the Lamb is visited upon the nations in the beginning of sorrows; the wrath of God will be their portion in the great tribulation. May He grant, in His mercy, that none who hear these words may enter into either the one or the other. Grace is still reigning through righteousness, and a just God waits in loving kindness to be the justifier of everyone that believeth in Jesus.

~ end of Lecture 7 ~ ***



Lecture 8 The 144,000 and The Great Multitude of Gentiles

(Revelation 7)


IN our last address we were occupied with the first half of the 70th week, yet future, of Daniel’s prophecy: “the beginning of sorrows” when “the wrath of the Lamb” will be poured out on guilty Christendom and apostate Judaism. Now we find that before the Lord gave John the vision of the opening of the seventh seal (which introduces the great tribulation in all its intensity), we have this parenthetic seventh chapter in which are recorded two important visions. - In the first, John sees a hundred and forty-four thousand Israelites sealed by an angel, and - In the second, he beholds a great multitude of Gentiles led in triumph by the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne, taking possession of the millennial earth.

I am sure that many of my hearers have often been perplexed by conflicting theories regarding the hundred and forty-four thousand. The way in which so many unscriptural and often positively heretical sects arrogate to themselves this title would be amusing, if it were not so sad. You are perhaps aware that the Seventh-Day Adventists apply it to the faithful of their communion, who will be found observing the Jewish Sabbath at the Lord’s return. They suppose that these will be raptured when the Lord descends, and judgment poured out upon the rest of the church. Then we have the followers of the late Pastor Russell who teach that the hundred and forty-four thousand include only the “overcomers” of their persuasion who continue faithful to the end, following the teaching of the system commonly called “Millennial Dawnism.” That very absurd and weird cult known as the “Flying Roll” makes claim to the same thing; only with them, the hundred and forty-four thousand are those who will have their blood so cleansed that they cannot die, but will have immortal life on this earth! Besides these, there are many other sects, whose leaders consider their own peculiar followers will be the hundred and forty-four thousand sealed ones at the time of the end. All of these, however, overlook a very simple fact, which, if observed, would save them from their folly. That is, the hundred and forty-four thousand are composed of twelve thousand from each tribe of the children of Israel. There is not a Gentile among them, nor is there confusion as to tribe. Whenever I meet people who tell me they belong to the hundred and forty-four thousand, I always ask them, “Which tribe, please?” and they are invariably put to confusion for want of an answer.

Now let us look carefully at the three opening verses.


And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” (vv. 1-3)


John tells us that he saw “four angels” (four is the world number) “standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of heaven that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.”

In Daniel’s vision, as recorded in the seventh chapter of his prophecy, he beholds “the four winds of heaven” striving upon the great sea, and as a result you have the various world empires coming forth like wild beasts from beneath the restless waves. Here we have the angels holding back these four winds until a certain event takes place. It is very evident that they are restraining the last wild beast from making his appearance. In chapter thirteen, the beast with seven heads and ten horns, the Roman Empire in its last form, comes forth from the sea, symbolizing the nations in unrest. This is the great federation of nations which God’s word predicts for the very near future - a federation of Satanic origin, and which will not be developed until after the church is gone, and even then certain events must transpire before it assumes its final diabolical form.

Verses two and three make clear what this event is that must first take place. John sees another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: “And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” The point is, you see, that God has chosen a remnant of Israel to inherit the kingdom under the Son of Man, which is so soon to be established; and ere the final form of the Roman Empire is fully developed, these are sealed, marked out for God’s protecting care; so that all the power of the Beast and all the hatred of his ally the Antichrist will not be able to destroy them, and thus prevent the carrying out of God’s purpose.

Verses four to eight leave no doubt whatever as to the identity of these sealed ones. John “heard the number of them that were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”

As you go over the last half you note that the tribe of Dan is absent, and instead you have two tribes from Joseph - Manasseh and Ephraim.

Ephraim, however, bears Joseph’s name. Why is Dan omitted from the twelve, and the twelfth made up in another way? I cannot positively tell you. The rabbis used to say that the false Messiah (the Antichrist) would arise from Dan, and they based the supposition on Jacob’s words in Genesis 49:17: “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.” We note from the historical record, in the book of Judges, that Dan was the first tribe to go into idolatry, and it would not be a matter of surprise if Dan would be the leader in the last great idolatry - the worship of Antichrist. But we may leave this where faith leaves every other difficulty - resting in the infinite wisdom of God and knowing that He has revealed all that is necessary for us to know in the present age.

The balance of the chapter, from verse nine, brings before us an entirely different company. John says,


After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kind reds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen.

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation (literally, the tribulation, the great one), and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them (or, spread His tabernacle over them). They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed (or, shepherd) them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”


It seems very strange that some have taught that in this great multitude we have the raptured church; hence they have supposed that the Lord would not come for His church until the middle of the tribulation period: but a careful study of the passage makes it very evident, it seems to me, that we are here gazing upon an earthly, not a heavenly, company. This great multitude embraces the Gentile nations who will enter into millennial blessing. It is the great ingathering of the coming dispensation, when from all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, a vast throng from all parts of the earth will be redeemed to God by the blood of the Lamb, and will enter into the earthly kingdom of our Lord. During the dark days of the great tribulation they will heed the testimony which will be carried to the ends of the earth by Jewish missionaries, the wise among the people (see Daniel 12), who shall instruct many in righteousness. They are identical, I take it, with the “sheep” of Matthew 25, who are placed on the right hand of the Son of Man when He comes in His glory and all His holy angels with Him, and who inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the earth.

They are said in verse fourteen to “come out of the great tribulation,” to have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; but they are nowhere said to be taken away to heaven - quite the contrary; they are in a scene where it is necessary that the Lamb should feed them and lead them, and spread his tabernacle over them. Verse 15 plainly tells us: “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and minister before Him day and night in his temple”: that is, I take it, the millennial temple, which is to be built in the land in that coming day. There will be no day and night in heaven. The expression can only refer, in this connection, to the temple on earth. Then we read, “He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among [spread His tabernacle over] them.” The reference is undoubtedly to the Lord’s covering His people when He led them of old through the wilderness. The pillar of cloud by day and fire by night not only guided them through the scene but sheltered them from the fierce rays of the desert sun. Thus will He protect and shield His redeemed ones in the age to come.

We are also told that “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” It is probably because people have not realized the blessedness of the millennial day that these verses are made to refer to heaven, but they are at one with the predictions of Isaiah, and others of the prophets, in regard to the blessing that the saved nations shall enjoy when the Lamb Himself reigns. - The struggle for daily bread will be over - they shall hunger no more; - The ofttimes vain effort to quench their thirst will be at an end - they shall thirst no more. Even the unpleasant and disagreeable things with which men have been afflicted because of the way sin has jarred God’s creation will be at an end. The sun shall not light upon them, nor any heat.

In that day all the saved of the nations will be able to take up, in the fullest sense, the beautiful words of the Psalmist, which we but feebly enter into now: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness For his name’s sake.”

While it is true that the church of God will be in a far better scene; while our hope is heavenly, not earthly, yet we can indeed rejoice and our hearts may well swell with gladness to think of the blessing awaiting the earth and its inhabitants. And God has surely promised it, and will fulfil all that He has caused to be written by His holy prophets in the sacred Scriptures, for “the Scripture cannot be broken.” (John 10:35)

What a long, dreary night, with what frightful disturbing nightmares, if I may so speak, has this world known, since sin, with all its attendant evils, came in to wreck man’s hopes of joy and gladness! But how precious to know that evil shall not always have the upper hand; that a time is coming, aye, and is very near, when the curse will be lifted, the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the rose; even the lower creation will be changed and revert to former habits ere sin entered; “the lion shall eat straw like the ox”; the little child need not fear the midst savage of beasts; for they shall not hurt nor destroy in that day. Then government will be righteously regulated; abuses of every kind will be stopped, and for a thousand glorious years our Lord Himself shall reign in righteousness.

But there is one thing I wish especially to press upon both saved and unsaved, and that is this: Whether in dispensations past, in the present age, in the period of judgment just before this world, or in that glorious millennial age, everyone who is saved at all will be saved through the precious blood of Christ. God has never had any other way of reconciling man to Himself than through the blood of His Son. In Old Testament times, men were saved, if I may so say, on credit. The Lord Jesus Christ had already pledged Himself to pay the fearful debt with His own most precious blood, and all who, in every dispensation, owned their guilt and believed the record God had given, were justified by faith on the basis of the work that Christ was yet to accomplish. That work having now been completed, God has manifested His righteousness in passing over these sins done aforetime in the days of His forbearance, and now He shows Himself to be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. If you own your sin, dear unsaved one, if you confess your guilt and put your heart’s trust in that blessed One, who on Calvary’s cross gave Himself for you, then you will be justified and accepted with God in all the value of that precious blood. In the coming hour of tribulation, the hundred and forty-four thousand of Israel, and all the Gentiles who receive their message, will be saved in exactly the same way, but saved for earth - not for heaven. To the very end of the millennium that precious blood will still have the same cleansing efficacy, and the last soul who trusts in Christ will have an unimpeachable standing before the throne of God through its infinite value.

So all blessing for time and eternity rests upon the cross of Christ, and the reason the nations have missed their way in the past nineteen hundred years, and are struggling in vain for peace and a government in righteousness, is because they have ignored the blood of that cross, where, alone, peace was made, both in relation to time and eternity.

And now in closing, let me emphasize one thing which I believe needs to be emphasized in these days. I have run across the error in many recent books on the coming of the Lord, that after the rapture of the church there will be a great revival, an unprecedented spiritual awakening in Christendom, when vast numbers of people who have been undecided during the present dispensation of grace will turn to the Lord; and it is being widely taught that these will form the great multitude of which we have been speaking. Let me say that I have searched my Bible diligently for any confirmation of such teaching, but I fail to find it. On the contrary, we are distinctly told in II Thessalonians 2:1 I that God is going to give up those who, during the present age, receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved; they will be given up to hardness of heart and perversity of spirit. We read in verses eleven and twelve, “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned that believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Now, there is no intimation here that people who refuse the gospel in this dispensation will have another opportunity to be saved, if they are still living when the dispensation of judgment begins. A careful reading of the entire passage will show that the time referred to is when the mystery of iniquity is fully developed and the wicked one revealed - that is, the man of sin. In that age, the Holy Spirit will have been withdrawn. He will go up with the church at the Lord’s return to the air.

This is not to say that the Holy Spirit will not act afterwards, during the tribulation period, but His operations will be similar to His activities in Old Testament times. From heaven He will influence the hearts of men, opening the eyes of the remnant of Israel, and through them reach, as we have seen, an innumerable multitude of Gentiles. But there is no promise that He will operate for blessing on the hearts of those who have had the opportunity to be saved and have refused it. They will be given up to the strong delusion of the last days. They will believe the lie of the Antichrist, and thus go into judgment because they deliberately refused the truth when it was offered to them, choosing instead error and sin.

It is a very solemn thing to harden the heart against God and His message of grace. Pharaoh tried it, and is the standing example of what strong delusion really means. He hardened himself against the message that Moses brought, and afterwards God Himself confirmed him in his course.

Light rejected brings abiding night.

- Darkness may be natural: in this all are born.

- Darkness may be willful: in this men deliberately choose darkness in place of light.

- Darkness may be, and alas, often is, judicial: in this men are given up to darkness because of their own perversity.

So we read in Jeremiah 13:16, “Give glory to the Lord your God, before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains; and, while ye look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.”

No man need be lost for want of light. He who will follow the slightest gleam that God gives may be sure of increasing light, and light sufficient to lead him to the knowledge of sins forgiven. But, I repeat, light rejected brings night! And, therefore, let me plead with anyone who has not closed with God’s offer of grace in Christ Jesus, to receive now the gift of His love, and thus be assured of a place with Christ in that coming day. For if the Lord should descend from heaven to call His church away, you who have heard the gospel and are rejecting it, abiding in your sins, your doom will be eternally sealed.

Among the heathen nations, where the gospel has not yet been fully proclaimed, in the waste places and the neglected parts of the world, where the grace of God is as yet unknown, a vast number will be found to receive the message of the Israelitish remnant as they flee from Antichrist’s persecutions and proclaim to all the world the gospel of the kingdom. But you will not be numbered among them if the coming of the Lord finds you still unsaved. You will be in exactly the same condition of soul, and position of condemnation before God, as if you had died in your sins. Jesus said, “When once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, - who is there that shall open it? The five foolish virgins, left outside when the Bridegroom came. knocked in vain for admittance later. They picture those who will be on the wrong side of the door, closed for all eternity.

Yet, strangely enough, this very parable of the ten virgins has been used by certain teachers to bolster up their unsound theory of a second chance for Christ-rejecters after the Saviour calls His church away. The foolish virgins are, by them supposed to represent persons afterwards gathered in, but who miss the heavenly blessing. Others have based on this parable the equally unscriptural hypothesis that only the more spiritual saints will be caught up at the rapture, and the weaker ones will be left behind to be purified during the great tribulation. This is a virtual denial of the truth of the one body, the unity of the body of Christ. The weakest member of that body is as dear to the Head as the strongest and all who are Christ’s will have their part in the rapture, irrespective of their more or less advanced stage in the Christian life. It is the perfection of the work of redemption that gives title to any of the promises of God; it is not as a reward for service or merit.

~ end of Lecture 8 ~ ***




Lecture 9 The Breaking of the Seventh Seal

(Revelatioin 8)


I AM to speak to you to-night on the breaking of the seventh seal, which opens fully the book of title-deed to this world,- the roll that was put into the hands of the Lord Jesus by the Father after the church, represented by the glorified elders, was seen around the throne in heaven.

First let me make a few remarks, which I think have not previously been made in the course of these lectures, in regard to the structure of the Book of the Revelation: The main body of the book is divided into four sevens. There are the letters to the seven churches of Asia; then the seven seals; then the seven trumpets; and farther on the seven vials of the wrath of God.

In connection with these last three sevens, there is something very striking. We have, first, six seals opened; then a parenthesis which takes up chapter seven. In chapter eight, the seventh seal is opened, and the book as a whole is open to view.

This seventh seal we find includes the seven trumpets. Six trumpets are sounded, and there is again a parenthetical portion, including chapters ten and eleven to verse fourteen. At the conclusion of this parenthesis the seventh trumpet brings us to the end of all things.

Chronologically, we are as far on when we reach chapter eleven, verse eighteen, as when we reach the Great White Throne in chapter twenty; for the seventh trumpet introduces the worldkingdom of our God and His Christ, and goes right on to the time when the dead shall be judged. So you see we really have a duplication, in measure, of prophetic truth from this point on. That is, from chapter four to the end of chapter eleven you have truth presented in orderly sequence - a prophetic outline of the things that shall take place after the rapture of the church right on to the end of time.

Then, commencing with chapter twelve, God seems to turn the roll over that we may view the other side, and He gives us a second view of the events, but especially in relation to Israel. We have details which bring before us the great actors for good and evil in the last days: - the woman clothed with the sun; - the Man-child, Christ, who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron; - Michael, who is the archangel; - The dragon, who is that old serpent, the devil; - The coming world-confederacy and its blasphemous head; - The lamb-like Beast, who I believe is the Antichrist, who looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon - the counterfeit of the Lamb of God. There follows a parenthetical portion in chapter fourteen, which in a very vivid way brings before us the final issues once more.

Then, in chapters fifteen and sixteen, we have the vials, or bowls, of the wrath of God; and once more, you will notice, we have the same structure that has engaged our attention in connection with the seals and trumpets.

We have six bowls, and then a parenthesis.

In this instance the parenthesis occupies only one verse (Chap. 16:15). Immediately following this, the seventh bowl of the wrath of God is outpoured, bringing us on to the doom of Babylon, described in detail through chapters 17 and 18; then in chapter 19 we have the Lord’s descent to the earth, accompanied by the armies of heaven, to establish His millennial kingdom and reign for a thousand years. At the close of this the final judgment takes place; the heavens and the earth as we now know them, with all the works of man, will be destroyed, and there shall be brought in new heavens and a new earth, where God will be all in all throughout an eternity of bliss: while the wicked - those who have persistently rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, both before the Cross and since, and the millennial dispensation of righteousness - all who have rejected the message of God, will be cast into the lake of fire.

I have searched this Book of God through and through, over and over again, to find one ray of hope for men and women who leave this world rejecting Christ, and I have never been able to find it. I have looked into all kinds of theories, and I have read hundreds of volumes, some depicting the annihilation of all the wicked dead, some, like the wild dream of the so-called “Pastor Russell,” promising a second chance after death, but I have never found one statement in all these books, one based upon the word of God, to give the slightest hope to the Christ-rejecter. This is the only world in which God is offering salvation to Christless men; and if you refuse the message of His grace now, if you deliberately steel your heart against the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and you die in your sins, go down to a Christless grave, you will be Christless for all eternity! I think the most awful picture the Bible gives us of the doom of the lost is in the Epistle of Jude, which forms such a fitting preface to the Book of Revelation. He speaks of those who make light of God’s salvation and who follow after unrighteousness, as “wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” I cannot see the least hope for a Christless soul in that figure.

When I was a mere boy in my home in Canada, I remember how, night after night, a blazing comet appeared in the skies; and I heard older people telling that this particular “night wonder” had not been seen before for something like three hundred years. I asked in amazement where it had been, and for the first time in my young life I came up against the wonder of infinite space. I was told that that comet had been driving on with tremendous velocity millions and millions of miles away from the sun for one hundred and fifty years, and that one hundred and fifty years ago it had gradually begun to come back toward the sun, and that was why it was then visible. In a few weeks it passed out of sight, to appear to us no more for another three hundred years. I can recall pondering in my mind as to what would happen if that comet went off on a tangent (though I do not suppose I knew that word then, nor its meaning), and never came back! And, my friend, this is the appalling picture that Jude presents in the passage referred to. Those who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, those who despise the boundless mercy He has bestowed upon them in His blessed Son, and persist in refusing His goodness, continuing in their sins, will be driven away from the Sun of Righteousness into the outer darkness, and will drive on, and on, and on, throughout eternity, nevermore to find their way back into the presence of God. He is giving a little space now for repentance, but the day of His grace will be over when He rises to shake terribly the earth. And how are you treating His offer of mercy?

But we return to our chapter.

And when he had opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” (8:1)

In the first place, notice the opening verse. We are told that when the Lamb had opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. May we not say it is the “calm before the coming storm”? - the most awful storm that shall ever break over this poor world. Some of you have lived in regions where thunder-storms are common, and you have often, no doubt, noted on a hot summer day the clouds suddenly gathering in the heavens, becoming heavier and darker every moment. You have heard the thunder reverberating in the skies, peal after peal, with ever increasing intensity. You have observed the lightning flashes striking terror into many a heart. Then suddenly all became still; there seemed to be not even a breath of wind to move the leaves upon the trees; and yet, an overcast, threatening sky, causing the fowls to run for a hiding place, the cattle to move uneasily, and all nature is expectant. A few moments pass by; then vivid flashes of lightning cause us to shrink back, dreading to be stricken; crash upon crash follow, and the windows of the heavens seem to be opened - the storm pouring down in a deluge!

We have something similar to this here. We saw in chapters four and five the saints gathered around the throne of God and of the Lamb, and we noted that from the throne proceeded thunder and lightning. As the seals were broken, one after another, judgment followed judgment in quick succession upon the poor world from which God had gathered out His beloved people. But even the crashing under the sixth seal is not the climax. In heaven lies the mystery of God’s dealing with this world and the judgments yet to fall upon it. But when the last seal is broken it will be clearly manifested then just what side God takes in all the affairs of earth. He will judge according to the holiness of His character and the righteousness of His throne. The seventh seal, as we have before noted, introduces the final drama of the great tribulation. No wonder there is silence in heaven for half an hour before that seal is broken!

It is as though all heaven is waiting in breathless expectation. We seem to hear the questions: What will the Lamb do next? What will be God’s next move toward judging and reclaiming that rebellious world? The verses that follow give the answer. John says:

And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake” (verses 2-5).

Careful readers of the Bible will connect the seven trumpets with the fall of Jericho: that great city just across the Jordan that barred the progress of the people of Israel into the promised land - the city that fell with the blast of God alone. The priests of Israel were given the trumpets of judgment, and for seven days they marched about the city blowing the trumpets; seven times on the seventh day they did so and at the seventh blast the walls fell down flat. Jericho is a type of this present world in its estrangement from God, with enmity to the people of God. Jericho fell at the sound of seven trumpets, and the world, as you and I know it, is going to fall at the sound of the seven trumpets of doom, blown by these angels of judgment.

The seal is broken, the book is fully unrolled. and the seven angels appear to whom are given seven trumpets. And as these angel messengers stand by, waiting one after the other to herald with a trumpet blast the coming judgments, we are told that another angel came and stood to officiate at the golden altar. He “is seen offering incense; therefore is an angel-priest. Who is this angel-priest? I think you will agree that he can be no created angel. Scripture never speaks of any created angel offering incense with the prayers of saints to make them acceptable to God. The Church of Rome does; but nowhere in the Bible do you get anything of the kind. Throughout the Old Testament, the pre-incarnate Christ is again and again presented as the Angel of The Lord. - He was the angel who appeared to Abraham; - He was the angel who guided the children of Israel; - He was the angel who wrestled with Jacob and put his thigh out of joint by the brook at Peniel. - He was the angel who appeared to Moses in the mount when the prophet prayed that he might behold God; - He was the angel who appeared to Joshua to lead the people of Israel against their foes in the land of Canaan; - He was the angel of The Lord again and again manifesting Himself throughout the entire dispensation. - In the Book of Zechariah He is the angel-advocate who stands to plead for Joshua, the high priest. So we again find Him in the Book of the Revelation presented as an angel-priest who still has a people on earth for whom to plead. They are not members of the church of God, but, as we saw in connection with the fifth seal and the parenthetical portion of chapter seven, the hundred and forty-four thousand, a remnant who will be taken out of Israel after the church of God will be called home.

The word of God is very clear on all this. The eleventh chapter of Romans pictures the Gentiles as having been grafted into Israel’s olive tree of promise (Romans I1:17). And the Holy Ghost goes on in that chapter to make it plain that when the Gentile church becomes apostate, God is going to reject it, and turn back to Israel. In the tribulation period they will again be grafted into their own olive tree. They will be the witnessing remnant of that awful time, and for them the Lord Jesus will make intercession in heaven, as He now does for His church. He will not be indifferent to their sorrows and their perplexities in those days of unparalleled tribulation; but He will, as the faithful High Priest, bear His people on His heart and on His shoulders, even as Aaron of old bore the names of the twelve tribes on the breastplate and on the onyx stones set in the ouches of gold upon his shoulders. So we see Him pictured by this angel-priest offering incense at the golden altar, in the very presence of God.

In this present time the Jews bewail their desolation, and cry out in anguish of heart year after year at the most solemn of their set-times, “Woe unto us, for we have no Mediator!” But when their eyes are opened and grace begins to operate in their souls they will know the blessedness of priestly intercession on the part of their once-rejected Messiah, whom they will learn to identify with the Angel of the Covenant of old. They will search their Bibles; they will doubtless read the Book of Hebrews; they will study the four Gospels, and will see the truth. They will look upon Him whom they pierced, they will repent and mourn, as described in Zechariah 12:10-14, and God will receive Israel and make her His messenger to the nations. We are not surprised, therefore, when we get this look into glory, and see the Lord Jesus as the Angel-priest.

He has a golden censer. Is it not a blessed thing to think that Israel will have such an Intercessor in the coming day? We are told that the smoke of the incense is the prayers of the saints - those suffering saints on the earth. The angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and emptied it upon the earth. Here is the answer to the cry of His afflicted ones down in that scene of tribulation.

The prayers went up to the Father, and judgment came down, “and there were thunderings, lightnings and an earthquake.” The final storm breaks at last!


The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up” (ver. 7).


I cannot explain the symbol fully, but I think I can see a hint of the awful time that is before the people of Christendom who have refused the gospel. Do you remember that the grass is used as a symbol of man? (Isaiah 40:6.) Grass trampled beneath the foot is the picture of man in his frailty and weakness. What about the tree? It is but another picture of man, but rising up in his pride and independence of God. You remember how Nebuchadnezzar is likened unto a great tree; how the rulers in Israel were spoken of as great cedars. John the Baptist said, “Now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that beareth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.” Grass is man in his weakness, man in his littleness; the tree is man in his dignity, in his greatness, in his independence - man lifting himself up against God. So the first angel’s trumpet distinctly indicates a fiery judgment upon that part of the human race that has rejected the gospel now so freely proclaimed It is an appalling picture, but, remember, the reality is far worse than the picture! This is followed by another fearful portent that has to do especially, I believe, with the judgment of the great world-church that has borne sway over the consciences of so many people, and enslaved so many nations.


And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed” (verses 8,9).


May I direct your attention to Jeremiah 51:25? There we have the same symbol - a great mountain cast into the sea. I have already said that every symbol in the Book of the Revelation was explained somewhere else in the Bible. Now here in the Old Testament a great mountain burning with fire is the symbol of Babylon, literal Babylon. In the New Testament this great destroying mountain burning with fire, that is cast into the sea and brought to an end under the judgment of God in this coming day, is evidently spiritual Babylon. Babylon of old was the fountainhead of idolatry. Every idolatrous system has had its root in Babylon. Spiritual Babylon is the direct successor of literal Babylon. The direct communication between the mystic religions of the old Babylon and spiritual Babylon of to-day is so marked that if anyone attempts to make a study of it he is perfectly astonished to find where many of the ritual services used in “Christian” churches sprang from. In the coming day when the second angers trumpet sounds, Babylon will be cast into the great sea of the nations. That is, in the day of God’s wrath, the false church will be utterly destroyed by the people over whom she once tyrannized. Of this we shall learn more when we come to chapter eighteen.

The third angel follows. We read:


And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter” (vers. 10, 11).


A great star falls from heaven. Stars in the prophetic Scriptures are religious dignitaries. They that turn many to righteousness are to shine as the stars forever and ever, and the symbol is used again and again in the Bible for persons occupying places of importance in the spiritual, or religious world, as we say. Here we have a star whose influence over man is so great that when he falls the third part of men are poisoned because of the evil influence of this apostate leader.

Who is this star? While I do not want to try to prophesy, let me give you a suggestion. Who occupies the highest place in the church in the minds of millions of professing Christian people? Many would say, the Pope. Can you imagine what might be the effect on vast numbers of people if to-morrow the newspapers came out with an “Extra” something like this: “The Pope declares that Christianity is all a sham, that religion is just a fraud!”? Can you imagine the effect that would have? Tens of thousands who would say, “Well, the man we looked upon as the head of the church, as infallible, as the authoritative voice on all matters of a religious nature, has denied it all. Now, whom can we trust, and what can we believe?” Leo X did this privately. Suppose a Pope in the future did it openly. I do not say certainly it will be so. I am just giving you a hint of what might be. Do we not see the same thing on a small scale to-day? When a professing Christian leader gives up what he has once stood for, it has a tremendous influence for evil upon people of lesser influence and lesser knowledge. And after the true church is gone, I gather from this symbol that one of the greatest “lights” in the false system left behind will openly apostatize, and his teachings become as wormwood, poisoning and embittering, to his deluded followers.

The darkness deepens when the fourth trumpet sounds.


And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound” (vers. 12, 13).


Again I do not attempt to tell you exactly what this symbolizes; but it is evident that light is being rapidly withdrawn. The third part of the sky is smitten. The third part of the moon and stars were darkened. What does it mean? Well, you know what the Lord Jesus says to the individual, “If the light that is in thee be darkened, how great is that darkness.” “Light obeyed increaseth light light resisted bringeth night.” Do you know why so many people in Christendom are going into what they call Christian Science and Theosophy and Spiritualism and so-called New Theology? Do you know why so few people ever get out of them? Because of this: They have had the opportunity to receive light from God and they have rejected it, and it is written in the Word that “God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who obeyed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thessalonians 2:11, 12). When God presents His truth to people, responsibility comes with it. When God presents Christ to them, tremendous responsibility is put upon them. If you hear the message and reject Christ, do not be surprised if you are caught in one of these unholy ideas of the present day, and perhaps never be delivered from it until you wake up in a lost eternity.

The thirteenth verse introduces, in a very solemn way, the three trumpets yet to follow, which are distinguished from the four we have already commented upon, as “woe” trumpets. They speak of a more intensified form of judgment than any previously portrayed. These will occupy us in our next lecture. I only desire now to call your attention to the expression, “the inhabiters of the earth.” A similar term we find frequently in this book, “Them that dwell upon the earth.” Upon these the heaviest judgments fall. They are not merely they that live here upon earth, but they form a distinctive class. They are the people who have rejected the heavenly calling. When God offered them full and free salvation through the death of His beloved Son, they turned away from Him, because to have closed in with Christ would have meant to give up their worldly desires and love of sin, therefore they become the “dwellers on the earth.”

~ end of Lecture 9 ~***



Lecture 10 The First and Second “WOE” Trumpets

(Revelation 9)


WE are to be occupied this evening with the fifth and sixth trumpets, known respectively as the first and second “woes.” The added designation of these trumpets implies a solemnity and a fearfulness beyond anything we have previously considered. That we may have all the details clearly before us, I will quote the text in full as we go on with the address.


And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit” (vers. 1,2).


The reference, I take it, is undoubtedly to that apostate leader referred to under the third trumpet. There we read of a great star who fell from heaven burning like a lamp, and who, falling upon the third part of the rivers and fountains of waters, poisoned them so that men drinking of them died, the waters being made bitter.

Under this fifth trumpet we have the development of the apostasy, of which this leader is evidently the head. He opens the bottomless pit, using a “key.”

We have been made familiar, in the Gospels, with the thought of the key where Christ commits to Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and you will remember our Lord’s words to the lawyers, “Ye have taken away the key of knowledge.” From these Scriptures it is clear that a key implies a system of teaching, and possibly ritual observances connected with it. With this hint we can readily understand what follows.

This arch-apostate, by a system of erroneous teaching, damnable heresies, denying the Lord that bought them, opens up the bottomless pit, from whence issues a blinding smoke as the smoke of a great furnace, so intense that the sun and air become darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. It is the strong delusion, to which we have had occasion to refer frequently in the course of these addresses. While it is said in II Thessalonians that “God shall send strong delusion,” we here learn that He sends it by permitting this Satanic envoy to delude the nations.

Darkening of the sun by means of these Stygian fumes implies the blotting out, from before men’s eyes or minds, the supreme source of light. Their whole spiritual sky will be made dark by the false system with which they will be deluded. The air is particularly Satan’s realm. He is called “the prince of the power of the air.” The darkening of the air implies the control of this realm by Satanic agencies. I do not think we will be far wrong if we identify with this coming delusion the occult systems of gnostic origin, so largely prevailing and so rapidly spreading at the present time. These systems, as we have before noticed, are a unit in denying (in any true sense) the personality of God and in asserting the divinity of humanity. They reproduce, in some form or other, the primeval lie, “Ye shall be as God.” This is the very essence of New Thought, New Theology, Eddyism, Spiritism, Theosophy, and other offshoots of these evil systems. After the restraining power of the Holy Ghost has been removed, they will spread like locusts over all the earth, having tremendous power over the minds of men. This is what the third verse indicates: “And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.”

Anyone familiar with the locust plagues of the East will understand at once the figure here used. Travelers have told us how the locusts appear in swarms so vast that they seem like great clouds, actually shutting out the sun and filling the whole air. They devour everything before them. Falling upon a green field, within a few minutes they leave it as bare as though no vegetation had been there at all. They are the dread of Oriental husbandmen, who are utterly powerless to combat them. They aptly typify or symbolize the spiritual plague of the last days. The symbol of the locusts is coupled with that of the scorpion, because of the torment these evil teachings eventually bring to those who accept them.

That we do not have any merely literal plague of locusts in view here the next verses make evident:


And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man” (vers. 4, 5).



Literal locusts would do the very thing which these are commanded not to do. The grass of the earth, green things, trees of all descriptions, are here distinctly protected from their power. This verse seems to be rather in the way of explanation than a continuation of the symbol; otherwise we might think of the grass and trees as representing mankind. But it would appear that the apostle here expounds rather than continues the description of his vision, in order that we may not be misled by a literal application. The locusts’ power is expended upon those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. These are tormented by them for five months, a torment akin to that of a scorpion when he striketh a man. We have already seen that those bearing the seal of God are the remnant of Israel. These alone in Christendom and Judaism will be preserved from the strong delusion of that day. Our Lord Himself limits Satan’s power in the same way, when, referring to this very period, And the plague of false teaching, He says, “If it were possible, they would deceive the very elect.” Thank God, it is not possible; for the seal of the living God in the present dispensation is the indwelling Holy Spirit, given to guide into all truth, and in that coming dispensation of judgment the same Holy Spirit will illumine the minds of those who repent in Israel, and thus preserve them from this Satanic delusion.

For the rest, so great will be the distress caused by these evil teachings when men fully give themselves up to them, that, “In those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them” (ver. 6).

Anyone who has ever sought to give spiritual help to persons awakening in measure from the delusions of Eddyism, or Spiritism, or in fact any other Satanic system, will understand at once the condition of mind here depicted. I shall never forget the almost insane glare of the eye and the hopeless wail in the voice of a poor woman who, after having been under spiritualistic influences for a number of years, at last began dimly to apprehend the dreadful character of the system that had been enslaving her. It was only through much prayer and earnest holding on to God on her behalf that she was delivered, but she told me on one occasion that she had suffered all the torments of the damned during the year and a half when she was seeking deliverance from demon control.

A few years ago I was laboring among the Mormons in Utah. There I learned of a most pitiable case. A family who had accepted the Mormon delusion and emigrated from Great Britain to Utah, after practicing the heathenish rites of Joseph Smith’s abominable system for thirty years, were at last awakened to the untrustworthiness of it all by the perfidious conduct of certain eminent church-leaders. As a result, they renounced the entire system and were left, if one may so speak, without religious convictions of any kind. A few months later, the wife and mother was dying. She tossed upon her bed in the greatest agony of mind, moaning in her distress and despair, afraid to meet God in her sins. A minister of the gospel was urged by some friends to call and see her, though much against the will of the family, and finally gained admittance to the dying woman’s room. He sought faithfully to present the precious truth of the gospel from God’s holy Word, but though for a time she seemed to listen eagerly, she turned from him at the very last, crying out, “Oh! sir, after one has been fooled by one religion all her life, it is too late to trust another in the hour of death.” And so, in great agony, she passed away, so far as he could tell, into a hopeless eternity.

Oh! I would that I had the power to impress upon men and women everywhere the dreadful responsibility they assume when they tamper with these unholy teachings which already have escaped from the bottomless pit, and which even now have for many souls darkened the air and blotted out the light of the sun. No torture can be compared to spiritual torment, and the only remedy is that perfect love alone, displayed in Calvary’s cross, which casteth out all fear.

In the days to which our chapter refers, those who have rejected the grace of God will never again hear that precious gospel, and so they are left to cry out in their anguish, seeking death and finding it not.

In verses seven to twelve we have a highly symbolic description of this delusion, which I wish to examine in detail, so I quote the passage in full.


And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.”


The shapes of the locusts, we are told, are like unto horses prepared unto battle, thus symbolizing their rapid progress and apparently providential irresistibility, in obtaining sway over those unprepared to do battle with them. “Upon their heads were crowns like gold” - for apostasy, during that time of delusion, will seem to carry all before it triumphantly, driving from Christendom the last vestige of orthodoxy. Our Lord Jesus asked the solemn question in view of His second advent, “When the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith on the earth?” The “coming of the Son of Man” refers not to the rapture, but to the appearing in glory; at that time it will, for the moment, seem as though all true faith has been driven from the prophetic earth; nevertheless there will arise by the power of God’s word, from the distant parts of the world, a vast company, as we have seen, who will not have bowed the knee to this latter day Baal.

We are next told “their faces were as the faces of men, and they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.” Three symbols here intermingle, all of which are very evidently found in the occult systems to which we have referred. “Faces as of men” would seem to imply intelligence, and these evil teachers make a great appeal to human reason, and ridicule the truth of God as a system of cunningly devised fables, while actually they themselves follow but sophistical and illogical theories. Their appeal is to human intelligence - to the mind rather than to the heart and conscience, which Scripture does. Moreover they are characterized by intense seductiveness and attractive fancies, typified by “the hair of women.” A woman’s hair, we are told in Scripture, is her glory; and in the Song of Solomon 7:5, following the marginal reading, we are told, “Thy head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thy head like purple; the king is held in the tresses.” How many have been turned aside from the path of duty by natural attractions, grossly misused for the purpose of accomplishing unholy ends.

But seductive and apparently rational as these systems are when first presented, they prove at last to have “teeth as the teeth of lions,” tearing to pieces those who put their trust in them. In the ninth verse we read: “And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.” These iron breastplates utterly destroy all conscience, or, rather, render them impervious to the shafts of truth, so that the conscience is never reached; while the wings, whose sound is as that of myriads of chariots rushing to battle, would speak of the swiftness with which they conquer those who have turned from the truth and had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The tenth verse again emphasizes the scorpion-like torment they produce. “And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.” What a mercy that their power is thus limited. I see no reason why we should not understand the five months literally. For a very limited time this apostate leader and his emissaries will be permitted to dominate those who would not have Christ the Lord to reign over them. In His place, Satan himself is worshiped as Abaddon and Apollyon.

And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon” (ver. 11). This can only refer to the Devil himself. He alone is the angel of the bottomless pit. So it is made evident at last that the “God within,” to which men are turning to-day, is no other than Satan, the great arch-enemy, who has been plotting man’s destruction from the very beginning. Selfworshipers are devil-worshipers, and in some instances already this has been avowed by the followers of present day apostasy. This then is the first “woe.” “One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter” (ver. 12).

We next read,


And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men” (vers. 13-15).


This is evidently something very different from that which we have already been looking at. It seems to be the result, however, of the previous woe. That is, it shows us what the effect upon the world will be when Satan-worship becomes everywhere prevalent in what was once called Christendom. It will bring about a tremendous conflict, setting nation against nation, and man against man, until the third part of men will be destroyed.

I think we have had a remarkable illustration of this in the great conflict from which we have so lately emerged. Who can deny that it was the direct result of rationalistic “Kultur,” and the denial of the authority of the Word of God? If education without Christ could save, Germany should have been the most blest nation on the face of the earth, for there, education seemed to have reached its highest point - but with what dire results, not only to that nation but to a large part of the human race! German philosophy had poisoned the world. The colleges and universities of almost every civilized land drank greedily from the poisoned streams of Teutonic philosophies and infidel hypotheses, and it is only now that we are beginning to awaken to the baleful effects of such folly. I have no doubt that Satan himself would have restrained men from rushing into such bloody conflict had it been possible. What I mean is this: He was seeking to entrap men with his specious theories and unholy philosophies, and the great war of 1914 was an almost unforeseen result of this. The nations were thrown into confusion by the teachings they had imbibed. The war was like a great explosion which could no longer be prevented.

These considerations will help us, I think, to understand the second “woe.” In chapter seven we saw the four angels restrained from letting loose the four winds of the earth upon the great sea of the nations. Here, a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, in response, undoubtedly, to the angel-priest’s intercession in chap. 8:3, cries out to the angel which had the sixth trumpet, “Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.” These angels are evidently at the present time restraining the great Asiatic hordes from pouring themselves upon the Land of Palestine and Europe. The Euphrates formed the eastern limit of the Roman Empire, and thus was the barrier, as it were, between the East and the West. We are told that the four angels were prepared, for the hour, day, month, and year. That is, there is a definite moment in the mind of God at which this awful power is to be let loose. Until that hour strikes, not all the evil machinations of men, not all the ambitions of nations, can bring about the conflict here predicted. But when that hour does strike, no astute statesman’s policy, no treaties, no world-federation movements can prevent the dire catastrophe predicted.

Two hundred thousand thousand horsemen are hurled upon the west of Asia and upon Europe.

They seem like unearthly warriors, with breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone. The horses’ heads appear as the heads of lions, because of the unspeakable ferocity of these Asiatic hordes; while fire, and smoke, and brimstone seem to issue from their mouths, telling of the Satanic character of this dire invasion. The result will be a third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issue from their mouths. When we recall the millions who have perished as the direct or indirect result of the recent war and pestilence, we can see how a greater war in the future may well tend to almost depopulate the earth, destroying one-third of the prophetic earth, which is identical with the limits of the old Roman empire. In verse nineteen we read: “For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails; for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.” Isaiah 9:15 helps us to understand both this passage and that in verse ten. “The prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.” Whether it be the occult woe of the fifth trumpet or the carnage woe of the sixth trumpet, in each case lying prophets are the leaders in each movement and are responsible for the mental, spiritual and physical harm accomplished.

It is a solemn thing to realize that even judgments such as these will have no effect so far as leading men back to God and to repentance is concerned. Punishment does not of itself lead men to repentance; so we are told in verses 20, 21, “The rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” This is in accordance with the general testimony of Scripture, which nowhere intimates that punishment produces penitence. The Restorationist and Universalist teachers deny this and insist that all punishment, whether in time or eternity, is with a view to the final salvation of the delinquent, and that eventually all men will learn by judgment, if they refused to learn by grace, and will turn to God for salvation. But both here, and later in this same Book of Revelation, we find that the heaviest judgments of God, falling on guilty men, do not soften the stony, rebellious hearts; but that rather men become hardened in their sins and are more blasphemous and God-defiant when judgment is poured out upon them than before.

In eternity, God will not permit open defiance of His will. Our Lord Jesus tells us that, in hell, there will be not only “weeping” because of suffering, but “gnashing of teeth,” which expresses not manifest opposition but the angry defiance of the heart of man, which will be filled with hatred to God but be powerless to openly oppose His government. If the cross of Christ, with its marvelous exhibition of holy love, will not reconcile men to God, punishment will never avail to win their hearts.

~ end of Lecture 10 ~***



Lecture 11 Eating The Little Opened Book

(Revelation 10)


WE will look this evening at the first part of the parenthetical portion that comes in between the sixth and seventh trumpets. We have already noticed that there are similar parentheses between the sixth and seventh seals and the sixth and seventh vials. It is an evidence of divine order not to be overlooked. The seventh trumpet ushers in the millennial kingdom, and goes right on to the close of the course of time and the establishment of the Great White Throne for the judgment of the wicked dead. But ere this consummation is brought to our attention, we are given fuller instruction regarding the place that Israel has in the mind of God in connection with these future events.

This tenth chapter contains truth largely of a moral character, and because of that, one is likely, in studying the book, to pass it over without very careful attention. It does not seem, at first sight, to have to do with any of the great movements we have been considering in connection with either Israel or the Gentiles. But just as in the first chapter of the Book of Daniel we have set before us, in the history of the three Hebrew youths who refused to be defiled with the king’s meat, the moral condition suited to instruction in the things of God, so in this tenth chapter we find the Lord dealing in a very special way with His beloved apostle John, in order that he may be the better prepared to unfold the great mysteries lying just beyond us in the rest of this solemn Book. And in the Lord’s preparation of His servant John, we get great moral principles that should speak to our own hearts, and, if laid hold of aright, fit us the better to serve the living and true God while we wait for His Son from heaven. In verses 1-3 we read:


And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.”


This mighty angel can surely be no other than that same glorious Angel of the covenant whom we have already beheld standing at the golden altar officiating as the Angel-priest of the heavenly sanctuary. Of no created angel could such glorious things be said as those John here mentions in connection with this wondrous being.

The reason our Lord is brought before us in this angelic character, is, that in this portion of the Book of Revelation we are dealing largely with Israel, the earthly people, and that before their Messiah has been revealed to them. Therefore it is but natural that He should take the same position that He occupied toward them in Old Testament times. A fuller revelation they will receive when He descends in glory, and they behold the marks of His passion and cry out in amazement, “What are those wounds in thy hands?” Then He will answer, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” At last the full truth will burst upon them that the crucified Nazarene and the Angel of the covenant are identical, and “they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn” (Zech 12:10). This will be, for Judah and Jerusalem, the true day of atonement, when they will afflict their souls as they realize the enormity of their sin in rejecting their divine Saviour, and the merits of His atoning work shall be applied to their hearts and consciences; then will they be able to cry out in the full assurance of faith, “He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5).. But until that moment of His full manifestation, He is to them the Angel of the covenant - an uncreated angel, therefore - The Lord’s fellow; for, as we have intimated above, to no created angel could this description be rightly applied. He comes down out of heaven, clothed not merely with a cloud, but the cloud, as it should read, and the cloud is the symbol of the divine glory.

The cloud is the chariot in which He led His people of old through the wilderness all the way from Egypt to the Land of Promise. We are expressly told that in that cloud was the Angel of the covenant. It is the uncreated cloud of glory that dwelt between the cherubim, in the tabernacle, above the mercy-seat. When Solomon built the temple and dedicated it to The Lord, He came in the cloud, dwelling in it as His house. When nearly five centuries afterward Ezekiel was called upon to declare the desolation of that once holy house, he beheld the cloud lifted up from the most holy place, tarrying a moment over the door of the sanctuary, then departing and hanging above the city wall as though loath to give up the place where His glory had so long been manifested. Slowly the cloud moved over to the adjoining mountain on the east, that is the Mount of Olives, and then up into the heavens.

Thus the visible manifestation of The Lord’s presence had disappeared from Israel because of their sins. That cloud never returned to the land of Palestine, until our Lord Jesus Christ went up into the holy mount, which we commonly call the Mount of Transfiguration, where Peter, James and John had a vision of the coming kingdom - “the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

There they saw Him transfigured, and talking with Moses and Elijah: - Moses representing the saints who have died and will be raised again at our Lord’s return, and - Elijah picturing those who shall be caught up at Christ’s coming, without dying.

Peter, overwhelmed by such an abundant revelation, knowing not what to say, cried, “Lord, it is good for us to be here, and let us make three tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias” (Mat 17:4). And while he thus spake, “there came a cloud and overshadowed them” (v. 5). This was the Father’s way of showing them that He would have no mortal man, however holy and devoted, put on a level with His beloved Son. After Christ had died on the cross, and was raised from the dead by omnipotent power, He led His disciples out to the Mount of Olives nigh unto Bethany, and with hands lifted up in blessing was parted from them, and they beheld Him going up, until the cloud received Him out of their sight. When He returns again we shall behold Him on the cloud and every eye shall see Him. So here, when John says, “I saw a mighty angel clothed with the cloud,” we may understand at once that this angel can be no creature, but is Himself the Creator of all things, our Lord Jesus Christ, clothed with the sign of the divine majesty.

Observe, in the next place, that the rainbow which we saw in chapter four round about the throne of God, is now seen wrapped, as it were, about the head of this mighty angel. It seems to speak of His coming to confirm the covenant made of old with Noah after the world had been destroyed by a flood. Another evidence that it is a divine person who is here brought before us, is found in the next clause: “His face was as it were the sun.” It is the same face that Saul of Tarsus saw when he was marching along the Damascus turnpike, his heart filled with hatred against the Lord Jesus and burning with rage against His followers. Stricken to the earth, he saw a light above the brightness of the sun, and in that glorious light beheld the once-crucified Christ of God, and heard Him ask in tenderest accents, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” When He comes again it will be as the Sun of Righteousness.

His feet,” we are told, “were as pillars of fire,” thus linking Him with the same wondrous Being described in chapter one, of whom we read that “His feet were like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace” (v. 15).- The same, too, that Daniel saw and describes in similar terms in his seventh chapter.

We are next told that He had in His hand “a little book open.” There have been various speculations as to what this book might be, but it seems to me it could be no other than the very book we have had before us heretofore. It is the title-deed to the earth, the seals of which have been broken, one after the other, until the entire scroll is seen unrolled. The Lord descends with all the evidences of divine majesty, and with this title-deed in His hand, He sets His right foot upon the sea and His left foot upon the earth, as indicative of taking possession of His own inheritance - that inheritance which, as Man on earth, He had redeemed with His own precious blood.

His voice is the voice of the conqueror: “He cried as a lion roareth”; for the Angel and the Lion of Judah’s tribe are one and the same. When He had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. The thunder, we have noticed before, speaks of judgment, and John says, “When the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.” As Mediator of the New Covenant He seals up the utterance of the seven thunders. It is not necessary for us to know what they uttered. They speak of judgment due to wayward man, but He Himself has borne the judgment, and those who trust in Him need never know its dreadful secrets.


Let us love, and sing, and wonder,

Let us praise the Saviour’s name;

He has hushed the law’s loud thunder,

He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame.

He has bought us with His blood;

He has brought us home to God.”


Have you ever noticed how inquisitive people often are in regard to those things which the wisdom of God has purposely kept from them? In the Old Testament dispensation the law was hidden in the ark, covered with the mercy-seat; yet the men of Bethshemesh foolishly looked into the ark, and were smitten in judgment. So there are things hidden from the people of God in all dispensations, which He would have them leave with Himself. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed are for us and our children” (Deut 29:29). Alas, it is only too natural for man to pass over the precious revealed truth which would be for his sanctification and blessing, and occupy himself with hidden things, which are not given him now to know and which, if it had been for his blessing to know, God would have revealed them. I am often asked, “What do you suppose was written in the flying roll of Zechariah’s vision?”(see Zech. 5:1-2) I only know what the Word has said. “What were the unspeakable things Paul heard when caught up into the third heaven?” If Paul could not utter them, how could we? And so many a one has puzzled over the things which the seven thunders uttered, but faith rests in the fact that John was commanded to write them not.


And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets” (vers. 5-7).


It is important here to notice the difference between the last clause of verse six, as found in the Authorized Version and in any critical commentary66. In reading, “That there should be time no longer,” we should understand, “That there should be no longer delay.”67 In reading, “That there should be time no longer,” we should understand, “That there should be no longer delay.” The vision is distinctly a pre-millennial one. The point is that the hour of accomplishment has almost struck, and God will not delay the completion of His plans and the fulfillment of His promises. “A short work will the Lord make upon the earth” (Rom 9:18). The Angel swears by Him that liveth forever and ever (that is, by The Lord Himself, the Creator of all things), that nothing shall cause any more delay; but in the days when the seventh angel sounds, the mystery of God, that is, the mystery of God’s long tolerance of evil, will be finished. Everything will then be made plain. - The mystery of retribution - The mystery of predestination - The mystery of the great struggle between light and darkness and good and evil - All will be explained then.

There will be no more secrets in God’s ways and dealings, and man need no longer question the dispensations of faith will have come to an end, and the dispensation of sight will have dawned.

Are you often troubled by questions as to God’s purpose, His counsels, His judgments, His apparently strange dealings with you and with the world? To the man who has not the secret of the Lord, His ways may seem contradictory. Learn from this Scripture to wait in patience. until God Himself makes all clear in the days of the voice of the seventh angel.

In the second part of the chapter we are occupied with a very different line of things. We are now to read of an experience the apostle John had, which God would have every student of His Word enter into. He tells us:


And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter” (vers. 8-10).


Now what are we to understand by this? You will, at once, recall that a similar experience was given to the prophet Ezekiel (chap. 3). He, too, was called upon to “eat the book.” And the lesson in both instances is the same. It is only as we feed upon and digest the Word of God, that we ourselves are nourished and built up in the truth of our most holy faith, and in a right condition of soul to use that Word for the help and instruction of others. David said, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee” (Ps. 119:11). And again, “Thou desirest truth in the inmost parts, and in the hidden parts Thou wouldst make him to know wisdom” (Ps. 51:6). This, I take it, is what John’s experience illustrates. He was commanded to eat the little book that was in the angel’s hand, that is, to meditate upon it, to make it thoroughly his own.

Someone has said that meditation, in these busy days of ours, is a lost art. Would to God it were restored, and that His people, generally, were more given literally to feed upon His truth. For it is not only that God would have John and Ezekiel eat the book, He wants you to eat it likewise. He has given it to you who believe on His Son, to be the food of your own souls, to make you fit to serve Him in this scene. And remember this is just as true of the prophetic books as of every portion of the Word of God. In both the instances cited it is particularly the prophetic word that is in view. Lay hold of dispensational truth, of prophetic teaching, in this very practical way, and it must have a most beneficial effect upon your inner man.

John tells us that when the book was in his mouth it was very sweet, but when he had eaten it his inward parts were made bitter. This is most instructive. There is no sweeter portion in all Scripture than that which God has revealed concerning the manifestation of His blessed Son. Prophetic truth is generally sweet and attractive to those whose interest is just being awakened in it. But, if followed up, if the book is really eaten, it leads to self-judgment, and to separation from evil, and this will always be bitter; for there is not one of us who readily takes the place that God’s Word would put him in during this period of Christ’s rejection. And so the point here is that God’s truth makes demands upon people.

And you, who are following these studies with me, will soon find this out, if you have not already done so. If you conscientiously undertake to walk in the truth revealed, you too will know something of its bitterness. You cannot enjoy things that you used to enjoy, if you receive the prophetic testimony, and walk in the power of what is there revealed. As the great divine program unfolds before your mind, it may be very interesting, and, in this sense, the book is sweet; but, as great divine principles enter your hearts, and you realize more and more the call to strangership in this Satan-controlled scene, the truth becomes bitter indeed, and it makes demands upon you. How many a soul has greatly enjoyed his first taste of instruction as to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ! It was all so new, so wonderful, so different to the platitudes perchance that he had been hearing as he sat under the ministry of some cold semi-worldling, posing as a minister of Christ. But as this truth got a grip upon him, as it entered into his inmost being, he found it made demands from which he shrank, and required of him what at first he felt he could not give. It was bitter, truly; yet it is not always the sweet things that are best for us. We need the bitter as well as the sweet; and every soul who has walked in the truth, as God has revealed it to him, has found, at last, the blessedness of obedience. “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1Sam. 15:22).

It is a very sad thing indeed, when truth is simply held in the intellect, with no particular bearing upon the life.

The apostle John tells us, speaking of the second coming of the Lord, “Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.”

It is a truth that should affect the believer at every angle of his life. Anyone, who really believes it, cannot afterwards live for self or for the world. If one professes to hold the second coming of Christ, and yet lives like the world, it but evidences the fact that, whatever he may hold mentally, the truth of the Lord’s coming does not hold him. That truth believed: - makes carnal Christians spiritual; - it makes worldly people heavenly; - It makes covetous people generous; - It makes careless people earnest. And so I want to be very frank with you. If you do not desire to let this truth have its sway over your lives, it might be better to cease studying this Book of the Revelation right here, for all God’s truth has been made known for the obedience of faith. And I am certain of this, that these truths are going to change the lives of some people completely, or they will harden them in their waywardness, and be the means of searing their consciences as with a hot iron.

After the apostle had eaten the book, the angel said unto him, “Thou must prophesy again, before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings” (ver. 11). This is of importance in connection with the further opening up of the book. The Lord says to John, “Thou must prophesy again.” It is not that he is to go to other peoples and nations and so forth to prophesy. Rather he is to prophesy in regard to these nations, to the same servants of God to whom he has already been giving the word. The point is that, when the seventh trumpet sounds (of which we shall read in the next chapter), the present outline of prophecy comes to a close; for, as previously mentioned, the seventh trumpet carries us right on to the great day of judgment at the end of time. But in the last verse of the 11th chapter, John begins once more to prophesy concerning nations, and kings, and tongues, and people, and this second great outline culminates in the new heaven and new earth. You will remember that the roll which was seen in the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, the seals of which were broken by the Lamb, was written on two sides. As the book was unrolled, John would see clearly what was written on the inside, and this, I take it, is the outline we have already had before us. But, beginning with chapter 12, the roll is, so to speak, reversed, and we see what was written on the other side. That is, God confirms the former outline, and fills in details there omitted, so that we have a clearer and fuller understanding of the great events yet to take place in the world where our Lord was crucified.

If this is clearly seen, the book becomes plain. Otherwise there is confusion. There are those who endeavor to make everything chronological with their scheme of interpretation. The trumpets only follow the seals, which is quite correct, but these interpreters go on to make the vials, or bowls of wrath, follow the trumpets, and this necessarily puts the 12th chapter and the rapture of the man-child far over into the 70th week, whereas, as we shall see when we reach that point, the 12th chapter and chapter 4 fit together chronologically. As of old God gave Pharaoh two dreams (the one confirming the other) so here the message is duplicated, if I may so say, that we may know the certainty of the words of truth wherein we are being instructed.

~ end of Lecture 11 ~ ***



Lecture 12 The Two Witnesses and the Seventh Trumpet

(Revelation 11)


IN the first thirteen verses of this eleventh chapter, which we are now to consider, we have the remainder of the parenthesis which has occupied us in our study of chapter ten. The careful student of the Word of God will, upon reading this portion, immediately call to mind the measuring of Jerusalem in the 2nd chapter of Zechariah and the measuring of the millennial temple in the 40th chapter of Ezekiel. In this same Book of Revelation we also read of the measuring of the holy city, the new Jerusalem, in chapter 21. In the opening verses of our present section, John says,


And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months” (vers. 1,2).


The vision clearly involves Jerusalem and the future temple in the last days. I think we may say that throughout the Bible when God speaks of measuring anything the thought is implied that He is marking it off as that which belongs to Himself. When one purchases a piece of ground, or is about to take possession of a property, it is a very common thing to measure it and mark off its lines. In the second chapter of Zechariah we are told that the prophet beheld a man with a measuring line in his hand, to whom he put the question, “Whither goest thou?” and the answer was, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof” (Zech. 2:2). And in the fourth verse the angel who is interpreting the visions for Zechariah says to another angel: “Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, for the multitude of men and cattle therein: for I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her” (vv. 4-5).

Then, in the balance of the chapter, we have a very distinct prophecy of the future deliverance of God’s earthly people from all their foes, when they will be brought from the land of the north and from all parts of the world where they have been carried in the days of their captivity. This will not be fully accomplished until the Lord Jesus Himself has appeared in glory, for verse eight reads, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath He sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake my hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me.” The daughter of Zion is then called upon to rejoice because the Lord Himself will dwell in the midst of her. “And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be His people”(v. 11): and He will dwell in the midst of them, and they shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent His prophet unto them. “And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again” (v. 12), is the sure Word of God.

Clearly, it is this very restoration that God had in mind when He gave to John the vision of this eleventh chapter. The angel calls upon him to “Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.” That is, once more God owns a witnessing company, a worshiping people in Jerusalem, and this, observe, is in the days of the great tribulation before the complete fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy, for the glory will not yet have appeared. Therefore he is instructed to leave out the court which is without the temple, and measure it not, for it is still to be given to the Gentiles, “and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months”; that is, for the last three and a half years of the final seven that compose Daniel’s 70th week, which, as we have seen, has not yet been fulfilled, nor can be until Jerusalem and the people of the Jews are again owned by God as His own.

It is very evident that already God is overruling events with a view to this restoration. The marvelous deliverance of Jerusalem in December, 1917, when the Turkish flag was hauled down after practically 1260 years of misrule and oppression, and the banners of the Entente Allies raised in its place, was preparing the way for this very thing. It was indeed a most important event, fraught with greater meaning than millions dreamed of, when General Allenby received from the Turkish Governor of Jerusalem the surrender of the Holy City. And it is well known that General, now Lord, Allenby, to whom God gave this great victory over the Turkish Army, was instructed in the truth of the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This event was clearly ordered of God in view of the promised restoration of Israel to the land. It was one of His hidden purposes when He permitted the World War. The surrender of the Holy City, without the firing of a shot, as the airplanes of the allied forces circled about over the ancient capital of the land of Palestine, was undoubtedly in answer to the prayers of thousands of the people of God who could not bear to think of the representative of a so-called Christian nation shelling the city where our Saviour taught and died, and which must ever be sacred in the eyes of both Jew and Christian.

When the armies of the Allies entered through the Jaffa Gate, as Allenby walked in before his troops, Arab, Jew and Christian alike recognized the fact that the hour had struck for God to open the way for the fulfillment of many prophecies of bygone ages, as recorded in His Word. Many stories have been told of this event, some of which have not been substantiated, but even allowing for a large percentage of unverified tales, it is evident that the whole civilized world saw in it a most extraordinary event, and it was undoubtedly the turning-point of the entire conflict, for in eleven months afterwards the armistice was signed.

Zionism has from this time taken on new and remarkable vigor, and money has been pouring into its coffers to transplant the poor of the flock from the lands of the north and the country where they have suffered so much, to their own ancient patrimony. Alas! they little realize what they are going back to! Their hopes are high, their jubilation great, but Scripture makes it very plain that they have before them the bitterest experiences they have ever known, and these to be endured right in their own land. For though the Turkish power no longer holds Jerusalem, yet it is still subject to the Gentiles, and will be, until the Lord Himself returns in person for its complete deliverance. He declared that from the days of Titus Jerusalem should be “trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24).

The expression, “the times of the Gentiles,” refers to the entire period of Gentile supremacy, beginning with the day when God gave Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and continuing on to the time when the Stone from heaven shall smite the image on its feet; that is, when the Lord Jesus Christ, at His second coming in judgment, shall destroy all Gentile dominion, and His own kingdom shall supersede every other.

The last three and a half years, designated here so definitely as forty and two months, will be the worst of all this period of Gentile treading-down. So dreadful will be the tribulation of those days, our Lord has told us, that except they be shortened, no flesh would be saved. And the center of all this tribulation will be the land of Palestine itself. But during this time, and immediately preceding it, God will not leave Himself without witness. So we read:


I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth” (vers. 3, 4).


I speak somewhat diffidently here, but it seems clear to me that the twelve hundred and sixty days of these verses refers to the first half of the week. during which God will have a witnessing remnant in Jerusalem testifying to the near coming of the kingdom, and calling upon all Israel to repent in view of that time of the restitution of all things spoken of by the prophets.

I do not know that we need limit the witnesses to two individuals. Two is the number of testimony, and we need to remember that we are dealing here with symbols, not necessarily with the literal personalities. Therefore the two witnesses might well symbolize the witnessing remnant of Judah as a whole. But I would not be dogmatic as to this, for it might be the mind of God to send two individuals, as here described, to herald the near coming of His Son. The fourth verse again links the prophecy with the Book of Zechariah, chap. 4, ver. 3: “And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.” There, the two olive trees are priesthood and prophetic testimony, keeping the candlestick shining for God. Here the olive trees are said to be two candlesticks, but the thought, I take it, is the same. It is worship and testimony in that time when Jacob’s trouble is just beginning.

These witnesses are “immortal until their work is done,” for, we are told that “if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies; and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed” - that is, if any man willeth or desires to hurt them, he is cut off in judgment.

We next learn that “these have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will” (ver. 6). It is a testimony in the power and spirit both of Elijah and of Moses. Hence, some have drawn the conclusion that the two witnesses would be Moses and Elijah sent back to earth ere the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I admit the possibility of this, though it does not seem to me probable; but just as John the Baptist came of old in the spirit and power of Elijah - and, to those who would receive it, he was Elijah which was to come - so these witnesses, whether actually two only, or in reality a much larger company thus symbolized, will be in the spirit and power both of the prophet who came to restore Israel to the true God, and the great prophet who first led them out of Egypt.

Nothing can interfere with their witness-bearing until they shall have finished their testimony; then “the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit” (of whom we shall learn more when we come to study chapter thirteen) “shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” They will be the objects of the bitter enmity of the vile head of the coming revived Roman Empire, or Western Federation of Nations, who will not tolerate any worship but that which is offered to himself. He, therefore, will destroy them, “and their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (ver. 8). It is Jerusalem, God’s holy city, which through apostasy, culminating in the worship of the Antichrist and the Beast, shall sink at last to the level of Sodom, from which Lot was only saved by fire, and Egypt, out of which Israel of old were delivered by The Lord. Through them (the unbelieving Jews) “the name of God has been blasphemed among the Gentiles”; by them the Lord of glory was crucified, and wrath shall come upon them to the uttermost.

In verses nine and ten we have the sad picture of joy amongst the nations because this last testimony for God on earth has been destroyed. We see the whole apostate world - Christendom and Judaism alike - congratulating one another that there is no longer any voice raised to call in question their apostasy and wicked ways.


And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies. to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the earth” (vers. 9, 10).


In the present time of our Lord’s rejection and His session at God’s right hand, Christendom, in the very manner here depicted, pretends to observe Christ’s coming to earth. Having crucified the Lord of glory, the nations join in celebrating what is called “His birthday,” sending gifts one to another. In that coming day, in the same way, they will make merry and manifest their delight because the last voice on His behalf has been silenced, and they will rejoice over the dead bodies of His witnesses. What a solemn scene it shall be - civilized peoples making merry in that awful day when the wrath of God is just about to be poured out in all its fulness upon that guilty, guilty world. For three days and a half it will seem as though Satan was triumphant, and everything that is of God overthrown!


And after three days and a half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them” (vers. 11, 12).


It is another rapture - another cohort of the first resurrection - taking place in the midst of that final week. These martyrs, who had sealed their testimony with their blood, are raised in power and caught up to be with their still rejected Lord. Like Himself, they shall ascend to heaven in a cloud, but, unlike their Master, their enemies will behold them. And it would seem as though this visible rapture will have some effect upon those remaining in Jerusalem, for in verse thirteen we learn: “The same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.” Observe He is still the God of heaven, but in a little while He will be manifested as the God of the whole earth, as verse four has already intimated. This is the first time that we read of any during that period of tribulation giving glory to God, but whether this implies any true turning of heart to Himself on the part of some, I dare not attempt to say. All that this Scripture says is that “the remnant were affrighted,” and this in itself does not necessarily imply that there is any true conscience work.

With this great earthquake the second woe is past, and we are told, “Behold, the third woe cometh quickly.” This third woe is none other than the seventh and last of the trumpets, which ushers in the worldkingdom of our God and His Christ. It is a woe only to His enemies, but a cause of great rejoicing to all who love His name, in view of creation’s deliverance from bondage to sin.


And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their thrones, fell upon their faces, and worshiped God, saying, We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because Thou hast taken to Thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth” (vers. 15-18).


I purposely refrained from reading the last verse, as it properly belongs to the next chapter. What we have before us completes the present prophetic series. The seventh angel’s trumpet brings in Christ’s long waited for and glorious kingdom. And upon its proclamation, the saints in heaven, as symbolized by the four and twenty elders, will fall before God on their faces, worshiping Him and giving Him thanks - He, the everlasting Lord - because He has taken to Himself His great power to reign.

The eighteenth verse covers the entire millennium and carries us on to the judgment of the wicked dead, to the end of time, for to the Lord Jesus Christ all judgment has been committed. And we need to remember that the entire millennium is a period of judgment. - Judgment upon the angry nations when the wrath of God is poured out upon them at the beginning of the millennium; - Judgment for His own servants who shall be rewarded in that glorious kingdom according to their faithfulness during Christ’s rejection; - Judgment upon the wicked dead who, at the great white throne, will answer for the deeds done in the body, and be dealt with accordingly. Those who have arrogated to themselves the right to judge and destroy others will then be judged and destroyed themselves when the great moral Governor of the universe, who has kept Himself hidden so long, will be fully manifested, If you will refer to the chart, you will see that the seventh angel’s trumpet brings us to the end of the first prophetic outline. That is, chapter 11: 18 carries us as far along chronologically as chapter 20:11-15.

NOTE: (the chart is linked on the title page of this book, above the chapter links).

And now may I press upon all here present the importance of being prepared for the near coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, in view of the remarkable manner in which Palestine, the Jews, the nations of Christendom, and the professed church of God are even now being prepared for the very experiences we have been attempting to describe? These things are not “cunningly devised fables” but stern realities, and anyone who has his eyes opened and understands something of the teaching of the prophetic word, can see clearly that we are very near the end of the present dispensation.

I remember on one occasion speaking in the city of San Jose, California, before a group of ministers, something over forty being present, on the second advent of our Lord. Many of them ridiculed the idea - only four declared themselves as believing in it. Most of them were noncommittal, having no definite convictions either for or against my theme. One dear old minister seemed to resent the thought of the Lord’s coming as a future thing, declaring that, to him, Christ came when, some forty years previously, he had been converted to God. But I was invited to return a week later, and for an hour and a half we had a most animated debate on the subject. Finally one clergyman declared that he thought the personal coming of the Lord Jesus was an absolute absurdity. He did not believe He existed as a distinct personality, clothed with a resurrected body; His resurrection was entirely spiritual, and, to quote his own words, “He only exists today as part of the all-pervading spirit of the universe.” “Therefore,” exclaimed he, dramatically, “I believe, my brethren, in no apocalyptic coming of Jesus. I never expect to see Him in a body, but I believe in the ever-coming Christ. He is coming in the clouds, but they are not literal clouds. He comes in the clouds of affliction, in the political clouds, in the war clouds, in the clouds of sorrow and distress, but a personal pre-millennial advent is, in my judgment, an utter impossibility.”

This brought to his feet the minister who had somewhat opposed me at the previous meeting, and he cried in distress, “Do I understand, Doctor, that I shall never see my Lord who saved me by His death upon the cross?”

I think not,” was the reply.

Have I then,” exclaimed the other, “been wrong all these years as I have sung,


I shall know Him, I shall know Him,

As redeemed by His side I shall stand;

I shall know Him, I shall know Him

By the print of the nails in His hand?”


Oh!” replied the other, “that’s all very well as poetical license, but I don’t think you should take it literally.”

Brethren,” cried the aged minister, as the tears burst from his eyes, “I take back what I said last week. I find I agree with this brother, who has been speaking to us on the coming of the Lord, far more than I thought I did. I look to see the personal coming of my Saviour. I shall never be satisfied until I behold the King in His beauty. But I have always supposed He would not come until the day of judgment; but as I think it over, it seems to me that, after all, that is what my brother believes; only he thinks the day of judgment will be a thousand years long. And, Doctor,” he said, turning to the minister who had presented such unscriptural and unholy views, “I am afraid, if there are many in the church like you, it will take a thousand years to put things right.”

My friends, this is indeed what I would impress upon you, and what the seventh angel’s trumpet so clearly intimates. The day of judgment will be a thousand years long. - The judgment-seat of Christ takes place in the heavens immediately after the rapture of the church. - The judgment of the living nations referred to in Matthew chap. 25 will take place upon the earth when the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all His holy angels with Him, to establish His kingdom over all the world. That thousand years will be the reign of righteousness, when He shall rule all nations with a rod of iron, and judge unsparingly everything that ventures to lift itself up against His authority - all that refuses to be subject to His dominion. And at the close He will judge all the wicked dead, who shall be raised for that very purpose, and cast into the lake of fire because they have rejected His grace. And in view of all this, I plead with you who are out of Christ, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him” (Matt. 5:25). In other words, come to God in Christ Jesus now, and have your case settled out of court, for if you first meet God in that solemn hour of judgment, you will be forever beyond the reach of mercy.

For all who trust in the Lord Jesus now, there will be no judgment in that solemn day, for He has said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and cometh not into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). How sweet and precious the promise here given to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ!

Observe that all such possess eternal life now. It is not that they are looking forward to receiving eternal life in the day of judgment, or at the coming of the Lord - though they will enter into life then; that is, they will become participants in that scene where eternal life is fully revealed. But they have that life now by virtue of having received Christ, for “he that hath the Son, hath life” (1John 5:12). Therefore they shall not come into judgment. They will be called to appear at the judgment-seat of Christ to give an account of their service for the Lord. Since His grace saved them they shall never be called into judgment for their sins, and that for the best of all possible reasons - because those sins have already been judged upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ when He died on Calvary’s cross where He bore the condemnation of all who would put their trust in Him. Such have already passed out of death unto life, and enjoy even now the earnest of the coming glory.

~ end of Lecture 12




Lecture 13 The Woman and the Man Child

(Revelation12)


WE begin, with the present address, our study of a very distinct part of the Book, embracing chapters 12, 13 and 14, which form a connected outline of events.

The first two of these chapters, as noted on the chart, bring before us “the great actors for good and evil in the last days,” to use the very striking language of another; * while chapter fourteen gives us the consummation - the Lamb on Mount Zion, returned to bless the remnant of Israel, and through them the world, and the final judgments relating to the preparation for the actual setting up of the kingdom. * Walter Scott.

NOTE: (the chart is linked on the title page of this book, above the chapter links).

I think I may say without exaggeration, that I have read or carefully examined several hundred books purporting to expound the Revelation. I have learned to look upon this twelfth chapter as the crucial test in regard to the correct prophetic outline. If the interpreters are wrong as to the woman and the man-child, it necessarily follows that they will be wrong as to many things connected with them. Therefore, I ask your particular attention as we endeavor to see what light Scripture itself throws upon this remarkable vision.

As indicated in the previous address, we should begin to read from verse 19 of chapter eleven, as this is the commencement of the third great division of the Book.


And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.”


It may be well here to draw attention to the several “openings” in their order. In chapter 4:1, we read, “A door was opened in heaven,” which introduces the third division of the Book, and shows us the saints in heaven around the throne of God and the judgments that follow the taking of the seven-sealed book.

In chapter 11:19 we have, “The temple of God was opened in heaven,” and there is seen in the temple the Ark of the Covenant, which at once calls to mind God’s covenant with His earthly people Israel, and shows us that though the lightnings, voices, thunderings, earthquake, and great hail that followed the opening of the temple, speak of fearful judgments to be poured out upon the prophetic earth, God will remember His covenant with Israel and preserve the remnant safely through it all.

In chapter 15:5, this thought is intensified in connection with the coming forth of the seven angels that have the seven last plagues. There we read, “After that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened,” and from that temple the seven angels went forth. The fact that the testimony is thus mentioned, again emphasizes God’s protecting care of His earthly people.

The fourth “opening” is in chapter 19:11. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat thereon was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.” The chapter goes on to describe, in highly symbolic form, the Lord’s appearing in open judgment.

These four openings are of deep significance and help greatly to an understanding of the Book.


- The first we have already considered.

- The second is to occupy us to-night and for several evenings.

- The third introduces the seven last plagues, in which is filled up the wrath of God.

- And the fourth ushers in the glorious millennial kingdom.


Now let us note carefully the vision of chapter 12:1-6. I read the first four verses:


And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.”


It is a divinely given picture, in which God is throwing His own white light upon events which otherwise would be incomprehensible to His creatures. A woman appears, arrayed with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. She cries out in anguish, travailing in birth, until she is delivered of a man-child. And this man-child is distinctly said to be the one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. The woman has a terrible, a most vindictive adversary - a great red dragon, who is described as having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems, for it is well to notice that the word rendered “crown” in the Authorized Version is not the word we have already had before us in this Book - the crowns on the heads of the elders in heaven. Theirs was a victor’s wreath, but the dragon wears the imperial diadem. His is a reigning crown, for he is “the prince of this world,” acting, as we shall see shortly, through the Roman Empire. His tail, we are told, “drew a third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them down to the earth.”

John beheld him, in the vision, standing before the woman, waiting for her deliverance, that he might devour her child immediately upon its birth. But he was thwarted in his malignant intentions, for the child was caught up unto God, and to His throne, and the woman, the mother, then fled into the wilderness, where God Himself had prepared a place for her, that she might be kept in security and nourished for a thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Now, first of all, who or what are we to understand this woman to represent? Many tell us she is the church. Others, and their number I notice of late is increasing, insist that she represents, rather, some system of teaching. Roman Catholic expositors have seen in her the Virgin Mary, and suppose the whole scene to depict her assumption into heaven, and her glory as its queen.

There have not been wanting individuals all down through the Christian era who have arrogated the vision to themselves, as for instance, Johanna Southcott, who gave herself out as the Bride of Christ, a century or so ago, and deceived many. Or in our own day, Mrs. Mary Baker Patterson Glover Eddy, who very modestly conceived and gave forth the thought that the woman was a highly symbolic picture of - herself! and the man-child represented that which she brought forth - Christian Science; whereas, the dragon was “mortal mind” endeavoring to destroy her new religion! With such theories as these two, however, I need not take up the time of sane people.

The first view I mentioned is one that needs careful examination. In doing this, let us first inquire who, or what, does the man-child symbolize? If we allow Scripture itself to answer, we find there is a person and a company of people answering to this description. In the 2nd Psalm The Lord says to Messiah, “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 parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (vers. 7-9). This, clearly enough, is our Lord Jesus Christ, who is soon to reign over all the earth, and undoubtedly He is primarily the Man-child who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron, and the special object of Satan’s malignity. But we have already seen, in Revelation 2:26-28, that when He reigns He will not reign alone, for His promise to the faithful overcomers in the church period is, “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star.”

Is there then any incongruity in understanding the man-child to represent both Christ Jesus our Lord and His church? Surely not, for He is the Head of the body, the church, which is the fulness, or completion, of Himself, so that the title “Christ” is applied to both head and body viewed as one in I Corinthians 12:12, where we read, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ”; literally it reads, “the Christ.” We may then, on the authority of Scripture itself, safely affirm that the man-child represents the one New Man who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron - Christ, the Head, and the church, His body. If this be so, then it is impossible that the woman should symbolize the church.

But there are those who tell us, and their number is not few, that only the strong spiritual members of the church are designated in Scripture as overcomers, and that the woman pictures the church as a whole; whereas, the man-child symbolizes the overcoming part of the church who, they say, will be raptured prior to the great tribulation, while the rest of the church will be purified through that time of trouble. But Scripture definitely determines the untruthfulness of this contention, for we are told distinctly, “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ? This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1John 5:4-5). An overcomer is one who has personal faith in Christ, and every believer in this sense overcomes. Those who do not are proven not to have real faith, and are simply professors, not possessors. This theory, to which I refer, denies the unity of the body of Christ; it fails to recognize the intimate relation existing between the head and all its members.

But who, then, is this star-crowned, sun-robed woman, who has the moon beneath her feet? First, let me ask, “Is there any other place in Scripture where we have the sun, moon and twelve stars brought together in a similar way?”

You will at once recall Joseph’s dream. He beheld the sun, moon and eleven stars making obeisance to him. He himself was the twelfth star. His father rightly saw in this a picture of all Israel with its twelve tribes. And this was a hint worth considering. But, again, we are distinctly told concerning our Lord Jesus that it was of Israel “as concerning the flesh that Christ came” (Romans 9:5). And it is of Israel that Isaiah is singing when he exclaims, “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Israel is the mother of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came. The church did not give birth to Christ. He founded the church. He, as the last Adam, slept in death that the church might be taken from His wounded side. But He did come from Israel. Over and over again in the Old Testament that nation is depicted as being in travail-pain, waiting for His appearing.

Turn to Micah 5:2 and Isaiah 66:7, 8. By a comparison of these Scriptures with the one before us we see that “before Israel travailed, she brought forth.” That is, Christ Himself personally was actually born before the time of her great period of anguish in the days of the coming tribulation, but it will be during that time of trouble that He will be born in the consciousness of the nation, and that they will realize that He belongs to them,- that He is Israel’s Son. The twelve stars upon her head may well speak of her twelve patriarchs and her twelve tribes. The moon beneath her feet speaks of the reflected glory of the Old Covenant, while the sun, in which she is enwrapped, tells of the New Covenant glory, in which she appears before God. At Christ’s actual birth, Satan put into operation the power of the Roman Empire through Herod, its puppet in Jerusalem, to seek His destruction. But He was preserved from Herod’s efforts, when the young children of Bethlehem were destroyed; and though crucified by a Roman Governor and by Roman authority, was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and caught up to God and to His throne. Now I apprehend that in the vision before us this is in view; but there is more than that, for we have seen that the man-child symbolizes both Head and body - the complete Christ. Therefore, as in other prophecies, the entire present dispensation is passed over in silence, and the church is represented in its Head, caught up with Christ. For immediately after this, Satan, again acting through the Roman Empire which is to be revived in the last days, turns upon the woman Israel and seeks to vent his wrath and indignation against her. But God prepares a place for her, and she is hidden in the wilderness - possibly the wilderness of the peoples, as Ezekiel (chap. 20:35) so graphically puts it. There she will be protected during the 1260 days, which, as we have already seen, appear to refer to the first half of the 70th week -”the beginning of sorrows” (Matt. 24:8).

In the next section of the chapter, verses seven to twelve, our attention is turned from earth to heaven; it is a future great conflict, to occur in the heavenly places.


And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”


A third actor in these stirring scenes is now introduced; it is Michael, the leader of the heavenly hosts. But he is no stranger to the reverent student of the Word of God. We have already made his acquaintance in the Book of Daniel, and we know him as the great angelic prince, the archangel, who is particularly charged with the care of Daniel’s people; and Daniel’s people, we have seen, are symbolized by the woman whom we have been considering. When our Lord Jesus Christ returns for His church, we are told that the voice of the archangel will be heard from heaven, together with the shout of the Lord and the trump of God. Michael’s voice will awaken, or call together, all those of Israel who have died in the past dispensation, and who will have their part in the first resurrection. Together with the church and the saints of previous ages, they will enter into the Father’s house. Their passage through the air and enthronement in glory would seem to be the signal for the driving out of Satan and his hosts from the upper air, where they have been permitted to maintain their hold during the past five thousand years. Satan is called the prince of the power of the air.

Believers are told that their conflict is with wicked spirits in heavenly places. These evil hosts are continually endeavoring, by deception, to keep Christians from enjoying their present portion in Christ, but when the church is caught up, they will be ignominiously driven from what we might call the “outer court of heaven” and cast down upon the earth. The great dragon, the energizing spirit of the old Roman Empire, and the one who is to be the energizing spirit of the same Empire when revived, is to be cast down, and in verse nine, that there may be no possibility of mistake, he is distinctly designated as “the old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, the deceiver of the whole earth.”

When he and his accursed followers are hurled from the heavens, a voice of praise is heard above, celebrating the full salvation of God’s redeemed, and the establishment in power of the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ, because of the fact that the accuser of our brethren has been cast down, who accused them before our God day and night. This is no new thought; he appeared in this way in the days of Job, accusing that righteous man before the Lord; Zechariah also, in vision, beheld him accusing Joshua, the high priest. He has been permitted by God to act as the great prosecuting attorney, if I may so put it, at the High Court of the Universe, but no charge that he has ever been able to bring against those redeemed to God by the precious blood of Christ has ever stood, because that infinite sacrifice has fully availed to meet them all. Well may we sing: “


I hear the accuser roar

Of ills that I have done;

I know them all, and thousands more,

The Lord findeth none.”


Or, as a verse of another beautiful hymn puts it:


Though the restless foe accuses,

Sins recounting like a flood;

Every charge our God refuses -

Christ has answered with His blood.”


Christ is our advocate, and it is Satan’s malicious accusations that call for His constant advocacy on our behalf. As a result of this, the Holy Spirit applies to the hearts of the saints on earth the truth of God in divine power, practically cleansing their ways. And so it is said, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (ver. 11).

Satan’s casting down will be the signal then for great rejoicing in the heavens, where the Old and New Testament saints will have been caught up; but it will be the signal also of great sorrow upon the earth, because the devil will have come down in great wrath, knowing that his time is short.

He has ever been the hater of all who belong to Christ, and will seek for any on earth who own His name in that day, utterly to destroy them. This is what is brought before us in verses 13-17:


And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”


The explanation is plain in view of what we have already had before us. The dragon will at once turn all his energies against Israel, but God has pledged Himself to preserve her through the great tribulation. And so, we are told, there were given to the woman not merely two wings of a great eagle, but emphatically, the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, there to be nourished by God for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. That is, for the last three and a half years of the tribulation period. “A time” indicates a year; “times,” two years; and “half a time,” six months. This is the same as the forty-two months of the previous chapter. As to the expression “the two wings of the great eagle,” God says in regard to Israel, “I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.” He who delivered them from Egypt and cared for them in the wilderness will, in that coming day, deliver them from the wrath of the dragon and protect them in the wilderness of the peoples, from which they will afterwards come up in great numbers to dwell in their own land.

In vain the serpent casts out of his mouth water as of a great river, hoping that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. He would seek to ruin her by that which comes forth from his mouth-evil teachings, I take it, in contrast to the water of life given by our Lord Jesus Christ. We may get the idea of this if we recall the fact that to-day myriads of Jews are being carried away by that Satanic flood from the mouth of the dragon known as Christian Science. So, in the days of the great tribulation, Satan will try to swamp and destroy Israel as a nation by the evil teachings he will spread through the world. But even the earth itself will help the woman, opening her mouth and swallowing up the river which the dragon casts out. That is, driven out among all the nations, as I take it, Israel will be so shocked and horrified by the evil results of these Satanic teachings that they will themselves be preserved from them. Just as of old a sojourn in Babylon, the fountain-head of idolatry, cured Judah, for the time being, of her own idolatrous tendencies, so Israel’s experiences among the Gentiles in the last days will be used of God to preserve her from the evil river in which the dragon would drown her.

Unable to destroy the nation as such, he makes a special effort to ruin the rest of her seed, or the remnant that keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. These, I take it, are those who remain in the land, as pictured by the two witnesses, and there maintain a testimony for God against all the persecutions of the Antichrist. How the devil will seek to destroy these the next chapter will tell us.

~ end of Lecture 13 ~***



Lecture 14 The Coming “Federation of Nations”


(Revelation 13:1-10)


A FEDERATION of Nations! How much is this phrase on the lips of politicians and persons interested in national affairs at the present time! It was far otherwise but a few years ago. When teachers of prophecy declared that the Word of God predicted just such a federation as men are now deeply interested in, they were met with ridicule. It was openly declared that they were dreamers, giving rein to foolish imaginations, and proclaiming something which could never be fulfilled. But the great war and new conditions have changed the viewpoint of these cavilers considerably in the last few years. Now there are those who hold the confederacy of nations as the one solution to the difficulties everywhere confronting statesmen, and many consider that it will be the panacea for all reconstruction perils. Just what will come out of it all, while the church still remains on earth, one would not attempt to prophesy. But after the church is gone, there will, indeed, be a great confederacy of the nations that have sprung out of the old Roman Empire, which will be Satanic in origin and character, and will, in fact, be the devil’s last card, if I may borrow such an expression, ere he is obliged to own his complete defeat. It is of this the present portion treats.

In our last lecture we were noticing that the enmity of Satan will be turned against God’s earthly people Israel in a special manner, after the church has been caught up to meet the Lord in the air. In conclusion I said that we would see, to-night, just what form that enmity will take. And in properly placing what now comes before us, let me emphasize the necessity of keeping in mind the fact that, throughout all this portion of the Book of Revelation, we have in view a time of solemn and momentous import, after the first resurrection and translation of the saints at the rapture, and before the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory as the long-looked-for Messiah of Israel, who is to sit upon the throne of His father David, and the Son of Man, who is to reign over all the earth in righteousness. If there is confusion as to this, nothing will be clear.

It is not hard to imagine something of the condition in which this world will be found after all real Christians have been snatched away to be with the Lord; especially when we realize that many in high places - rulers, governors, and other political leaders, are at heart Christian men. Perhaps, I should hardly say “many,” that is, compared with those who are unsaved and indifferent to the claims of Christ, they may be few indeed; for Scripture tells us that “not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” You will remember that Lady Huntington, that earnest, devoted woman who lived in the days of Whitefield and the Wesleys, and who was such a help in spreading the gospel, used to say that she was just going to heaven by an “M.” Had the word been “Not any noble,” there would have been no hope for her, but the “M” took her in.

But certainly there are some in high places who truly know the Lord, and would be caught away with the church at His coming. Their removal would be like the breaking of a dyke, permitting the rushing waters of anarchy and Bolshevism to sweep over every land. Think how evil will then be intensified. What frightful lengths unsaved men will go to in their efforts to bring about a millennium without Christ. Whether carnal men realize it or not, the true Christians are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Let every Christian suddenly be taken away from this scene, and you will have gross darkness covering the earth. With the preservative power of righteousness gone, the masses of men will be given up to corruption and violence.

Read the account of the days before the Flood, and you will have some sense of the chaotic condition that will prevail. Even now we see lawlessness spreading everywhere in the world, and it is only with the greatest difficulty that the vile thing called Sovietism is kept from gaining a foothold, even in this land of liberty. And back of all this is a Satanic effort to destroy all faith in God and His Word, and to substitute, in place of this, evil systems that can only result in eternal ruin to those who follow them.

In our day, though the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of God is here to lift up a standard against him. The Word of God tells us that the mystery of lawlessness does already work, but during this dispensation there is one who hinders the full development of evil, that is, the Holy Ghost; but when He is taken out of the world, that is, when the Holy Spirit takes the church up to meet the Lord in the air, then the last hindrance to the power of evil will be gone; there will no longer be any restraint on the machinations of the devil.

In the heavens the saints will be presented before the judgment-seat of Christ, and, as we have seen, for the last time Satan will appear as the prosecuting attorney against them before God, as he has done for so many centuries, day and night. But he will be utterly cast out of heaven, and will come down to the earth, having great wrath, because he knoweth that his time is short. In Israel alone will he find a testimony for God in that day, and against that people he will turn all his malice, and will undertake to work for their ruin through human government, when it has utterly cast off God.

You will recall how, in the book of Daniel, we are told that Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a great image, which, I think all will agree, sets forth “the times of the Gentiles.” By this term is meant the period during which the Jews are scattered among the Gentiles, the times in which the nations hold authority over the land of Palestine. These Gentile times began with Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold. He is so represented in the image. Following this comes the rule of the Medes and Persians, depicted by the silver breast and arms, and that, in turn, was succeeded by the Greco-Macedonian Empire, set forth by the brazen torso of the image. The last world-empire is the kingdom of iron, the Roman. But Daniel goes on to show that the Roman Empire would take on a very peculiar form in the time of the end. In the feet of the image you have an attempt to amalgamate that which cannot be amalgamated, iron and clay. It is a picture of man’s attempt to amalgamate the iron of imperialism with the potter’s clay of social democracy.

If you ask me where we are in the course of time, so far as represented in this image, I should say, unhesitatingly, that we have reached the feet of the image. We see, even now, the great nations of Europe making a tremendous attempt to amalgamate the iron and the clay. And the troubles of recent years have been, largely, the result of this. Great national leaders are at their wits’ end, trying to save something of imperialism while still obliged to bow to the demands of the people for a government of a democratic character. But it is impossible to mix the two. The one must, of necessity, destroy the other. And this Scripture, which we now have before us, makes it plain that, at last, the imperial power is going to triumph in measure. Men will grow weary of the constant conflict, which has been so prolonged; for, whatever optimistic statesmen still may say, God’s word shows that the confusion will grow worse and worse. And we need not be surprised if, even before the Church is taken away, instead of raising armies “to make the world safe for democracy,” it may become necessary to conscript the young manhood of our nation in an attempt to save the world from democracy. The people will soon attempt to take everything into their own hands, thus jeopardizing all property rights. This is a condition which cannot forever be tolerated, and out of it all will rise, eventually, after the Church has been caught up to meet the Lord, one man who will combine in himself the statesmanship of a Caesar, the military genius of a Napoleon, and the personal attractiveness of a Chesterfield. This man will head a combination of ten powers, formed, as before mentioned, from the nations that have sprung out of the old Roman Empire. When they have cast off all allegiance to God and His Word, through this confederacy he will, for a time at least, dominate the world.

As already intimated, Daniel pictures this final phase of things by the ten toes of the image. Of old, the Roman Empire was divided into the Eastern and Western parts, which is symbolized by the two legs of the great image, but united under one central authority until disintegration began.

In Daniel’s 7th chapter you have the same thing pictured in a different way. The man of God himself had a vision of the times of the Gentiles. He saw in them nothing beautiful or grand, but the four great empires were represented as four ravenous beasts, watching to spring one upon the other - beasts so dreadful that nothing on earth fully answers to the description of the wild creatures there depicted.


- The Babylonian Empire was symbolized by a lion with the wings of an eagle,- a hybrid, formed from a beast of the earth and fowls of the air.

- The Medo-Persian dominion appeared as a bear, lifting itself up on one side: it had between its teeth three ribs dripping with blood, representing probably the three chief cities of the Babylonian Empire which were sacked by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus.

- The Grecian, or Alexandrian Empire, was pictured as a leopard with four heads, and four wings of a fowl upon his back. The four heads, of course, set forth the fourfold division of this Greco- Macedonian Empire after Alexander’s death.

- Finally, Daniel tells us that the fourth beast was dreadful and terrible, and had great iron teeth, and brake in pieces and devoured all that came in its way. He gives no exact description of it: he adds, however, that it had ten horns.


Now that last beast clearly answers to the iron legs of the image, the Roman power, and the ten horns to the ten toes, which set forth the last form in which it will appear. I think there can be no doubt whatever that it is this last dreadful beast which is fully delineated for us in our present chapter. It is the Roman power which was in existence when the Lord was born, and was responsible for His death upon the cross: for the Jews had no power at all unless it were ratified by Pilate, as representing Caesar. Therefore the Roman Empire, of which Pontius Pilate was the official representative, crucified the Lord of glory. It is true that Pilate simply gave the sentence which the Jews desired, and therefore they are held responsible for killing their Messiah; but the Roman procurator must face that clause, repeated over and over again through the centuries in the recitation of the Apostles’ Creed: “He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.” Pilate can never get away from that. It shall stand against his record forever.

We have already seen in the 12th chapter, that the great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, represents Rome energized by Satan seeking to destroy the Man-child. Here, in chapter 13, we have Rome in the time of the end. The Empire revived, summoned from the sea of the nations by the devil himself, that is, Satan, the dragon. And it is he who summons the wild beast to rise up out of the waters, “having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the names of blasphemy.” This is imperial Rome revived, as the ten crowns declare.

After the death of the Lord Jesus Christ the Roman Empire continued in existence for something like 500 years, though divided into the Eastern and Western parts, which till the end of its history held together more or less loosely. It was finally destroyed by the invaders from the North and the East. But though the Empire as such was broken in pieces, nevertheless Roman principles prevailed throughout the great part of Europe and became the basis of the civilization which we now know. Our American system of jurisprudence is founded upon that of Rome. In the recent world-war the Entente Allies, and America too, were all representatives of the old Roman Empire, with the exception, of course, of Japan, China, and other heathen nations. On the other side we saw the very same powers joined together (the Goths, Vandals and Huns), who, in the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries, hurled themselves upon the Roman Empire and destroyed it. It was a most singular thing surely, and almost unexplainable for those who do not read their Bibles, that in the 20th century the same great divisions were maintained as in the closing days of Roman domination.

But we may see from this how readily that Roman Empire will be revived through a great international movement - a confederation, offensive and defensive, of all the Latin or Latinized nations. One of the great agencies which shall have much to do in bringing this about will be the Roman Church, whose power is increasing continually, even in the very lands where the Reformation, at one time, would have made this impossible.

It was the boast of the Roman conquerors that they never destroyed a civilization, but absorbed into their own great commonwealth everything that was best of the various nations which they subjugated. And we cannot but be reminded of this as we read the second verse: “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”

Observe how, in these few words, you have distinctly set forth the fact that the last phase of the Roman Empire will be linked up with all that has gone before. In Rome you have the leopard of Greece, the bear of Persia, and the lion of Babylon. Thus you have incorporated into this last great confederacy the chief elements of every civilization that has left a great mark upon the world. Everything that man has been able to build up, and has learned to value throughout the centuries, will be headed up in this final federation of nations.

For it is not Rome as existing in John’s day merely which is in view, but Rome as it will exist in the closing days of the dispensation, as is plain from the 3rd verse, if rightly understood: “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” We shall find help in regard to the heads if we turn to chapter 17:8-13. There we are told that the same beast is in view:


The beast that 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 from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is (or, shall be). And here is the mind which hath wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come: and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.”


Now, in those brief words, you have a synopsis of the whole history of the Roman Empire. For something like 900 years it was the greatest earthly power men had to reckon with. But a time came when it could be truly said “the beast is not.” It had been destroyed; its imperial head had been wounded to death. No man, for centuries, unenlightened by the Word of God, would have been bold enough to have predicted the return of imperial power to that fallen dominion; but Scripture had declared that it should come to pass; and while statesmen and carnal theorists have rejected what seemed to them a ridiculous assumption, students of prophecy, guided by the Spirit of God, have for nearly a century taught that the nations into which the Roman Empire had been divided should again come together under one head; and he would be a bold man to-day who would deny the likelihood of this very thing.

But when statesmen talk of a coming world federation, how little they realize who it is who is going to bring this about. The Beast is to ascend out of the abyss; for it is Satanic power that will bring into existence what is here pictured. It will be the devil’s last effort to make men believe that they do not need God’s Christ, that they can have peace and security while the Prince of Peace is rejected. But God will blow upon all their plans, for He has said, “I will overturn, overturn, overturn, until He shall come whose right it is” (Ezek 21:27).

But now notice two interpretations of the seven heads. We are told they are seven mountains, upon which the woman sitteth, and they “are seven kings, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.”

The seven mountains have generally been taken as meaning the seven hills upon which the imperial city is built. I am inclined to think this is correct, even though some would refuse the idea from the fact that the hills themselves are not in any sense mountainous in character; but the very fact that it was the delight of the Romans to speak of their capital as the seven-hilled city, would, naturally, bring this city to mind to anyone who read John’s description.

As to the second interpretation, a king is the familiar symbol for a form of government. Livy, the Roman historian, shows us that Rome had passed through five very distinct forms of government prior to John’s day. The sixth, which was in existence in John’s time, was the imperial. That was the form which was destroyed, and I am persuaded that this was the head wounded to death, of our chapter. But that deadly wound is to be healed, for the imperial form is to be restored, but under altogether different conditions, making it distinctly the seventh. For ten nations, all banding themselves together, will elect one of their number as the head of the confederacy. This man is distinctly called “the Beast.” It reminds us of Louis XIV, who said, “I am the State.” This Beast will continue to exercise authority, as the elected head, for but a short time, when he will throw off all restraint (as did Napoleon, elected as first consul, and later declaring himself emperor), thus bringing about the eighth form, which is of the seventh.

So spectacular will be his coup d’état that men will be thrilled with admiration at his masterly genius; and, accepting the principle that nothing but an imperial form of government can give them settled and continuous peace, they will readily acknowledge his pretensions, and in doing so will worship the dragon which gave power unto the Beast, and do homage to the Beast himself, saying, “Who is like unto the Beast; who is able to make war with him?

I think God has given us a wonderful illustration of this very thing in the history of Napoleon Bonaparte, as mentioned above. Think of this Corsican, low born, utterly insignificant, first coming into notice as a Second Lieutenant in the revolutionary army. Suddenly, after the bloody reign of terror, emerging from his former obscure place, and becoming the central figure of the world in that day. Elected by an overwhelming majority as First Consul of France, proclaiming himself Imperator, dazzling all France and the world for a time, and ending his course on the isle of St. Helena.

A greater than Napoleon shall yet arise out of the chaotic conditions which will prevail in Europe, after the church has been taken home. He will be a man of marvelous appearance and transcendent ability, wholly given up to Satan. He will be the great civil leader of the last days - the man who will have the final word in all matters, religious as well. All the civilized earth will wonder after him, do homage to him and his hidden master, the devil. In his pride and his folly he will speak great and blasphemous things against God. He will doubtless consider himself the man of destiny whom no power, human or divine, can overthrow. But the God whom he denies has limited his sway, for power will be given him only “to continue forty and two months”; that is, for three and a half years, the last half of Daniel’s 70th week, he will be in authority over the prophetic earth. During that time he will open his mouth in blasphemy against God, and blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, and all that dwell in heaven, namely, the saints who will have been caught up at the rapture. With saints on earth, the faithful in God’s restored Israel, he will make war and overcome them, power being given him over all countries, and tongues, and nations.

This then is the manner in which the dragon will attempt the destruction of the remnant of the woman’s seed. His effort will be to completely root out everything that is of God in the earth; and in order to do this he will have a trusty lieutenant dwelling in the land of Palestine itself, who will uphold him in all his nefarious plans, but of this assistant I cannot speak to-night. We will be occupied with him in our next lecture.

There can be no question, I think, that the days of the Beast are the days referred to by our Lord Jesus Christ, when He says that if it were possible the very elect would be deceived. But, thank God, He will preserve His own, even in that dreadful day, so we learn from verse 8 that none will be deceived by him, nor do homage to him, but “those whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.” How solemn the challenge of the 9th and 10th verses of our 13th chapter in this connection: “If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” These will be the days of the Great Tribulation, which, in all its intensity, will be directed against Israel. But the Lord will be watching over His little flock, and, scattered as they will be among the heathen, He will be to them a little sanctuary in every place that they may wander.

Only those who have exchanged the heavenly hope for an earthly one will be deceived by this great leader. He is the coming man for whom the world is waiting. Mistaken and blinded statesmen will hail him as the head of the nations, the one who will solve the problems - social, political and economic - that are now disturbing the world. How blessed to be warned by God Himself of all these things beforehand, that we may walk apart from everything that savors of that day of reproach and blasphemy. And when it actually comes, who can question the value of this present Scripture for the guidance and consolation of God’s earthly people Israel, who otherwise might well be in despair at the apparent defeat of righteousness and the triumph of iniquity.

But “the triumphing of the wicked is short,” and “the man of the earth” will be destroyed in due time, while faith will have its reward when the Lord appears from heaven to take vengeance on all who dare lift up their bloody hands against His afflicted people. “Here is the patience and faith of the saints.”

~ end of Lecture 14 ~***



Lecture 15 The Personal AntiChrist

(Revelation 13:11-18)


THE world is waiting for an authoritative religious leader. In an age of doubt and uncertainty men are longing for one who can speak a final word on all the ethical, religious, and political questions which to-day trouble so many. Instructed Christians know that God has already spoken authoritatively in the person of His Son, and revealed His mind in His holy Word; but they, too, are looking for a coming One, even the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ from glory to establish heaven’s authority and power on the earth. He will descend from heaven, and with all His glorified saints will reign over the earth for a thousand years of peace and blessing. “The coming man,” for whom unbelievers look, is one whom they expect to be born on the earth - a man of the earth, earthy, therefore not the Lord from heaven. This expectation is to have its fulfilment in “the man of sin,” the personal Antichrist, the false Messiah, who will soon be manifested. In fact, it is a very solemn consideration that he may already be in this world - perhaps a babe in arms - possibly a precocious youth - not improbably a man of affairs! But he will not be made known until after the church of the firstborn has been raptured at the presence of the Lord.

The remarkable thing is that many are waiting expectantly for the Antichrist who imagine they are looking for a reincarnation of Christ Himself. They profess to wait for a saviour, and expect him to appear on earth, born after the course of nature. Theosophists and others are expectantly waiting for a great world-teacher, despite the disappointment of Mrs. Besant’s Order of the Star of the East, whose puppet Krishnamurti has fallen so far short of their hopes. They are really preparing the world for the advent of the man of sin, the son of perdition.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed: God’s holy Word has predicted the coming of this false one, and has clearly shown what will lead up to his manifestation. I desire to look into the Word with you on this subject to-night, in connection with the passage we have read.

No Spirit-taught Bible student can fail to observe the shadow of the Antichrist falling athwart many pages of prophecy. “Ye have heard,” writes the apostle of John, “that Antichrist shall come” (1John 2”18). The only question that troubles many has to do with the identification of the person or thing referred to. Is the Antichrist a person or a system? Many weighty names could be quoted in favor of either view, but, in order that our faith may not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God in this matter, as in all else, we desire to be guided by the written Word. But before turning to a number of definite Scriptures, let me remind you of this blessed fact: Christ is a person - a glorified, holy, all-powerful person - one of the eternal Trinity, Who has taken humanity into union with Deity through being born on earth of a virgin, where He humbled Himself as man to the death of the cross. Logically one would expect that the Antichrist would also be a man, a definite personality, opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ, yet claiming to be all that He was - usurping the place of Christ.

But we would not forget that there is in the world a body united to Christ of which He is the glorified Head. There is also a great apostate system opposed to this divine one; falsely claiming to be the spouse of Christ, and the only authorized custodian of the mysteries of God. Is this system the Antichrist, or is it rather Babylon the Great, the antichurch? I think we shall see as we go on that the latter view is the correct one.

The prophetic Scriptures outline two great religious deceptions; a false Christ, and a false church: but the one is not to be confounded with the other. The Antichrist will be a man, as the Christ of God is a Man. Babylon is a vast organized system, even as the church of God is a divine organization. But the one is a Satanic counterfeit of the other.

When the voice of prophecy speaks of the Antichrist, the masculine pronoun “he” is used. When it speaks of the false church it uses either the neuter or the feminine, “it” or “she.” There is good reason for this. The Antichrist is the final head of the apostate system, which bears the same relationship to him, in an outward way, that the church does to Christ. Ever since the primeval promise of the Seed of the woman, who was to bruise the serpent’s head, men have looked and longed for a deliverer to arise from among themselves. Such an expectation was grounded upon Scripture, and was fulfilled in the birth of Christ. But since He has been rejected, this expectation has become a perversion of the truth; for the God-sent deliverer, “the woman’s Seed,” has been caught up to God, and to His throne. It is the serpent’s seed who is coming (the Anti-Christ), and they who wait for him realize it not! The serpent has for millennia been the symbol of esoteric religion, which stands for wisdom, and the coming one will claim to be the wisdom of God. Esoteric religion, I may say, is the religion par excellence of the Antichrist.

A man then is being waited for. His advent draws near. He will come when, at last, the restraining power, the Holy Spirit, has gone up to the heavens whence He came. This coming one is the Grand Monarch of the New Humanity cult.


- He is the coming Imaum, or Mahdi, of the Mussulmans.

- He is the long-expected last incarnation of Vishnu waited for by the Brahmins;

- The coming Montezuma of the Aztecs; - The false Messiah of the apostate Jews;

- The great Master of all sects of Yogis;

- The Ultimate Man of the evolutionists;

- The Uebermensch of Nietzsche, the Hun philosopher, whose ravings prepared the way for the world war.


He will be a Satan-controlled, God-defying, conscienceless, almost super-human, man - an individual whose manifestation will mean the consummation of the present apostasy, and the full deification of humanity to his bewildered dupes.

Thus the world will turn away from the Christ of God and stretch out eager hands to welcome the coming “Man of Sin.” And, depend upon it, he will be on time! God’s Word has declared his advent as surely as it predicts the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ from glory.

Meantime the great antichurch (the evil system that is but a counterfeit of the true church for which Christ died) is casting overboard every truth of Scripture, and follows the lies that shall prepare them to receive “the liar” of whom I John 2 :22 speaks - the Antichrist. “Whosoever loveth and maketh a lie shall have his part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone,” (Rev 22:15, 21:8) is the unalterable decree of the God of truth. That none here may be entangled in this awful iniquity is my sincere desire, and, in order to preserve from it, I earnestly ask your attention to a number of Scriptures.

The most complete description of Antichrist is found in Daniel 11:36-45.


And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain. And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. “He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”


Notice that here it is predicted that a king will arise in Jerusalem who will be an utter atheist, and yet, evidently, a Jew; for it is distinctly predicted of him that “he shall not regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women.” The expression “the God of his fathers” can mean nothing else than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is frequently so used in Scripture; whereas the expression “the desire of women” is recognized by both Jewish and Christian expositors as referring to the Messiah. This point is, I think, very important, for the Antichrist could not be the false Messiah if he were not a Jew, as otherwise he would have no claim upon the allegiance of Israel. He will, I take it, be a great Jewish leader, who will seem, at first, to be a wonderful lover of his people, and who will establish them in their own land. But he will soon throw off all restraint; and, exalting himself, will magnify himself against every god, and speak marvelous things against the God of gods during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s 70th week which we have had so constantly before us in our study of the book of Revelation.

This passage connects so intimately with the portion we have read to-night that I want you to notice the two in comparison. In Revelation 13:11 we read: “I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.” Observe he does not arise from the Gentile nations as does the first Beast, but he comes up out of the earth, or land, that is, the land of Palestine, the very same land in which the king, in Daniel chap. 11, is to be manifested. He had “two horns like a lamb,” for he seems, at first, to have both the meekness and strength of the Lamb of God, but his dragon-like speech betrays him. It is the speech of self-exaltation, which indicates that his condemnation is the same as that of his master, the devil, who fell through pride.

Now Daniel tells us that though the willful king will not regard any supernatural god, yet he will honor one who is called “the god of forces” - evidently a man, for he is one to whom he pays tribute: “a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pleasant things.” This mighty one will be the backer, if I may say so, of the Antichrist, and, in return for his protection, he will cause Palestine to submit to his authority, and pay tribute to him.

Thus “a strange god shall he acknowledge and increase with glory, and shall cause him to rule over many, and divide the land for gain.” Now this same thing is implied in the 12th verse of our chapter: “And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”

He is, you see, the vicegerent of the first Beast; and this first Beast, whom the world recognizes as a god (in the sense, of course, in which it recognized the Caesars of old as gods), is the master whom he enriches with Jewish wealth.

But he is not only an astute statesman, a crafty politician, but a wonder-worker as well, as the 13th and 14th verses tell us:


And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.”


With this agrees the striking account of “the lawless one” in 2nd Thessalonians 2:3-12:


Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first. and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God . . . even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders., and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”


Here is a prediction of the coming of the atheist king of Daniel II, and the wonder-worker of Revelation 13.

One of the signs of the times in our own days is the unhealthy craving for marvels and wonders, which is so prevalent in many quarters. It is a most dangerous condition of mind, and Christians might well beware of anything of the kind. We are too near the end of the dispensation to expect divine miracles in any number; but Satanic signs and wonders will increase, as we draw nearer the end, and, when the Antichrist himself appears, he will give men all the marvels for which they long - only to deceive them, and to lead them to accept his ungodly pretensions.

Just exactly what is meant by the “image” of the Beast, I do not pretend to say. I have no doubt it is linked with our Lord’s warning as to “the abomination of desolation” that is to be set up in the holy place. At any rate, it will be the culmination of the apostasy, and will be the signal for all believing Jews, who in that day of great persecution cleave to the Lord, to flee from Jerusalem, and hide themselves in distant parts among the nations, until the appearing of the Messiah Himself. We are told that the lamblike Beast will give life to the image, and it will speak, and cause “that as many that would not worship the image of the Beast should be killed.”

A great society will be formed of apostate Jews and apostate Gentiles, which will be patterned somewhat after our present-day labor unions, and oath-bound organizations. This is intimated in verses 16 and 17: “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” It is well for Christians in this present time that they keep themselves from all such worldly associations and unequal yokes.

Our Lord Jesus told the Jews of His day, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not; if another shall come in his Own name, him ye will receive” (John 5:43). He was speaking of this awful person whom we have seen portrayed in these various Scriptures. With them we might also link Zechariah 11:16, 17: “For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land,” (note this, he will arise in the land of Palestine) “which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.” This idol shepherd is put in contrast to the Good Shepherd whom Zechariah was to impersonate or represent, as described in the first part of the same chapter, who was sold for thirty pieces of silver. This part of the prophecy has been literally fulfilled, and we may be certain that the rest will all come to pass in due time.

For this idol shepherd the Jews are even now waiting, though they little realize it. At a Zionist Congress, some years before the recent war, Max Nordau declared, according to the published reports, “We are ready to welcome any man as our Messiah who will lead us back to our own land and establish us there in prosperity.” Max Nordau is a so-called reformed Jew, who has given up the Messianic hope as set forth in the Holy Scriptures. But only recently, when Dr. Mosinsohn, of the Hebrew College of Jaffa, was touring America in the interests of the same Zionist movement, I had the privilege of hearing him give an address at the University of California. In the course of his remarks he said, “Think of all the great religious leaders who have come out of the East. Moses arose in the East - Buddha, Confucius, Jesus and Mahomet all arose in the East. And we say to you people of the West, with confidence, that if you will restore the Jew to his ancestral home it will not be long until we will give you another great religious leader who will perhaps transcend all who have gone before.”

A Christian physician and I, who had gone there together, looked at one another in amazement. We felt that we were listening to a John-the-Baptist of the Antichrist, so startling was the announcement. And with the light that the prophetic word throws upon the now very near future, who can doubt that this Hebrew leader’s declaration will indeed seem to an unbelieving world to be fulfilled in the willful one who is to be raised up in the land of Palestine, and who will be acknowledged by apostate Judaism and apostate Christendom alike as the Christ - the coming man. Toward this awful end all modern cults and isms are tending, and when the personal presence of the Holy Spirit has been withdrawn from the earth, his manifestation will not long be withheld.

I know that the Reformers, and many moderns, have considered the papacy to be the fulfillment of the prophecies we have been considering; and I do not wonder at this, for that unholy system is one of the most amazing counterfeits of what is of God that the world has ever seen; but it certainly does not meet all the requirements of the case, though it is undoubtedly one of the “many antichrists” of which the apostle John writes, when forewarning us of “the Antichrist” whose coming is still future.

I would direct your attention to six things predicted of this false one which have never been true of the papacy, and, it seems to me, are never likely to be.


First: The Antichrist must be a Jew, otherwise he would not be owned by Israel as their Messiah.

Second: He is to rise up in the land of Palestine, not in Italy; in Jerusalem, not in Rome.

Third: He is to be subject to, and in league with, the civil power; not dominating it, as the papacy did for centuries.

Fourth: He is to be acknowledged by the mass of the Jews as their king and religious leader, and it is well-known that the Jews have never owned the pretensions of the popes.

Fifth: He is to be the patron of Israel, whereas the Romish church has ever been their persecutor.

Sixth: He is not to be manifested until after the hindering Holy Spirit shall be removed, and that will only be when He goes up with the church at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ for His people, before the hour of judgment strikes for this godless world where the Word of God, the Christ of God, the Spirit of God, and the church of God have all been rejected.


There are other systems equally antichristian with the papacy, but none of them answer to the above requirements; therefore none of them are to be confounded with the personal Antichrist who is yet to arise and delude for a time those “who refused the love of the truth that they might be saved.” The many antichrists are but preparing the way for this incarnation of iniquity; and the avidity with which men and women drink in their evil teachings may give us some idea of how easy a thing it will be for the false Messiah to establish his claims.

Some would ridicule the thought of vast numbers responding to such monstrous pretensions, but we need to remember that God Himself is going “to give them up,” in retributive judgment, “to believe the * lie,” because they would not have His truth. And, in our own day, how easily have deceivers like Mrs. Mary Baker Patterson Glover Eddy, Mrs. Ellen G. White, Madame Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Katherine Tingley, John Alexander “Elijah” Dowie, and other charlatans, not to speak of Rome itself, been able to enslave the minds and consciences of vast multitudes of people who refuse the simple truth of the Word of God; and, mark you, all this with the Holy Spirit still in the world, waiting to guide into all truth every honest soul who is willing to be led by Him and taught through the Word! * In the Hebrew it is the definite article - “the lie,” i.e., the lie of the Antichrist. How much easier will it be for error to assert itself when He is no longer here!

But time presses, and it is necessary that I briefly touch on the last verse of our chapter.

I know that many of you will be anxious to have me attempt to expound this verse, and tell you plainly what is meant by its mystic number. “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred three score and six.” All I can say is that six is the number of man, and three of manifestation. In these three sixes I see the full manifestation of what is in the heart of man - man’s last effort to attain to divinity and deity, to rob God of His glory and to exalt himself. But, undoubtedly, when the Antichrist actually appears, and the first Beast is manifested, the meaning will be so plain that everyone who turns to God in that day will be warned thereby to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,” but will cleave to the Lord all the more earnestly because they know that the end has drawn so nigh. Guesses as to the meaning of 666 have been innumerable; I shall not add another.

And in closing, I would again remind my hearers, that time for us also is flying quickly by. If any of you are unsaved, it is well for you to remember that mercy’s day is quickly gone. Gospel light already seems to be vanishing from the earth; the darkening apostasy is making rapid strides; a famine for hearing the Word of the Lord will soon be here. Oh, that now, in this day of grace, men would heed the testimony of the Scripture of truth, receive the virgin-born Son of God as Saviour and Lord, and spurn the lies of every antichrist.

- “Oh earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord!” (Jer 22:29)

- “Hear, and your soul shall live.” (Isa 55:3)

- “He that heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and cometh not unto judgment, but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24)

~ end of Lecture 15 ~***



Lecture 16 The Harvest and Vintage

(Revelation 14)


THIS 14th chapter forms a distinct section of the Book. It consists of one vision divided into six parts, and evidently has to do with the closing up of the Great Tribulation and the introduction of the kingdom. It is as though God would give to John, and to us, a heartening view of the consummation, ere depicting the closing trials in detail which will occupy the last half of the tribulation period.

The first part of the vision is that of the Lamb on Mt. Sion. John tells us,


And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living ones, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” (14:1-5).


This is a beautiful little prophetic picture, quite complete in itself. It sets forth that which is to take place after the desolations of Israel are ended, and the glory is dawning in the land where Jesus lived and died and rose again, and to which He is coming back in person.

Observe, to begin with, that Mt. Sion is on the earth. The vision has to do with the return of the Lamb to the city that once rejected Him. It is a very common thing for Bible readers to spiritualize the various localities mentioned in the Bible. Thus Jerusalem, Mt. Sion, and Israel are all made to mean the church, or possibly, even heaven itself, whereas they have no such application. When God says Israel, He means Israel. When He speaks of Jerusalem He does not intend us to understand that either heaven or the church is in view; and Mt. Sion is that Mt. Sion which David first set apart to God, and is a distinct locality to this day in the land of Palestine, within the limits of the city of Jerusalem.

It is a place on earth, not in heaven, and there the Lord Jesus Christ is going to gather the Israelitish remnant to Himself, when He comes to set up His kingdom. For, although many have taught the contrary, I have no question in my own mind but that the 144,000 of this chapter are the very same as the sealed 144,000 of chapter 7. In the earlier chapter John saw them sealed before the Great Tribulation began; God had pledged Himself to protect them. No matter how vindictively their enemies might assail them, He had set His own mark upon them, and He had promised to bring them safely through those tempestuous and difficult days. Now, in chapter 14, we see that same company gathered about the Lamb on Mt. Sion, the firstfruits of the kingdom age.

The Lord reveals His Father’s Name to them; the seal of the living God upon their foreheads is, in fact, this blessed revelation. They know God as Father, and rejoice in His protecting care and tender love. In heaven there are those who rejoice with them in a very special way, and these are distinguished from the elders, who represent, as we have already seen, the entire priestly company caught up at the rapture. But, as the Great Tribulation goes on, Jewish believers, who will be martyred because of their faith, will also join that heavenly throng. and so we are told that John heard “a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; the voice of harpers harping with their harps.” These “sing, as it were, a new song before the throne, and before the living ones and the elders, and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.” These in heaven and those on earth will have passed through the same experiences in measure. There will be a sympathetic cord struck, to which both respond. The new song is, of course, here, as elsewhere, the song of redemption.

The company on Mt. Sion are next described as undefiled, a virgin band, who have kept themselves from the uncleanness everywhere prevailing in those fearful days. It is to be their hallowed privilege to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, for they are described as being redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. Thus we have a first fruits of the kingdom age, even as our Lord Himself is described as the first fruits of the present dispensation, and His church, associated with Him, is “a kind of first fruits of His creatures” (James 1:18).

The blessing of Psalm 32 pronounced upon the man in whom is no guile, the blessing that our Lord pronounced upon Nathanael, is the portion of this special company. A guileless man is not a sinless man; he is one who has nothing to hide. When sin is all confessed and judged in the presence of God, guile is absent. And so this guileless company are described as without fault before the throne of God; not, indeed, that they appear there in any righteousness of their own, but saved by the same precious blood that to-day makes faultless every believer in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The second section is that of the everlasting gospel, as recorded in verses 6 and 7.


And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred; and 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 heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”


This everlasting gospel is not to be distinguished from the gospel that has been proclaimed throughout the centuries. In truth, the very fact that it is called “everlasting” shows that it is identical with the gospel as proclaimed from the beginning. It is the good news, of all the ages, that God is sovereign, and man’s happiness consists in recognizing His authority. To this blessed fact is added, in the present dispensation, the full truth of the gospel of the grace of God. The gospel of the kingdom is but another aspect of this same news from heaven, emphasizing particularly the Lordship of Christ. There can only be one gospel, for the apostle tells us, Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”(Gal 1:8) But that one gospel has different phases. In the epistle to the Galatians Paul speaks of “the gospel of the circumcision” and the “gospel of the uncircumcision” (2:7) - the same gospel, but presented in one way to the Jews and another to the Gentiles. When the Lord was here on earth ministering, as also was John the Baptist, they preached the gospel of the kingdom; but men rejected the kingdom, and so, for the time being, the kingdom is in abeyance. This is the day of the church.

The Son of Man is likened unto a man who has gone into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. When the word is given by the Father He will descend to take the kingdom; to be proclaimed as King of kings, and Lord of lords. Throughout the present dispensation He is taking out from among both Jews and Gentiles all who believe on His name, and unites them into the one body, the church. After the church has gone, there will not be a Christian left on earth. Then it is that God is going to commence again to work among the Jews, and will send them out to preach the gospel of the kingdom unto the ends of the earth.

Finally, we have the very last phase of that gospel, immediately preceding His coming. It is the final call for the guilty nations to prostrate themselves in the dust, and pay homage to their Creator. It is mercy indeed, to God’s creatures everywhere, that in that hour of judgment, before the last blow falls, the call will still go forth to men everywhere to own the claims of the Omnipotent One whose mercies have been rejected so long.

We do not hear, however, of any response, at least not in this chapter, but Scripture elsewhere warrants the thought that many, who had never previously heard and rejected the gospel, will, in that day, open their hearts to the message and repent, and thus be led to welcome the King.

The third section of the vision is that of verse 8:


And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”


Babylon is more fully described for us in chapters 17 and 18, but we have to defer any detailed exposition of this subject until a later lecture, except to say that just as Babylon of old was the fountainhead of idolatry, so is mystic Babylon to-day the mother of all false religious teaching in Christianity. In the time of the end it will be headed up in one great false church - that worldly church, which has proved so unworthy and false to her Lord, is to be broken absolutely to pieces, to be utterly destroyed. I have no doubt that all over the world there will then be such scenes as are now going on in Russia, with men crying, “No God; no church.”

I know that many religious leaders at the present time are very enthusiastic about what they call “the reunion of Christendom,” but that reunion will simply be a great federation of Christless churches, forming the most powerful religious association that has ever been known in this world Catholic, Greek, Protestant, and all other systems united into one - after the true believers have gone. For a time, this great institution will dominate everything, until men will say at last, “What is the use of a church like this; why not destroy the whole thing and be done with it once and for all?” And so they will destroy it throughout the world, as they once destroyed it in France, and as they are now destroying it in Russia.

Would that professed preachers of the gospel realized, ere it is too late, that, when men take up religion in which there is no real conversion, and which has no place for the work of the Holy Spirit, the whole thing will soon go on the rocks. In spite of the latitudinarianism of the times in which we live, it is still blessedly true that when faithful men preach the genuine old-time gospel of the grace of God in power, people are willing to go and hear.

Speaking generally, even unsaved men and women have more respect for the old, old story of redeeming love than they have for these modern shams. When a man comes to the place where he no longer believes in the Bible, in the blood of Christ, in regeneration, he says to himself, “What a fool I am, paying money to keep up the church. I had better pay it to a lodge or a club. I can get more out of something like that than I can get out of the church.”

Have you ever noticed that Unitarianism has never been a financial success? Therefore when a preacher, in one of our orthodox churches comes to this, that he no longer believes in orthodoxy, you will observe that generally he holds on to his position in the orthodox institution as long as he can. Loaves and fishes are commoner there, after all, than in the heretical systems that are languishing all about us. And so we can understand how it will be in the Great Tribulation. Babylon, for a while, will dominate everything. The head of the nations will be the head of the church. The Antichrist will be supreme in religious matters; but when Babylon falls, what a tremendous smash-up there is going to be!

The next section gives us the third angel’s message. We read in verses 9 to 13,


And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me. Write. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.”


What a solemn thing this is! A message from heaven declaring that those who turn away from the true God, who reject His Word, who instead worship the Beast and his image, will have to drink the very dregs of the cup of God’s wrath.

I need not turn aside to animadvert upon the absurd interpretation given to this vision by the Seventh-Day Adventists. But they tell us that the third angel’s message is the Sabbath message, and that worshiping the Beast and receiving his mark consists in recognizing the holiness of the first day of the week. What can be the mental condition, not to speak of the moral state, of a man or woman who can conceive of a God of love and grace pouring out His wrath upon men because, with earnest desire to glorify Him, they keep the resurrection day, which from the earliest period of church history has been known as the Lord’s day? Surely, one must have lost all sense of moral values to advocate a theory so absurd, even though they were mistaken as to the proper day to hallow.

But when one realizes that the judgment pronounced here is the doom of apostasy, for which, in retributive judgment, God will press the cup of His wrath to the lips of those who have refused the cup of salvation, all is perfectly clear. Nor is there any evidence that that judgment will come to an end, for verse 11 distinctly says, “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”

It will indeed require courage of a very high order to stand up against all that apostate condition, and firmly hold to the truth of God as then revealed. And so we are told in verse 12, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” This is strikingly in line with what we have been pointing out, that these converts will be Jewish believers. They keep the commandments of God, as made known in the Old Testament, and yet the faith of Jesus as declared in the New.

Their part is not in the body of Christ: that glorious truth of the present dispensation is not for them, but they will have learned, at last, that Jesus is the promised Messiah, who was rejected by their nation when He came in grace, but coming again in mighty power; and so they will bring forth fruits meet for repentance, manifested by their pious, godly lives and desire to glorify the One their nation rejected.

And now we come to a very striking word in verse 13. Notice that little word “henceforth.” You have often heard this verse used in connection with funerals in the present dispensation, and I do not question that it may be so used, and very blessedly too; but its full application refers to a coming day. A voice from heaven says, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.”

The point, I take it, is this: the darkest part of the Great Tribulation is still before them. The storm-clouds, heavy with judgment, may break at any moment; but, immediately following, the kingdom is to be set up. Those who pass through the tribulation will enter into the kingdom on earth. Those who die during its course will have their part in the heavenly kingdom, and so a special blessing will be theirs: in other words, from that point on it will really be better to die than to live. They will rest from their labors, be spared further tribulation on the earth, and shall have their place with their Lord in heaven, which will be far better than the highest place in the kingdom here on earth, glorious as that will be.

And now let me press a question upon my hearers, whether saved or unsaved. You also must leave this scene shortly; what kind of works are going to follow you? If saved, what have you been doing for the Lord? If unsaved, oh then, I beg you remember, your sins will follow after you - those sins you have been trying to forget; those sins from which you have fled; those sins for which, in your folly, you thought you could atone by effort of your own.

When you stand up, at last, poor, and naked, and miserable, before the great white throne, you will find all your sins there, and they will fasten upon you like the hell-hounds that they really are, and drag you down to the lake of fire. Do not, I beseech you, turn away from this solemn truth. The blood of Christ alone can wash you from all those sins, and then, as a believer in the Lord Jesus, you can live for Him in this scene, and your works will follow you to heaven, for all that is done for Christ will abide for eternity.

The fifth part of the vision is that of the harvest, and a most solemn one it is, as recorded in verses 14 to 16.


And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap: for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.”


You will remember that our Lord Jesus spoke about the harvest, and He declared that it is the end of the age, the time when the wicked are going to be separated from the just, when He is going to gather the wheat into His garner, but burn up the chaff with fire unquenchable. This is what you have here: it is discriminating judgment. The earth is reaped: everything that is of God, the Son of Man will claim for Himself; all that is contrary will be given up to judgment. Observe that it is the Son of Man who sits upon the cloud and directs the reapers. All judgment is committed unto the Son: the One who once hung on Calvary’s cross is the same blessed person who is coming to execute judgment.

This is, I take it, the same, in nature, as the judgment in Matthew 25. It is pre-millennial, and not, like the judgment of the great white throne, post-millennial. Jesus is coming back to the world that crucified Him, and He is going to gather for His kingdom, out of all nations, those who have heeded His message and cared for His messengers; but all who have heard His gospel, only to reject it, will be given up to judgment.

The last part of the vision is that of the vintage. It is very different from the harvest, in that the harvest is, as we have just seen, discriminatory, while the vintage is unsparing judgment.


And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.”


The vintage has to do with the vine - the vine of the earth - and this vine is apostate Israel. We are familiar with the figure, as used in regard to Israel in the Old Testament. Isaiah uses it, and in Hosea we hear the Lord saying, “Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself.” The same figure is used in Psalm 80 and 81. When our Lord was here He could say, “I am the true vine.” He was the only one in Israel bearing good fruit; and all who accept His message become branches in the living vine.

By and by, the vine is going to be replanted in Palestine. In fact, we may go further and say, The vine is being replanted in Palestine. The Jews are going back to their own land; it stirs one’s soul as Scripture is being fulfilled before our eyes. They are being replanted in their own vineyard, but replanted for what? For the vintage of the wrath of God.

A remnant will be gathered out, separated to the Lord, but the rest will be given up to unsparing judgment in the time of Jacob’s trouble. Fleshly Israel, the vine of the earth, can produce no fruit for God. But, in that day of great distress, the clusters of the vine of the earth will be cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And we are told the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. This is said to be the actual length of the land of Palestine. The picture is that of the entire land drenched in blood up to the horse bridles. What will the reality be? O Lord, how long?

Thank God, there are brighter things ahead. In fact, the best days for Israel, and the whole earth, lie beyond that awful scene of wrath and carnage. But we need to remember that the people of the Jews brought their judgment upon their own heads by refusing the Prince of Peace when He came in grace to deliver them. In Pilate’s judgment hall they cried, “His blood be on us and on our children.” How dreadfully has this fearful imprecation been answered by a just God the centuries bear witness.

The scene depicted in these closing verses of the present chapter shows that a more dreadful fulfilment is yet in the future. Immanuel’s land, once stained with His own precious blood, will be red with the gore of those who reject Him, and who, even in that day, when their own Scriptures will be so marvelously fulfilled before their very eyes, will still refuse Him and own instead the unholy claims of the Antichrist. Of old, they chose Barabbas in place of Jesus which is called Christ. Unchanged in spirit to the very end, they will prefer the “son of perdition” to the Son of God, and thus bring upon themselves swift destruction.

~ end of Lecture 16 ~***



Lecture 17 The Vials of the Wrath of God

(Revelation 15 and 16)


IT is my purpose this evening to go briefly over chapters 15 and 16, as these form one connected vision, depicting the final scenes of the dispensation of judgment which has been so largely occupying us in these addresses. We need to remember that the Revelation is primarily a book of judgment, and, while it may seem very pessimistic to be occupied with so many fearful scenes, all is bright at the end. The book does not close until the new heavens and new earth are brought in, wherein righteousness shall dwell throughout a blissful eternity. I need not apologize therefore for bringing so continually before you picture after picture of God’s judicial dealings with the prophetic earth. He has given us these revelations out of kindness to us, that we may be warned thereby to avoid what lies ahead of this guilty world, and to shun every form of the apostasy which He is so soon coming to judge.

The seven vials (more properly, bowls) of the wrath of God, with which the 16th chapter deals, are all included in the judgments of the last half of the Great Tribulation. They show the intensive character that these judgments will take as the end draws on. I do not like to speak positively where I have no definite word of Scripture to guide, but it seems to me the series covers but a very brief period at the close of the last half of the week, thus setting forth the judgments that will fall upon the kingdom of the Beast and the sphere of the Antichrist’s special sway, at the very end of the Great Tribulation.

In our last address we noticed that there was one particular company of saints in heaven who responded in a very noticeable manner to the 144,000 Israelites standing on Mt. Sion. In the 15th chapter the scene is changed. The prophet sees what is going on in heaven, and this company at once comes before his vision. He says,


And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, Thou King of saints” (vers. 1-3).


This redeemed company standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, is not to be confounded with the church of the present dispensation. We are told that they sing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb. Clearly then, they are Israelites. They are singing the song of Moses, which is the celebration of The Lord’s victory over Israel’s foes, and the song of the Lamb, which is the song of redemption. They are those who have been slain by the servants of the last great apostate power, but who have been raised from the dead, and raptured during the tribulation period. They are, perhaps, identical with the two witnesses of chapter 11, though I do not press this. But they are at least like them in these particulars, they have been faithful witnesses on earth, and, because of their witness-bearing, have been put to death. They are seen as raised from the dead and caught up to God and to His throne. Like the elders, they have in their hands the harps of God, and are a worshiping company.

These are said to stand upon the sea of glass, which is here represented as mingled with fire. The sea of glass, as pointed out in a previous lecture, answers to the brazen sea in Solomon’s temple, and the brazen laver in the court of the tabernacle. It is the type of the Word of God, needed for cleansing here; in heaven, crystallized, a glassy sea. upon which the glorified saints take their stand to praise Him who has redeemed them to Himself, and made them forever clean. The glass is seen here as mingled with fire, because of the fiery trial through which these martyrs have passed. These glorified witnesses to His saving power praise and adore Him for His justice and truth, recognizing the righteousness of His ways, and the holiness of His person. Because of this, all nations shall come and worship before Him in the day that His judgments are made manifest.

Observe, it is not the grace of God that will thus bring the nations to own His authority and worship before Him; it is “when his judgments are in the earth that the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa. 26:9). Scripture nowhere teaches the conversion of the world through the preaching of the gospel in this dispensation. The world will, eventually, be converted, but it will only be after the unbelieving portion has been purged out by judgment, and the remnant left for the kingdom will give glory to the God of heaven.

In the 5th verse we have another of the “openings” of this marvelous book. We read, “And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.” The mention of the tabernacle of the testimony brings Israel again before us, and reminds us that these judgments are in order to the carrying out of God’s covenant with His ancient people Israel, when the nations that have oppressed them must be punished.

Jerusalem is a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zechariah 12:3). Therefore the nations who have vented their hatred upon Israel cannot escape the wrath of God.

The temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven being opened, John tells us,


The seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts (or, living ones) gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled” (vers. 6-8).


These seven angels are to complete the wrath of God. They introduce and close His final visitations in judgment upon the Gentiles. Then will be fulfilled the many prophecies of retribution with which Scripture abounds. “It is a righteous thing,” says the apostle Paul, “to recompense tribulation to those who trouble you” (2Thess. 1:6). If this could be said in regard to saints of the church period, how much more in regard to Israel.

Many people have been troubled with what are called the Imprecatory Psalms. They cannot understand David calling down the judgment of God upon His enemies, or, what amounts to the same thing, Israel’s prayer for the overthrow and destruction of all their foes. But, in the righteous government of God, it must be that those nations that have oppressed and sought the destruction of His people shall themselves be visited with the fierceness of His wrath.

Joseph Cook tells how on one occasion a gentleman, in conversation with a minister of the gospel, was objecting to the Imprecatory Psalms because they did not seem to him to be in harmony with the spirit of Christianity. It was just at the beginning of the Civil War. As they talked together a newspaper was brought in, and the minister read, “The Federal Army is marching upon Richmond.”

Good,” exclaimed the other: “I hope they will destroy it.”

That,” cried the preacher, “is an imprecatory psalm.” The point is that it is thoroughly in keeping with God’s mind to desire the triumph of righteousness and the overthrow of what is iniquitous.

God’s glory is at stake; His righteousness demands the punishment of iniquity, both in this world and in that which is to come. He does not apologize for dealing thus with unrighteousness, nor do His servants need to apologize for Him.

Verse 8 indicates that when the seven angels are about to come forth to execute their awful mission, it will be one of intense concern in heaven. The temple is seen filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power, and man, though redeemed, is represented as standing without, in awe, awaiting developments. Then a great voice out of the temple is heard saying to the seven angels, “Go your ways, and pour out (or, empty) the bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth” (chap. 16:1). As in the case of the seven trumpets, and, in measure, of the seven seals, I do not profess to be able to tell you just how much we are to take as symbolic, and how much as literal, in this septenary series of judgments. We know that the book of Revelation is a book of symbols, and yet there may be a great deal more in it that is literal than many of us suppose. The literal judgments may be intimately linked with the symbolical.

No one reading this chapter carefully can fail to observe how intimately the bowls of wrath are linked, in their results upon the earth, with the plagues that fell upon Egypt preparatory to Israel’s deliverance. God is again about to deliver His people, and this for the last time. The outpouring of these bowls depict, in large measure, the woes that were visited upon the kingdom of Pharaoh. But, as above remarked, descriptions perhaps must be taken symbolically rather than literally; or, perhaps, both interpretations coalesce.

In verse 2 we read, “And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the Beast. and upon them which worshiped his image.” This answers to the plague in Egypt, where God smote man and beast with boils and blains. It perhaps symbolizes a spiritual plague, which will cause those who have received the mark of the Beast and worship his image, as great annoyance as the physical suffering that would follow such a noisome and grievous sore upon the bodies of men. Notice that the sphere of this plague is the earth; and it answers to the first trumpet of chapter 8. But it is very evident that, while the sphere is the same, the judgment is more intense.

In the same way the second angel’s bowl links with the second angel’s trumpet, which affected the sea. But again we have greater intensity, for, in verse 3. we read, “And the second angel poured out his bowl upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.” What a scene of death and desolation, whether we think of it as physical or spiritual, or both. “All they that hate me,” says Wisdom in the book of Proverbs, “love death.” And so death is the portion for those who have refused the life that is in Christ Jesus.

The third angel’s trumpet affected the rivers and fountains of waters, and in verse 4 we read, “The third angel poured out his bowl upon the rivers and fountains of waters: and they became blood.” Thus the very sources of life are destroyed, as in the plague that fell upon Egypt when the river itself became blood. In verses 5-7, God’s righteousness, in thus dealing with those who had slaughtered His servants, is fully attested: “And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because Thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.” Every right-thinking person will add his “ Amen,” for God is righteous in all His ways, whether in grace or in judgment.

The fourth angel’s bowl is poured out upon the sun, even as at the sounding of the fourth trumpet the third part of the sun was smitten. But again we have greater intensity in the judgment than in the trumpet series, for “ Power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give Him glory.” The sun is the supreme source of light, and this implies that that which should have been for man’s comfort becomes a curse instead, and the means of his bitter suffering. But, though their anguish is so great, men are not brought to repentance by punishment. God’s name is blasphemed, and His creatures refuse to give Him glory. This is a solemn consideration for those who teach that punishment is really only chastisement, and is always corrective.

The next section intensifies this in a remarkable way. For, when the fifth angel empties his bowl upon the seat of the Beast, thus smiting the last great confederation at its center, filling his kingdom with darkness, we read that “they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.” Darkness and anguish do not tend to soften men’s hearts, or to lead them to confess their sins. Their very suffering but stirs them up to blaspheme God the more. And so, in the outer darkness of a lost eternity, our Lord has told us there shall not only be weeping and wailing because of suffering endured, but there will be the gnashing of teeth, which implies rage and indignation against God. With permanency of character he who rejects Christ is guilty of eternal sin, and eternal punishment necessarily follows.

At the sounding of the fifth angel’s trumpet, we were told “the bottomless pit was opened, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit” (chap. 9:2). This, doubtless, explains the darkness that fills the kingdom of the Beast when the fifth angel’s bowl of wrath is poured upon the seat of the Beast. It is judicial darkness brought about by demoniacal delusions.

We now come to a portion which has been very much before people in these past years of bloody warfare. Again and again the question has been raised whether this great world-war is the Armageddon conflict predicted in the Bible.

Teachers instructed by the Word have invariably assured anxious questioners that, while this war may be arranging the stage, if one may so speak, for Armageddon, it cannot be that great conflict itself. Armageddon is a definite locality in the land of Palestine. The word means “the mountain of Megiddo,” and it refers to the mountain that overlooks the valley of Esdraelon - the great plain of Jezreel in the northern part of the land of Palestine, which Napoleon Bonaparte said would make an ideal battleground for all the armies of the world. There, the last great battle is to be fought, just before the appearing of the Lord in glory. And this the sixth angel’s bowl introduces:


And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils (or, demons), working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon” (16:12-16).


The great river Euphrates was formerly the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire and later of the Turkish dominion, and it speaks, I believe, of the destruction of that power. Luther said, “When the Turk is driven out of Europe, then comes the day of judgment.” And, in a certain sense, this will undoubtedly be true - not the day of judgment for the wicked dead, but the day of judgment for the living nations. The Turk is an intruder in Europe, the enemy of both God and man; but I am convinced that his hold upon Constantinople and surrounding country is very nearly ended. God will drive the Ottoman Empire from Europe, * and punish that nation which has so well deserved the name of “The unspeakable Turk.”

* Since the above was written the Ottoman Empire has fallen and the Angora Republic taken its place.

The cry of martyred Armenia, and of other peoples who have suffered so fearfully from these Asiatic hordes, will be answered by the destruction of the nation that wrought such havoc. It is very evident, I think, that God is already beginning to bring this to pass. If you have a map of Europe of one hundred years ago, notice the place that the Turkish Empire then had, and compare it with a map of the present day, and see how much of its territory has been wrested from it.

Turkey, long known as “the sick man of Europe,” is sicker than ever now, and hanging on with the clutch of despair to one little corner of Europe; and I am convinced that it will not be long before he is driven out altogether. Then, according to the book of Daniel, he will “pitch his tent between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him” (11:45). Driven into Asia Minor, he will finally, I take it, attempt to establish himself in the land of Palestine. And this will arouse, not only the European powers in the league of the ten kingdoms, but it will stir up the eastern and northern nations besides. Turkey will, if I understand the prophetic scheme aright, be backed in the last days by Russia and, possibly Germany too, in opposition to the Western Confederation. Both these Great Powers will be anxious to hold the land of Palestine, which is admittedly the key to the so-called Eastern Question. But the activity of these European nations will arouse the races of the Far East, for, when the Euphrates is dried up, we are told it is “that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared.”

Who are the kings of the East? Various theories have been suggested. Some consider they may be the so-called lost ten tribes of Israel, returning to their land. Others, the dominions of Persia, Afghanistan, and so on. It is significant that the word rendered “the east” is really “the sunrising.” Is it only a coincidence that, for a millennium at least, Japan has been known as “the kingdom of the rising sun”? May not the Mongolian races, possibly allied with India, be the kings of the East, here depicted as coming in conflict with the powers of the West?

Thus the whole world will be thrown into bloody warfare, and all nations be gathered together against Jerusalem to battle. This great world-conflict will be the direct result of the working of demons, for we are told that three unclean frog-like spirits came out of the mouths of the dragon, the Beast, and the false prophet - demons working miracles, visiting the kingdoms of the earth (that is, the prophetic earth), and of the whole world (that is, the nations outside the prophetic earth), to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. This will be the great and final Armageddon conflict - the place where they will meet one another in an attempt to settle the final issues.

Notice that there is a parenthesis, however, in verse 15, which comes in just before the close of this section, and thus preceding the seventh bowl. It is the voice of the Lord Himself, “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” The time of His manifestation is very close. He would have those who look for His appearing watching, and keeping their garments undefiled, lest they be put to shame before the ungodly. The undefiled are those who keep themselves from all fellowship with the Satan-inspired movements of the last days, walking with God in holy separation from the abounding iniquity, as directed by His Word. The voice is for us as well as for the saints in a future day.

The seventh angel’s bowl is poured out into the air, and, we are told,


There came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great” (vers. 17-21).


This indicates the utter destruction of every spiritual and religious institution that man has built up apart from God. It is the absolute overthrow of civilization, and the complete wreck of all man’s hopes to bring in even livable conditions in this world, while rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. The scene is one of anarchy and confusion, but, despite the signs of divine wrath resting on the souls of men, they still blaspheme God, and give no sign of repentance.

Time forbids taking up great Babylon’s judgment to-night. It will, however, come before us in our next address.

In closing, let me remind you that the Church of God is to be caught up ere these scenes take place upon the earth. We are looking for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Saviour from the coming wrath. Do you know Him? If not, I plead with you in the light of all we have had before us, “Flee from the wrath to come.”

~ end of Lecture 17 ~***



Lecture 18 Babylon: Its Character and Doom

(Revelation 17)


I AM to address you to-night on a theme, the wonder of which grows upon me every time I speak of it, namely, the Mystery of Iniquity in its final form: Babylon the Great. It is that vast system of error which is so like Christianity in some respects that thousands of apparently spiritually-minded people like Fenelon, Pascal, Faber and others, have not been able to distinguish it from Christianity; yet, when tested by the Word of God it is seen to be but a counterfeit of that church which God has purchased with the blood of His own Son.

Twice already in the course of this book we have heard of Babylon’s fall, but as yet we have not learned what city or system was referred to. But the chapter now before us is entirely devoted to that interesting and solemn subject, and a careful study of what is here revealed ought to leave us free from all doubt or perplexity as to the identification of Babylon.

This chapter, and the one that follows, is another of the great parentheses of this book. Chronologically the 19th chapter immediately follows chapter 16; but ere going on with the direct order of events, John is taken aside as it were to see this remarkable vision of the false church, ere he beholds the union of the true church with the Lamb in the glory.

I ask your careful attention to the apostle’s own words as recorded in verses 1 to 6:


And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

And 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 and filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration (or, amazement).”


I have quoted this somewhat lengthy portion in full that we may have the complete description before us. The beast is beyond question the same as that of chapter 13, and is therefore indubitably the Roman Empire. It is the empire as a whole, but with the last phase especially emphasized. The woman is a religious system, who dominates the civil power, at least for a time. The name upon her forehead should easily enable us to identify her. But in order to do that we will do well to go back to our Old Testament, and see what is there revealed concerning literal Babylon, for the one will surely throw light upon the other. We have also the added instruction of secular history which supplies us with some very important facts in this connection, and throws a flood of light upon the succession of spiritual Babylon of the Apocalypse to literal Babylon of the Old Testament.

As we go back into the dim twilight of history with Scripture, we learn that the founder of Babel, or Babylon, was Nimrod, of whose unholy achievements we read in the 10th chapter of Genesis. He was the arch-apostate of the patriarchal age. He is described as “a mighty hunter before the Lord”, “a hunter of the souls of men,” the rabbis said. Going out from the presence of the Lord, he impiously sought to gather a multitude about himself, and, in defiance of the express command of God to spread abroad upon the face of the earth, he persuaded his associates and followers to join together in “building a city and a tower which should reach unto heaven” (Gen. 11:4) Not surely, as some of us were taught in our childhood, a tower by which they might climb up into the skies to escape another possible flood, but a tower of renown, rising to a great height, to be recognized as a temple or rallying center for those who did not walk in obedience to the word of the Lord. With all the effrontery of our modern apostates, they called their city and tower Babel, the gate of God; but it was soon changed by divine judgment into Babel, Confusion. It bore the stamp of unreality from the first, for we are told “they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.” An imitation of that which is real and true has ever since characterized Babylon, in all ages.

Nimrod, or Nimrod-bar-Cush, as he is called on the monuments, was a grandson of Ham, the unworthy son of Noah, whose character is revealed in his exposure of his father’s shame. We know that Noah had brought through the flood the revelation of the true God, for he was a preacher of righteousness, and his utterances on more than one occasion show that he had the prophetic gift. Ham on the other hand seems to have been all too readily affected by the apostasy that brought the flood, for he shows no evidence of self-judgment, but the very opposite. His name, as spelled out upon Egyptian monuments, is Khem, and this agrees with the literal sound of the Hebrew word rendered Ham in our Bibles. It means “swarthy,” “darkened,” or, more literally, “the sunburnt.” And the name indicates the state of the man’s soul. For what is a sunburnt person? One who is darkened by light from heaven. Ham had been granted wonderful mercies, he was saved from the flood because of his father’s faith; but he abused his privileges and “turned the grace of God into lasciviousness.” He was actually darkened by the burning rays of the light that God caused to shine upon his soul. Thus his conscience became seared as with a hot iron, and he became the founder of a race that departed from the living God and led the way into idolatry, worshiping and serving the creature more than the Creator.

We know something of what this means. We speak of people to-day who have become, as we say, gospel-hardened. They too have been darkened by the light, and they are often the ringleaders in apostasy: “If the light that is in thee become darkened, how great is that darkness” (Matt. 6:33). There are many in the world to-night, who used to listen with tears in their eyes to the story of the matchless grace of God as revealed in the cross of Christ, but are unmoved now though that story be told never so tenderly; they have become hardened in their sins, and their seared consciences no longer feel the Spirit’s breath. It is a most dangerous thing to trifle with light from heaven.

But to proceed with our theme. Ham became darkened by the light. We know his failure and sin. But when Noah had recovered himself and knew what his son had done unto him he pronounced, by the spirit of prophecy, a curse upon Canaan, not on Ham. Do you wonder at that? I did, until I saw that God had already pronounced a blessing upon all the three sons of Noah - Shem, Ham and Japheth. So Noah passes over his unworthy son and utters a curse upon Canaan, who we can well believe was, as we say, “a chip off the old block.” Ham begat a son named Cush, “the black one,” and he became the father of Nimrod, the apostate leader of his generation.

Ancient lore now comes to our assistance, and tells us that the wife of Nimrod-bar-Cush was the infamous Semiramis the First. She is reputed to have been the foundress of the Babylonian mysteries and the first high-priestess of idolatry. Thus Babylon became the fountainhead of idolatry, and the mother of every heathen and pagan system in the world. The mystery-religion that was there originated spread in various forms throughout the whole earth, and, as we shall see in a few minutes, it is with us to-day: it is identical with the mystery of iniquity which wrought so energetically in Paul’s day, and shall have its fullest development when the Holy Spirit has departed and the Babylon of the Apocalypse holds sway.

Building on the primeval promise of the woman’s Seed who was to come, Semiramis bore a son whom she declared was miraculously conceived and when she presented him to the people, he was hailed as the promised deliverer. This was Tammuz, whose worship Ezekiel protested against in the days of the captivity. Thus was introduced the mystery of the mother and the child, a form of idolatry that is older than any other known to man. The rites of this worship were secret. Only the initiated were permitted to know its mysteries. It was Satan’s effort to delude mankind with an imitation so like the truth of God that they would not know the true Seed of the woman when He came in the fullness of time. To this Justin Martyr bears definite witness.

From Babylon this mystery-religion spread to all the surrounding nations, as the years went on and the world was populated by the descendants of Noah. Everywhere the symbols were the same, and everywhere the cult of the mother and the child became the popular system; their worship was celebrated with the most disgusting and immoral practices.

The image of the queen of heaven with the babe in her arms was seen everywhere, though the names might differ as languages differed. It became the mystery-religion of Phoenicia, and by the Phoenicians was carried to the ends of the earth. Ashtoreth and Tammuz, the mother and child of these hardy adventurers, became Isis and Horus in Egypt, Aphrodite and Eros in Greece, Venus and Cupid in Italy, and bore many other names in more distant places. Within 1000 years Babylonianism had become the religion of the world, which had rejected the Divine revelation.

Linked with this central mystery were countless lesser mysteries, the hidden meaning of which was known only to the initiates, but the outward forms were practiced by all the people. Among these were the doctrines of: - purgatorial purification after death, - salvation by countless sacraments such as priestly absolution, - sprinkling with holy water, - the offering of round cakes to the queen of heaven as mentioned in the book of Jeremiah, - dedication of virgins to the gods, which was literally sanctified prostitution, - weeping for Tammuz for a period of 40 days. Prior to the great festival of Istar, who was said to have received her son back from the dead - for it was taught that Tammuz was slain by a wild boar and afterwards brought back to life. To him the egg was sacred, as depicting the mystery of his resurrection, even as the evergreen was his chosen symbol and was set up in honor of his birth at the winter solstice, when a boar’s head was eaten in memory of his conflict and a Yule-log burned with many mysterious observances. The sign of the cross was sacred to Tammuz, as symbolizing the life-giving principle and as the first letter of his name. It is represented upon vast numbers of the most ancient altars and temples, and did not, as many have supposed, originate with Christianity. From this mystery-religion.

The patriarch Abraham was separated by the divine call; and with this same evil cult the nation that sprang from him had constant conflict, until under Jezebel, a Phoenician princess, it was grafted onto what was left of the religion of Israel in the northern kingdom in the day of Ahab, and was the cause of their captivity at the last. Judah was polluted by it, for Baal worship was but the Canaanitish form of the Babylonian mysteries, and only by being sent into captivity to Babylon itself did Judah become cured of her fondness for idolatry. Baal was the Sun-God, the Life-giving One, identical with Tammuz.

When Christ came into this world the mystery of iniquity was everywhere holding sway, save where the truth of God as revealed in the Old Testament was known. Thus, when the early Christians set out upon the great task of carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth, they found themselves everywhere confronted by this system in one form or another; for though Babylon as a city had long been but a memory, her mysteries had not died with her. When the city and temples were destroyed. the high-priest fled with a company of initiates and their sacred vessels and images to Pergamos, where the symbol of the serpent was set up as the emblem of the hidden wisdom. From there, they afterwards crossed the sea and emigrated to Italy, where they settled in the Etruscan plain. There the ancient cult was propagated under the name of the Etruscan Mysteries, and eventually Rome became the headquarters of Babylonianism.

The chief priests wore mitres shaped like the head of a fish, in honor of Dagon, the fish-god, the Lord of life - another form of the Tammuz mystery, as developed among Israel’s old enemies, the Philistines. The chief priest when established in Rome took the title Pontifex Maximus, and this was imprinted on his mitre. When Julius Cesar (who, like all young Romans of good family, was an initiate) had become the head of the State, he was elected Pontifex Maximus, and this title was held henceforth by all the Roman emperors down to Constantine the Great, who was, at one and the same time, head of the church and high priest of the heathen! The title was afterwards conferred upon the bishops of Rome, and is borne by the pope to-day, who is thus declared to be, not the successor of the fisherman-apostle Peter, but the direct successor of the high priest of the Babylonian mysteries, and the servant of the fish god Dagon, for whom he wears, like his idolatrous predecessors, the fisherman’ s ring.

During the early centuries of the church’s history, the mystery of iniquity had wrought with such astounding effect, and Babylonian practices and teachings had been so largely absorbed by that which bore the name of the church of Christ, that the truth of the Holy Scriptures on many points had been wholly obscured, while idolatrous practices had been foisted upon the people as Christian sacraments, and heathen philosophies took the place of gospel instruction. Thus was developed that amazing system which for a thousand years dominated Europe and trafficked in the bodies and souls of men, until the great Reformation of the 16th century brought in a measure of deliverance. It was this that filled the apostle with such amazement. It seemed incredible that the glorious movement with which he had been identified for a generation should ever become so perverted as to become the mother of harlots and of every abomination, and should even become the slaughterer of the saints of God and the martyrs of Jesus. But her bloody history during the dark days of persecution bears awful witness to the truth of the vision. The angel, however, goes on to show that the future has more marvellous things in store than we should otherwise have dared to imagine; for no past period of Rome’s history fully answers to what is brought before us in the rest of the chapter.

We hear a great deal about the desirability of church-federation at the present time, but men seem to forget, or never to have known, that it is God Himself who has rent Christendom asunder because of her unfaithfulness and apostasy. We are told that it would be a most excellent thing if the different denominations of Protestants could be united in one great body, and then join hands with the three so-called Catholic churches - Anglican, Greek and Roman. It is pointed out that such a vast union church could dominate the world, and besides it would make for such increased efficiency, and would simplify the financial problems which have so troubled and perplexed our boards and officials for so long. But we need to remember that such a union as this would not be the body of Christ at all. It would simply be a worldly confederacy of saved and unsaved - just great Babylon over again. The body of Christ remains undivided in spite of Christendom’s unhappy schisms, for it is composed of all truly saved people who have by the Spirit’s baptism been made one in Christ. While outward unity is desirable, it would not be a blessing if at the expense of the truth.

But we must now consider the angel’s interpretation of the vision. He said to John,


Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell upon the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is” (vers. 7, 8).


We have already seen in our study of the 13th chapter that this Beast sets forth the Roman Empire as revived in a Satan-inspired league of nations after the church dispensation is over. This will be a very different thing to any league that may be formed in our times, and which may result from the recent war, while the church is still here. The federation of the future will be utterly godless and God-defiant. When that league is formed it will be but natural that a confederacy of all religious systems be wrought out, and this too will be satanic in character. It will be a union of Christless professors, inheriting all the human and demoniacal mysteries of Babylon. In other words all sects will be swallowed up in the one distinctively Babylonish system that has ever maintained the cult of the mother and the child. This system will for the first part of the tribulation period dominate the civil power. Thus the woman will be in the saddle again and ride the beast! He who has eyes to see and a heart to understand can readily discern the preparations now in progress, with this very end in view.

From verses 9 to 11 we learn the identity of the city where Babylon has her seat, and also that it is when the final form of the empire appears that she will attain the position of pre-eminence that she has sought so long. Rome alone answers to the description given. On a previous occasion we saw that the eighth head, who is of the seven, is the last great world-ruler who will dominate the League of Nations in the time of the end, and whose capital will be the so-called eternal city.

It would seem however from verses 12 to 14 that the other ten kings act in fullest harmony with the Beast; and this completely nullifies the theory that the vision refers to any past history of the nations into which the Roman Empire was divided. Never have they thus acted in unison, but Europe has ever been a scene of conflicting nations and warring powers since the break-up of the Empire itself. It is to the future we must look for a time when the ten kings shall receive power one hour with the Beast. Then they will impiously make war with the Lamb only to be overcome by Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords.

The similitude of the waters is explained for us in verse 15: “The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples and multitudes, and nations and tongues.” Over all nations has Babylon borne sway in the past, deceiving them with the wine of her fornication. Over all nations will she again bear rule, until wearied with her blandishments, the world, whose favor she courted, will spurn her at last. For the angel continues his explanation of the mystery by saying,


And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked. and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth” (vers. 16-18).


There is no mistaking her identity. Pagan Rome was the lineal successor of Babylon. Papal Rome absorbed the Babylonian mysteries; and the Rome of the Beast in the last days will be the seat of the revived satanic system that began with Nimrod and his infamous consort Semiramis, which has from that day to this been opposed to everything that is of God; and which changed the truth of God into a lie, worshiping and serving the creature more than the Creator.

Babylon of old, as we have seen, was the mother of idolatry. In Jeremiah 50:38 we read, “It is the land of graven images; they are mad upon their idols.” It was she who taught the nations to substitute idolatry for spiritual worship, and to-day one-third of Christendom has followed her in the adoration of images, and another third worships icons, or pictures. There can be no question as to the Babylonish origin of these abominations. Nothing of the kind was known in the churches of God until the heathen mysteries were grafted unto Christianity. The images of the mother and child that are enshrined in Rome’s temples are only different in name to the images worshiped in the groves and temples of Semiramis, Ashtoreth, Isis, and other so-called “queens of heaven.” In many instances the old idols were simply re-named and adored as before. There is in one place in southern Europe a statue of Apollo, the sun-god, identical with Tammuz and Baal, which is worshiped by deluded Romanists as St. Apollos; and the S is carved upon the pedestal by a later hand than the original name!

The mother of the Lord Jesus Christ assumed no such place among the early Christians as she has now been given in Rome’s mysteries. She is seen as a lowly worshiper, and as joining with others in prayer, in Acts 2; and this is the last mention of her in Scripture. Of the fable of her assumption and crowning as Queen of Heaven the Bible gives no hint. It is Babylonianism pure and simple.

The word of the Lord to His people of old is most instructive for us now in the light of all we have been going over.


Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul; be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; He will render unto her a recompense. Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain. if so be she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon. but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies” (Jeremiah 51:6-9).


It is a lamentable fact that Babylon’s principles and practices are rapidly but surely pervading the churches that escaped from Rome at the time of the Reformation. We may see evidences of it in the wide use of high-sounding ecclesiastical titles, once unknown in the reformed churches, in the revival of holy days and church feasts such as Lent, Good Friday, Easter and Christ’ Mass, or, as it is generally written, Christmas. I quite admit that some of these festivals if divested of any ecclesiastical character may be observed in innocence in the home, but when they are turned into church festivals they certainly come under the condemnation of Galatians 4:9-11, where the Holy Spirit warns against the observance of days and months and times and seasons. All of them, and many more that might be added are Babylonish in their origin, and were at one time linked with the Ashtoreth and Tammuz mysteryworship.

It is through Rome that they have come down to us; and we do well to remember that Babylon is a mother, with daughters who are likely to partake of their mother’s characteristics, for is it not written, “As is the mother so is the daughter”? Therefore it behooves all who love the Lord and desire His approbation to “depart from iniquity” (2Tim 2:19), and seek to “follow righteousness, faith, love and peace with them that call upon Him out of a pure heart” (v. 22).

We shall have a fuller account of Babylon’s doom in our next study, and shall perhaps see some things more clearly which we could not well go into in detail to-night.

Note: To those who desire to make a fuller investigation of Babylonianism, I commend Alexander Hislop’s monumental work, “The Two Babylons,” to which I am indebted for many of the above facts.

~ end of Lecture 18 ~***




Lecture 19 Babylon: Its Character and Doom ( Concluded)

(Revelation 18:1 - 19:1-5)


IN my last address I sought to identify the Babylon of the Apocalypse, and to show just how it was linked with Babylon of old, the literal city in the land of the Chaldeans on the plain of Shinar. Tonight we have more details as to its unholy character and its awful doom. We also get a better idea of the marvelous way in which its principles have permeated the very warp and woof of civilization, affecting the entire civil and commercial fabric of the age in which we live, all of which must be destroyed in order to prepare the way for a higher and happier condition of society to be ushered in at the Lord’s return. We read:


And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils (demons) and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies” (vers. 1-3).


This, I take it, synchronizes with the second angel’s message of chapter 14:8, and introduces the judgment of the seventh vial as foretold in chapter 16:19. Babylon will therefore continue up to the very end of the tribulation period; its destruction by the Beast and his ten kings being a last frantic effort to rid themselves of this dreadful incubus, just before they are destroyed by the appearing of the Lord in glory. The Antichrist will be the pretended incarnation of the woman’s Seed and will be accepted as such by apostate Christendom and apostate Judaism. Thus Satan’s masterpiece will seem to carry all before it; but only until the true Seed of the woman appears from heaven, descending with all His holy ones, to the consternation of His enemies and the joy of His suffering saints, the persecuted remnant of Israel and those from among the nations who will receive their testimony in that day. Not, be it again observed, people who in this present dispensation of grace have refused the message of the gospel, but those to whom that message will not have gone until after the rapture of the church. To this, II Thessalonians chap. 2 bears a clear and convincing testimony.

The description of fallen Babylon as the habitation of demons and the hold of evil spirits and a cage of unclean birds is a most graphic one, and strikingly depicts the horrible end of the apostasy. That which professes to be the spouse of Christ, and which issues its ofttimes blasphemous decrees as under the direction of the Spirit of God, is seen to be but a Sataninspired and demon-directed system, where every unholy thing flourishes, where evil men can find shelter and are protected in the promulgation of their evil doctrines and practices. To this the papacy has fully answered in the past, and its character remains unchanged to this present hour. It would be practically impossible to find a viler history than that of the medieval popes and their emissaries. It was a Roman Catholic writer who said of this period, “The annals of the church are the annals of hell.”

The proverb, “The corruption of the best thing is the worst of corruptions “ is strikingly illustrated in the history of the church. It seems almost impossible to believe that the church to which the apostle Paul addressed his Epistle could, in a few centuries, degenerate into the Roman church as now known. But this is the mystery of Babylon, as we have already seen. And a more amazing thing, if that were possible, is the solemn fact that the Reformation churches, once delivered from this vile system. should now hopefully look for reconciliation with it, so readily be able to forget its dreadful past, and overlook its present wicked pretensions! We in America, and our brethren in Britain, see Rome at its best, for men do not readily do in the light what they will do in the dark. But, as it has been said, “Character is what a man is in the dark,” and we may test this system by the same principle. If, then, you want to know the true character of Romanism, go to the lands where the light of Reformation has barely penetrated; look at the countries south of us, to the great Latin-American republics, where the papacy has borne sway and poisoned the morals of the people for centuries. There you will see the results of Babylonianism unchecked by enlightened Christianity. What a horrible cesspool of iniquity it is, let those tell who have seen it for themselves. There idolatry reigns in most abhorrent form, and the gospel is a proscribed teaching, which would be absolutely prohibited had the church full power as in the days of old.

In the Old Testament, idolatry is branded as spiritual fornication. In the New Testament it is the unhallowed union of the church and the world. We see both in this evil system. Who is so unblushingly idolatrous as Rome? And who has so persistently courted the world’s favor as she? And even now we may see how brazenly she is coquetting with the kings of the earth, and by her blandishments endeavoring once more to win their admiration and attentions. Nor will she stop until the scarlet woman again rides the Beast - until the church dominates the State.

Subtly she is enlarging her sphere of influence. By devious ways she seeks to “make America catholic,” and undo the work of the Reformation in England. She largely controls a venal press, and even the theatre, which, alas, is all the church some people attend, is being pressed into her service. I am told on good authority that it is becoming more and more common, both on the regular stage and in the picture-palaces, to caricature Protestant ministers, and to introduce on suitable occasions representations of Romish priests and nuns in a most attractive and solemn way. All this is part of a studied and far-reaching propaganda that is insidiously working in our midst to turn this nation Romewards.

Commercialism has always flourished under the patronage of the popes, and this is another powerful weapon that Rome knows well how to use. Commerce is the goddess of the present feverish age, and to her everything must be sacrificed. And the Babylon of the future is not only a great church, but a great commercial system as well, for to her men will finally turn for the solution of the problems that now perplex them. How largely is union labor to-day under the power of Rome! And while she is the professed enemy of socialism, she delights to be regarded as the patron of the working-classes on the one hand, and as the protector of capital on the other. She has a veritable genius for the commercial. “In Rome,” cried Luther, “they sell everything. They would sell the Father, and sell the Son, and sell the Holy Ghost.” The stamp of simony is on her brow, and it behooves all who would glorify God to avoid her principles and flee from “the error of Balaam” (Jude 11).

The call of verse 4 is, if I understand it aright, not merely a warning to saints in a coming day who may be in danger of being deceived by her, but it is a message for all who even now discern her true character: “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Separation from evil is imperative for all who would have the Lord’s approval. This was the call heard by the reformers of the 16th century. But, alas, alas, many who are supposed to be their successors have returned in spirit to that which their fathers left behind, and there is many a Babylonish garment to-day hidden in Protestant tents, or even displayed upon Protestant shoulders. How else are we to account for the widespread return to principles and practices once abhorrent to those whose boast it was that “The Bible and the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants.” Where that Bible is losing its hold upon the consciences of the people (because its inspiration and authority is being so widely denied by those who have solemnly sworn to teach it and defend it) we need not wonder that Babylonish ways and teachings are coming into vogue again. Men want something stable, something infallible; and if they cannot have the infallible Word of the living God they will turn to a professedly infallible church.

But the hour of God’s judgment draws on apace. He will not forever be a silent spectator of all these abominations. Soon He will pour out the bowls of His wrath upon spiritual Babylon as He did of old upon the city of idolatry on the Euphrates,


For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Then will go forth the sentence, “Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works; in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow” (vers. 6, 7).


A comparison of the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah in regard to the fall of ancient Babylon will show how plainly the doom of the spiritual counterpart is there prefigured. In several instances the same identical figures are used, and this has led some commentators to suppose that the doom of the literal city was not final; and so it is taught by some that Babylon is to be rebuilt on her ancient site, to flourish for a few years as the religious and commercial metropolis of the world, only to be again destroyed, and that finally, at, or immediately preceding the Lord’s second coming. These teachers generally agree in making this restored Babylon the seat of the Antichrist, whom they, as a rule, identify with the future world-emperor. But I think we have already shown that a careful comparison of the Old and New Testament Scriptures on these subjects make this view untenable. The city of old has fallen to rise no more. The system that succeeded it is to be judged by God and destroyed as literally as her predecessor, according to the word now before us: “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her” (ver. 8).

And we learn that although God will use the ten kings and the Beast to bring this about, yet they will themselves bewail her fall, when they find to their horror that the whole fabric of civilization is falling with her. Something like this was seen in the days of the French Revolution, and has been seen in measure in other lands of late. With the destruction of the church, no matter how corrupt, came the breaking up of all social barriers and a flood of anarchy and violence seemed likely to involve the entire nation in ruin, so that even Napoleon the First saw the necessity of reestablishing the church though largely shorn of its power - on the ground that a poor religion is better than none at all in holding the masses in restraint.

We can readily understand therefore how Babylon’s fall will send a thrill of horror through all who have been in any way linked with her, causing the kings of the earth who have enjoyed her favor to bewail her and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning. Standing afar off, they cry, “Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.”

It would seem that, coincident with the fall of the system, comes the fall of the city where she has had her seat; and that, by some act of God, perhaps such as a great earthquake, will be forever destroyed that proud and haughty capital which has borne the title of “The Eternal City” for two millenniums, but whose doom is sure because of her impiety and hateful pride.

It is a well-known fact that all southern Italy is of a peculiarly volcanic character. The very soil seems to be “stored with fire,” to use a Scriptural phrase which is applied in II Peter 3:7 (literal rendering) to the heavens and earth as a whole. In a very remarkable manner is this true of the vicinity of Rome, and it may yet prove to be the means of its complete destruction. In such a case the words “the smoke of her burning” may be far more literal than some have supposed.

This seems to be intensified in the lament of the merchants of the earth in verses l1 to 19. It is a magnificent elegy, and deserves more careful consideration than our limited time will permit. It pictures the destruction of the great commercial system that men are building up with such painstaking care, and which some fondly look upon as the panacea for all the disturbances that have wrought such distress among the nations. How often was it said before the outbreak of the great world-war that labor would not fight and that capital dare not. It was claimed that there was too much at stake; but how false have all such predictions proved. We may however be assured that when it is over, for a time, a tremendous effort will be put forth to build up a financial system that will be world-embracive and that will unite the nations in the bonds of commercial self-interest so securely that the danger of such another world-conflict will be at an end. We know that all such schemes are doomed to disappointment, for the prophetic word has clearly foretold their failure. There can be no lasting peace until the Prince of Peace becomes the Governor among the nations.

And so we are permitted in this present portion of our book to stand by as it were, and look on as Babylon falls, and to hear her merchants bewailing her doom and their own tremendous losses. As her merchandise is tabulated, now with none to buy, we notice among the precious things mentioned are the bodies and souls of men. And this is the awful thing about Babylon. She has made merchandise of the bodies and souls of her dupes, who, turning away from the rich grace revealed in the gospel, have sought to purchase what God was freely offering, only to find at last that they have sold their souls to a cruel and avaricious system that is conscienceless, and remorseless as the grave. How fearful must be the accounting at the judgment bar of God of those responsible for such terrible deceptions!

No wonder Babylon’s fall brings joy in heaven, though it involves the earth-dwellers in selfish sorrow. “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her” (ver. 20). She had shed their blood like water, but the vengeance of God, though it seems to slumber long, shall awaken at last, and every upright soul will justify God when He visits her in His wrath and indignation with the judgments here symbolized.

The figure used in Jeremiah 51:63 is repeated in depicting this end. A mighty angel is seen casting into the sea a great stone, like a tremendous millstone (fit symbol indeed of that mysterious power which had crushed the nations and ground the saints of God beneath it for so long); he cast it into the sea, crying,


Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived” (vers. 21-23).


How solemnly do the angel’s words fall on the ear, and how solemnly do they contrast with the lamentations of the merchants of the earth, whose only grief is that no man buyeth their merchandise any more.

It is the destruction of the greatest schemes and works of man, to make way for that which has been in the mind of God and promised through His prophets from the beginning of the world. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and builded a city, after the murder of his brother Abel. This was the beginning of man’s boasted civilization.


- All the arts and sciences had their origin there.

- There were artificers in brass and iron.

- Trade and barter, the pursuit of the unrighteous mammon began there; - and there too dwelt those who handled the harp and the organ.


Music charmed the weary sons of Cain as they sought to make themselves happy and this world attractive apart from God. The Lord blotted all this out in the deluge, but it is evident that Ham, Noah’s son, had learned the same ways.

In his family the world as an ordered system of things, apart from God, had a new beginning. Nimrod builded a city and a tower, as we have seen, and it became the mother-city from whence others went out and built a civilization, godless and selfish. That system eventually crucified the Lord of Glory, and His accusation was written above Him in Hebrew, the language of religion, Greek, the language of culture, and Latin, the language of world-politics - the world, as such, arrayed against God and His Christ. And this is the world which is to reach its culmination in Babylon the Great, presided over by the greatest geniuses that earth has ever produced, only to be judged by God because of its inveterate enmity to everything holy, and its constant rejection of His Son. Its downfall will prepare the way for the establishment of the kingdom of God and the reign of righteousness and peace, for which humanity has sighed so long. Man’s city must fall to give place to the city of God which shall stand forever. Therefore the joy in heaven at Babylon’s destruction. “And in her,” that is, in Babylon, “was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” This closing verse of chapter 18, I think, should make it manifest that while, as I have been trying to show, Rome is the inheritor of the mysteries of ancient Babylon, it also is a worldinclusive system of apostasy. This, and this alone, fully meets the requirements of this last verse. When God makes inquisition for blood, He finds it all shed by this guilty thing, Babylon the Great. For, had man not gone out from the presence of the Lord, this earth would never have been stained with human blood; brotherhood and righteousness would everywhere have prevailed. Babylon therefore is guilty of all the corruption and violence that have darkened the history of the human race; it caused the death of the Christ of God Himself. May grace be given to all to whom this message comes to “flee from the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul” (Jer. 51:6).

In the opening verses of the 19th chapter we are given another look into heaven, and permitted to note the exultation that the judgment of the great harlot causes up there:


And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia! 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 harlot, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia! And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four living ones fell down and Worshiped God that sat Upon the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia!” (vers. 1-4).


All the redeemed of every age, who when on earth knew something of this awful power of iniquity, will then rejoice that it is forever overthrown. This is the last time the twenty-four elders are seen in the book. The symbol changes in the next section, and the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, takes its place. The elders represent the heavenly saints as a worshiping company of holy and royal priests. But when the harlot-church is off the scene, the true bride appears and the elders are never again mentioned. It is noteworthy that on this their last appearance, as upon their first in chapter 4, they are seen in the attitude of worship. They adore the Lamb as Creator and as Redeemer in chapter 4, and here they adore God as moral Governor of the universe, for the display of His righteous judgment.

In response to their note of praise comes a voice from the throne itself, saying, “Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great.” This concludes the solemn and soul-stirring portion under consideration, in which the character and doom of the great mystery of Babylon have been so vividly portrayed. Happier scenes lie before us; scenes, however, that could only be introduced by the judgment of that which had so grievously departed from the living God. Happy will it be for us if we learn to judge, not only the unclean system we have been dwelling upon, but every tendency in ourselves to partake of its spirit.

~ end of Lecture 19 ~***




Lecture 20 The Two Suppers

(Revelation 19:6-21)


WE are to be occupied with two opposite scenes on this occasion; one of which is to take place very shortly in heaven, and the other on earth. Both are called Suppers. The one is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The other is the Great Supper of God. The first is all joy and gladness. The second is a scene of deepest gloom and anguish. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb ushers in the fulness of glory for the heavenly saints. The Great Supper of God concludes the series of judgments that are to fall upon the prophetic earth, and opens the way for the establishment of the long-waited-for kingdom of God.

When I use the term “the prophetic earth,” I refer to the Roman earth; that is, to that portion of the world which lies within what were once the confines of the Roman Empire, and in addition to this, that part of the world where Babylon will hold sway at the time of the end. As I understand it, the heathen nations that have not yet taken professedly Christian ground will not be included in the scene upon which God’s heaviest judgments will fall, though necessarily all the world will suffer in measure when Christendom and Judaism are visited by the fires of His wrath. “The day of God’s red heavens” will be world-wide, but its intensity will be upon the prophetic earth.

After the harlot Babylon has passed out of the vision of the apostle, his attention is transferred to heaven, and he tells us:


I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready” (vers. 6, 7).


The hour for the heavenly nuptials will then have struck. Who is the bride, or the wife of the Lamb, thus mentioned for the first time? Is this special dignity the portion of Israel, or is it that of the church of the present dispensation? Both views have been advocated by godly and able teachers, and one should perhaps speak with diffidence when dwelling on a theme concerning which there has been so much controversy.

In the Old Testament Israel certainly is the wife of The Lord; but is this the same thing as “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”? Are there not revealed in these two expressions two different glories - the one to be manifested on earth, the other in heaven? It seems very plain to me that the Marriage Supper of the Lamb takes place in heaven just before the Lamb descends with all His saints to take His great power and reign. When He reigns His Bride will reign with Him. And this is certainly the church, which He has called out of the world for that very purpose. There will be other heavenly saints, as we know, but these are distinguished for us from the Bride.

It also seems clear that there is a very real difference between the wife of The Lord (now put away for her sins, but to be owned by God as His own in the day of her repentance) and the heavenly bride of the Lamb, the incarnate Son, now espoused as a chaste virgin unto her absent Lord, and waiting for her marriage nuptials till He calls her home. But some have objected to this, to use their own words, as a kind of spiritual polygamy. My answer would be that where we are only speaking in figures the objection does not apply, and the church which is His body is distinctly identified with His wife, in Ephesians 5:30-32, otherwise the figures there used become meaningless. So it seems plain that we are warranted in viewing Israel as the earthly bride, and the church as the heavenly bride, both alike dear to His heart who purchased them with His precious blood, but each having a special character of her own.

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb is the time of displayed glory, when the results of the judgment seat of Christ will be fully manifest in the saints. That event itself, as we have seen, takes place immediately after the rapture of the church, for the Lord’s word is clear as to this, “Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Rev 22:12). But the full manifestation of the saints in the same glory with their Head and Lord, their heavenly Bridegroom, can only be after the false church has been exposed and judged; then the Lamb’s marriage day shall come And so we are told, concerning the Bride, that “to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (ver. 8). It is well known to students of the language that the word rendered “righteousness” in this verse is in the plural, and should therefore be understood as “righteousnesses,” or “righteous acts.” It is not imputed righteousness that is here in view, nor the believer being made the righteousness of God in Christ. It is that which we have already seen in connection with the elders: the fine linen sets forth the righteous acts of the saints themselves, right-doing while here on earth, which the judgment-seat of Christ will make manifest, and which will form the wedding-garment of the bride on her nuptial day.

In the light of this Scripture we may well be exercised as to our own ways. Are you, dear fellowbeliever, preparing any fine linen for that coming day? You are familiar with the thought of the prospective bride’s hope-chest. How interested the engaged damsel is in preparing beautiful and spotless articles of wearing apparel in view of her wedding day. May I say that we too have a spiritual hope chest to fill? Everything that is really done for Christ is something added to that bridal chest. Some of us, I am afraid, will have rather a poor supply. The wedding garments are to be prepared here on earth, as the Spirit of God Himself works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. Let us not be neglectful of this, for the time is short, and the night cometh when no man can work. It is true that even our very best deeds, our most devoted service, all need to be washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb; but He will not fail to value aright and to richly reward everything that was for His own glory in our poor straitened lives. But all that is done for self, all that springs from unholy motives, will disappear in that day; while that which was the result of His Spirit working within us will abide forever to His praise and glory, and for our own eternal joy, as we see what pleasure we have given Him.

But we must now pass on to verse 9. “And He saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they that are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” Here we have a class who are certainly to be distinguished from the Bride. These are all friends of the Bridegroom, who rejoice in His joy and share in His gladness. I understand them to be the Old Testament saints and the tribulation saints, who, though they form no part of the church, are sharers in the heavenly glory; and these are pictured as the guests at the wedding who participate in the general gladness of the occasion, and whose presence, too, adds to the happiness of the Bride and Groom. Thus we have a scene of unalloyed delight and holy mirth, a mirth that shall never have an ending, for sin shall never enter there to destroy that hallowed joy.

So ravished and enraptured was John’s heart as this vision passed before him that he tells us he fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed him these things, only to be rebuked for his grave mistake by the glorious messenger, who cried, “See thou do it not; I am a fellowservant with thyself and thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Our Lord Himself, because He was God, received worship and blessed the worshiper in the case of Thomas when convinced of His resurrection; but the angel scrupulously refuses what belongs to Deity alone.

But the rapidly changing prophetic pictures hurry us on, and time too does not stay. So we ask. What will follow the Marriage Supper of the Lamb? What will be the next great event? Verses l1 to 16, which I must quote in full, will give the answer.


And I saw heaven opened” (and this is the last of those wondrous ‘openings’ to which I drew attention in a previous lecture), “and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns (or, diadems); and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”


How the heart thrills and the pulses bound as we read this description of the descending Christ of God and His saints! It is the coming of the Lord to the earth with His redeemed, as before we have been occupied with His coming to the air to rapture them to Himself.

You will remember that we read of a rider on a white horse when the first seal was broken: but that one did not come from heaven. He went forth on the earth and was of the earth; and his plans were doomed to disappointment. This rider comes from heaven and His plans shall never miscarry. And right here is the safety of the Christian. He knows that no future earth-born man can ever be the Christ for whom the Word has taught him to wait. Jesus came once in lowly guise, born of a woman, albeit a virgin; He comes again, descending from heaven, and all who come in any other way saying “I am Christ” are but deceivers and antichrists. “As it is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time, without sin (or, apart from sin, having nothing to do with the sin-question), unto salvation” (Heb 9:28)

This is the appearing that is depicted here. It is the manifestation of the Son of God, to take vengeance on His enemies and to deliver His earthly people, who will be looking for Him with longing hearts and eager, anxious eyes.

The description of the descending Lord is most striking.


- He rides a white horse as the Prince of Peace.

- He is called Faithful and True, as in the message to the church in Laodicea.

- He comes to execute righteous judgment and thus to establish the divine authority over all the earth.

- His eyes as a flame of fire, tell, as in the vision of the Son of Man in the midst of the lampstands, of His readiness to detect and deal with all iniquity.

- The many diadems upon His head proclaim His authority over all the kingdoms of the earth.

- The reign of misrule is to end when He takes the sceptre, and all the crowns are given to Him.


A Name written that no man knew but He Himself” speaks of His essential glory as the Eternal Son, concerning which He declared that “no man knoweth the Son but the Father” (Matt. 11:27). The mystery of His glorious person is beyond all human ken. We sing, and rightly,


The Father only Thy blest name

Of Son can comprehend.”


His garments are to be reddened with the blood of His enemies, as we are told by the prophet Isaiah, but the vesture dipped in blood with which He is here seen clothed, is, I take it, like the rams’ skins, dyed red, in the tabernacle, the sign of His consecration unto death. It is His own blood that is here in view, the price of our redemption.

It is noteworthy that He is said to have three names.


- One, we have already seen, is beyond man’s comprehension.

- The second name is “The Word of God.” And we know what is involved in that: for it is as “the Word was made flesh” that He has revealed God to us.


That Word was spoken in time, of which we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1, 2). Here we have eternity of Being, one Substance with the Father, but distinct Personality - true Deity, and eternal Sonship. This was the Word unspoken; but when the Son became incarnate, God spoke in Him, according to the first chapter of Hebrews, and so we read, “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath revealed Him,” or, “told Him out.” This is just a little of what is involved in this second glorious name.

In order not to break the connection we might look now at the third name or title that He bears. In verse 16 we are told that “He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” This is His official title, and it belongs to Him as Son of Man, the rightful Heir of all things. Earth would not recognize His claims when He was here the first time, and in derision they crowned Him with thorns and gave Him a cross instead of a throne; but God is going to reverse all this soon. He is to “be exalted and extolled and be very high” (Isa. 52:13). All the kingdoms of earth are to be His and He will rule the nations with the iron rod of unswerving justice.

It will be noticed, then, that in these three names we have set forth:


- First, our Lord’s dignity as the Eternal Son.

- Second, His incarnation - the Word become flesh.

- And, lastly, His second advent to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.


The armies in heaven who follow Him comprise: (1) the church, which we have just seen as the Bride, (2) the saints of former dispensations, and (3) the tribulation saints who had been slain under the Beast and the Antichrist. All ride forth with Him, their now triumphant Lord, when He comes to take His great power and reign.

The sharp sword that proceeds from His mouth is His Word. This we have already seen in the first chapter, and we remember His warning to the church in Thyatira, that if there were no repentance He would fight against them with the sword of His mouth.

We are told that He treads the winepress of the wrath of God. The winepress is the figure of unsparing judgment. This we have also become familiar with in chapter 14. In Isaiah 63:1-6 we have a remarkable passage that bears on what we have here:


Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art Thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine fat? I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make· them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.”


This marvelous prophecy, which had a partial fulfilment in judgments meted out to Israel’s foes in the past, will have its complete fulfilment when the Lord comes the second time to tread the winepress of wrath, and to destroy all who are His own and His people’s foes, as depicted in the last part of our chapter.

From verse 17 to the end we have a graphic portrayal by the Master-Artist of the closing scene of judgment, “the supper of the great God.” An angel standing in the sun (for the source of light which seemed to be blotted out under the bowls of wrath is now seen resplendent in glory) summons the fowls of the air that fly in the midst of heaven to feast upon the flesh of the great ones of earth and their vast armies who are seen gathering together for the Armageddon conflict, the location of which we previously noticed.

The Beast is seen marshalling his hosts, and with him his blasphemous ally and satellite, the false prophet - that is, the Antichrist. The kings of the earth, with all their hordes, are hurrying to the fray, all combining in one last desperate effort to make successful war against the Lord Jesus Christ and everything that is of God. But like the hosts of Sennacherib of old, they are palsied and stricken by the blast of His mouth, and their armies become food for the birds of prey. It is an awful picture - the climax of man’s audacious resistance to God; a picture too that may fill the heart with gladness as it tells of the end of unrighteous rule on this planet, and the ushering in of the Golden Age for which all nations have sighed.

Two men, be it noted, are taken alive. They are the two arch-conspirators who have bulked so largely in this book - the Beast and the false prophet, the civil and religious leaders of the last league of nations, which will be Sataninspired in its origin, and Satan-directed until its doom. These two men are “cast alive into the lake burning with fire and brimstone,” where a thousand years later they are still said to be “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7), thus incidentally proving that the lake of fire is not annihilation, and that it is not purgatorial either, for it neither annihilates nor purifies these two fallen foes of God and man after a thousand years under judgment.

In the Old Testament we read of two men who went to heaven without passing through death. Enoch and Elijah were translated that they should not see death. And here, ere we come to the close of the New Testament, we have two men brought before us who are cast into hell-fire without undergoing physical death. Their awful doom is for the warning of all who turn away from Him that speaks from heaven, whose indignation is soon to fall upon all who refuse the message of His grace.


Lamb of God, when Thou in glory

Shalt to this sad earth return,

All Thy foes shall quake before

Thee, All that now despise Thee, mourn;

Then shall we, at Thine appearing,

With Thee in Thy kingdom reign:

Thine the praise and Thine the glory,

Lamb of God, for sinners slain.”


And now as I close, I would seek solemnly to impress upon each one of my hearers that you may have a part in one or the other of these two Suppers which we have been considering. If saved, I know you will have a place at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, for every bloodredeemed one of this dispensation will be there. Not one will be missing, because our blessed Lord, in grace, became the Lamb of God to die for your sins upon the cross, and you will share in that scene of bliss with Him. But you who refuse His grace, what will you do when the things of which we have been speaking take place. You may be among those deceived by Satan, accepting the leadership of the Beast, and own the claims of the Antichrist. In that case you would have part in “the Supper of the great God!” May God draw you to Himself now. Resist not the pleadings of the Holy Spirit, but flee at once for refuge to Him who said, “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

~ end of Lecture 20 ~***




Lecture 21 The Millennium and the Judgment of the Great White Throne

(Revelation 20)


IT is often said by those who object to the doctrine of an earthly Millennium, that the term itself is not found in the Bible. They insist that neither in the Old nor in the New Testaments do we ever read of a millennium, and they argue from this that the teaching is man-made, not derived from the Word of God. We might reply that the mere fact that a certain term is not used in Scripture does notnecessarily prove that the doctrine for which the term stands is not taught there. - The word Trinity is not found in the Bible, but all sound Christians admit the doctrine of three persons in one God. - The word substitution is not there either, but it is written, “He was wounded for our transgressions,” and that is substitution. Where will you find the terms Eternal Sonship, Deity, Fall of man, Depravity, Incarnation, Impeccability (as applied to Christ), and many more of similar character? Certainly not on the pages of the Authorized Version of our English Bibles. But all these terms mentioned stand for great truths unmistakably taught in the Book, and are a vital part of the teaching of Christianity. So the mere omission of a title or name of a doctrine does not prove the absence of the doctrine itself, nor does it prove that it is but man-made.

However, we are not shut up to reasoning of this kind in regard to the Millennium, for the word in question is but the Latin equivalent of an expression that is found six times in the chapter that now demands our attention. It simply means a thousand years; just as a century means one hundred years, or a jubilee indicates the expiration of fifty years.

A millennium, then, is a time-period. It does not necessarily carry with it any thought of perfection or happiness, nor of an era of manifested divine government. Six millenniums have almost elapsed since God put man upon this globe, and there is another millennium and a fraction yet to run ere the course of time is finished. That last thousand years is the period with which we are now to be occupied, and I trust to show that it is the predicted kingdom age of the prophets, and the “dispensation of the fulness of times” of the New Testament. It is not only in what some have called an obscure passage in the Revelation, that we read of this “good time coming,” but it is taught everywhere in Scripture.

The binding of Satan, the arch-foe of God and man, is the first notable event of this reign of righteousness. The seer says:


And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit (or, the abyss) and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed a little season” (vers. 1-3).


Without attempting to explain all the symbols here used, it is enough to say that the passage very definitely indicates that there is a coming time when men will no longer be deceived and led astray by the great tempter who, ever since his victory over our first parents in Eden, has been the persistent and malignant foe of mankind, and by whose wiles untold millions have been defrauded of their birthright privileges. If men sin during the millennium it will not be on account of having been deceived. It will be simply because of self-will, and the yielding to the lusts of their own hearts. For we need to remember that the kingdom age is not to be a dispensation of sinlessness. There will be some, even in that blessed time, who will dare to act in defiance of the will of God, but such will soon be dealt with in condign judgment. Such cases will, I take it, be very exceptional, but Scripture makes it plain that there will be offences even when God’s King reigns over the earth.

In the present dispensation of grace, those who will live godly in Christ Jesus suffer persecution - righteousness suffers. But in the Millennium righteousness will reign: “A King shall reign in righteousness.” In the eternal state, which follows the Millennium, righteousness will dwell. It will be at home, and every adverse thing will be forever banished from the new heavens and the new earth.

Daniel prophesied of the time coming when “the saints will possess the kingdom” (7:18). To this agree the words of the 4th verse: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the Beast . . . and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

We have here, if I understand the passage aright, the last cohort of the first resurrection. With our Lord Himself, and the saints raised at the rapture of the church, and the witnessing remnant that were slain, and raised up in the last, the 70th week of Daniel, they all share in the “administration of the fulness of the seasons,” as the late Wm. Kelly explained the expression rendered in our Bibles “the dispensation of the fulness of times.” These saints appear in glory with the Lord, but we are not to understand by that that either He or they are to return to earth to live. Their relationship to the earth will be, I presume, very much like that of the angels in the patriarchal dispensation; able to appear and disappear at will, and exercising a benevolent oversight on behalf of those who live in this scene. “Unto the angels hath He not put into subjection the world to come whereof we speak” (Heb. 2:5). That world will be subjected to the Son of Man, and associated with Him will be all who have shared with Him in His rejection. These are the throne-sitters first mentioned. With them will be the rest of the tribulation saints, who will suffer death rather than deny their God in the awful days of Antichrist’s ascendancy. Their rapture will be when the Lord appears for the establishment of the kingdom.

But the rest of the dead,” we are told in the verse that follows, “lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” This does not militate against the teaching already advanced that the first cohort of the first resurrection will be summoned from their graves prior to the tribulation period, and the second in the midst of that time of trouble: but we have here a summing up. All of these classes together make up the first resurrection - the resurrection of life; which is thus distinguished from the resurrection of judgment. Between these two will elapse the entire millennial age. The unsaved will remain in their graves until the heavens and the earth pass away. Their souls in Hades (the state between death and resurrection), and their bodies in the grave, they await the day of judgment at the end of time.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years” (ver. 6). This is the kingdom described in such glowing terms by Isaiah, who throughout his entire prophecy sees, through faith’s telescope, the glorious time when Israel and Judah shall be one people in their own land, restored in soul to God, dwelling in peace every man under his own vine and fig-tree, and the glory of the Lord covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. He tells how even nature itself shall respond to Messiah’s rule, and the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. The brute creation too shall be delivered from the curse. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all God’s holy mountain. The lion shall eat straw like the ox. The lamb shall lie down with the lion, and “a little child shall lead them” (Isa. 11:6). All nations will then ask the way to Zion; and Jerusalem shall become the metropolis, not only of a rejuvenated Palestine, but of the whole earth.

Jeremiah takes up the same happy strain, and foresees the God of Israel sending “fishers” out into the sea of the nations, fishing out His people no matter where they may be hidden, and bringing them back to the land of their fathers. He sees the city built again and inhabited by a peaceful, happy nation under the reign of the righteous Branch whom God has promised to raise up unto David, and “in his days, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. 23:6). Then they shall no longer need to “teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know Him, from the least to the greatest of them.” (Heb. 8:11).

Ezekiel adds to the wondrous story, and tells of the Spirit being poured out from on high, and describes the service of the regenerated Israel, a priestly nation, through whom the law of God goes forth to all the lands of the nations. He depicts the millennial temple, and even tells us how the land is to be divided among the tribes, and does not close his remarkable book until he can say, “The name of the city from that day shall be (Jehovah-Shammah) - THE LORD IS THERE” (Ezek. 48:35)

All the visions of Daniel’s companion-apocalypse conclude with the bringing in of the fifth universal kingdom; and this he tells us is the kingdom of the Son of Man, which is to displace every other, and is to stand forever. This is the Stone cut out without hands that falls upon the feet of the Gentile image and grinds it to powder, and then becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth. This is the kingdom conferred upon the Son of Man by the Ancient of Days, when the bodies of the beasts (symbolizing the four great empires that have borne rule over all the civilized earth) shall be cast into the burning flame.

Hosea shows how Messiah would come in lowly grace, but, rejected by Israel, would go and return to His place until they acknowledged their sin, and would seek His face, when He will return to restore their souls and to ransom them from the power of the grave, bringing in everlasting righteousness, and making them a blessing to all nations.

Joel sees the great tribulation in all its intensity, but beholds the glory that shall follow, and predicts the outpouring of the Spirit, not on Israel only, but on all flesh.

Amos bears witness to the gathering again of the outcasts of Israel, and their re-settlement in their land under The Lord’s perfect rule.

Obadiah, who wrote the shortest of all the prophecies, though he speaks chiefly of judgment upon Edom, declares triumphantly, “The kingdom shall be the Lord’s” (v. 21).

Jonah, alone of all the prophetic brotherhood, seems to have no reference to that day of The Lord’s power: yet we may learn through him how wonderfully God will own the testimony of Hebrew missionaries in the beginning of the kingdom age, as they go forth to spread the gospel among those who have not heard His fame, nor seen His glory.

But Micah joins with Isaiah in describing the time when “the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow to it” (Isa. 2:2), when “the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Mic. 4:2). Then “the nations shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, and shall learn war no more” (Isa. 2:4).

Nahum predicts the judgments that shall befall the enemies of The Lord in the day of His preparation; while Habakkuk, standing on his watch-tower, sees the coming King bringing in the glory.

Zephaniah and Haggai point onwards to the restoration of Israel, and through them the blessing of the whole world, when the Lord their God is enthroned in the midst of them, and they serve Him with one consent.

Zechariah, the prophet of glory, gives minute details that no others have touched upon, and even tells of the provision to be made for children’s playgrounds in the restored capital of Palestine, for he says, “The broad places of the city shall be full of boys and girls, playing in the broad places thereof” (literal rendering). He sees every spot in Jerusalem holy to the Lord, and all nations wending their way thitherward from year to year to keep the feast of tabernacles. While Malachi completes the series and announces the soon-coming of the King, heralded by the prophet Elijah, to tread down the wicked and sit as a refiner of silver, to purify the sons of Levi, and to make His name great from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same.

Thus “to Him give all the prophets witness” (Acts 10:43), not only that through His name remission of sins is now to be proclaimed among all nations, but that He is to reign in righteousness over all the world, when He comes the second time to claim the inheritance which is His by Divine fiat, as Son and Heir of all things. Then will all the earth rejoice, for the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the tongue of the dumb shall sing, the lame man shall leap as the hart, sorrow and sighing shall flee away, and the Lord alone shall be exalted for a thousand glorious years!


And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever” (vers. 7- 10).


This is indeed an amazing anti-climax to the story of human life on this earth. Who but God could have foreseen such an ending? But it shows us the incorrigible evil of the heart of man if left to himself. While Satan is shut up in the abyss, there will be many born into the world whose obedience to the King will only be feigned; the heart will not be in it; and when the devil is loosed for a little season at the end of the Millennium, he finds a host of these ready to do his bidding and to join him in the last great rebellion against Omnipotence.

It is the old story of Satanic hatred to God, and man’s frailty told out again; but this time under the most favorable circumstances, so far as man is concerned. Therefore his sin is absolutely inexcusable.


- Tested in the garden of delight man broke through the one only prohibition laid upon him.

- Tested under conscience, corruption and violence filled the earth, and the scene had to be cleared by the deluge.

- Tested under the restraining influence of divinely appointed government, man went into idolatry, thus turning his back upon his Creator.

- Tested under law, he cast off all restraint and crucified the Lord of Glory.

- Tested under grace, in this present dispensation of the Holy Spirit, he has shown himself utterly unable to appreciate such mercy, has rejected the gospel and gone ever deeper into sin.

- Tested under the personal reign of the Lord Jesus Christ for a thousand years, some will be ready to listen to the voice of the tempter when at the close he ascends from the pit of the abyss bent upon one last defiant effort to thwart the purpose of God.


It is a melancholy history indeed, and emphasizes the truth that the heart of man is incurably evil. “The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7); therefore the need, in all ages, of a second birth through the Word and the Spirit of God.

The heavens and the earth that are now,” we are told by the apostle Peter, “are reserved unto fire against the judgment of the great day” (2Pet 3:7). This pent-up fire breaking forth from the heavens will destroy the hosts of Satan’s dupes, and purify the very globe itself, as once before it was cleansed by water. This closes the course of time and introduces the unending ages of eternity, during which the devil will be confined in the great prison-house of the lost, who have resisted God’s mercy and spurned His grace. What an end for him who was once “the anointed cherub” (Ezek. 28:14) that covered the throne of God, but whose heart was lifted up because of his beauty, and who thus failing through pride became the most accursed creature in all the universe of God! Our Lord tells us that the devil “abode not in the truth” (John 8:44). He is the prince of all apostates, and apostasy has ever been the great sin into which he has malignantly sought to lead the human race.

The judgment of the great white throne is the final scene ere the new heavens and the new earth are introduced. It is, as a careful study makes exceedingly clear, not “the general judgment” at the end of the world, as many have supposed, but the judgment of the wicked who, during Christ’s reign of a thousand years, have been left in the realms of the dead. The righteous, who share in heavenly glory are to be manifested, as we have seen, at the judgment-seat of Christ, there to be rewarded according to their service while in this world; the living nations will be summoned to appear before the Son of Man when He comes in His glory at the beginning of the Millennium, as Matthew chap. 25 makes clear. The wicked dead are to be raised at the end of that reign of righteousness and dealt with according to their works. The condemnation now is that men reject the Lord Jesus Christ who has made full atone. ment for sin, in order that all may be freed from wrath through Him. But if He is rejected finally, of very necessity men must face the penalty of sin themselves.

Solemn indeed is the description of that last great assize.


And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell (the unseen world, the abode of departed spirits) delivered up the dead which were in them; and they Were judged everyone according to their works. And death and hell were cast (literally, emptied) into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (vers. 11-15).


The august Throne-occupant, we know from other Scriptures, will be none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, for “the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son . . . that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father.” He who once hung on Calvary’s cross is to be the judge of living and dead. With the first aspect of the judgment we have already been largely occupied. It is, as already mentioned, the doom of the wicked dead that is now engaging our attention.

When the throne is set, the heavens and the earth, as we now know them, shrink away, as though the material universe were awed by the face of Him who summons the dead to their accounting. What a sea of faces will appear before Him in that solemn hour of tremendous import!


- All the lost of all the ages; - All who preferred their sins to His salvation; - All who procrastinated until for them the door of mercy was closed; - All who spurned His grace, and in self-will choose the way “that seemeth right unto a man,” but was in truth “the way of death” (Prov. 14:12, 16:25).

- All such are to be summoned to stand before that inexorably righteous throne.


No condoning of sin then; no palliating or excusing in that day: for the judgment of God will be according to truth, and every circumstance shall be taken into account. Nothing shall be overlooked. Therefore some will be beaten with many stripes, and some with few, according to the measure of light given and rejected. “The Judge of all the earth shall do right” (see Gen 18:25). And there shall be no appeal from His decisions, for His is the Supreme Court of the Universe. “What a magnificent conception,” exclaims Thomas Carlyle, “is that of a last judgment! A righting of all the wrongs of the ages.” And, I may add, the tracing back of every evil act to its source, and the placing of responsibility for every offence against the moral law, where it belongs.

None will be great enough to escape that assize; none too insignificant to be overlooked. The dead, “small and great,” will be there. Even though their bodies had been buried for centuries, yea, for millenniums in the depths of the sea, they shall come forth at His bidding, who when He speaks will not be denied. Death, the grave which has claimed what was mortal of man, his body, will give up its prey. Hades, the world unseen, will surrender the undying spirits and souls of the lost. Body, soul and spirit re-united, the man will stand trembling before that judgment Bar.

The books of record will be opened. Memory will respond to every charge. The word of God too will be opened there; for Jesus declared that Moses’ words and His words should judge men in the last day. And the book of life too will be unfolded there; for many in that vast throng had taken it for granted their names were there because, perchance, they had been listed on the roll of some church or religious society. Let them search and look. It will bear witness against them. The Lamb has not inscribed their name in that book. “And whosoever was not found written” in that book will be “cast into the lake of fire.”

Will any be saved who stand before the great white throne? Not one, if we read the account aright; for death and Hades are to be “emptied into the lake of fire.” All the lost, whose spirits and bodies they have held in durance so long, will be emptied out into the pit of woe. And, says God’s Word, “This is the second death.” Death is the separation of body and spirit, we are told in James 2:26. The second death is the final separation at the lost from the God who created man. Like living planets, which, possessed of will, have swung out of their orbits, they dash off into the outer darkness, never to find their way back to that great central Sun.

The lake of fire is the symbol of sorrow immeasurable, of torment eternal. It is a divine picture intended to make the soul of the sinner shrink with dread as he contemplates the end of those who obey not the gospel. It is human character made permanent, abiding in eternal sin, and therefore under the wrath of God forever. Not until Judas Iscariot, and John the beloved who wrote this book, clasp hands in heavenly glory, will the woes of the wicked come to an end. As to Judas, the Master he betrayed has declared, “It were good for that man if he had never been born” (Mark 14:21). Were there salvation ahead at last, even after ages of suffering, as another has strikingly pointed out, even Judas might well thank God that he had ever been permitted to live. But over the portals of the lost they inscribed of old, “Abandon hope, ye who enter here.”

Now is the time acceptable. Now a gracious Saviour waits to catch the first breathing of repentance, and answers the feeblest cry of faith. Trifle not with His mercy, hope not for some vague second chance, but close with Christ now, and know for a certainty that you will have no part in the doom pronounced at the great white throne. For the Lord Himself has said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).

~ end of Lecture 21 ~***




Lecture 22 Closing Scenes

(Revelation 21 and 22)


IT is my desire in this final address of the present series to briefly outline the truth presented so vividly in these last two chapters.

There are three distinct divisions here.


- In chapter 21, verses 1-8 inclusive, we have the eternal issues.

- In verses 9 to 27, and the first five verses of chapter 22, we have a supplementary portion giving us a detailed symbolic description of the Holy Jerusalem, the city of God, holding sway over the earth during the Millennium.

- Then from verse 6 of chapter 22 to the end of the book, we have the divine epilogue, consisting in the main of practical messages from the glorified Lord to all those to whom this book may come in the course of time.


In regard to the first division it is important to note that prophecy does not properly relate to the eternal state. It is particularly occupied with this earth up to and including the Millennium. Only occasionally do we have any reference in the prophetic Scriptures to the unending ages that are to follow afterwards. Here we are told, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea” (ver. 1).

This reminds us of Isaiah’s prophecy, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isaiah 65:17); and in verse 22 of chapter 66, he says, “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.” Now the two chapters from which these verses are quoted have to do with the Millennium, but I take it that we have here faith’s telescope looking out, even in that past dispensation, to the unchanging and unchangeable condition that shall abide forever. I have no doubt it is to these promises that the apostle Peter refers in his second epistle, after describing the destruction by fire of the heavens and the earth that now are, he says, “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (chap. 3:13).

This, then, is the glorious consummation to which the opening verses of our present chapter introduce us. And the most marvelous object of that unending condition, next to the blessed Lord Himself, will be the church, which has been redeemed to God by the precious blood of His Son. For, observe, the bridal condition does not cease at the close of the Millennium. Verse 2 says, “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” A thousand years of the reign of righteousness will have rolled by ere the fulfilment of this verse, and yet the holy city is seen in all the freshness and loveliness of an adorned bride. And this happy state will abide forever, for the next two verses describe a scene of blissful communion, which is never to be terminated.


And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (vers. 3, 4).


The passage is beautiful in its simplicity, and comment would only seem to be like an attempt to paint the rose. How longingly must every believing heart look forward to that glorious day!

A voice from the throne cries, “Behold, I make all things new.” And John is again commanded to write, and assured that “these words are true and faithful.” The voice then exclaims solemnly, “It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” It is the proclamation that all the ways of God have found their final issue in the full glory of His blessed Son, who is the first and the last.

In verse 8 we are told of those who shall never enter the holy city, who will have no part in the bright glories depicted above. But, ere giving the awful list the Lord graciously extends another gospel invitation, that all to whom these words shall come may know that there is mercy still if they will but avail themselves of it. “I will give unto him,” He says, “that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” And He follows this with a word of encouragement to the overcomer: “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” The world may bid for us now, and the treacherous flesh within may seek to act in concert with that world and its god, and thus woo our souls from Christ, but who with the glorious promises of this book before him, but must long to rise above the power of present things, and, in the energy of the Holy Spirit overcome the world by faith, in view of what He is preparing for those who love Him!

How gladly would we believe that not one soul of man will fail of the joy that is kept in store for those who know Christ; but, alas, alas, sin has made this impossible of realization; so this part of our chapter closes with the tremendously solemn announcement that “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (ver. 8). The list includes not only those who are generally looked upon as discreditable sinners but: The cowardly - who were fearful of confessing Christ, because, perhaps, of the sneers of professed friends, or the consequences of turning from the world; together with: The unbelieving - who refused to credit the testimony God had given, and to rest their souls upon the work of Christ - these both are linked up with the unclean and unholy of all classes, and inasmuch as “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” there can be no difference in their final doom if Christ is rejected, though, as already noticed in our last lecture, every transgression and disobedience will receive its just recompense of reward.

Beginning with the 9th verse we have a marvelous description of the New Jerusalem. Note that this comes in upon the conclusion of the prophetic outline. It is a kind of appendix or supplementary description. Just as one of the seven angels which had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues gave to John a vision of Babylon the Great, in the 17th and 18th chapters, so here one of the same angels now bids him come and view the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. Carrying him away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, he shows him that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Babylon was both a city and a woman - both a great system and a company of people professing to be in bridal relation with the Lamb, so here the holy Jerusalem is both a city and a woman. The city is the Bride as well as the home of the saints; just as we speak of Rome when we mean the church that has her seat there, as well as the city where she sits.

By this great city descending out of heaven from God, I understand then the diffusion of heavenly principles over all this earth during the Millennium by the heavenly saints, for it is through His saints that the Lord is going to claim His inheritance. We may learn in this symbolic description of the city, the great guiding principles which are to hold full sway in that coming age, and which are full of instruction for us at the present time. The city has the glory of God, and her light is described as “like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone. clear as crystal” (ver. 11). The church is to be the vessel for the display of the glory of God throughout that age of righteousness, and, indeed, as verse 2 has already informed us, throughout all the ages to come. The “wall great and high” speaks of separation, a divine principle that runs throughout the Word of God, from the time that sin entered to the close. A wall is for protection too, and the separation of God’s people is not an arbitrary principle, to their discomfort, as some seem to think, but is manifestly for their blessing, protecting from the evil without. Though the wall is great and high, there are twelve gates, the number of administrative completeness, and the gate itself, you will remember, is in Scripture the place of judgment; so the thought would seem to be that we have here righteousness reigning, and provision made for entrance and egress, holy and happy liberty in accord with the holiness of God’s nature.

At the gates are twelve angels, divine messengers, and on the gates names are written, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel; for in the Millennium government is to be maintained, as we have already seen, through God’s earthly people being restored to their own land and to unbroken fellowship with the Lord. Thus the heavens will respond to God’s earthly people, Jezreel (the seed of God), in a way that means blessing for all the world. Three gates, on each of the four sides of the city, speak of the universality of the divine government thus fully manifested.

The wall, we are told, had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. This strikingly accords with our Lord’s promise to the twelve that, inasmuch as they had followed Him in His rejection, when the day of the earth’s regeneration comes they will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Just as in Ephesians chap. 2 the church is pictured as a holy temple, builded upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, so here the holy city rests upon the chosen messengers, who are to be the representatives of that authority in the age to come.

The angel who talked with John, measured the city with a golden reed, and the dimensions are given in the 16th and 17th verses. “And the city lieth foursquare,” the length being as large as the breadth, and this, in each instance, is twelve thousand furlongs, while the wall itself is one hundred and forty-four cubits high. We are told that the length, the breadth, and the height of the city are equal. It has been suggested from this that the city is a cube, which may indeed be, but I frankly confess that I find the symbolism in that case exceedingly difficult to visualize before the mind’s eye.

I rather think of that holy city as the mountain of God, a vast pyramid resting on a foursquare base. twelve thousand furlongs each way, and rising to a height as great as its length and breadth, and the throne of God and of the Lamb, the very apex of it, from which flows the river of the water of life, winding about the mountain, in the midst of the one street of gold on either side of that river. But in either case, whether we think of a cube or a pyramid, the thought is the same: it is a city of absolute perfection. Twelve, the number, as previously mentioned, of governmental completeness is seen everywhere. Who can attempt to depict, any more clearly than the verses themselves describe it, a city whose wall is of jasper - the glory of God; built of pure gold, like unto clear glass - the divine glory maintained by righteousness.

The foundations of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones, answering to the stones seen in the breastplate of the high priest, tell of the particular and peculiar preciousness that each believer has in the eyes of the Lord.

The twelve gates are twelve pearls, every several gate of one pearl - thus reminding us, at every entrance-way, of that one pearl of great price for which our Lord, the heavenly merchantman, sold all that He had, with which to buy the church; for though He was rich, yet He became poor, that He might make it His own forever.

The street of pure gold reminds us that our feet shall stand on the righteousness of God forever; in His justice we shall stand and walk forever. It is not mere mercy that is the ground of our salvation, but God’s glory has been fully and righteously maintained in the work of Calvary’s cross, and thus He is faithful and just in receiving all who trust His Son.

Whereas on earth the church is pictured as a holy temple unto the Lord, in that day there will be no temple seen, for the Lord God Almighty and the lamb are the temple of it. Nearness to God will be what will characterize every saint; none will be shut out. Our Lord said, “Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me” (John 17:23); so that we can sing even now,


So near, so very near to God,

I could not nearer be;

For in the person of His Son,

I am as near as He.”


And when we get home there will be no separating veil, there will be no outer court, beyond which we dare not come, but we shall all be at home with God and the Lamb forevermore. That city will have no need of created light-bearers, such as sun and moon to shine in it. These are for this world, not for that which is to come. The glory of God will be the light, everywhere displayed, and the Lamb Himself the lamp thereof. The glory of God is the light, and the Lamb is the One on whom that glory is centralized; He is the lamp from which it all shines. The glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus is our light even now, a light that has shone into our darkened hearts, and that light we will enjoy eternally in the home of the saints above. The nations who are spared to enter the millennial kingdom shall walk in its light, and all earth’s rulers will bring their glory and honor unto that throne city, and light their tapers at that celestial fire.

The gates, we are told, shall not be shut at all by day, and night will be unknown there. I do not dwell on this now, for we have the same expression repeated in the next chapter. In that city of holiness and blessing, no unclean thing shall ever enter in to defile. No deceiving serpent shall enter into that paradise of God, nor any who manifest kinship with Satan, the father of lies; only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life - and all who have judged themselves in the presence of God, and put their trust in Him who shed His precious blood for our sins on that cross of shame, may rest assured that in His book their names are written even now, and shall be there displayed, in the holy city.

Passing on to chapter 22 we read,


And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”


David sang of a river, the streams of which shall make glad the city of God. This river is the Holy Spirit’s testimony to the glory of Christ. It proceeds from the throne of God and of the Lamb, for the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Who that has tasted on earth of that refreshing stream but longs to drink to the full of its living stream throughout the unending day!

When man sinned in the garden on earth, God drove him forth, and set the cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life, lest he should eat and live forever. But that sword of flame has been sheathed in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And now the blessed truth is made known that He who died and rose again is that tree of life, the leaves of which shall be for the healing of the nations during Messiah’s glorious reign, and the fruit of which shall be for the refreshment and gladness of His redeemed saints, as they gather by that river of joy. There the curse shall be unknown, for the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be established in unquestioned authority, and His servants will fine delight in ever serving Him who, in the hour of their deep, deep need, served them so faithfully. Not as hirelings, seeing not the Master’s face, shall they serve, but with holy gladness, in His presence, beholding the light of His countenance, and His name stamped upon their foreheads.

The wonderful description closes with the 5th verse: “There shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.” Oh, the nights of darkness and of anguish many of God’s beloved people have known in this poor world! The night is the time of mystery, the time of suffering too, and of unfulfilled desire. The day will bring the glad fruition of all our hopes, and, in the full blessing of that uncreated light, we shall reign in light through the ages of ages - at home in the city of God!

The closing verses need not detain us long. They are so plain, so simple, that they require but little comment, if any. And yet, they are so intensely solemn, we must not pass them lightly by, but would desire that each added message might sink in deeper into our hearts.

The 6th verse links us again with the opening of the book. “He said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.” How soon may all be fulfilled that we have been studying of late! Three times the Lord speaks announcing His near return. - In verse 7 He says, “Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” - In verse 12, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” - And again, in verse 20, the last word sent down to us by our Lord from heaven, ere the canon of Scripture was closed, was this: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly,” to which John, as representing all the saints, replies, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

We can scarcely wonder that a second time the beloved apostle, overwhelmed by the abundance of the revelation given to him, fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed him these things, but again, as on the previous occasion, he is forbidden so to do, and the angel declares he is a fellow-servant both of John and of his brethren the prophets, and of us, in like manner, if we are among those who keep the sayings of this book. “Worship God,” he commands; and in worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ we worship God: “For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9).

Daniel’s prophecy closes with the admonition, “Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end” (Dan 12:9); and, in a former verse, the word to him was, “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even until the time of the end” (12:4). But to John the angel says, “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.”

In the 11th verse we have set before us the great truth that science itself demonstrates, equally with the Word of God, namely that character tends to permanence. “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” It is a divine emphasis upon the solemn truth that as a man is found in that coming day, so shall he remain for all eternity. In this world God is calling men to repent. Here, and now, He waits to renew, by divine grace, those who commit themselves to Him. But in the eternal world there will be no power that has not been in exercise here, to make the unjust righteous or the filthy clean.

The 14th verse says, “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” The promise rests on no legal grounds. It is not doing that gives one title to that home of the saints. It is only the precious blood of Christ, by which the acts of the saints (however well intentioned) must be washed, that fits any for entrance there. Outside, forevermore will be the false, apostate teachers, designated as dogs, with those trafficking with evil spirits, the unclean, and all murderers and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. They will be outside because they would not prepare to enter inside while God was offering mercy through His Son’s atoning work.

It is worthy of note that, when the blessed Lord introduces Himself by His personal name, and declares His official title in connection with Israel. and His special title in connection with the church, the Spirit and the bride alike are aroused to send up the invitation shout, “Come.” We read, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David.” He is the root of David because David sprang from Him - David’s Creator and Lord, who called him to guide His people Israel. And He is the offspring of David, for as man He was born from a daughter of David. And He is “the Bright and Morning Star.”

Immediately the Spirit and the bride respond, saying, “Come.” It is an invitation to Him to return to shine forth and gather His own to Himself. And all that hear are urged to join in this cry, “Come.” To all those who do not yet know Him, the gospel invitation, for the last time, goes forth in view of His near return, “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

In the 18th and 19th verses, in unmistakable solemnity, the glorified Lord Himself testifies unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book,


If any man shall add unto these things. God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”


Oh, how unspeakably awful must be the fate of those who reject this testimony, and reject its message! Better far, never to have been born than thus to refuse the Word of the living God.

Surely every believing heart can join with the apostle in the prayer, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” But while we wait for His return, we would still seek to make known the message of His grace to a guilty world.

And so, with the apostolic benediction, this book, and with this book the entire canon of Scripture, comes to a close, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”

~ end of book ~***

Ironside Bibliography

Ironside, H. A., “Revelation: An Ironside Expository Commentary”, Kregel Publications, 1920, www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/NTStudies/LecturesonRevelationsHAIronside1920.aspx [Henry Allen Ironside (1876 Toronto Canada, 1951 New Zealand) lived through two world wars (WWI 1914-1918, and WWII 1939-1945) and understood from God's Word that no Catholic Church was going to bring peace on earth or usher in a kingdom age. Ironside was a gifted Bible expositor and orator of the 20th century; a genuine dispensationalist. Ironside removes all Catholic and Protestant allegorical interpretation of the Revelation of Jesus Christ and rightly divides the Word of Truth. Portions of Ironside's “Revelation” are given in block quotes in “A Systematic Theology for the 21st Century - Volume 09 Ecclesiology” and significantly in Volume 11 Eschatology by Dr. Edward Rice]

Gaebelein, Arno C., “Studies in Prophecy”.1918, www.gutenberg.org/files/31603/31603-h/31603-h.htm [[ FOREWORD, BY C. I. SCOFIELD., The present interest in prophetical studies, due to a world-situation so unprecedented as to have no historic parallels upon which a shallow optimism may build futile hopes, is in every way to be welcomed and encouraged. It surely is a divine provision for such a day as this that for the last fifty years the prophetic word has been under the sane and patient study of so many men of devout and trained minds. Amongst these the author of this book has won a foremost place. At the farthest possible remove from fanciful and radical methods of interpretation, the conclusions which he has reached and which are set forth in this book are trustworthy. The reader may be assured that he will reach truly Biblical views of those things which are coming to pass with startling rapidity. Douglaston, L. I., N. Y. About Arno Clemens Gaebelein: Arno Clemens Gaebelein was born in 1861 in Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1879. He was converted at an early age, and became ordained in the Methodist church in 1886. Gaebelein was a prolific writer. He wrote numerous books and tracts and served as editor of Our Hope, a Bible study magazine, for fifty-two years. He also co-edited the Scofield Reference Bible. Gaebelein devoted nearly ten years of his life to writing The Annotated Bible, a 3,000-page commentary on Scripture, also available from Bible Support. He also lectured frequently at Dallas Theological Seminary. Gaebelein died in 1945.]

Grant, F. W., “The Prophetic History of the Church”, NEW YORK LOIZEAUX BROTHERS, 1910, First Edition, 1902, Seventh Printing, 1955, available at http://plymouthbrethren.org/series/6114 and http://www.gsbaptistchurch.com/theology/grant_prophetic_history_church.pdf and www.brethrenarchive.org/people/fw-grant/pamphlets/the-prophetic-history-of-the-church/ [When Henry Allen Ironside writes in his 100 year old book that, “On the seven churches, I especially commend F. Grant's 120 year old book”, it behooves one to secure a copy; the full title being “The Prophetic History of the Church – Some Evils Which Afflict Christendom and Their Remedy, as Depicted by The Lord's Own Words to the Seven Churches (Rev. ii. and iii.).” ].

Scott, Walter, “Exposition of the Revelation of Jesus Christ” Available on Amazon, Classic Reprint Series, and/or www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/sor/revelation.html






Chapter 6 The Revelation of Jesus Christ

It is important, when studying the doctrine of last things, to keep the big picture in view as the details are inserted in their proper setting. Reading the Bible's prophetic utterances is likened to assembling a jig-saw puzzle; frame it first then separate the pieces to their relative locations in the big picture. What is worded here is a jig-saw puzzle progress report that has proven very helpful in better understanding the whole doctrine of last things.

The revelation that provides prima-facia insight to the whole assembly of this puzzle is The Revelation of Jesus Christ. We have already drawn up the framework to comprehend the rapture, the tribulation, the Battle of Armageddon, the Kingdom Age and then the eternity that this world will sill step into. This framework is essential in realizing that the Revelation of Jesus Christ is not allegorical literature nor apocalyptic literature.

The Allegorical Method of Bible interpretation was invented, devised and propagated via the pits of hell through the “Holy” Roman “Catholic” Church, which was not holy nor catholic. The Bibliology volume of this work addresses Origen's invention of the allegorical method:


Origen, (in full Latin Oregenes Adamantius) (born AD 185, probably in Alexandria, Egypt—died AD 254, in Tyre, Phoenicia) was called “The Father of the Allegorical Method” (Also the “Father of Bible Criticism,” also “A Father of Roman Catholicism”). The Britannica says of him, “the most important theologian and biblical scholar of the early Greek church,” and “His greatest work is the Hexapla, which is a synopsis of six versions of the Old Testament.” Origen's mentor, Clement of Alexandria (AD 150 – 215) determined that it was impossible for God to keep his promises to Israel, in that Jerusalem was leveled, and every Jew that occupied Israel was annihilated in AD 70. Almost anyone might suppose an original source for the English prose about Humpty Dumpty, so I have supposed it was Clement of Alexandria who thought, “All the King's horses, and all the King's men cannot put Israel together again.” Since Israel, Hebrews, and all Jews were now annihilated, Clement supposed that the catholic church would be the new recipients of every promise that the Old Testament Scriptures made to them.

In response to his mentors oversight, Origen refined an allegorical method which could strip all the promises made to Israel, King David, and the Jews from the Old Testament Scripture and apply them to a catholic church. Little wonder that the Roman Catholic Church sainted both Clement and Origen posthumously a couple hundred years later.

Clement and Origen were instrumental founders of the School of Alexandria. ...

In the hands of the Roman Catholic Church the allegorical method of Bible interpretation became the scourge of Christianity. In their doctrine no one less than the Roman Catholic trained priesthood had the pious maturity to properly interpret the secret, hidden allegorical meanings of Scripture. Others found reading Bibles were killed. millions of Christians were called heretics and burned alive under their doctrine. The Protestants did not readily set aside this practice. Even today Protestants give credence to the allegorical methods, and to the “Clergy” for interpretation of Scripture. The “laity” are disesteemed as a lower class that ought not interpret what they read.68


Nor is the Revelation of Jesus Christ apocalyptic literature. Something that is apocalyptic is “prophetic of devastation or ultimate doom”69 and the Revelation of Jesus Christ is prophetic of ultimate triumph, not of ultimate doom.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ is the quintessential of eschatology. It is not allegorical or apocalyptic; how then should the book be read? Of course one should use a good literal interpretation method that exploits the literal, grammatical and historical context of all Scripture, but this book is even more than that. S.D. Gordon gives this superb explanation:


Old and New Woven Together.

The language in which the book is written is of intense interest. It is so unusual. It combines Hebrew thought and Greek speech. It is as though a Hebrew soul were living in a Greek body, and the soul has so dominated the body as to make decided changes in it. The thought and imagery, and the very words are largely taken over from the Old Testament, much of it not being found elsewhere in the New Testament. It is as though the Old Testament reaches clear over the intervening space and writes the last book of the New as an additional book of the Old, but with distinct additions. But all these additions are outgrowths of what is already in the Old.

But while the thought and imagery are Hebrew, the language is Greek. But scholars note that John's Greek here is different from that of his Gospel, and is indeed peculiar to itself, with new grammatical adjustments, as though better to express his Hebrew thought. Yet, like the Gospel, it is an easy Greek to learn and to understand. It is as though the Old Testament were the warp of a new bit of fabric, with the New as the shuttle-threads, and yet with such additions as makes the pattern stand out much more definite and clear, and the colours in it more pronounced. Thus this end-book is a weaving of both Old and New into a new bit of fabric, but with a more distinct pattern than either.

This explains the use of the symbolism which is so marked here. The picture language of John's Revelation has seemed very puzzling. It has seemed like a new language, to which we had neither grammar nor dictionary, and the intended meaning of which we could only guess at. But this is because we are Westerners and a bit set in our western way. And possibly, too, though we dislike to confess it, because we have not gotten a clear, simple grasp of this old Book of God as a whole. The Bible is an Oriental book, written in the characteristic picture language of the Orient.

The truth is that the symbol or picture language is meant to make the book _easier of understanding_. We simply need to learn how to read picture language, not whimsically, but sensibly according to the laws of picture language. The symbolism or picture sees things as they look at the moment the picture is taken. The picture is meant to give one general distinct impression of the thing being presented, the details of the picture being of value only as they give coloring to that one general impression. It is concerned, not at all, or only in the most incidental way, with the process by which the thing came to the point pictured.

There is a rare wisdom in the use of this picture language. It is really the common language not of the Orient merely, but of all the world. In our western half of the globe it is the language of the street, the common crowd, the common exchange of life, and of children. It is the language of the primitive peoples of all parts of the world. Everywhere the conventionalized book-language is spoken by the few. The picture, with its companion, the story, is the universal, the original, the natural language of the race.

On the mere human side here is one secret of the freshness of the Bible. It is the oldest book in some of its parts, but admitted to be the freshest and most modern in its adaptation to modern life. And the reason is simple. The pictures give _principles_. Principles don't change with the changing of centuries. Rules change. Principles abide. Details alter with every generation. Principles of action are as unchangeable as human nature, which is ever the same, east and west, below the equator, and above.

John's Revelation is naturally full of this picture language, for it is a gathering up of the chief threads of the old Oriental Hebrew fabric. It will help us understand the meaning if we keep in mind the simple rules of this Hebrew picture language.70


A few essays on this quintessential are presented in this chapter. The goal is to introduce and explore some insights to this tremendous and greatly misused revelation.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ an Overview

The Revelation of Jesus Christ in overview is pretty much the goal of this whole volume and pretty much constitutes the whole doctrine of last things that we call eschatology. The theme thus far has been to keep the examination of the Revelation of Jesus Christ on a literal level with no allegorical washouts. James W. Knox has written just such an extremely literal viewpoint and it took him over six-hundred pages. It is highly recommended that the sincere Bible student work through those six-hundred pages of narrative lessons to attain a more comprehensive overview of the Revelation of Jesus Christ than one could attain in this short volume. James Knox makes this introductory comment:


This is a series of studies prepared to give the Bible student a very detailed picture of future events in a concise manner. These lessons present the heart of Biblical prophecy from an exceedingly literal viewpoint.

It would seem that the last thing this world needs is another book about The Revelatio of Jesus Christ. Christian book catalogs are filled with the latest insights on end-time prophecy, and even secular outlets feature three or four paperbacks with catchy tit;es dealing with the last days.

The problem is that the vast majority of these works are filled with guesswork and flights of fancy, which are in no way as exposition of scripture.

One can read books discussion Russia and China in prophecy, although the Bible can be read from cover to cover, and neither of these nation si ever mentioned. Millions of dollars have been spent on books reporting the latest glimpse of America in the book of Revelation, but God's word sdoes not name the USA.

I have read that scorpions are helicopters, that the stings in their tails are utility lines, that the beast is a computer, that the mark of the beast is a credit card or Sunday worship, that Christians shoot people from chariots during the rapture, and a thousand other silley guesses.

This is not to say that there are not intelligent works on the market, but having rejected the absolute authority of the written scriptures, the majority of modern writers study and comment as natural men; their understanding is based upon their own intellect and perceptions.

This makes literal interpretation of the prophetic portions of scripture impossible, for the natural man reasons that the science and technology of the 20th century were necessary for the fulfillment of God's word.71

James Knox concludes, “It is our purpose to present more information on Revelation than can be found in any other single volume and to do so in the most concise manner possible.”72 This author concedes that he has done exactly that, and this volume of systematic theology on eschatology is by grace only an introductory effort for his volume.

There is advantage in taking an overview of the marvelous literary structure of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The Apostle John is commanded, “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter”(Rev 1:19). When he writes the things which he had seen, he writes “The Gospel According to Saint John”, “The First Epistle General of John”, “The Second Epistle of John”, “The Third Epistle of John”, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, Chapter 1”, and “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, Chapter 22, verses 8-21.” When he writes the things which are, he writes Revelation chapter 2 and 3, the seven messages to the seven churches. When he writes the things which shall be hereafter, he writes Revelation chapter 4 through 22 verse 7, which encompasses the last things, the essence of eschatology.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ is a book of sevens. It has seven sevens with; Seven Messages, Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets, Seven Vials, Seven Personages, Seven Dooms, and Seven New Things. When John writes the things he had seen his introduction resounds with sevens:

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is 1) the faithful witness, and 2) the first begotten of the dead, and 3) the prince of the kings of the earth. 4) Unto him that loved us, and 5) washed us from our sins in his own blood, And 6) hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 7) Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” (Rev. 1:4-7)


Further John wrote, “And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man,... Re 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength” (Rev. 1:12-13, 16).

When John wrote the things which are, there were seven messages to seven churches and our Lord Jesus Christ is called out as “These things saith”, 1) he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; ... 2) the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; ... 3) he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; ... 4) the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass; ... 5) he that hath the seven Spirits of God73, and the seven stars;... 6) he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; … 7) the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (Rev 2:1, 8, 12, 18, 3:1, 7, 14).

Further the Revelation of Jesus Christ mentions seven books. 1) Write in A Book 1:11; 2) The Book of Life 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 15, 21:27, 22:19; 3) the Seven Sealed Book 5:1-9 (mentioned 8 times); 4) Little Sweet & Bitter Sealed Book 10:2,8,9,10; 5) The Books Opened 20:12; 6) Another Book 20:12; and 7) This Book 22:7, 9, 10, 18,19, (mentioned 7 times).

The literary structure when the Lord gives the Apostle John “the things which shall be hereafter” is profound. The overwhelming power of what is being revealed builds with a crescendo that is broken with a pause so the reader is not overwhelmed completely. In these pauses there is inserted what we might call a parenthetical explanation. There are eight such parentheticals inserted in the presentation of the things which shall be hereafter.

After the sixth seal, chapter 7 gives the hundred-and-forty-four thousand being sealed. After the sixth trumpet, chapter 10 speaks of the little book, and chapter 11 of the temple and the two witnesses. After the seventh trumpet, chapter 12 and 13 gives the seven personages, and in chapter 14 the hundred-and-forty-four thousand are described and given the everlasting gospel as “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” prepares the way for the Battle of Armageddon which is introduced.

And finally, after the last vial of the wrath of God is poured out, the last three parentheticals are given. Mystery Babylon and its seven dooms are described in chapters 17-20, the Four Alleluias of Glorified Saints in chapters 19, and the seven New Things of chapter 21-22:7. The insertion of these eight parentheticals is displayed in the pictograph below:




Again, for a comprehensive and literal examination of the Revelation of Jesus Christ James W. Knox has the best narrative lessons in his six-hundred page book.

Some other highlights of this tremendous book are given below.

The Four and Twenty Elders

Many have questioned the significance of the four and twenty elders mentioned in Revelation 4:4, 10, 5:8, 14, 11:16 and 19:4. A simple answer comes, twelve tribes of Israel plus twelve apostles, the Old and New Testaments uniting together, yields the four and twenty elders praising the Lamb. S. D. Gordon, in writing “Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation” words an exceptional insight to the whole book of Revelation wherein he intricately describes for us the Hebrew picture language that this Greek text captures. In Chapter V “An Advance Step in the Royal Programme,” he has worded a much more worthy clarification of the symbolism in these twenty-four elders:


They See His Face. ... Then John sees twenty-four other thrones round about the central throne. And on these there are twenty-four men sitting. These men are wearing white garments, and have crowns of gold upon their heads. This is the part of intense interest. Who are these? And what does this mean?

What has been said before about picture language, the language of the Orient, of childhood, of the common crowd, the universal language, will help us here. The Bible is an Oriental book. It talks in picture language. This is humanly what gives it such freshness and peculiar adaptation. The radical change of circumstances and speech and mode of thought in different centuries makes all books antiquated after a certain time. This book has the freshness of youth, for in its simple picture language it deals in principles. But picture language must be held to its simplicity. And something of familiarity with the whole range of the Scripture is needful to use the key to the simple picture language.

Let us look a bit at the simple scene here. These men are elders, that is they are leaders. They represent multitudes of others. Throughout the Bible twelve is the number of completeness, both in things and people. A complete[Page 136] gathering or throng of people is represented by the number twelve. There are twelve tribes of Israel, and so on. This is so familiar that it need only be named without further illustration.

There are two great divisions of this Bible, the Old Testament and the New. These stand naturally for the two great divisions of time, before Christ and after. This division is strongly marked in the Bible, and sharply marked in our Christian consciousness. It has been a common thing to wonder about the salvation and spiritual knowledge and privileges of people who lived before Christ came and died.

Twice twelve make twenty-four. These twenty-four elders represent the redeemed ones from both of these great divisions of time. That is to say, the picture tells us this. All the people from creation's earliest morn up to the present, including the one who went out last from some sorrowing family circle, all who have had the touch of heart with God, are gathered in the presence of Him who sits on the throne. That is one simple thing that stands out clear and sure.

These are represented as sitting. The slave or servant never sat in his master's presence. Friends sit together. Angels are never spoken of as sitting in the presence of God. When our Lord Jesus was received up He sat down at the Father's right hand. We are spoken of as seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Sitting together means being on terms of intimacy and fellowship. Through the precious blood of our[Page 137] Lord Jesus we are all accepted in the Beloved and received and trusted as He is.

[84] Rev. iii. 4-5. [85] Rev. iii. 18. [86] Rev. vi. 11. [87] Rev. vii. 9. [88] Rev. xix. 8, 14.

These elders are clad in white garments. That is one of the familiar things spoken of much in this end-book. Part of the promise to those of overcoming faith is that they shall be arrayed in white garments, and walk with Christ in white.[84] Those who are faulty in the Church are urged to get white garments.[85] The martyrs waiting their vindication,[86] and the great multitudes who come up out of the tribulation are given white raiment.[87] The bride at the joyous marriage supper, and the armies following the conquering Christ, are clad in fine linen, bright and pure.[88]

[89] Rev. xix. 8. [90] Rev. vii. 14; xxii. 14.

We are told that this white linen means a pure life.[89] These garments have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.[90] These multitudes have been cleansed in the blood of Christ and purified by the Holy Spirit and made perfect in purity and holiness as they came up into the presence of the Father on the throne.

[91] Rev. ii. 10; iii. 11; I Corinthians ix. 25; II Timothy iv. 8; James i. 12; I Peter v. 4.

These elders are wearing golden crowns. This language, too, is familiar. The acknowledgment and reward of faithfulness and of service is spoken of commonly under this bit of picture talk.[91] The angels are never spoken of as being crowned. Christ was crowned, that is received[Page 138] into the presence of the Father, as the full recognition of His worthiness and of what He had done, and in vindication after the shameful rejection by men.

These men and women and children in the Father's presence have been rewarded and are being rewarded for their faithfulness in obedience and in life. All the struggles and difficulties, the hard road, the endurance, the patient suffering for His name's sake, the faithfulness in doing the allotted tasks, all these have been noted and acknowledged. There is the sweet peace of the Father's approval in all of these before the throne.74




The Day of the LORD and Last Day(s)

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations (Joel 2:1-2).


Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. (Isa. 2:10,11)


Before delving into the events unfolding in the Revelation of Jesus Christ it is important for the student of the Bible to understand some things about the Day of the LORD, the Last Days and the Last Day. This is a brief overview of these.

The Day of the LORD

First it is a powerful aid to just read a list of scriptures that call out the “day of the LORD”:


Isa 2:12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

Isa 13:6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

Isa 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

Isa 34:8 For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

Jer 46:10 For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

La 2:22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD’S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

Eze 13:5 Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.

Eze 30:3 For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.

Joe 1:15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Joe 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

Joe 2:11 And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

Joe 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Joe 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

Am 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

Am 5:20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

Ob 1:15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

Zep 1:7, 8 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. 8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.

Zep 1:14 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

Zep 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

Zep 2:2, 3 Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD’S anger come upon you. 3 Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger.

Zec 14:1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

Mal 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

Ac 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:

1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

2Co 1:14 As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

1Th 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.75


The Apostle John makes reference to the Lord's Day in Rev. 1:10 “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,...” and Dr. Ironside clarified well in his second lecture (given in chapter 5 of this volume) that this is a “divinely given designation for the first day of the week.” As such John's use of the “Lord's day” differs from “the day of the LORD.”


C. I. Scofield gives this succinct summary note about the “day of the LORD”:


Note 1. (Rev. 19:19) The day of Jehovah (called, also, "that day," and "the great day") is that lengthened period of time beginning with the return of the Lord in glory, and ending with the purgation of the heavens and the earth by fire preparatory to the new heavens and the new earth (Isa. 65:17-19; 66:22; 2Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1). The order of events appears to be:

(1) The return of the Lord in glory (Matt. 24:29, 30);

(2) the destruction of the Beast and his host, "the kings of the earth and their armies," and the false prophet, which is the "great and terrible" aspect of the day (Rev. 19:11-21);

(3) the judgment of the nations Zech. 14:1-9; Matt. 25:31-46);

(4) the thousand years, i.e, the kingdom-age (Rev. 20:4-6);

(5) the Satanic revolt and its end (Rev. 20:7-10);

(6) the second resurrection and final judgment (Rev. 20:11-15); and

(7) the "day of God," earth purged by fire (2Pet. 3:10-13).

The day of the Lord is preceded by seven signs:

(1) The sending of Elijah (Mal. 4:5; Rev. 11:3-6);

(2) cosmical disturbances (Joel 2:1-12; Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:19; 20; Rev. 6:12-17);

(3) the insensibility of the professing church (1Thess. 5:1-3);

(4) the apostasy of the professing church, then become "Laodicea" (2Thess. 2:3);

(5) the rapture of the true church (1Thess. 4:17);

(6) the manifestation of the "man of sin," the Beast (2Thess. 2:1-8);

(7) the apocalyptic judgments (Rev. 11.-18.).76


A Scofield User List for “Day of the LORD” and compatible with onlinebible.net verse listings is as follows:

# Isa 2:10-22 4:1-6 11:10-13 13:6,9-16 24:21-23 26:20,21 34:1-8, 63:1-6 66:15-24, # Jer 25:29-38 46:10, # La 2:22, # Eze 13:4-6 30:3, # Joe 1:15 2:1-11,28-32 3:9-21, # Am 5:18-20, # Ob 1:15-21, # Zep 1:15-18 2:2 3:8, # Zec 12:1-13:6 14:1-21, # Mal 4:1-6, # Mt 24:29-31 25:31-46, # Ac 2:19,20, # 1Co 5:5, # 2Co 1:14, # 1Th 5:1-3, # 2Th 2:1-8, # 2Pe 3:10, # Re 19:11-21


The Last Days and The Last Day

In the Bible the term “last days” and “the last day” are used to call out a time that is less specific than what many today try to capture. One should not be clumsy with its usage. It is used three times in the Old Testament and it therein references the closing period of God's dealings with the twelve tribes of Israel, his chosen nation, his chosen people.


Ge 49:1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.

Isa 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

Mic 4:1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.


In the New Testament, Jesus uses “the last day” in the singular, as recorded by the Apostle John, to indicate man's resurrection day, four times referencing the resurrection unto life, and one time (12:48) the resurrection to judgment.


Joh 6:39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

Joh 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 11:24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Joh 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.


The Apostle Peter's preaching uses the term “last days” in Acts 2:17.


Ac 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:


It is noted here that in Joel 2:28 - 29 the Bible uses “afterward” instead of “last days.” Great care should be taken when an Apostle “quotes” a scripture slightly differently than what we have it recorded as. First, they are writing holy scriptures as they are referencing what was said or written previous, and they have complete authority to make any change that God deem's pertinant and revelatory. Second, we are often only guessing at which prophet and which passage they are “quoting” from. And third, just because they “quote” a prophet, it does not mean we have that prophets whole testimony recorded in holy scripture. God knows what those “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost”, they undoubtably repeated themselves time and again as they were being his prophets, and one dare not correct or adjust what God has recorded because we “know better” than He. The case in point, Peter's “last days” vs Joel's “afterward”, is applicable. Moreso it is found that ecumenical modernists trying to “correct” God's record accuse Apostles of quoting a cursed Septuagint, or of needing their corrections, or even supposing Enoch, the seventh from Adam, wrote some Apocryphal book that they must find in the ancient libraries of Alexandria Eqypt! Don't be or be swayed by an ecumenical modernits infidel.


On this verse, Acts 2:17, C. I. Scofield points out some distinctions in how the terms “last days” and “last day” are used:


Note 1. (Acts 2:17) A distinction must be observed between "the last days" when the prediction relates to Israel, and the "last days" when the prediction relates to the church (1Tim. 4:1-3; 2Tim. 3:1-8; Heb. 1:1, 2; 1Pet 1:4, 5; 2Pet. 3:1-9; 1John 2:18, 19; Jude 1:17-19). Also distinguish the expression the "last days" (plural) from "the last day" (singular); the latter expression referring to the resurrections and last judgment (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54; 11:24; 12:48). The "last days" as related to the church began with the advent of Christ (Heb. 1:2), but have especial reference to the time of declension and apostasy at the end of this age (2Tim. 3:1; 4:4). The "last days" as related to Israel are the days of Israel's exaltation and blessing, and are synonymous with the kingdom-age (Isa. 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-7). They are "last" not with reference to this dispensation, but with reference to the whole of Israel's history.77


And so it can be seen that reference to “last days” needs to be used carefully in our syntax today. In the NT usages the “last days” includes the whole church age, the Laodicean church age, the resurrection at the rapture, and the tribulation time as well as the thousand year kingdom age.


2Ti 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

Heb 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Jas 5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

2Pe 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after


It can certainly be said we are in the last days, so were the apostles, and in the last days the lion will lay down with the lamb. A Bible student needs to discern the times, rightly divide the scriptures, and know we are in the Laodicean church age. When it comes to the closeing of the dispensation of grace, the church age, we might say we are in the last of the last days, and the Lord will return to catch away the church at any moment. In the larger scheme of things the last of the last days would include those things closing out the 20th chapter of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Eschatology – The Rapture

The next tick on God's prophetic time clock is the rapture of Christ's church out of this world wherein we meet him in the air, “and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1Thes 4:16-18). The majority of “Christendom” rejects this clear Bible teaching. All Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy are taught that the catholic church is the replacement of Israel as God's chosen and elect. Could it be that “orthodox” “Christendom” and all Reformed Theology is wrong in their Replacement Theology? They are wrong; they are deceived; they are become false teachers. Any Bible student that hobnobs with Reformed Theologians will eventually slip and compromise on the pretribulation rapture of the church, and eventually despair on dispensationalism. This despair sets in without their understanding that Covenant Theology and Replacement Theology is the backdrop which drives the Reformed Theology to its false teaching and error. fff

For the church, the second coming of Christ is divided into two distinct phases, when he comes “for” his church at the rapture, and when he comes “with” his saints at the battle of Armageddon. At the first he will meet us in the air (in the Greek that means “in the air”) at the latter, “And 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 toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley” (Zech 14:4). As a Bible student determine right here that you will believe the rightly divided Word of truth, and reject the misleading notions of Reformed Theology, drawn from the Roman Catholic Church, theology that embraces both Replacement Theology and Covenant Theology.

In the first of the Apostle Paul's Bible epistles he charges the church of the Thessalonians,

And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints” (1Thes 3:12-13).


The charge ends with what Paul had taught them before, that at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, all his saints would be coming with him. The last Bible writings to the churches describes this coming marvelously in the Revelation of Jesus Christ chapter 19 and includes, “all his saints” with the line, “And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (vr.14).

There can be no mistaking this chapter of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, it is depicting the battle of Armageddon: “And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army” (Rev 19:19). The battle is named in Revelation 16:16 and comes about after the seven seals are opened, the seven trumpets are sounded, and the seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever, are poured out upon the earth, the sea, the rivers, the sun, the seat of the beast, the great river Euphrates, and “in the air.” (Rev 16:1-15). The upcoming “climate change” and “global warming” catastrophe has nothing to do with the carbon dioxide that we exhale, and everything to do with the rebellion against Jehovah God that we exhale.

The word “rapture” is not in the Bible but “the transporting of a person from one place to another,” taken from obsolete French and Latin “raptus” is most certainly present in 1Thes 4:13-18.


But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words (1Thes 4:13-18).


Rapture is present in the trumpet call of 1Cor 15:51-53.


Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality (1Cor 15:51-53).


And rapture is present when a door is open in heaven and the beloved Apostle John is transported from the isle that is called Patmos into the “Come up hither” very presence of a throne that sat in heaven.


After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald (Rev 4:1-3).


Protestant clergy teach the Reformed Theologians that a rapture of the church is some new Baptist doctrine put forth by John Nelson Darby (1800 – 1882), advanced by C. I. Scofield (1834 – 1921), and portrayed by Clarence Larkin (1850 – 1924), but this doctrine is not new, it was just never discerned by Roman Catholics nor their Protestants. Old Testament saints were raptured before the wrath of God was poured out on sin. Consider the rapture of Enoch, transported out before the world flood (Gen 5:21-24). The Old Testament books are given by verbal inspiration and are miraculously preserved through four thousands years untill Christ and two thousand years since Christ to the end that I can sit in my study and learn how an almighty Jehovah God thinks and moves in the affairs of man and mankind. In the judgment of the whole world through a world flood we can see how God marvelously transported Enoch to heaven without death, transported his son, Methuselah, with the oldest recorded life of nine-hundred-and-sixty-nine years (Gen 5:27), to heaven through death, moments before it began to rain, and transported his grandson, Lamech, through death six years before Enoch's great grandson, Noah, stepped off the Ark into a new world.78

It was Christ who said, “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matt 24:37-38, Luke 17:26-27). This certainly speaks of all the sin and over due judgment, but also captures the rapture of Enoch, and Noah being carried through the judgment period. In the second coming of Christ, when he comes as Judge and Conquering King, the righteous, not appointed to wrath, will be raptured out, and the 144 thousand witnesses will be carried through the judgment period.

Christ also said “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; ... the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30). Lot was transported out (raptured) from Sodom, and it is emphasized that the wrath of God could not fall until Lot was safely transported away. Both of these accounts, used by Christ to illustrate his second coming, give an insight to the rapture of the church before the great tribulation period brings the wrath of God on the nations of this world; in the days of Noe, Enoch was taken out, in the days of Sodom, Lot was taken out.

There are three-five-nines that teach us that believers are not appointed to wrath. “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,... And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;... Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (1Thes 5:9, Heb 5:9, Rom 5:9). In the Bible Enoch was raptured out prior to judgment, Lot was raptured out prior to judgment, Elijah was raptured out before Israel fell into the Assyrian captivity, and Ezekiel was raptured out before or as Judah fell into the Babylonian captivity. Raptured defined is caught away and transported away.

The rapture of Christ's church prior to the great tribulation period that culminates in the Millennial Reign of Christ, fits exactly into the dispensational teachings of the Bible. It clashes horribly with the covenant theology and replacement theology of the Roman Catholics and her Protestant daughters. But each Bible dispensation ends with a failure of man and then a transition into the next dispensation. The present dispensation of grace encompassing the church age will end in time, in man's failure to respond to God's so great salvation. Jesus states it as “Nevertheless, when the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8b). Again, he likens his coming to “as it was in the days of Noe,” and “as it was in the days of Lot” (Matt 24:37, Luke 17:26-29). He delineates the failure in the seven messages to the seven churches, wherein the last message is to a Laodicean church period that has done nothing right and everything wrong. It is “lukewarm” and spewed out.79

As the failure of the Laodicean church age accelerates there will come a day when Christ's trumpet sounds with the call “come up hither”, and all the saints of the church age will be raptured out. Doctor M. R. DeHaan (1891-1965) founder of the Radio Bible Class, and co-editor of Our Daily Bread devotional, was certain that the world of the 1950s and 60s was so bad, and the apostasy of the Laodicean church so “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev 3:17b), that the Lord Jesus Christ would certainly return in his lifetime. We who have seen things worsen exponentially, have read the 2009 antisemitic policy and resolution of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)80, and heard our president, President Barack Hussein Obama II, call Israel the evil occupiers of Palestinian land instead of the blessed occupiers of Jehovah God's promised land, are certain that our Lord Jesus Christ will return in our lifetime. Jesus said, “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” Dr. DeHaan believed it. So does this author.

So in between the dispensation of grace, encompassing the church age, and the dispensation of Kingdom, wherein our Lord Jesus Christ sits on the throne of David in Zion and the twelve tribes of Israel operate a temple in worship of him, in between these two there is a seven year transition period. In that transition period, delineated in the Revelation of Jesus Christ chapters 4 through 19, there is not one mention of the church, because it was ruptured out at the end of the Laodicean church age in Rev 3:22.

The failure to rightly divide the word of truth and discern this transition period may result in a misrepresentation of some basic truths, and discerning it may result in some hard questions. When the church which includes all born-again believers, is raptured out of this world the presence of the Holy Spirit of God which indwells them goes out with them. In the Old Testament God built a temple for the people; in the New Testament God builds a people for his temple. The removal of that temple necessitates some different operating parameters for the Holy Ghost and there seems to be a significant difference in the “so great salvation” that operates during the church age, our present dispensation of grace.

In this age of grace when a person is born-again, saved there are no less than five principle changes instantaneously wrought in their soul. They are 1) converted, 2) justified, 3) quickened, 4) indwelt, and 5) immersed into Christ.81 Three verses, given in Jesus' explanation of these last days before the redemption of Israel and the induction of the Kingdom age, address a believers “enduring unto the end” to be saved.82


Mt 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Mt 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Mr 13:13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.


These verses taken out of their context make many a Pentecostal-Methodist and Mennonite unduly nervous about eternal security while they are striving to endure to the end to be saved. In actuality these verses are addressed to tribulation saints that will physically enter into the Kingdom age when they endure to the end. If a saint perish during the tribulation period, they will still partake in the first ressurrection (Rev 20:4-6). The rules for tribulation saints differ slightly from the rules for church age saints. Tribulation saints are saved by faith, as are Old Testament saints, but their faith is more particularly in the manifestation of God in his son, our Lord Jesus Christ. It seems that they are not permanently indwelt and sealed by the Holy Ghost as are church age saints. We do know that in all the history of the world, and all the dispensation of God it has never been, and will never be, easier to be saved and reconciled to God than it is right now in this church age. We also know that that will soon come to a close.

When the rapture of the church occurs the removal of the saints, each being indwelt by the Holy Ghost, will constitute a significant removal of the Holy Spirit of God from world affairs. This is spoken of in 2Thessilonians 2. Saints are gathered together unto him (vr. 1), the day of Christ is at hand (vr. 2), but first there is a falling away and the “man of sin” is revealed (vr. 3). It is the presence of the Holy Spirit of God that prevents that wicked from being revealed (vr. 6-8), and that presence is predominately (perhaps completely) via the presence of his born-again indwelt believers. The sequence of events for the end times is laid out very clearly here. The saints are raptured out, the day of Christ is at hand, the abomination of desolation is revealed, then (we find in the Revelation of Jesus Christ) the wrath of God is poured out, and the Lord Jesus Christ rides in to the battle of Armageddon. In any event it is the rapture of the church that starts the ball rolling.

The Rapture, Begins a Division Between Dispensations



The Rapture, Bema Seat, and Marriage Supper.

What happens to Christ's church after the rapture and before their return with him on horseback is not clearly spelled out, but is easily surmized. It must include, at the least, a judgment of Christian's works, (1Cor 3) and a marriage Supper of the lamb (Rev 19). The Apostle Paul calls out a time when “every man's works shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire' and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is” (1Cor 3:13). This judgment of works for those who would build on the foundation that is laid, which is Jesus Christ, is not a judgment of ones salvation but of the saved person's works. It is described in four short verses of 1Cor 3:12-15, and seems to fit well, time wise, into our first arrival in heaven, right after the rapture. This sequence also fits the description in Ephesians 5, “That he might sanctifyy and cleanse (the church) with the washing of the water to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:26-27).

This judgment of the saints has been called by some “The Bema Seat Judgment.” A “bema” is the platform from which orations spoke in ancient Athens, Greece, and this “Bema Seat” was popularized as the judgment seat and award platform for Olympic competitors who had run their race and finished their course. One can see, with that wording, how that name might have been found fitting for this judgment of Christian's works. It is not a Bible word, and some will sanctimoniously object to its use.

There is also a marriage supper of the Lamb spoken of and therein saints are presented to the Lamb as a glorious church. That puts the marriage supper right after the judgment of works and just before the saints return with Christ to the great battle. Revelation 19 shows that sequence with verse 7-9 describing the marriage supper:


Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is 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 saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.(Rev 19:7-9)


There are two other references which point to a marriage supper. In Matthew 22 Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a king which made a marriage for his son. “Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. (Matt 22:8-9). “Them that were bidden”, in this parable, were the Jews, and the “as many as ye shall find” in the parable include Gentiles. Praise the Lord.

Three things about this parable. First the guest who tried to get in without a proper wardrobe was cast into outer darkness. So too are “Christians” who are not robed in the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ (2Cor 5:2183). Second, Roman Catholic Saint Augustine used this parable, and its parallel in Luke 14:16-24, to develop his doctrine of two swords. With that twisted demented thinking Augustine taught the Roman Catholic Church to “compel them to come in” with the Roman sword and their age old line “convert or die.” This was first used on the Donatists wherein independent autonomous Bible believing Christians were called infidels and slaughtered.84

Lastly, this parable of Matthew 22 ends with this lesson point, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt 22:14). Before anyone takes up John Calvin's haughty notion that they “were chosen for salvation before the foundation of the world”, however, take a note that Jesus' lesson-points always fit the lesson illustration. There is no better teacher. Here the many called and few chosen must fit the “the kingdom of heaven is like” illustration of verses 1-13, just as the same lesson-point “many be called, but few chosen”, must fit the “the kingdom of heaven is like” illustration of Matt 20:1-16 (see also Rev 17:14). This lesson-point fits Jesus' teaching in Matt 7:13-1485 far better than it could fit into the twisted ideology of John Calvin. John Calvin thought the catholic church was the called and chosen replacement for God's elect nation of Israel. Never take Jesus' clear and illustrated teachings out of their context to fit some man made doctrine, especially not for John Calvin and his Presbyterian Reformed following.

The other reference which points to a marriage supper like the marriage supper of the Lamb of Revelation 19:7-9 is found in Matthew 25. This also is a parable to help us comprehend the kingdom of heaven and the main lesson-point is, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matt 25:13). When the Master Teacher uses a parable about a marriage supper, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ details an upcoming marriage supper of the Lamb, we should again take careful note to what is being taught. Jesus' illustrations always match up with the principle he is teaching and when men try to force fit more into either, one should proceed with grave caution.

Baptist Briders (i.e. Landmarkism86) force fit so much into this parable that it casts genuine light on Evangelist Gerald Fielder's argued point, “Reading your Bible is the safest thing a Christian can do. Nobody ever became a Calvinist by reading their Bible. They would have to be cornered by some disciple of somebody and force fit into such a convoluted ideology.” Ditto nobody ever became a Brider, a Roman Catholic, a Covenant Theologian, et.al. by reading their Bible.

David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061 provides an excellent reprimand to Landmarkism in his Sep 27, 2014 (first published in 1999) response, “Are You a Baptist Brider or Local Church Only?”

From time to time I receive inquiries from people asking me if I am a “Baptist Brider” and inquiring further about my views on the church. Let me say in the strongest terms that, no, I am not a Baptist Brider and I have no sympathy with it.

The Baptist Bride position, also known as Landmarkism, has been defined as follows:

“A. It is a corollary of the Landmark Baptist Church Movement (LBCM) doctrine which teaches the following:

“1. Only Baptist churches that can trace their history back to John’s baptism are legitimate (they maintain the ancient ‘landmark’ set by the Apostles [Prov. 22:28]). This is known as ‘church successionism.’

“2. There is no universal invisible church or mystical body of Christ, but only visible Baptist churches.

“3. True Baptist churches make up the Kingdom of God and therefore constitute the Bride of Christ; all other Christians are friends in the Marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9; Mt. 22:12). Some LBCM maintain that only Baptists will be raptured.

“4. Baptism from non-Landmark Baptist churches is alien and rejected.

“B. The movement began in 1851 as SBC preachers such as J. R. Graves disapproved of Protestants preaching (‘pulpit affiliation’) in SBC pulpits, and SBC churches receiving into membership those baptized in Protestant churches (‘alien baptism’)” (Thomas Strouse, “Are We ‘Baptist Bride’?”).

I reject every point of this definition of Baptist Briderism or Landmarkism.

I have published my position on the church in the Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity, which is available to anyone who is interested and has been available since its publication in 1993, and there is not a hint of Briderism in it.

David Cloud,87

Let us pause here momentarily to consider a profound thought. It was just stated and justified that “Nobody ever became a Baptist Brider by reading their Bible. They would have to be cornered by some disciple of somebody and force fit into such a convoluted ideology.” Could one become a dispensationalist, holding to the premillennial return of Christ and the pretribulational rapture of the church by reading his Bible? Absolutely. A Bible student should take great care that nothing is convoluted or force fit as they learn from teachers. Again David Cloud put this in writing:


I am a Biblicist. That has been my passionate objective since the first day I was saved, and I have held to promises such as the following for encouragement that I can know the truth. 

If any man will do his will, HE SHALL KNOW OF THE DOCTRINE, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself” (John 7:17 emphasis added).

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32 emphasis added).88

Recently a preacher said to me, “My Bible does not teach me two comings of Christ, one for, and one with his saints!”

My responce, “I appreciate your skepticism, do not force fit the pieces together, stick with Bible.”

Teachers, and non-Bible book reading, can however, be very beneficial in these matters. Oswald Chambers said it well, “The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.89” Do not force fit these things, teachers and authors can be very subtle and it is easy to be lead down a garden path, as it were. “And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words” (Col 2:4).

A natural fit for the second coming of Christ is found in his return for his saints at the rapture of the church, wherein he meets us in the air, then the Bema seat judgment of works, then the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is followed by his return to the earth with his saints because, “The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, ... 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” (Rev 17:12,14).

As these things unfold in heaven after the rapture of the church, the prophetic utterance of what is to happen here on earth captures our attention in the next study.

Seven Years of Tribulation

The LORD spake words to Jeremiah saying, “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer 30:7), and Jesus said of that last day, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt 24:21). This trouble and tribulation is centered in a seven year period often called the 70th week of Daniel. God prophetically laid out his plans for Israel to Daniel with the revelation, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy” (Daniel 9:24).

Each week was seven years instead of seven days and sixty-nine weeks were fulfilled exactly as God said. The last seven year period, the 70th week of Daniel 9, was not fulfilled, but it will be, exactly as he prophesied. In the first 1,260 days, or 3 ½ years of the seven years, seven seals on the book of judgment are removed and then seven trumpets announce and demonstrate how bad it is going to get when the book is opened. The exact middle of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, verse 202 of 404, marks the very middle of this seven year period. Therein the previously indestructible witnesses are destroyed and caught up to heaven, Satan is booted out of heaven and the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) is revealed as Jerusalem is abandoned by enlightened Jews. The great tribulation spoken of by Jesus is indeed the time of Jacob's trouble revealed to Jeremiah and undoubtedly the fulfillment of the seventieth week of Daniel 9.

When this larger picture is comprehended, when one stops force fitting the revelations into the church age, when the student sees that the Revelation of Jesus Christ encompasses his dealings with Israel, his revelations to Israel, his judgment of heathen nations, and his salvation of Israel, when the Bible student has these truths in perspective all the events in this seven year period fall into place very suscinctly, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ becomes masterfull literature instead of “Apocalyptic Allegory.”

The voice, which was as it were a trumpet talking, told the beloved apostle John, “Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.... And I, John, saw a book written within and on the backside that was sealed with seven seals.... The Lion of the tribe of Judah,... a Lamb as it had been slain,... prevailed to open the book and began to loose the seven seals thereof” (Rev 4-5). The Lamb, in opening the seventh seal, revealed seven angels with seven trumpets. The seven trumpets announced and gave the flavor and taste of what was going to happen when the sealed book opened (Rev 6, 8-9, 11:15), and then seven angels having seven last plagues, in vials filled up with the wrath of God, in turn poured out their vials upon the earth, upon the sea, upon the rivers, upon the sun, upon the seat of the beast, upon the great river Euphrates, and seventh of all, into the air. Then a voice sounded, “It is done.” (Rev 15-16). After this last plague is poured out there is still enough hate and rebellion left in the heart of man, that the heathen nations unify to wipe out God's chosen nation Israel. The King of kings returns to the mount of Olives and the Battle of Armageddon ensues.

With this much framework in place it could be left as an exercise for the sincere Bible student to fill in the gaps with all the rich detail provided in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and to further do the word association which connects each event with a myriad of Old Testament prophecies of each event, however, why reinvent the wheel. Consider next the last of the dispensations, the Kingdom Age, and then our eternity in heaven.


The Millennial Kingdom

The Kingdom Age

The promises that the LORD God made to Israel about her upcoming Kingdom of Righteousness are myriad and all are slated to be fulfilled in the one-thousand year reign of Christ, as depicted in the twentieth chapter of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. This essay will capture a narrative description of that thousand year reign of Christ, the Messiah of Israel, the Messiah of mankind, the Anointed One of God. It is to be a Biblical depiction of what that millennial reign will be like.

A lad in kindergarten was assigned the daunting task of drawing a picture of anything he wanted. The teacher came by the busy artist and asked, “So, Eddy, what picture are you drawing?”

“I am drawing a picture of God!”

“O, my!”, she responded, and then explained, “Nobody really knows what God looks like.”

Eddy, with a new determination and a pencil in his hand said, “That is because I haven't finished my picture.”

And so, what does the millennial kingdom age look like? It is left as an exercise of the Bible student to follow through the thorough Kingdom Age summaries and complete chain listings of C. I. Scofield given at the end of this essay. Believing that God says what he means and means what he says is paramount to comprehending the final chapter, this final Kingdom age dispensation. It is the seventh and final demonstration that the heart of man is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” The Kingdom Age is a seventh and final demonstration of man failing in responsibility and stewardship. The Lord Jesus Christ, as King of kings, and Lord of lords, rules this world with a rod of iron, from the throne of David situate in God's holy hill of Zion. He reigns for one-thousand years in a utopian state, and even that does not quell the rebellious, deceitful, desperately wicked heart of man. Let's briefly explore the conditions of this Millennial Kingdom Age.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, the Lamb as it had been slain, has opened the book, the title deed of his inheritance, and has come conquering all foes (Rev.16-19). He is come to set up his long awaited (and thoroughly promised) kingdom.

Of the citizens that hated him, and sent a message after him saying “We will not have this man to reign over us”, the King said, “Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me! ... And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem” (Luk.19). And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat on the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh (Rev.19).


The Kingdom Clean Up

The battle of Armageddon sets the opening stage for the millennial reign of Christ and it ends with an unimaginable devastation and carnage. All those men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image were destroyed (Rev.19:20)90. All means all. An angel had come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him for the thousand years. He cast him into the bottomless pit, and sealed him there that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled (Rev.20:1-3)91.

The aftermath from the seven vials of the wrath of God that poured out on this whole world before the battle needed to be healed (Rev 16). The Kingdom Age begins with that healing. All the nations of the world, all means all and that is all “all” means, sent its armies to a total annihilation that occurred in the battle of Armageddon. Also, within all nations, scattered over all the earth those who received the mark of the beast or worshipped his image were utterly destroyed. Additionally, three (3) times during the great tribulation period one third of man was destroyed. When a third of eight-billion are destroyed, 5 1/3 billion are left. When a third of them are destroyed, 3 5/9 billion are left. And when a third of them are destroyed 2 10/27 billion are left (Now, 9/27 is 1/3 which is just 1/27 less than that 10/27, so allowing for some rounding error the world population when Armageddon begins is about 2 1/3 billion!).

The population of all the nations of the world, nations which sent their armies to Michmash and lost them all, nations which now enter into the Millennial Kingdom Age, populated the earth with under 2 1/3 billion people. None who had received the mark of the beast or worshipped his image remained on earth. Every eye on earth saw the return of the King of Glory (Rev.1:7), but all of these survivors scattered around the globe, who enter the Kingdom Age, were not necessarily believers in, nor followers of the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, who now reigned. Thus a vast number of people, a mixed multitude, as it were, scattered among the nations of the world, as they are, entered into the Kingdom Age. They may not all be followers, but they are all worshippers.


Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest(Rev.15:4).


And in that day seven women take hold of one man, saying, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” In that day the branch of the LORD is beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth is excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, are called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning (Isa.4:1-5).

Scripture in Amos describe the reconstruction of the ruins:


(Amo.9:11-15) “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: 12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this. 13 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. 14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God” (Amo.9:11-15).


Israel Regathered

Of all these nations of the world God will gather his people Israel, and place them permanently in their promised land. They will look upon Zion, the city of their solemnities, and their eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down (Isa.33:20). God gathered his people with such zeal that all nations say, “The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and God brought them again into their land that he gave unto their fathers(Jer.16:15).

The King rules the whole world and Israel reins with him. God makes the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem is inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. The LORD saved Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. The LORD defends the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the feeble among them are as David; and the house of David as God, even as the angel of the LORD before them. (Zech.12:6-7)

In that day, God will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and he pours upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they look upon the King whom they had pierced, and they mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and are in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn (Zech.12:6-10).

Ezekiel's prophecy portrays the miracle of this regathering of all Hebrews into one nation:


(Ezek.37:21-28) And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: 22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: 23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. 24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. 25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore(Ezek.37:21-28).


The prophet Hosea crowns this promise of a regathered Israel:

(Hos.3:5)Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days(Hos.3:5).


A Temple of Healing

The Lord returned with his saints and the King's foot touched down on the mount of Olives and it cleaved in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there was a very great valley; and half of the mountain removed toward the north, and half of it toward the south (Zech.13:4). At that time the whole landscape of Jerusalem changed. Mount Zion now had a topography that allowed the construction of the massive temple described in Ezekiel's prophecy.

The temple was built just as the prophet said it would be, saying, “Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (Zech.6:12-13).

Out of that great temple situate in Jerusalem flowed living waters; half of them toward the former sea and half of them toward the hinder sea. These healing waters issued out toward the east country and went down into the desert and went into the sea; when they were brought forth into the sea, the waters were healed (Ezek.47:8). Everything that lived, which moved withersoever the river came, now lived and there is a very great multitude of fishes, and everything lived whither the river came. And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, grows all trees for meat, whose leaf does not fade, neither is the fruit thereof ever consumed: it brings forth new fruit according to his months, because the waters were issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof is for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine (Ezek.47:12).


A Temple of Worship

As the rivers of healing water flowed out of the temple in Jerusalem all nations flowed into that temple. Everyone that is left of all the nations of the world go up to, or send envoys to Jerusalem from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts. There they keep the Feast of Tabernacles annually (Zech.14).

And whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts (Zech.14:17-21).

All the people of the earth will know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else. And all the kingdoms of the earth will know that thou, Lord art the LORD92, even thou only (Isa.37:20). And all flesh now knows that the LORD is the Saviour and Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (Jer.31:34).

A Worship Mandate

Not only is there an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, but from one new moon to another and from one sabbath to another, all flesh, that is every person, of every nation, all come to worship before the LORD God. Weekly attendance at these times of worship is not optional and not excused, period. As part of this worship they go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against God: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they are an abhorring unto all flesh (Isa.66:23-24). And in that day, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the root of Jesse, stands for an ensign of the people; to it all the Gentiles seek: and his rest is glorious (Isa.11:10).


A Chosen Nation in a Promised Land

During this Kingdom Age Israel is saved, Israel is redeemed, and Israel is regathered into the land that was promised to her.


Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God(Ezek.28:25-26).


In that day it is fulfilled just as the LORD promised and said,


I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8 But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land” (Jer.23:5-8).


In that day the Lord set his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he set up an ensign for the nations, and assembled the outcasts of Israel, and gathered together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim departed, and the adversaries of Judah were cut off: Ephraim does not envy Judah, and Judah does not vex Ephraim (Isa.11:11-13).

Ezekiel had said,


(Ezek.11:17-20) Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. 18 And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. 19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: 20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God(Ezek.11:17-20).


God has given multiple scripture to solidify this promise of his chosen people in their promised land, here Ezekiel defines it in marvelous detail:


(Ezek.34:11-15) 11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. 13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD(Ezek.34:11-15).


Another scripture detailing this promise to Israel shows a tenderness and compassion in God's promise:


(Ezek.34:22-25)Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. 23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. 24 And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it. 25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods(Ezek.34:22-25).


Scripture from Joel clearly shows the LORD roaring from Zion to shake the earth with this placement of Israel in their promised land:


(Joel 3:16-21) The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. 17 So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim. 19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. 20 But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. 21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion(Joel 3:16-21).


Israel will be a changed nation, and scripture in Zephaniah show this. They also clarify that the King of Israel is the LORD:


(Zeph.3:13-20)The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

14 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. 15 The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. 16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. 17 The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. 18 I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. 19 Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. 20 At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the LORD(Zeph.3:13-20).


A Righteous King with a Rod of Iron

Further, with righteousness the King judges the poor, and reproves with equity for the meek of the earth: and he smites the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he slays the wicked. And righteousness is the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins (Isa.11:4-5). His absolute rule over all the earth is unprecedented. For when his judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (Isa.26:9b).

Ezekiel portrays this rod of iron used on the nation of Israel:


(Ezek.20:33-44) As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: 34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. 35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. 36 Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD. 37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: 38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD. ... 40 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. 41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. 42 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. 43 And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. 44 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD(Ezek.20:33-38, 40-44).


The Operational Temple

The temple in Jerusalem is fully operational. Ezekiel chapter 40 to 48 describe the Kingdom Age temple and its operation. Its dimensions are so massive it would not fit on the present mount Moriah. Its operation follows the Levitical laws and sacrificial rules.

The only priests that serve in this new temple of the Kingdom Age are from the sons of Zadok. Of others God said “The Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house... Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them ... And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed” (Ezek.44:10-13).

During the Kingdom Age, the final dispensation, the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of God's sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from him, they come near to him to minister, and they stand before God to offer unto him the fat and the blood. They enter into God's sanctuary, and they come near to God's table, to minister unto him, and they keep his charge. (Ezek44:15-16)

These priests, serving in the Kingdom Age have the same dress codes of the Old Testament Aaronic priests. The holy garments are made for glory and for beauty and to consecrate men to minister in the priest's officers (Exod.28:1-5). When they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat. (Ezek.44:17-18)

These priests, serving in the Kingdom Age perform the same sacrifices of the of the Old Testament sacrificial system. In Ezekiel God describes their service.


(Ezek.43:19-21)And thou shalt give to the priests the Levites that be of the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me, to minister unto me, saith the Lord GOD, a young bullock for a sin offering. 20 And thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about: thus shalt thou cleanse and purge it.21 Thou shalt take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house, without the sanctuary(Ezek.43:19-21).


The sacrifices made in the Kingdom Age follow the pattern of the Old Testament sacrifices which looked forward toward the sacrifice of the only begotten Son of God, the Lamb of God. The Kingdom Age sacrifices that are made look back to that sacrifice. God had told Israel of feasts and sacrifices that would be observed forever. Of the Passover he said,


(Exod.12:23-25)For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. 24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. 25 And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service(Exod.12:23-25 emphasis added).


Blocks of land are sanctified for these hallowed priests and the sanctuary of the LORD is in the midst of this land. The land is for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok; which have kept God's charge, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray. And this oblation of the land that is offered shall be unto them a thing most holy of the Levites. (Ezek.48:9-12)


The Curse is Lifted

The Kingdom Age, which gathers the twelve tribes of Israel into the promised land and operates this massive new temple, annually pilgrimages all nations into Jerusalem, and sees all people in weekly worship, is a different world altogether. The curse, placed on the physical world, is lifted for these thousand years. With the curse lifted the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for Israel, and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abuntantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God (Isa 35). And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes (Isa.35:7).

That river that flows healing waters out of the Temple in Jerusalem now touches a world that does not have a curse upon it. There the glorious LORD is to us a place of broad rivers and streams and the land cries out, “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our King; he has saved us” (Isa.33:21-22).

Not only is the curse lifted off the land it is lifted off the animal world. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. 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 (Isa.11:6-9).

An earth where the curse has been lifted and the Creator physically rules as the King and Lord of the whole world is only stifled by our imagination. There will be no disease on man or beast. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert (Isa.35:5-6).

The longevity of man will be restored; the infant and the old will not see death unless one falls under the judgment of the King, who rules with a rod of iron. Man lives peaceably in all the earth, unless they fall into sin, that is, disobeying the weekly worship rules, or the annual pilgrimage to the temple at Jerusalem requirement, or breaks any of those original ten commandments. If one is a sinner they are accursed, and destroyed. Such judgment is swift, certain, and just. Messiah will rule with a rod of iron, all Israel will rule and reign with him, and saints of the church age, as the Bride of Christ, in resurrected spiritual bodies, will rule and reign with him. His rule will be with a rod of iron! No sin will be tolerated in all the earth, the Righteous Judge shall judge righteously.

Several scriptures in Psalm emphasize this righteousness:


He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. ... God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. ... By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea: ... Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah. ... He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God(Ps.72:8, 67:7, 65:5, 59:13, 98:3).


And so man is tried and tested in such a utopian world where justice is meted out in righteousness by the righteous Judge and Creator of the world. He reigns from Jerusalem in mount Zion, his chosen land. He reigns with his chosen people, the nation of Israel, gathered in their promised land. He reigns as the supreme authority over all the nations of the world. “O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off” (Nah.1:15b). He reigns with a required rod of iron, and he reigns with Satan bound for the whole thousand years.


The Kingdom Age Ends

It should surprise none that this final period of mans testing, this 7th dispensation of God for man, comes to an end.


For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth(Isa.26:9b-15).


The world that God created and placed in his universe has seen its seven thousandth year. Man failed the simplest obedience test when placed in a utopian innocence, a Garden of Eden. In a dispensation of man's consciousness, the first born man became the first first-degree murderer, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. He then sent a world flood. In a dispensation of man governing and restraining the iniquity of man, the world was divided into nations and tongues to prevent their united rebellion. In a dispensation of promise, God built his own peculiar people, and made twelve tribes his own peculiar nation. In a dispensation of law, he redeemed his people from their bondage in this world, and placed them under a strict and righteous law. That nation, under law, rejected their own Messiah as their King, and had him crucified by Roman rule.

In an unprecedented dispensation of grace (that has now lasted 2nd longest of all dispensations) “whosoever-will” has complete access to a complete union with God the Father through his only begotten Son, raised from the dead. Even then, man chooses religion over righteousness, and worships and serves the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever.

And now, in the Kingdom Age, the 7th and last dispensation for man, in the 7th and last thousand years of the world, what is man's response to a righteous Judge, a King of kings and Lord of lords, exercising world rule and exalting his chosen nation to their promised position? The sad answer is found in four verses of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Revelation 20:7-10.


And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever(Rev.20:7-10).

Knowing the details of the upcoming Kingdom Age is ennobling to a believer; it can make one more empowered to preach the gospel to every creature in this dispensation of grace that is presently in its closing phase.

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen(Rev.22:20-21).


Scofiled Note 2 (Zech. 12:8) Kingdom in Old Testament, Summary:

I. Dominion over the earth before the call of Abraham

(1) Dominion over creation was given to the first man and woman (Gen 1:26, 28). Through the fall this dominion was lost, Satan becoming "prince of this world" (Mat. 4:8-10); (Joh. 14:30).

(2) After the flood, the principle of human government was established under the covenant with Noah (See Gen 9:1, note).

Biblically this is still the charter of all Gentile government.

II. The Theocracy in Israel. The call of Abraham involved, with much else, the creation of a distinctive people through whom great purposes of God toward the race might be worked out. (see "Israel" Gen 12:1-3; Rom 11:26 summary). Among these purposes is the establishment of a universal kingdom. The order of the development of Divine rule in Israel is:

(1) The mediatorship of Moses (Exo 3:1-10, 19:9; 24:12).

(2) The leadership of Joshua (Jos 1:1-5).

(3) The institution of Judges (Jdg 2:16-18).

(4) The popular rejection of the Theocracy, and choice of a king -- Saul, (1Sa 8:1-7; 9:12-17).

III. The Davidic kingdom

(1) The divine choice of David (1Sa 16:1-13).

(2) The giving of the Davidic Covenant (2Sa 7:8-16; Psa 89:3, 4, 20-21, 28-37).

(3) The exposition of the David Covenant by the prophets (Isa 1:25-26; Zec 12:6-8. See marg. Isa. 1:25, "Kingdom" and ref. “Under the kingdom the ancient method of administering the theocratic government over Israel is to be restored. Cf. Jud.2:18; Matt.19:28.”) The kingdom as described by the prophets is:

a) Davidic, to be established under an heir of David, who is to be born of a virgin, therefore truly man, but also "Immanuel," "the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace" (Isa 7:13-14; 9:6-7; 11:1; Jer 23:5; Eze 34:23; 37:24; Hos 3:4-5).

b) A kingdom heavenly in origin, principle, and authority (Dan 2:34-35, 44-45) but set up on the earth, with Jerusalem as the capital; (Isa 2:2-4, 4:3, 5; 24:23; 33:20; 62:1-7; Jer 23:5; 31:38-40; Joe 3:1, 16-17).

c) The kingdom is to be established first over regathered, restored, and converted Israel, and then to become universal (Psa 2:6-8; 24; 22; Isa 1:2, 3; 11:1, 10-13; 60:12; Jer 23:5-8; 30:7-11; Eze 20:33-40; 37:21-25; Zec 9:10; 14:16-19).

d) The moral characteristics of the kingdom are to be righteousness and peace. The meek, not the proud, will inherit the earth; longevity will be greatly increased; the knowledge of the Lord will be universal; beast ferocity will be removed; absolute equity will be enforced; and outbreaking sin visited with instant judgment; while the enormous majority of earth's inhabitants will be saved (Isa 11:4; 6-9; 65:20; Psa 2:9; Isa 26:9; Zec 14:16-21). The New Testament (Rev 20:1-5); adds a detail of immense significance -- the removal of Satan from the scene. It is impossible to conceive to what heights of spiritual, intellectual, and physical perfection humanity will attain in this, its coming age of righteousness and peace. (Isa 11:4-9; Psa 72:1-10).

e) The kingdom is to be established by power, not persuasion, and is to follow divine judgment upon the Gentile world-powers (Psa 2:4-9; Isa 9:7; Dan 2:35; 44; Dan 2:45; 7:26; 7:27; Zec 14:1-19 See Zec 6:11 note).

(Zec 6:11 note) Following the earth-judgments symbolized in the horsed chariots (Zechariah 6:1-8) comes the manifestation of Christ in His kingdom glory (Zechariah 6:9-15). This is the invariable prophetic order: first the judgments of the day of the Lord ; Isaiah 2:10-22; Revelation 19:11-21 then the kingdom (cf) ; Psalms 2:5; 2:6; Isaiah 3:24-26; 4:2-6 ; Isa 10:33; Isa 10:34; 11:1-10; Revelation 19:19-21; 20:4-6. This is set forth symbolically by the crowning of Joshua, which was not a vision, but actually done (cf) ; Isa 8:3; Isa 8:4; Ezekiel 37:16-22. The fulfilment in the BRANCH will infinitely transcend the symbol. He "shall bear the glory" ; Zechariah 6:13; Matthew 16:27; 24:30; 25:31 as the Priest-King on His own throne (Zech 6:12; Zech 6:13; Hebrews 7:1-3). Christ is now a Priest, but still in the holiest within the veil ; Leviticus 16:15; Heb 9:11-14; Heb 9:24 and seated on the Father's throne Revelation 3:21. He has not yet come out to take His own throne Hebrews 9:28. The crowns made for the symbolical crowning of Joshua were to be laid up in the temple as a memorial to keep alive this larger hope of Israel.

f) The restoration of Israel and the establishment of the kingdom are connected with an advent of the Lord, yet future (Deu 30:3-5; Psa 2:1-9; Zec 14:4).

g) The chastisement reserved for disobedience in the house of David (2Sa 7:14; Psa 89:30-33) fell in the captivities and world-wide dispersion, since which time, though a remnant returned under prince Zerubbabel, Jerusalem has been under the overlordship of Gentile. But the Davidic Covenant has not been abrogated (Psa 89:33-37) but is yet to be fulfilled. (Act 15:14-17).


User List Scofield Kingdom OT

# Ge 1:26,27,28 9:6; Ex 3:1,7,8 19:9, 24:12; De 30:1,6-9, 33:4,5; Jos 1:1-3; Jud 2:16-18; 1Sa 8:1,5,7, 9:15-17; 10:14 15:1,35, 16:12,13; 2Sa 2:1-4, 5:1,2,3, 7:14-16, 23:1-5; 1Ki 8:20, 11:9-13, 32, 36; 2Ki 25:1,7; Ps 2:1-9; 16:8-11, 72:1, 20, 89:3,4, 21, 28, 36; Isa 1:25,26, 4:1-6, 7:14, 9:6,7, 11:1,12, 24:23, 32:1, 2, 14, 18, 33:17-22, 35:1-10, 40:9-11, 62:10-12, 65:19-25; Jer 16:12-6, 23:5-8, 30:7-9, 33:14-17; Eze 11:14-20, 20:33,-43, 20:44, 34:11-15, 22-25, 37:21-27, 37:28, Da 2:34,35, 7:1, 9, 13, 14; Ho 3:4,5; Joe 3:16-20; Am 9:11-15; Mic 4:1,2,3 5:2; Zep 3:13-20; Zec 6:12,13, 14:16-21, 12:6,7,8


Scofiled Note 3 (1Cor.15:24 Kingdom (N.T.), Summary:) See "Kingdom (O.T.)" (Gen. 1:26-28; Zech.12:8, note) . Kingdom truth is developed in the N.T. in the following order:

(1) The promise of the kingdom to David and his seed, and described in the prophets (2Sam. 7:8-17, refs.; Zech. 12:8) enters the N.T. absolutely unchanged (Luke 1:31-33). The King was born in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1; Micah 5:2) of a virgin. (Matt. 1:18-25; Isa. 7:14).

(2) The kingdom announced as "at hand" (Matt. 4:17, note) by John the Baptist, by the King, and by the Twelve, was rejected by the Jews, first morally (Matt. 11:20, note), and afterward officially (Matt 21:42-43), and the King, crowned with thorns, was crucified.

(3) In anticipation of His official rejection and crucifixion, the King revealed the "mysteries" of the kingdom of heaven, (Matt. 13:11, note) to be fulfilled in the interval between His rejection and His return in glory (Matt. 13:1-50).

(4) Afterward He announced His purpose to "build" His church (Matt. 16:18, refs.), another "mystery" revealed through Paul which is being fulfilled contemporaneously with the mysteries of the kingdom. The "mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" and the "mystery" of the church (Eph. 3:9-11) occupy, historically, the same period, i.e, this present age.

(5) The mysteries of the kingdom will be brought to an end by "the harvest" (Matt 13:39-43, 49, 50) at the return of the King in glory, the church having previously been caught up to meet Him in the air (1Thess. 4:14-17).

(6) Upon His return the King will restore the Davidic monarchy in His own person, re- gather dispersed Israel, establish His power over all the earth, and reign one thousand years (Matt. 24:27-30; Luke 1:31-33; Acts 15:14-17; Rev. 20:1-10).

(7) The kingdom of heaven (Matt. 3:2, note) thus established under David's divine Son, has for its object the restoration of the divine authority in the earth, which may be regarded as a revolted province of the great kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33, note). When this is done (vs. 24, 25) the Son will deliver up the kingdom (of heaven Matt. 3:2) to "God, even the Father," that "God" (i.e. the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) "may be all in all" (v. 28). The eternal throne is that "of God, and of the Lamb" (Rev. 22:1). The kingdom-age constitutes the seventh Dispensation (Eph. 1:10, note).


User List Scofield Kingdom NT

# Luke 1:31-33; Matt 2:2,6 3:2 4:17 5:2,35 6:10 8:11-12, 11:27-30, 12:3, 38-45, 46-50, 13:1-50, 15:21-28, 16:20,21, 28, 17:1-3, 19:26-28, 21:1-11, 33-43 23:37-39 24:29-51 25:31-46; Acts 1:6-7, 2:29-32, 15:14-17; Rev 3:21, 5:1-10, 19:11-21, 20:1-15, 21:1-6; 1Cor 15:28


User List Kingdom NT ericeAugmented

# Mt 2:2,6 3:2 4:8,17,23 5:2,3,10,19,20,35 6:10,13,33 7:21 8:11

# Mt 8:12 9:35 10:7 11:11,12,27-30 12:25,26,28 13:11,19

# Mt 13:24,31,33,37,38,39,40-45, 47,52 16:19,20,21,28 17:1,2,3

# Mt 18:1,3,4,23 19:12,14,23,24,26,27,28 20:1,21 21:9,10

# Mt 21:11,31,43 22:2 23:13,37,38,39 24:7,14,29,30,31,32,33,34,35

# Mt 24:36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44 25:1,14,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38

# Mt 25:39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46 26:29

# Mr 1:14,15 3:24 4:11,26,30 6:23 9:1,47 10:14,15,23,24,25 11:10

# Mr 12:34 13:8 14:25 15:43

# Lu 1:31,32,33 4:5,43 6:20 7:28 8:1,10 9:2,11,27,60,62 10:9

# Lu 10:11 11:2,17,18,20 12:31,32 13:18,20,28,29 14:15 16:16 17:20

# Lu 17:21 18:16,17,24,25,29 19:11,12,15 21:10,31 22:16,18,29,30

# Lu 23:42,51; Joh 3:3,5 18:36; Ac 1:3,6,7 2:29-32 8:12 14:22

# Ac 15:14-17, 19:8 20:25; 28:23,31; Ro 14:17

# 1Co 4:20; 6:9,10 15:24,28,50; Ga 5:21; Eph 5:5; Col 1:13; 4:11

# 1Th 2:12; 2Th 1:5; 2Ti 4:1,18; Heb 1:8; 11:33; 12:28; Jas 2:5; 2Pe 1:11

# Re 1:9 3:21 5:1-10; 11:15; 12:10; 16:10; 17:12, 17

# Re 19:11-21 20:1-15; 21:1-6



The Eternal State


A bereaved pastor wrote a book on what he imagined heaven would be like. So few Baptist write books that I dared not deride him for his effort. Eight Systematic Theology books on my shelf use all their Catholic and/or Calvinist training to suppose “the final state of man.” Few Christians have read an exposé of Revelation 21. That chapter describes the new heaven and new earth that constitutes the final state of redeemed man. This essay touches the tip of the iceberg, as it were, of that tremendous place. It is well worth reading as a primer, (a small book for teaching children to read; a small introductory book on a subject; or a short informative piece of writing) for a Bible student's more thorough studies.

One divine chapter of the Revelation of Jesus Christ carefully describes man's eternal state. As per design of Jehovah God it is in perfect harmony with all other scriptures that make reference to that eternal state. Revelation chapter 21 describes two hallmarks of what is commonly known and recited about heaven; no more pain, and streets of gold. But for believers the term heaven, as it is commonly called, and this chapter describing it, contains so much more than that. Before examining the characteristics of the new heaven and the new earth where man will spend eternity one needs to clarify the common phrase “going to heaven.

Heaven is a place. When a believer talks about going to heaven they often generally suppose being in a place of no more pain and streets of gold, as described in Revelation chapter 21. That general supposition is Biblically accurate on the first count, but not the second. Heaven is the place where the full glory of the all holy God is manifest, i.e. being in the presence of God. The Bible references the heavens where birds fly, the heavens where stars fly, and this third heaven, where the full glory of God is manifest. When a saved, born-again, washed in the blood of the Lamb, saint dies, they are absent from the body and present with the Lord in that 3rd heaven (2Cor.5:8). One can justly suppose there will be no pain in that place, but a careful student of the Bible knows that the streets of gold only show up after the millennial reign of Christ (Rev.20:1-10), the great white throne judgment of the dead (vr.11-15), and the formation of the new heaven and the new earth (21:1). The streets of gold belong in that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God (21:10).

In Christendom much confusion is wrought by the catholic church (both Roman and Protestant) teachings of amillennialism, whereby they deny the existence of the 1,000 year reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. A careful, spirit led student of Scripture, can overcome that false teaching with an understanding of Bible dispensational teachings. The eternal state of man, to be examined in this essay is thus a description of his placement in the new heaven and new earth described in Revelation 21. Going to heaven is being in the very presence of God, but going to this eternal state of the saved is being in his presence in a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (cf. Heb.11:10).

There are two places in this eternal state described in Revelation 21; places where man might spend eternity. Our focus, and the chapter's focus, is on the eternal state of the saved, but mention must needs be made of the eternal state of the unsaved. One verse captures it:


But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Rev.21:8)


In this chapter that verse is the only direct mention of that eternal state of the lost. Just before the new heaven and the new earth are announced in verse 1 the separation of the unsaved is detailed in the five closing, and sobering, verses of chapter 20. Suffice it here to say just three things about that palce.

First, the Holy Bible gives more information about hell than it does about heaven. It is a place of eternal fire and brimstone and pain and darkness and of gnashing of teeth (Rev.14:10, 19:20, Luke 16:23-24, “gnashing of teeth” is used exclusively for this place seven times. Matt.8:12, 13:42, 50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30, Luke:13:28). It is a place of everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt.25:41), and it is a place of unquenchable fire where souls of men, likened to worms, will never die (Mark 9:44, and exclusively in a KJV 9:36, Mark 9:48, Isa.66:24). It is a place to be avoided at all cost, and by any means possible, even if it would cost you hand, or foot, or eye! (Mark 9:43-48).

Second know that the two eternal states called out in Revelation 21 are eternal states. Those five closing verses of the previous chapter detail the separation of all of mankind into the two, and only two, eternal states of man, and, again, these states are eternal. “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” ... And “they shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev.20:15, 21:8b).

Third, there is a way, one and only way, to be saved from this condemnation of eternal fire and brimstone. That one and only way of entering into the holy and glorious presence of Jehovah God must be accepted while a soul is living i.e. united with body and spirit. In death the soul and spirit simply depart from the body, and the soul's fate is eternally secured at that point. If you are reading this essay you presently have the ability to make a formal acceptance of the free gift of salvation from this condemnation. That simple plan of salvation can be understood and secured by reading and acting on a few verses of the Holy Bible. They are listed below: (emphasis added)


John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ...

36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.


Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The formal acceptance of that free gift must be done with a prayer ...

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ...

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.


The purpose of this essay is to examine the eternal state of the saved as it is described in Revelation 21. This eternal state begins: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea” (vr.1). The formation of this new heaven and new earth is addressed by the Apostle Peter who writes:


But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up ... Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, ...” (2Pet.3:10-11a).


The new heaven and new earth are thus a wholesale remodeling of the planet and of the heavens where the birds fly and/or the heavens where the stars fly.

There are Bible verses that indicate that the sun and the earth will continue forever (Ps.72:17, 89:36, 78:69, 104:593). Believers who have studied planetary motion know that this 6,000 year old universe is degenerating, and slowing down. Our own moon, that used to rotate, has stopped rotation and now always faces the earth. This universe that God set in motion has been degenerating since the fall of man when the curse was applied. And it went through great trauma when God broke up the foundations of the deep to cause the world flood. It is in natural decline. It would take a supernatural act to have the earth and sun continue forever, even after the major makeover accomplished in Revelation 21:1.

.

And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail” (Heb.1:10-12)


But believers know that God means what he says and says what he means, and he has already said, “by him all things consist” (Col.1:17). That includes planetary motion. If God says the earth is established for ever (Ps.78:69), and its foundations will not be removed forever (Ps.104:5), and he also says the elements shall melt with a fervent heat while the earth and the works that are therein are burned, ... well God is big enough to do all that he says. So, on this blue marble called earth, there is going to be a new heaven and a new earth for the final state of the saved.

Of the saved in this state, God says, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son” (Rev.21:7) These overcomers are described by God, “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?... He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1John 5:5,1294). And so it is clear that everyone entering into the new heaven and new earth established in the first verse of this chapter are saints, saved by grace, and in possession of God's eternal life. All the saved of the Church age are present in resurrected bodies. They were part of the first resurrection mentioned in Rev. 20:4-8.

It has been presumed that everyone in this new heaven and new earth environment have resurrected bodies. There are, however, a large number of saints present at the end of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ who are in physical bodies95. Those that rose up against the encamped “saints” were numbered as the sand of the sea. That multitude joins up with Satan and are completely destroyed. But the saints they rose up to attack are saved and alive at the end of the Kingdom Age. Many of these saints are living in physical bodies as opposed to resurrected bodies. They are saved by grace, and in possession of eternal life. One might suppose they are carried through the burning up of the old earth and delivered into the new one. Or, one might suppose that they are given resurrected bodies during the transition. When the Bible does not specify which, one should not be dogmatic. Cults start when one is more dogmatic than the Bible.


Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Rev.21:3).


By definition “heaven” is the place where the full glory, holiness, and righteousness of God are thoroughly, absolutely, and completely manifest. Prophets have glimpsed there and written God's scripture. Moses walked there and his face did shine. Christians that have tasted it have given their lives in service to its King. A Christian marriage and home, ordered after the precepts of God's word, is a taste of heaven. But Revelation 21, describing the eternal state of saved man is the real and eternal heaven, talked about and longed for by saints seeking a city with streets of gold whose builder and maker is God. Let's walk through that city.

We are all familiar with the seven no-mores in heaven (Rev.21:1-4), the city is taken up in verse 9-10:


And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God” (Rev:21:9-10).


In God's economy angels are an important entity and here such a messenger and minister to, and for, and of, God shows John the mainstay of our eternal home, “the holy city, new Jerusalem” (vr.2), “that great city, the holy Jerusalem” (vr.10). It is “descending from God out of heaven” (vr.2), and “out of heaven from God” (vr.10). This angel set out to shew John “the bride, the Lamb's wife” when he takes him to this city that was prepared in simile as a bride adorned for her husband (vr.2).

A simile is “a comparison of two things which however different in other respects, have some strong point or points of resemblance; by which comparison, the character or qualities of a thing are illustrated or presented in an impressive light.”96 This city is thus the abode of the bride, the Lamb's wife and contains the “mansions”97 prepared for her and called out in John 14:2.

The city in view from this great and high mountain has the manifest glory of God and is “heaven”, the eternal dwelling place for the resurrected bodies of the church, the Lamb's wife. The light of the New Jerusalem is like a jasper stone which is normally opaque but here presents almost every variety of color and is herein “clear as crystal.” This light is such that there is no need of the sun in the city. The character and quality exemplified in simile in the bride is that we shall there see all things clearly and in a different light.

A great and high wall around a city is normally for protection and to regulate who gets in. Entry into such a city is through a gate and there are twelve such gates in this city. The gates and walls of this city are entirely real, but might be entirely symbolic. In God's new heaven and new earth, seemingly occupied only by angels and overcommers that shall inherit all things, we are not told of any entity that these walls are meant to keep out. But we are told three things. The gates are always open (vr.25), “the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it” (vr.24), and “there shall in no wise enter in to it anything that defileth” (vr.27).

The symbolism of the twelve gates attended to by twelve angels or “messengers” is found in their names, “which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.” The twelve tribes brought us the Word, and without the Word there would be no entry into the great city, the holy Jerusalem. More is to be said about the quality of the wall and gates after the foundations are introduced.

The symbolism on display in the portrayal of this city is so rich that it is almost understandable why many slip from its reality to make it wholly symbolic. Both the real and the symbolic set this city on “twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (vr.14). The church, the bride, the Lamb's wife, now “fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God!” are, just like the city, “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” That detail of Ephesians 2:19-22 continues with, “Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy temple of the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph.2:19-22). The apostles, who were the foundation of the Church's faith, now have their names set in stone in the foundations of the eternal abode of the bride, the Lamb's wife. More will be said of the quality of those twelve foundations but consider first the size of this great city the holy Jerusalem that descends out of heaven from God.

God loves engineers; glory to his name. When God lays out the dimension and plans for a Kingdom age temple in Ezekiel 40-42, an engineer can quickly establish that the temple is larger than the whole mountain that holds the whole city of Jerusalem. Such an edifice cannot possibly be constructed; it is bigger than the site you have available. God had it built by man in the Kingdom age and now, in the final and eternal state of redeemed man, God gives the dimensions of a city that will not rightly fit on the planet, let alone fitting in Jerusalem.

The great city, the holy Jerusalem, that is viewed by John from the top of a great high mountain as it descended out of heaven from God, is foursquare, being twelve-thousand furlongs on a side. Noah Webster, in 1828 said a furlong was an eighth of a mile. That makes one side of this city 1,500 miles long; one side will stretch from NY City to Fort Worth, Texas. If God were to settle this city down in the old world, on the site of the old Jerusalem, one side would stretch from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Yemliha, Turkey. That would be a twenty nine hour drive, or a 25 day walk!

In the Greek a furlong is a furlong and twelve-thousand is twelve-thousand. God has left no room for a ecumenical modernist to falsify or misconstrue the dimensions of this city. Instead he compounds their consternation by making this city the same height as its width and breadth. In description it is a square pyramid, called a pentahedron, a gargantuan one! And mere man finds what God describes here impossible, absolutely impossible.

The average height of one story is fourteen feet; the fastest elevator speed is sixty-seven feet per second. This city would have 565 thousand stories, the elevator ride to the top floor takes thirty-two hours, and when the doors open, there is no oxygen there; none. The atmosphere in the old earth only goes up 6,200 miles, that leaves the top 564 thousand stories sticking up out of our atmosphere! One does not need a small mind to believe the Holy Bible, they only need a big God: ours is infinite.

Should we continue? Should we describe the jasper wall around the city? Should we consider it could hold a 24 lane highway? Should we consider the streets of pure gold clear as glass? It is left as an exercise of the genuine Bible student to explore the vivid detail of this city, and to know that this is not an allegorical picture of a fictitious place. It is our eternal home.

There is but one more thing that should be said here about this city: the capstone of this whole miraculous description: “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Rev.21:22). We will be there in resurrected bodies, we will have no need of carnal oxygen. We will be the bride, the Lamb's wife. Here, in our world, a bride is only a bride for a day. There, there will be no night, and we will be the bride, the Lamb's wife for eternity. Praise his holy name.






Chapter 7 The Premillennial Return of Christ and The Pretribulation Rapture of the Church

Christ promised that he would return as King of kings and Lord of lords, and set up his kingdom, setting on the Throne of David in the city of Jerusalem. When God promised “My king upon my holy hill of Zion” he said of his Christ, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shall break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel” (Psalm 2:6, 7). This kingdom is called millennial because it is promised to last for 1,000 years98. Roman religionists rejected it and called it chiliasm after the Latin word for one thousand. For the Bible believer to suppose that such a millennial reign of Christ could be ushered in by any Vicar of Christ from the Roman Catholic Church, prior to the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ is clearly and emphatically heretical. The Bible doctrine of the premillennial return of Christ, insists that Christ will return to set up his kingdom before the kingdom will be set up, and that once set up that kingdom will rule this earth for the literal 1,000 years which the inerrant Word of God decrees.

One is not a sinner because they sin, rather one sins because they are sinner. Likewise, a church or denomination is not apostate because they have heretical teachings, rather a church or denomination has heretical teachings because they are apostate. This is a profound concept, and worthy of a profound understanding. When Flavius Valerius Constantinus (272 – 337 AD) saw a vision which, in his mind, assured him that he should conquer in the sign of the Christ, he made his pagan warriors carry Christ's monogram on their shields. When this mysticism resulted in his victory, the upcoming Emperor of Rome forced a similar paganism to be the universal religion of the Roman Empire. Thus was hatched the vile and apostate Roman Catholic Church which forced all Roman subjects to convert or die. This Roman Religion was not Christianity. It structured an apostate church from its inception, and this apostate church rejected the premillennial return of the Lord Jesus Christ because it was an apostate church.

A Systematic Theology must first have as its foundation a true Bible Doctrine. From that foundation a discourse must systematically analyze the doctrine keeping it pure from its detractors, and evaluating its fit into the larger arena of theology. Detractors from truth are myriad from outside but internally they fall under three major considerations. First, The Roman Catholic Religion has always directly opposed Bible truth; second the Protestant Reformers, it is supposed, have come back to Bible truth, but, subtly, they still carry all the Roman error as concealed weapons; and third, the ecumenical Bible correctors who make a pretense of using textual criticism and modern language to "fix" what God was unable to preserve. These three are enemies to Bible doctrine, Rome, directly; Reformed, more subliminally; and Ecumenical Bible correctors, very shrewdly. Exposing their pernicious ways is not generally the focus of a Bible Doctrines book, but in a world where Bible doctrine is under constant attack, such a systematic approach needs to be expounded.

The Pretribulation Rapture of the Church

Once one understands the premillennial return of Christ, the upcoming dispensation of the kingdom age, and the transition period between the grace and kingdom dispensations, the Scriptures which point out the pretribulation rapture of the church, jump off the page of their Bible. The late Evangelist Lauren Dawson was contending for the faith with some Calvinistic reformed theologians. They said, “We just don't see how you can get the pretribulation rapture out of that Scripture!” He responded, “That is my point, you cannot get it out of the Scripture. God put it in there and it has been there for over nineteen hundred years. I don't see how you can reject God's truth of the pretribulational rapture of the church.”

For the world seeing is believing, but for the Christian believing is seeing. When someone is entrenched in the Roman doctrine of Replacement Theology, when they are mislead by John Calvin's Covenant Theology, when they will not delineated God's dispensations and the transitions between them, they will not “see” the pretribulational rapture of the church. … in draft fff

Replacement Theology – Amillenianism, Post and Mid Trib Error

A dangerous and errant tenant of Reformed Theology, Calvinism, the Presbyterian Denomination in particular, and all other Protestant Denominations in general is their total confusion when it comes to the timing of the Millennial Reign of Christ and the rapture of church. Deep seated roots in supersessionism, replacement theology, and the rejection of God's dispensations causes a blinding bias of the two doctrines to begin with. Their mother, the Roman Catholic Church is staunchly Amillennial, rejecting outright that there is a Millennial Reign of Christ. George Zellor, Pastor of Middleton Bible Church, Middletown CT, captures the connection between Replacement Theology and Amillennialism.

Replacement Theology: This view teaches that the Church has replaced Israel in the plan and purpose of God. The many promises made to Israel in the Bible (especially the kingdom promises) are fulfilled in the Christian Church, in a non-literal way. The prophecies in Scripture concerning the blessing and restoration of Israel to the Land of Promise are "spiritualized" into promises of God's blessing for the Church. The prophecies of condemnation and judgment, however, still remain for national Israel.

Amillennialism: This view harmonizes well with "replacement theology." It teaches that there will be no future kingdom. Rather, the kingdom promises are being fulfilled (in a non-literal way) by the church. The nation Israel will not enjoy a future millennial kingdom, nor will the Messiah rule over the world from an earthly Davidic throne in Jerusalem. The kingdom of God is being enjoyed today in the hearts of believers in a spiritual way, but the nation Israel has no future kingdom to look forward to.99


Protestants reading a little bit of their Bible without Roman allegorical glasses began to realize the complete failure and impossibility of Amillennialism. It was becoming obvious that the Catholic Church, Roman or Reformed, would not convert the world to Christ. In 1948 when Israel was made a nation and restored to the promised land, the whole concept of Amillennialism and Replacement Theology began to get new scrutiny by Protestant Theologians. Because those fissures would never go so far as to accept God's dispensations, however, their concepts of the rapture have always been half backed. A little bit of Bible mixed with a background of Replacement Theology first produced the ideas of a Post Tribulation Rapture.

First the rapture of the church is found in Scripture when it is not viewed allegorically. The question unsettled by these protestants weaning themselves from Romanism is, “When does the rapture occur?” Their first inclination is to place it after the tribulation period. Remember their Amillennial training tells them that they are presently in the tribulation period. They have little background to tell them that the tribulation period is a literal seven year period. There is a large movement of protestant believers who conclude that there is a post-tribulation rapture of the Church.

Protestants reading a little more Bible but still carrying the doctrines of their mother church begin to realize that there is a literal seven year tribulation period, we are not in it yet, and it is neatly divided into two 3 ½ year periods (i.e. time, times and half a time cf Dan 12:7, Rev 12:14, 42 months cf Rev 11:2, 13:5, 1,260 days cf Rev 11:3, 12:6). The mid-tribulation rapture of the church is suddenly a feasible doctrine for them. Many protestants, in the throws of a real doctrinal reformation, begin holding to a mid-tribulation view. It is not until all the doctrines of their mother church, all the traditions of their denomination and all the anchors of Replacement Theology are cast off, that the thinking protestant can let the Holy Bible be their sole source for truth.


Chapter 8 Critique of other Systematic Theology Eschatology Works

A systematic theology is more than a doctrine book in that it needs to systematically review other belief systems and theology works. That is exactly the effort undertaken by this author in his masters of theology work, and the papers therein generated are included in this chapter. Consequently this chapter is sometime highly critical of previous eschatology works, but is never meant to insult, slander or demean the genius of those authors who loved the Lord Jesus Christ and did the best they could with what they had. A retired systems engineer, whose parents were saved out of Roman Catholicism in 1958, who has carefully handled and studied an inerrant, infallible, verbally inspired Holy Bible since his salvation in 1960, might need be excused from any toxic overbearing criticism when addressing the tentacles Roman doctrine that strangle truth from Protestant eschatology. The criticism is deemed to be fully justified.

Critique of John Miley's 1892 Methodist Eschatology

John Miley (1813-1895), a Methodist, published his Systematic Theology in 1892. Methodists have always been a curious lot striving to unite, as it were, Anglican Church of England with the Holy Bible's holiness. Methodism is “itself made up of several parts, deriving from the preaching and ministry of John (1703-91) and Charles (1907-88) Wesley, and initially of George Whitefield. The term 'methodist; was in origin used derisively by opponents of the Holy Club at Oxford, but Wesley used it from 1729 to mean the methodical pursuit of biblical holiness.”100 The “brethren in America” became the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1787 and in 1844 divided into Methodists, Episcopal, and Episcopal Methodists. These never really united until 1932 in Great Britain, and 1968 in America's United Methodist Church.

Methodists generally endorse the Anglicanism. “Anglicanism is an episcopal (with bishops) Church, in continuity with Catholicism, but also accepting much from the reformation. It is thus described as 'both Catholic and reformed'. … There is nevertheless a common focus in that Anglican theology is based on an appeal to scripture, tradition, and reason, expanded in the dictum of Lancelot Andrewes: 'One canon, … two testaments, three creeds, four general councils, five centuries, and the series of fathers in that period, …to determine the boundary of our faith.' ”101

Miley's work was reviewed in its entirety during this effort, but, John Miley pretty much followed the catholic party line of Replacement Theology, and total ignorance of dispensational divides. Consequently Miley, like Hodge, understood and wrote very little on eschatology. Two things of note in that, first Methodist John Miley published his Systematic Theology twenty three years after Presbyterian Charles Hodge, the “Father of Systematic Theologies.” Second Methodist John Miley was most interested in correcting Presbyterian Charles Hodge's presumptions about Calvinism and not much interested in other ologies.

When writing about the second advent of Christ Miley concerns himself with what he calls a “Premillennial Theory.” Here is his paragraph introducing that “theory” that we, and many in his day, 1892, know to be Bible truth:


3. The Premillennial Theory. The theory is that Christ will come personally at the inception of the millennium and reign on earth for a thousand years. Such is the central assumption, and so far there is much unity of faith among premillennialists, while on subordinate points there are many diversities of view. Some think that the martyrs will be raised at this advent, and will reign with Christ; others, that all the saints will then be raised, that they may share in the glory of his kingdom. This advent will inaugurate the millennial life of the Church, and this reign will be the chief agency through which the triumph of Christianity shall be achieved. Our concern, however, is specially, almost wholly, with the question of a premillennial advent.102


Dr. Miley had previously established the scripture's assurance of a “A Personal, Visible Coming of Christ” and slandered “The Theory of a Merely Figurative Sense.” But here he writes off the premillennial return of Christ. He rejects the premillennial return of Christ in accord with the teachings of his mother church. The Holy Roman Catholic Church completely rejects any millennial rein of Christ, calling the Revelation of Jesus Christ a “highly figurative and symbolic book.” Here is Miley's paragraph of rejection:


The chief reliance of the theory is upon a single passage of Scripture (Rev. Xx, 1-6). This may be said, first, that the passage scripture contains not a word respecting any advent of Christ, nor ground. a word respecting his reigning personally on the earth. Further, it is in a highly figurative or symbolical book, and is itself highly symbolical. Consequently the construction of a theory of the advent on such ground is without the warrant of any principle of doctrinal formation, and the more certainly so as there are many explicit texts on that subject. So far as the passage relates to the resurrection, it will be considered in our treatment of that question.103


Futher, because Dr. Miley dismisses the Revelation of Jesus Christ as a highly figurative and symbolic book, not to be taken literal, he expresses confusion about two resurrections and final judgments. The dismissed book of Revelation details a first resurrection, a second death, and a great white throne judgment that is not to be found in Miley's eschatology:


Re 20:5-6 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. …

Re 20:11-14 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Re 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.


Dr. Miley, when looking outside the Revelation of Jesus Christ, often demonstrates a strong reliance on scripture, to the rejection of church tradition. In his assessment of future judgment he clearly states this dependence:


If we accept the truth of the Scriptures we must be loyal to their teaching on the question of future punishment, as on all others, and none the less so because of its fearful character. On no subject could the perversion of truth be more disastrous. While such perversion may neutralize the practical force of the truth, and induce a false sense of security, it is powerless to avert the doom of sin. Our only safety lies in the acceptance of the salvation in Christ Jesus.104


Dr. Miley was a genius and gifted communicator but his rejection of the Revelation of Jesus Christ as highly figurative and symbolic book, and his overbearing reliance on the traditions of the church, which all sprang from the apostate Roman Catholic Church, drew him away from finding and expressing the basic truths in the doctrine of last things.

Critique of Charles Hodge's 1878 Eschatology

Concerning eschatology and the second advent in particular Charles Hodge(1797-1878), a Presbyterian Minister, Princeton Theologian, and Father of Printed Systematic Theologies, confesses a great shortcoming concerning Biblical prophecy:


“This is a very comprehensive and very difficult subject. ... This task cannot be satisfactorily accomplished by any one who has not made the study of the prophecies a specialty. The author, knowing that he has no such qualifications for the work, purposes to confine himself in a great measure to a historical survey of the different schemes of interpreting the Scriptural prophecies relating to this subject.”105


Charles Hodge is a gifted communicator and thorough in his coverage of many subjects, but by his oven admission he knows nothing of the doctrine of last things. Hodge has been so thoroughly enveloped in Roman error of replacement theology and the dismissal of the millennial reign of Christ that he, as he says, is not qualified to write about eschatology, the doctrine of last things.

Critique of Augustus Strong's 1907 Eschatology

Augustus H. Strong (1836-1921) was a Yale graduate who taught theology at Rochester Theological Seminary for forty years and became the first president of the Northern Baptist Convention. In title he was a Baptist, but in conviction he was contaminated by both reformed theology and evolutionary Darwinism. His systematic theology has a tremendous depth and scope but his motivation in writing it depicts the grave danger in reading it. Strong strives to mold a traditional reformed emphasis and an evolutionary critical scholarship into the distinctive Baptist conviction. This dangerous combination of reformed theology and atheistic evolution blended into Baptist-Bible doctrine permeates every avenue of his work.

Augustus Strong also errantly supposes, with Schleiermacher, that “Eschatology is essentially prophetic; and is therefore vague and indefinite, like all unfulfilled prophecy.”106

After quoting 2Peter 3:7,10 and Rev. 20:11-15 Strong declares “Here is abundant evidence that there is no interval of a thousand years between the second coming of Christ and the resurrection, general judgment, and end of all things. All these events come together.”107

The primary problems of understanding what Strong addresses have to do with the misleadings of the Roman theologians that muddied theology previously. His repeated emphasis on various theories reveals his reliance on the scientific-method to resolve the truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is Truth, and theological truth cannot be resolved via hypothesis, theories, nor scientific methods. Problems of understanding, for the Bible student and theologian, are best resolved by the simply axiom, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me.” Below is Augustus H. Strong's brief eschatology outline.


PAET VIII. ESCHATOLOGY, OE THE DOCTEINE OF FINAL THINGS, 981-1056

I. Physical Death, 982-998

That this is not Annihilation, argued :

1. Upon Rational Grounds, 984-991

2. Upon Scriptural Grounds, 991-998

II. The Intermediate State, 998-1003

1. Of the Righteous, 998- 999

2. Of the Wicked, 999-1000

Refutation of the two Errors :

( a ) That the Soul sleeps, between Death and the Eesurrection, 1000

( b ) That the Suffering of the Intermediate State is Purgatorial, 1000-1002

Concluding Remark, 1002-1003

III. The Second Coming of Christ, 1003-1015

1. The Nature of Christ's Coming, 1004-1005

2. The Time of Christ's Coming, 1005-1008

3. The Precursors of Christ's Coming, 1008-1010

4. Relation of Christ's Second Coming to the Millennium, 1010-1015

IV. The Resurrection, 1015-1023

1. The Exegetical Objection, 1016-1018

2. The Scientific Objection, 1018-1023

V. The Last Judgment, 1023-1029

1. The Nature of the Final Judgment, 1024-1025

2. The Object of the Final Judgment, 1025-1027

3. The Judge in the Final Judgment, 1027-1028

4. The Subjects of the Final Judgment, 1028

5. The Grounds of the Final Judgment, 1029

VI. The Final States of the Righteous and of the Wicked, . . 1029-1056

1. Of the Righteous, 1029-1033

A. Is Heaven a Place as well as a State ? 1032

B. Is this Earth to be the Heaven of the Saints ? 1032-1033

2. Of the Wicked, , 1033-1056

A. Future Punishment is not Annihilation, 1035-1C39

B. Punishment after Death excludes new Probation and ultimate Restoration, 1039-1044

C. This Future Punishment is Everlasting, 1044-1046

D. Everlasting Punishment is not inconsistent with God's Justice, 1046-1051

E. Everlasting Punishment is not inconsistent with God's Benevolence, 1051-1054

F. Preaching of Everlasting Punishment is not a Hindrance to the Success of the Gospel, 1054-1056


Some has already been said about the failings of Storng's 1907 Systematic Theology, but his thoroughness and comprehensiveness in handling problems of understanding is still noteworthy. His coverage of eschatology, so muddied by Roman error, is not.

Critique of Theisens' 1949 Eschatology

A thorough critique of Henry Thiessen's “Lectures in Systematic Theology Part VIII Eschatology,” is presented in the author's report to the Faculty of Louisiana Baptist University in June 2011, for his Master's in Theological Studies Degree. This very thorough coverage of Henry Clarence Thiessen's Lectures in Systematic Theology's eschatology chapters, is presented herein because he was so close to the truth, yet so muddied with error and compromise. It is extensive and included here because in 2011, the review of Thiessen's eschatology convinced and persuaded this author to document a legitimate, Bible based, Systematic Theology. This critique is not intended to detract from Thiessen's genius, character, or integrity, although it is often a direct and a harsh critique of his work. It is only intended to guard against such error and compromise in present day students of the Holy Bible.

LBU's TH505 course assignment was to read Thiessen's eschatology chapters and prepare and show the answers to at least eight (8) questions which could be an appropriate final exam in developing this course for a college or Christian school. Thiessen's page numbers for each question and answer are given, and that written report is presented below.

Supplemental Reading Report - Eschatology

The conservative theology books of Mark G. Cambron, Millard J. Erickson, Charles C. Ryrie, C. I. Scofield, and August H. Strong were read and considered in light of what Thiessen covered on the courses objectives. Specific differences from Thiessen's work are analyzed according to those six objectives:

1. The second coming of Christ,

2. The rapture of the church,

3. The millennial kingdom of Christ,

4. The resurrections,

5. The judgments, and

6. The final state of Satan.


Thiessen Compared to Strong.

Strong pgs 1003 – 1056 Eschatology was read and used to investigate Thiessen's claims on these six objectives:

Strong's eschatology is not so brazen nor defined as Thiessen's. Although Augustus H. Strong was clearly a reformed Baptist, holding loyalty to the concept that God choose and created most souls for their eternal destruction in hell fire, he did not court the notion of the Reformed Theologians that there was no literal millennial reign of Christ. Instead Strong blandly lays out the facts that Christ's First Advent was literally fulfilled and so Christ's Second Advent will be just as literally fulfilled, exactly as it is spelled out. He initiates the study with the analogy “While Scripture represents great events in history ... they also declare that these partial and typical comings shall be concluded by a final, triumphant return of Christ, to punish the wicked and to complete the salvation of his people.”108

While Thiessen is breaking out of the heart of Reformed Augustinian Theology, and must needs untangle himself from all the ugly tentacles of their Millennial denying replacement theology, Augustus is not so encumbered and simply states the facts. The Baptist backgrounds of Strong cause him to acknowledge the fact that “every age since Christ ascended has had its Chiliasts and Second Adventists ...” Whereas Thiessen spends much blinded effort to devise and suppose that it (the pre-tribulation rapture and millennial reign of Christ), as a doctrine, was lost for 1300 years. In the area of Eschatology Strong has written more of a Bible Doctrine coverage than he did a Systematic Theology which undertakes to develop and defend a system of theology; bravo Augustus Strong. While Thiessen's perspective is less of a Bible Doctrine treatment, it is tearing from an aged Systematic Theology with a new reliance on the literalness of the Revelation of God. There is room for both of these books on my theology book shelf.


Thiessen Compared to Cambron.

Cambron pgs 249-288 Eschatology was read and used to investigate Thiessen's claims on these six objectives.


The following outline of Cambron's consideration of eschatology is repeated here for completeness.

Chapter IX Eschatology (The Doctrine of Last Things)

  1. Physical Death

    1. Death Is Not a Cesation of Being

    2. . Death Is Not Soul Sleep

    3. Death Means Separation.

  2. The Bodily Resurrection

    1. The Fact of Resurrection.

    2. The Nature of the Resurrection.

    3. The Time of Resurrection.

  3. The Intermediate State.

    1. Before the Cross.

    2. At the Time of the Cross.

    3. After the Cross.

  4. The Second Coming of Christ.

    1. The Importance of the Doctrine

    2. The meaning of the Second Coming.

    3. The Events of the Second Coming.

  5. The Antichrist.

    1. His Person

    2. His Titles.

    3. His Forerunners.

    4. His Work.

    5. His Career.

    6. His Time/

    7. His Appearance.

    8. His End.

  6. The Tribulation.

    1. The Tribulation of the Body of Christ.

    2. The Tribulation of Israel.

    3. The Great Tribulation

  7. The Battle of Armageddon.

    1. What it is not.

    2. What it is.

  8. The Millennium

    1. The Fact of the Millennium

    2. The Description of the Millennium.

    3. The Types of the Millennium.

    4. The Conditions During the Millennium.

  9. The Judgments

    1. Judgment of the Christians.

    2. Judgment of the Nations.

    3. Judgment at the Great White Throne.

  10. After The Millennium

    1. Satan Loosed.

    2. Nations Gathered.

    3. Army Destroyed.

    4. Satan Doomed.

  11. The Future of the Wicked.

    1. The Scriptural Teaching.

    2. The Terms Used.

    3. The Theories Proposed.

  12. Heaven

    1. First Heaven.

    2. Second Heaven.

    3. Third Heaven.


As can be seen from this outline Cambron just spells out here what is the literal Scriptural interpretation of eschatology. While Cambron holds an exceptional understanding and belief of dispensational theology and literal renderings of the inerrant, infallible Scriptures, Thiessen, coming from the non-dispensational Reformed Augustinian standpoint, has many struggles with the literal interpretation, struggles that he must work through. Cambron also consistently uses the inerrant, infallible Scripture as his primary source, while Thiessen rarely does, preferring the old philosophical sources and the Catholic Church Fathers for his initial basis. So Thiessen's eschatology makes for a much more diversified study, but Cambron is still the rock on which to build ones eschatology, because it stands on The Rock, the inerrant, infallible Word of God.


Thiessen Compared to Erickson.

Erickson pgs 1149-1241 The Last Things, was read and used to investigate Thiessen's claims on these objectives.

Erickson presents a systematic approach to eschatology which ends up quite apathetic towards Scripture, either literal or allegorical! “It will be helpful to note a system which is used to classify the various interpretations of prophetic or apocalyptic material in Scripture. While it is most often utilized as a means of classifying interpretations of the Book of Revelation or, more generally , all such prophetic literature, the system can also be applied to distinguish views of eschatology:...”109

I can't believe I paid money for this thick paltering book. While Thiessen shows great grit in tearing from the tentacles of Reformed Augustinian Eschatology, Erickson tiptoes through the subject trying to present all sides without evidencing one of his own. He tries to distinguish between individual eschatology and cosmic eschatology, he pretends dispensationalism is a new trend (pg 1162), he tries not to offend Roman Catholic Doctrine and even soft shoes their teaching about purgatory (pg 1178). Thiessen is much preferred to this kind of treatment. Treatment which brings to mind an infamous clause applicable to Erickson's work ... “Don't waste your time not reading this work,”... it says nothing, it means nothing. Erickson falls into the trap of trying to document what everyone and anyone, everywhere has ever believed about God, here about eschatology, rather than documenting what God testified in inerrant, infallible, inspired Scripture.


Thiessen's Part VIII Eschatology Q&A

LBU's TH505 course assignment was to read Thiessen's eschatology chapters and prepare and show the answers to at least eight (8) questions which could be an appropriate final exam in developing a course for a college, Bible institute or Christian school. These are formatted as “Fill-In-The-Blank and/or Short-Answer Test Questions” with an answer key and page number references, where short answers are in complete sentences. That section of the author's written report is given below.

Thiessen's Chapter XXXIX Q&A

The Second Coming of Christ:

Importance Of The Doctrine And Nature Of His Coming

pgs 441 – 450 (10pgs)


1. How does Thiessen deny and even oppose the perpetuity of Baptist Doctrine in this chapter?

Ans pg441. In his introduction Thiessen infers the doctrine of the second coming of Christ was “set aside” from the 3rd century to the 20th! Thiessen denies, even opposes, the perpetuity of Baptist Doctrine with this statement, “It is only during the last sixty-five years that this doctrine has been restored to the Church, although there is still much indifference and opposition to it.” According to Roy Mason, and John T. Christian there has been a perpetuity of sound Bible doctrine throughout the Roman Catholic dark ages and the Protestant Reformers “enlightening.” Baptist's never set aside this “blessed hope.” What Thiessen likely meant to say was that Protestant's have just opened their eyes to the doctrine in the last sixty-five years! Baptists are not protestants and never set aside this important doctrine.

2. What does Thiessen list as reason why he and other protestants have been reluctant to recognize the clear Bible doctrine of the second coming?

Ans pg 441. Thiessen lists causes of indifference and considerable opposition of the doctrine of the second coming as: 1) The setting of dates brings the whole doctrine into disrepute; 2) Fanciful and UnScriptural doctrines give a bad reputation (doctrines such as Second probationism, the annihilation of the finally impenitent, the restitution of all things, other heresies about the tribulation, the destruction of the temple, etc.); 3) Preconceived notions and prejudices (notions like Spiritualizing Prophecies by so many for so long, Traditional teachings, symbols, literature, Grammatico-historical (literal) renderings to often unbelievable); 4) The unregenerate heart, and scoffers.

3. What are five reasons given for the importance of the doctrine of the second coming?

Ans pg 442-444. Five reasons for the importance of the doctrine of the second coming of Christ are: A. The Prominence in the Scripture; B. It is a Key to the Scriptures; C. It is the Hope of the Church; D. It is the Incentive to Biblical Christianity; E. It has a Marked Effect on Our Service.

4. How is the doctrine of the second coming of Christ, which Catholics and Protestants discarded, a key to the Scriptures?

Ans pg 442. Three reasons that the doctrine of the second coming of Christ is key to understanding all Scripture is this doctrine is: 1) Key to key doctrines; 2) Key to key promises of Scripture; and 3) The ordinances loose their full meaning without the 2nd advent.

5. What precedent was set by the Roman Catholic purging of this doctrine of the second coming?

Ans pg 441. What Thiessen calls 'spiritual interpretation of these prophecies' was in actuality the allegorical methods used by the Roman Catholic Church to dismiss all types of Biblical doctrine. The Reformers readily included this arsenal of error in their reformed theology, still relying heavily on Roman Catholic allegorical methods today.

6. What seven doctrines are most effected by denial of this one doctrine of the second coming?

Ans pg 443. Seven key doctrines effected by the Catholic and Protestant denial of the doctrine of the second coming of Christ are: a) The Doctrine that Christ is Prophet, Priest and King; b) Salvation is past present and future; c) The doctrine of two resurrections (“John's Teaching”, as Thiessen calls it.); d) The Davidic Covenant remains inexplicable without the Second coming; e) The prophecy of the restoration of nature and the animal world requires it; f) The bruising of Satan's head requires it; g) Many types in Scripture loose their power with out the 2nd advent.

7. What are 5 'types' that loose their typology with the denial of the second coming of Christ?

Ans pg 443. Typologies loose their meaning when the literal second coming of Christ is denied by Catholics and reformation theologians. Typologies such as: (1) Noah and Lot become just history if not typologies; (2) Great events in Abraham's life do the same, where as He Issac and Rebecca so strongly typify Father, Son and Holy Spirit; (3) So so for Joseph, Asenath, and Joseph's two different relationships to his brethren; (4) So so for Moses, Zipporah, and his tow contacts with his brethren; (5) We may mention also the Sabbath, which loses its main typical significance unless we recognize the fact that it points forward to a “Sabbath-keeping” during Millennium.

8. What key promises are effected by the denial of the literal second coming of Christ?

Ans pg 444. The key promises effected by the Catholic and Protestant reformers denial of the literal second coming of Christ are: a) Key to promises of Psalms 2, 22, 24, 45, 72, 89, 110; b) Peter (i.e. God!!!) declares all the holy prophets speak of “times of restitution”, Acts 3:19-24; c) We are Warned to be ready; d) We are comforted by the fact; e) We are admonished to console the bereaved by the truth; f) We are asked to bear oppression because of His return; g) We are exhorted to retain our confidence because SHORTLY he will return; h) We are assured his return will bring blessings and rewards; i) We loose these precious incentives to godliness if we reject the truth of the Lord's return.

9. What dozen teachings of Scripture outline the nature of His Coming?

Ans pg446. 1) Jesus declared that he would return personally, John 14:3, 21:20-23; 2) He would return suddenly, Matt 24:25-28; 3) He would return in the glory of His Father with His angels, Matt 16:27, 19:28, 25:31-46; 4) He would return triumphantly, Luke 19:11-27; 5) The “men in white” (angels at his ascension) said he would come back; ( a) Prsonally, Acts 1:11; b) Bodily; c) Visibly; d) Suddenly); 6) Peter testifies He will come ( a) Personally, Acts 3:19-21, 2Pet 3:3-4; b) Unexpectedly, 2Pet 3:8-10); 7) Paul testifies that He will come: ( a) Personally, 1Thes 4:16-17; b) Suddenly 1Cor 15:51,52; c) In glory and accompanied by the angels, Tit 2:13, 2Thes 1:7-10); 8) The Epistle to the Hebrews testifies that He will come: ( a) Personally, 9:28; b) Speedily 10:37); 9) James testifies he will come back personally 5:7-8; 10) John testifies that He will come, ( a) Personally, 1John 2:28, 3:2,3; b) Suddenly, Rev 22:12; c) Publicly, Rev 1:7); 11) Jude cites Enoch that He will come back publicly, 1:14-15; 12) The Scriptural evidence is overwhelmingly clear!

10. List five Erroneous Interpretations concerning his second coming.

Ans pg 446-447. Five Erroneous Interpretations concerning His second coming are: 1) The balderdash that His coming was just the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; 2) The balderdash that his coming was just at the conversion of Saul; 3) The balderdash that his coming was at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD; 4) The balderdash that His coming only speaks of believers death (Matthew Henry); 5) The balderdash that His coming is when we pray, “Thy Kingdom Come”, and call for a “Conversion of the World”!

Thiessen's Chapter XL Q&A

The Second Coming of Christ:

The Purpose Of His Coming Into The Air

pgs 451 – 459 (9pgs)


1. What are the three purposes for Christ's coming into the air?

Ans pg 451. Three purposes for Christ's coming into the air are: 1) To Receive His Own; 2) To Judge and Reward; and 3) To Remove the Hinderer.

2. What are five Scripture references expressing that Christ would receive his own?

Ans pg 451. Five Scripture references expressing that Christ would receive his own are: 1) John 14:3, “Where I am, there ye may be also”; 2) currently absent from his presence while in this body, 2Cor 5:6; 3) at resurrection we shall “ever be with the Lord”, 1Thes 4:17; 4) flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, 1Cor 15:50; 5) Changes must take place before he can receive us, 1Cor 15:53-54.

3. List the Prerequisites for Christ Coming into the air.

Ans pg 452. The Prerequisites for Christ Coming in the air are: 1) Our Current Situation is unacceptable because we are a) Present with Him in spirit, b) Present with Him In conscience, c) OR at home in the body, 2Co 5:8, d) Goal of redemption is a redeemed body and soul, e) Conformed to His body, Phil 3:20; 2) The dead in Christ must be raised; and 3) The ones Living and Believing in Christ must be changed.

4. What are Scripture references for three goals of the resurrection?

Ans pg 453. Scripture references for three goals of resurrection are: (1) Ro 8:23 “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” (2) Eph 1:14 “Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” (3) Eph 4:30 “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

5. Give four Scriptures developing that the dead in Christ must be raised.

Ans pg 452. Four Scriptures developing that the dead in Christ must be raised are: 1) the dead in Christ shall be raised, 1Thes 4:16; 2) The Resurrection and the Life will resurrect, John 11:25-26; 3) The corruptible will put on incorruption, 1Cor 15:53; 4) There is NO GENERAL RESURRECTION! ... John 5:28 “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”, … Dan 12:2 refers to 2 resurrections, Dan 12:2 “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”... 4) Dead in Christ of 1Thes 4:16 includes all the saints that have ever lived, but cannot include those NOT in Christ.

6. Give two OT illustrations of the resurrection:

Ans Pg 454. Two OT illustrations of the resurrection are: 1) Illustrated in Enoch, Ge 5:24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Heb 11:5 “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” And 2) Illustrated in Elijah: 2Ki 2:11 “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”

7. Will all the saved be raptured? Thiessen somewhat mucks up the answer with his ill conceived idea of a Universal Catholic Church, but what three points does he give in support of the rapture?

Ans pg 455. Thiessen mucks up the proof that all the saved will be raptured with his ill conceived idea of a Universal Catholic Church but he gives these three points: 1) The Universal Church is a Temple, would part of the Temple be left behind? 1Co 3:16, 2Co 6:16, Eph 2:20, 1Pe 2:5; 2) The Universal Church is a Bride, would part of the Bride be left behind? 2Co 11:2, Eph 5:24, Re 19:6; 3) The Universal Church is Christ's Body, would part of His Body be left behind? 1Co 12:12, Eph 1:22-23, Eph 4:12, Eph 5:29, Col 1:18, Col 1:24, Col 2:19 Note that we must repeat the lesson from TH503 here: The word ecclesia is used in 4 ways, #1 a local assembly, “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth ...”; #2 local assemblies, “unto the churches of Galatia: Grace be to you and peace ...”; #3 the body of living believers unnumbered “beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it ...”; and #4 the complete body of Christ, “Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it ...”; but NEVER as a catholic body assembled and organized to be head over any other part of the body! There is no holy “Catholic (Universal) Church”!

8. What simple clarification about a bride clears up much of Thiessen's miss-argument, and the Baptist Briders missed logic?

Ans pg 455-456. A simple clarification that clears up much of Thiessen's miss-argument, and the Baptist Briders missed logic, is that a bride is only a bride on one day, the day she is united with the groom, prior she is the pure chaste virgin, after she is the wife.

9. What two judgments are associated with the rapture?

Ans pg 456-457. The two judgments associated with the rapture are: The Believer's Judgment, and The Believer's Reward.

10. What will be rewarded at Christ's second coming?

Ans Pg 457. The Believers' Reward will be: 1) a reward as a steward of the mysteries, 1Cor 4:1-5; 2) a reward to the faithful, 1Cor 4:2; 3) a reward for used talents, pounds and opportunities, Matt 25, 20, Luke 19; 4) As trustees of material possessions; 5) Matt 6:20 “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” …; 6) Sowing and Reaping, Gal 6:7; 7) As one responsible for the souls of others; 8) As those who care for needy; 9) As sufferers in an evil world; and 10) rewarded for endurance.

Thiessen's Chapter XLI Q&A

The Second Coming of Christ:

The Purpose Of His Coming To Earth

And The Period Between

The Rapture And The Revelation

pgs 460 – 468 (9pgs)

1. What are the purposes of his coming to earth in the second phase of his second coming?

Ans pg 461. The purposes of his coming to earth in the second phase of his second coming is: A. To Reveal Himself and His Own; B. To Judge the Beast, the False Prophet, and Their Armies; C. To Bind Satan; D. To Save Israel; E. To Judge the Nations; F. To deliver and Bless Creation.

2. What dozen Scripture verses are given to shew his coming to earth will reveal Christ and his own?

Ans pg 462. The dozen Scripture verses given to shew his coming to earth will reveal Christ and his own are: 1) Rev 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

2) Zech 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

3) Zec 14:5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

4) Joe 3:11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.

5) Mt 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

6) Mt 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

7) Mt 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

8) Col 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

9) 1Th 3:13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

10) Jude 1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

11) 1Jo 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

12) Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

3. For a Reformed Theologian to reject his 'Replacement Theology' and put in print that God will have a new covenant with Israel is astounding. Give the 7 Scripture references that prompted Thiessen to reject Replacement Theology.

Ans pg 462. When a Reformed Theologian rejects his 'Replacement Theology' and puts in print that God will have a new covenant with Israel, he could use these 7 Scripture references to bolster this rejection: a) Zech 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness.

b) Zech 13:2 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. ...6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

c) Isa 66:8 Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

d) Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

e) Heb 8:8-12 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

(These promises cannot mean that Israel will gradually be gathered into the Church as the Roman Catholics believe, thinking that They the true Church are the new Israel.)

f) Thiessen still thinks that the fullness of the Gentiles (Rom 11:25) is “i.e. until the Church is completed.” rather than the 'heathening of the Gentiles'.

g) Every Israelite will not be saved, but Israel will be saved, i.e. Those Israelites left after the purging, Ezek 20:37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: 38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

4. For the Period Between the Rapture and the Revelation, what is the Duration of the Period and how is Thiessen timid about it?

Ans pg 462. The period between the rapture and the revelation is the 70th week of Daniel ergo 7 years. Thiessen will not commit here, Catholics and ergo protestants, teach we are presently in the tribulation period, and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD had something to do with these things. Thiessen states it “To many expositors it seems perfectly clear that the seventieth week is still future and that it is the Tribulation Period.” ,... evidently not so for Thiessen! However, clearly, the 7 year Tribulation is divided in half, with “a time, times and a half a time”, “42 months” , and 1260 days (Dan 7:25; 12:7; Rev 12:14, … Rev 11:2; 13:5, … Rev 11:3, 12:6, Dan 12:11, 12), it is surely 7 years long and does not start until after the rapture.

5. What are 4 political aspects of this 7 year tribulation period?

Ans Pg 465. Four political aspects of this 7 year tribulation period are: 1) It is the Times of the Gentiles, Dan 2:31-43, Rev 21:24; 2) There are Ten cooperating kings; 3) It has Four Beasts, Dan 7; and 4) it is Dominated by the woman on the beast.

6. What are two 'Israelitish' aspects to this period?

Ans pg 466. Two 'Israelitish' aspects to this period are: 1) God has not cast His people away, there is a remnant; and 2) In unbelief Israel will return to the Promised Land (which Thiessen, like Muslims and other infidels, called “Palestine”! For shame.)

7. What three considerations does Thiessen give to what he calls 'the Chief Actor' of this Period?

Ans pg 468. The three considerations Thiessen gives to what he calls 'the Chief Actor' of this Period are: A. Consider the Person and Work of Satan … again; B. There is a Revival of the Roman Empire; and C. Satan gives his Power, throne and great authority to the beast, Rev 13:2- 4.

8. Although Thiessen considers the Chief Actor of this period he misses opportunity to address the other actors called out in Scripture, who are they.

Ans pg 468 Not. Although Thiessen considers the Chief Actor of this period he misses opportunity to address the other actors called out in Scripture. First there is a verse given in this context that reveals much about Satan, Revelation 20:2 says “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.” Second Thiessen does not expose the false mimicking trinity set up by Satan, his vicar trinity, as it were, and the false spirits that drive them, as presented clearly in Revelation 16:13 “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.” Thirdly, Thiessen never addresses the personages and other actors revealed by God himself in Revelation chapter 12, nor the war fought in heaven in the dead center middle of the tribulation. That is not given coincidentally in the dead center middle of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, in the 202nd verse of the 404th total.

Thiessen's Chapter XLII Q&A

The Time Of His Coming:

Premillennial

pgs 469 – 474 (6pgs)

1. When a Reformed Theologian brings themselves to even address the questions Thiessen addresses in this chapter it is a wonder; how does he word these questions and why is it a wonder?

Ans pg 469. It is a wonder when a Reformed Theologian, such as Thiessen, asks the questions, “Will He come before the Millennium?” and “Will He come before the Tribulation?” because just acknowledging that there is a Millennial Reign of Christ, and that there is a Seven Year Period of Tribulation is a massive jump from a reformed theologian's allegorical hermeneutic to a literal hermeneutic; such a jump is rare and could be so systematic that one could eventually even get his soteriology enlightened by inerrant, infallible, verbally inspired Scripture! As stated earlier however, Thiessen did not believe in the present existence of an inspired Holy Bible.

2. What three Scriptures validate that the rapture will occur at an unknown time?

Ans pg 470. Three specific Scriptures that indicate that the timing of the rapture is unknown are: A. Mark 13:32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father...; B. Acts 1:7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power; C. Matt 16:3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

3. What Scriptures indicate that believers should know the times, general, not particular?

Ans pg 471. The Scriptures that indicate that believers should know the times, general, but not particular are: A. Matt 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: 33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors...; B. 1Chron 12:32 And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment...; C. 1Thes 5:1-5 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

4. What are five references which show the rapture to be imminent?

Ans pg 472. Five Scripture references that show the rapture to be imminent are: A. Mt 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only...; B. Mt 25:13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh...; C. Mr 13:32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father...; D. Tit 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; E. 1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

5. Given that His second coming is divided into two phases, how are the signs of his coming more germane to the second phase?

Ans pg 473. Given that His second coming is divided into two phases, the signs of his coming are more germane to the second phase because: A. Latin mille and annus meaning 1,000 years; B. Augustin's spiritualizing it away cannot work, count them 6 times in Rev 20:2-7; C. The fact of Christ's reign on earth is rampant in the OT, the duration is spelled out in the NT; D. The emphasis on the OBVIOUS premillennial return of Christ BEFORE he sits on the Throne of David. This is important because Catholics taught Protestants that their Vicar of Christ was already setting on the throne, that this is the tribulation period, and that the millennial reign will be usherd in by the Holy Catholic Church, not by Christ. And Protestants (and often Thiessen) consider the rapture, and two phases of the coming of Christ, only a contrived doctrine of recent times.

6. Give three notable considerations of the early Church which demonstrate that they believed what the apostles taught about the 2nd coming and the premillennial return of Christ.

Ans pg 472. Three notable considerations of the early Church which demonstrate that they believed what the apostles taught about the 2nd coming and the pre-millennial return of Christ are: A. Papias who died 165 AD “There will be a millennium after the resurrection of the dead, when the personal reign of Christ will be established on this earth...”; B. Polycarp spoke of our prospect of reigning with Christ and of the fact that the saints will judge the world; C. Fisher's History of the Christian Church pp 84 admits that during the period 100-313AD, “The belief in a millennial kingdom on earth, to follow the second advent of Christ, was widely diffused, … This millennial or shiliastic (Greek) belief is found in Justin, Irenaeus, and Tertullian. The Alexandrians (of Egypt) opposed it. They contributed to the overthrow of the tenet, which was also hastened by the unpopularity of Montanism, in which it was prominent article of belief. (Note that those Alexandrians also gave Thiessen the Bible that he prefers over the Authorized KJV!)

7. Give six considerable confusions of the 'Catholic Church Fathers' about the millennial reign and more particularly about the rapture of the Church.

Ans pg 472. Six considerable confusions of the 'Catholic Church Fathers' about the millennial reign, and more particularly about the rapture of the Church, are: A. It was the Allegorizing of Origen and his followers that made it possible to “condemn Chiliasm (Greek, Latin Millennialism) without disputing the inspiration of the Revelation.” says Horatius Bonar quoted by Silver in Thiessen's pg 470. (Origen was followed by Jerome, who produced the Latin Vulgate, and Origen was followed by Augustine, who produced Catholicism!); B. In the days of Irenaeus “The expectations … generally prevailed of the personal reign of our Lord on earth for a thousand years...”; C. The doubts concerning the Revelation “seem to have arisen entirely from unwillingness to accept the doctrine of a future reign of our Lord on this earth...”; D. Dionysius of Alexandria seems to be the first to deny the Apostolic authorship of Revelation because of his opposition to the doctrine of the Millennium, though he claims some before him had rejected it. (Silver, Op cit. , Ibid p.231, ?? J.F. Silver, The Lord's Return, New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1914) (Thiessen pp 470); E. Silver quotes Taylor “The Council of Rome under Pope Damasus, in 373, formally denounced Chiliasm (Millennial Reign of Christ)” Op cit. Pg 85; F.“Baronius, a Roman Catholic historian of the 16th century, says that after Rome's formal denunciation of Chiliasm the doctrine was derided with 'hisses and laughter,' and being 'under the ban' was entirely extirpated.” Ibid, pp 85,91.

8 During the reformation belief in the rapture and the millennial reign of Christ was found exclusively in the Baptist predecessors (called Ana-baptist, Waldensians Montanists, Paulicians et al.); what did reformers do?

Ans pg 475. During the reformation belief in the rapture and the millennial reign of Christ was found exclusively in the Baptist predecessors (called Ana-baptist, Waldensians, Montanists, Paulicians et al.); the reformers were new with the ideas in that: A. Except among the Waldensiannn, Henricians, Cathari, and some other small bodies their light (Millennial Reign of Christ) was then extinguished. Ibid.p. 92; B. Among Reformers … Haldeman quotes Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, and Knoz as believing in the speedy return of Christ. I. M. Haldeman, History of the Doctrine of Our Lord's Return (Philadelphia: Philadelphia School of the Bible, n.d.) pp. 23; C. In the last of the 17th and first part of the 18th centuries Daniel Whitby, and Arian called the father of modern post-millennialism, restored the methods of Origen, but called it a “new hypothesis”! He taught that all the promises of the kingdom should be taken in a spiritual and allegorical sense. Ibid. p. 26; D. “Vitringa, Faber, and Brown are the ablest followers of Whitby.” Silver, Op. Cit., p. 39; E. The return to the early Church position (from Catholicism to Biblicalism) marked by “Charles Wesley, Issac Watts, Bengel, Lange, Godet, Ellicott, Trench, Alford, and The Bonar Brothers, and most of the outstanding evangelists of the past and present generations; F. During the last 60 years there has been a renewed emphasis upon this “blessed hope.”

9. What are some proofs of the doctrine of the rapture and the two phases of his coming.

Ans pg 471-474. Some proofs of the doctrine of the rapture and the two phases of his coming are: A. The Manner and Time of the Setting up of the Kingdom; B. The Blessings That are Associated with This Future Kingdom; C. The Distinction Between Receiving the Kingdom and Inaugurating it... Christ had to return to heaven to receive the kingdom from the Father, Dan 7; D. The Promise to the Apostles of Rulership over the Twelve Tribes of Israel; E. The Promise to Believers That They Shall Reign With Christ ( 1) It is impossible to show that saints 'reign with Christ' in any practical sense today 2) The reigning with Christ is to last 1000 year!); F. The Conditions That are Predicted as Existing Just Prior to His Return (1) Scriptures show the exact opposite of Catholicism's idea that the world will be converted prior to His return. 2) Latter times, Faith on the Earth?, seducing spirits etc.); G. The Order of Events Rev 19 in perfect harmony with Psalms 2.

10 What are the events that require the two phases of the second coming of Christ.

Ans pg 474.The list events that require the two phases of the second coming of Christ are; 1) Coming FOR his Saints; 2) Coming WITH his Saints; 3) Battle of Armageddon; 4) Binding of Satan; 5) Loosing of Satan afterward.


Thiessen's Chapter XLIII Q&A

The Time Of His Coming:

Pre-Tribulational

pgs 475 – 486 (12pgs)


1. Although the Bible is clear that the Church will pass through no part of the period of tribulation period, what are some ill-conceived notions of those who do not read their Bible literally?

Ans pg 475. Although the Bible is clear that the Church will pass through no part of the tribulation period, some ill-conceived notions of those who do not read their Bible literally are: A. The Church will pass through the tribulation; B. The Church will pass through the first half of the tribulation; C. The unspiritual part of the Church will pass through the tribulation and the mature and Spirit-filled part will be caught up before the tribulation.

2. Thiessen's sources make a Bible believer nervous, what is his primary source listed for this Pre-Tribulational argument.

Ans pg 475-476. That Thiessen would introduce this subject with an unBiblical primary source is somehow not surprising. But really! To use B. F. Westcott's comments, and then the Shepherd of Hermas110 as and initial and/or primary source for the pre-tribulation rapture and second coming of Christ broaches on apostasy. The infallible, inerrant, verbally inspired Scripture, (which Thiessen contends are non-existent today) must be the source of all truth, faith, and practice, (2Tim 3:16-17 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

3. Thiessen's sources make a Bible believer nervous, what is his secondary source listed for this argument.

Ans pg 477. Thiessen's secondary source is Irenaeus wherein:

1) He says of Irenaeus, “He seems to hold that the Church will be caught up during the Tribulation” when this is not Irenaeus' quote at all; 2) Irenaeus's quote is “And therefore, when in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this earth, it is said, 'There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be.' For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome, they are crowned with in-corruption.” (Against Heresies Book V, ch xxix, p. 558); 3) Irenaeus is herein twisted to say something he does not say, We know of Irenaeus that he believed in the Scriptures and their claim to inerrancy and infallibility, and such should be Thiessen's primary source on this subject; 4) Thiessen projects on Irenaeus “But in another place he teaches that the resurrection will take place after the coming of the Antichrist. Ibid.” The implication that Irenaeus believed other than what the Bible says is preposterous. There will indeed be a resurrection after the revelation of the Antichrist, but this has nothing to do with the rapture of the Church before the tribulation period.

4. List four general conclusions that Thiessen draws with his Bible closed away in a locked drawer.

Ans pg 480. Four general conclusions that Thiessen draws with out so much as opening his Bible are: 1) “We shall not attempt any further investigation of this literature”,... Excellent, Finally! 2) “In the testimony of the early Fathers there is an almost complete silence on the subject” … why does Thiessen start here then?!...; 3) “Though on the whole the testimony of the Fathers is somewhat inconsistent, we seem to have in Hermass” … Seem to have vs Seem to have from unBiblical sources is of little value in developing a true Biblical Systematic Theology!...; 4) “It is clear, however, that the Fathers held not only the pre-millennial view of Christ's coming, but also regarded that coming as imminent.” … This is NOT clear from the literature that such 'Church Fathers' wrote down, (I object to this classification of these men, the Church that Jesus built, has no human “Fathers.”) but because they believed the Scriptures, Scriptures that Thiessen should be using for his Primary Source in the first place!

5. List four more general conclusions Thiessen draws without the use of his Bible.

Ans pg 481. Four more general conclusions Thiessen draws without us of his Bible are: 1) “The Lord had taught them to expect His return at any moment” … How had he taught them that?? via Scripture that Thiessen should be using as his primary source to begin with! 2) “They also taught Hie personal return as being immediately” … again this is only conjectured because they taught the Scroptures, not because of their 'literature'. 3) “With the exception of the Alexandrian Fathers, who also rejected other fundamental doctrines.” … Ironic (if not so sad) that Thiessen's favorite Bible translation (ASV) is sourced to these unbelievers through the godless efforts of Westcott and Hort. 4) “To argue from the silence of these writers, in the light of the quotation from Hermas, is, after all, a very bad procedure.” … Why are we then here? and why in the lead paragraph of such a vital doctrine, make this your primary and secondary source?

6. With the rise of Constantine and the State Church what happened to the doctrine of the second coming?

Ans pg 478. With the rise of Constantine and the State Church the doctrine of the second coming was all but lost as: 1) The (Apostate Roman) Church turned to an allegorizing of the Scriptures concerning the Lord's return. 2) The truth was not entirely extirpated during the Middle ages ( a) it was held by smaller bodies who kept themselves aloof from the Catholic Church; b) with the denial of the true doctrine of the Millennium the Apostate Roman Catholic Church must also remove the teaching concerning the Tribulation.). 3) “The Reformers returned to the doctrine of the coming of Christ, but because of the need of emphasizing the truth of justification by faith, they did not give themselves to the development of the teaching concerning the Lord's return. Consequently they have not left us any considerable literature on the subject. True believers need scarcely be reminded that Christian doctrine is established on the basis of Scripture, and not on the beliefs or non-beliefs of past generations. With due respect for all that the Church has inherited from the godly men of the past, we must yet remember that the Bible is our sole authority in matters of doctrine.” Thiessen, Op. Cit. “Will the Church Pass Through the Tribulation?” New York: Loizeaux Bros., 1941, pp 13-17 (Thiessen pg 478). This admission that “the Bible is our sole authority in matters of doctrine” is an awesome, but to little to late, change to Thiessen's previous practice.

7. Give Thiessen's 9 Scriptural reasons for holding to a pretribulational return of the Christ.

Ans pg 477. Thiessen's 9 Scriptural reasons for holding to a pretribulational return of the Christ are: A. The promise to the Church in Philadelphia; B. The Nature of the Seventieth Week of Daniel; C. The Nature and Purpose of the Tribulation; D. The Twenty-Four Elders in Relation to the Tribulation; E. The Mission of the Holy Spirit as a Restrainer; F. The Necessity for an Interval Between the Rapture and the Revelation; G. The Exhortation to Constant Expectation of the Lord's Return; H. The erroneous interpretations make the last trumpet (1Cor 15:12) of 1Thes 4 the same as the trumpet of Rev 11:15; I. There is indeed a pre-Tribulation Rapture and resurrection of saints.

8. How and why did the promise to the Church in Philadelphia imply a pretribulational return of Christ?

Ans pg 478. The promise to the Church in Philadelphia implied a pretribulational return of Christ because: 1) The Word 'Hour', Rev 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 2) The Extent of the Trial. 3) The Purpose of This Hour of Trial wherein: a) Alford contends that “The expositors have in many cases gone away form this broad and obvious meaning here, and have sought to identify the hora peirasmou with various periods of trial and persecution of the Church: a line of interpretation carrying its own refutation with it in the very terms used in the text. b) R. H. Charles likewise says “IT will be observed that the demonic trial spoken of, while world-wide, was to affect only 'those that dwell upon the earth', i.e., the non-Christians.” c) The Bible does not so allow “Rev 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” And d) The Bible does not so allow; 2Pet 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. 4) Who Will be Kept From the Hour of Trial wherein: a) Moffat contends that the Greek allows this verb to mean successful endurance and safe emergence OR kept from and escape from it entirely. b) The Bible does not so allow “Rev 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” and c) The Bible does not so allow; 2Pet 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.

9. What are Thiessen's ten facts about the 24 Elders that contribute to the understanding of this doctrine.

Ans pg 481. Thiessen's ten facts about the Twenty-Four Elders which contribute to the understanding that Christ will return prior to the tribulation are: 1) After the letters to the Churches, Rev 1-3, after John told 'come up hither', Rev 4:1, when a 'throne was set in heaven' 4:2 because In the Greek imperfect tense the throne 'was being set', Not the eternal throne upon which God sits and God the Father sets on this throne. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

2) It is CLEAR that they are on these 'seats' before the first seal is broken, i.e. before the first Tribulation judgment.

3) Angels DO NOT sit on thrones nor have crowns of gold.

4) Angels are great in number, these are but twelve.

5) Crowns are not bestowed until the Lord comes again.

6) These have resurrected incorruptible bodies to be robed, crowned, and enthroned, i.e. they are not disembodied spirits; note that, a) these are different than the souls seen under the altar at the 5th seal cf Rev 6:9; b) these 'souls' are resurrected and in receipt of incorruptible bodies at the end of the Tribulation period cf 6:11, 20:4-5; and c) These 'souls' are part of the 'first resurrection', clarifying that that resurrection began prior i.e. at the Rapture.

7) These 24 are representatives of many others such as: a) In 1 Chron 23:3-4 24,000 Levites were set forward; b) In ch 24 they were set into 24 orderings; c) In ch 25 the 24 orderings are set with 12 each sons and brethren for 12x24 = 288; 25:7 “So the number of them, with their brethren that were instructed in the songs of the LORD, even all that were cunning, was two hundred fourscore and eight”; and d) These are thus representatives of the saints set in order OT saints set under 12 tribal leaders, NT saints set under 12 apostles, not the Church, (as in Catholic Error) but the united royal priesthood of all the 1st resurrection saints.

8) These are 'elders' matured leaders of Israel, and matured leaders of the Church.

9) These 24 elders are the direct outcome of the Rapture of OT and NT saints.

10) In Rev 19 the four and twenty elders worship the coming King of kings and Lord of lords!

10. What erroneous interpretations make the last trumpet (1Cor 15:12) of 1Thes 4 the same as the trumpet of Rev 11:15?

Ans pg 485. The erroneous interpretations which make the last trumpet (1Cor 15:12) of 1Thes 4 the same as the trumpet of Rev 11:15 are: 1) The Thessalonians trumpet is a singular one, the Rev trumpet is one of seven; 2) The Revelation trumpets are visions of Revelation, Thessalonians trumpet not so much; 3) When Moses was called to Mt Sinai (Exod 19) there was a long trumpet blast called for, but there were in actuality two, one two summon the people to the mount, the other to summon Moses into the mount as a) There is no warning that there would be two separate blasts and b) 1Thes 4:16 awakens the dead in Christ, the last one in 1Cor 15:52 summon the resurrected into Christ's presence. Ingenious suggestion! And 4) In any event the trumpet of 1Cor 15 cannot be the same as the 7th visionary trumpet of the Revelation's Tribulation period.

Thiessen's Chapter XLIV Q&A

The Resurrections

pg 487 – 495 (9pgs)

1. What Scriptures show the existence of Resurrection deniers in Bible Times?

Ans pg 487. Scriptures that show resurrection deniers of Bible times are: Mt 22:23 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,..., Ac 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both., 1Co 15:12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

2. Name 5 other leading religion that hold to a life after death.

Ans pg 487. Brahmanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Mohammedanism. - all hold that man continues to exist after death.

3. How does Origen, Alexandrian philosopher, Catholic Church Father, instructor to Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation, and mentor of Saint Augustine's perverse doctrine, pervert the idea of resurrection?

Ans pg 489. Origen, Alexandrian philosopher, Catholic Church Father, instructor to Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation, and mentor of Saint Augustine's perverse doctrine, perverts the idea of resurrection via Thiessen's comment “Origen thinks that the pious dead were transferred to Paradise, which he makes to be, not a part of Hades, but yet distinct from Heaven. To Paradise believers, as he thought, go at their death. This was contrary to the usual view that they, like the righteous of the Old Testament days, wait in Hades, in a state of happiness not yet perfected, for the general resurrection. It was believed, with no Bible substantiation, that only martyrs attained at once to the blessed vision of God in Heaven; (History of the Christian Church pg 85).” Origen has here in embryo the Catholic teaching of a Purgatory which is passed on to Jerome to translate into his Latin Vulgate, and to Saint Augustine to intertwine into Catholic Doctrine.

4. What does the Bible say became of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, in Num 16:33 and what does Thiessen say of it?

Ans pg 488. The Bible says of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, in Num 16:33 “They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit (Hbrw shehole), and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.” Although shehole is translated thrice to English word pit (here, vr 30 and Job 17:16) Thiessen is more comfortable with this being transliterated to Shehole as done in all modernist Bibles, and he does not distinguish it here.

5. Thiessen, with his preference for modernist Bibles, implies that nowhere is the OT word Shehole to be translated, but only be transliterated; what is the error in this?

Ans pg 489 Thiessen adds that Thayer says, that in the Septuagint the Hebrew sheol “Is almost always rendered by this word,” i.e. hades. He notes one exception in 2Sam 22:6, where it is rendered death. The two words are by common consent held to be exact equivalents. I would add that the proper English equivalent is 'hell' and their repeated transliteration of each is the modernist's and Satan's attempt to soften the issue and reality of a place called in the English tongue “hell”! Their transliteration and the NIV absolute butchering of the word further, produces inconsistency in the use and study of the Biblical hell. Since Thiessen brought it up, the OT usages of hell i.e. sheol (hell 31 times, grave 31 times and pit 3 times are as follows:

a) De 32:22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell (ASV-Sheol, NAS-Sheol, NIV- realm of death), and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

b) 2Sa 22:6 The sorrows of hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;

c) Job 11:8 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave); what canst thou know?

d) Job 26:6 Hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- death) is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.

e) Ps 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave), and all the nations that forget God.

f) Ps 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave); neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

g) Ps 18:5 The sorrows of hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.

h) Ps 55:15 Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave): for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.

i) Ps 86:13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave).

j) Ps 116:3 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

k) Ps 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- depths), behold, thou art there.

l) Pr 5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave).

m) Pr 7:27 Her house is the way to hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave), going down to the chambers of death.

n) Pr 9:18 But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave).

o) Pr 15:11 Hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- death) and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?

p) Pr 15:24 The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) beneath.

q) Pr 23:14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- death).

r) Pr 27:20 Hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- death) and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

s) Isa 5:14 Therefore hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

t) Isa 14:9 Hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

u) Isa 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave), to the sides of the pit.

v) Isa 28:15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

w) Isa 28:18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

x) Isa 57:9 And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave).

y) Eze 31:16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.

z) Eze 31:17 They also went down into hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.

aa) Eze 32:21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

ab) Eze 32:27 And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

ac) Am 9:2 Though they dig into hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave), thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:

ad) Jon 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave) cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

ae) Hab 2:5 Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell (ASV- Sheol, NAS- Sheol, NIV- grave), and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:

6. The NT includes the raising of what 5 persons from the dead?

Ans pg 490. The NT includes the raising of: a) Jairus' daughter, Matt :24,25.; b) The young man of Nain, Luke 7:14-15; c) Lazarus, John 11; d) Dorcas, Acts 9:40-41; e) Eutychus, Acts 20:9-12; f) In addition Mat 27:52-53 tells of the raising of many saints after the resurrection of Christ.

7. How could Reformed Theology muck up aspects of the bodily resurrection?

Ans pg 488-492. When Reformed Augustinian Theology follows the philosophy of man rather than the inerrancy of Scripture they consider man as only material and immaterial and not Body, Soul and Spirit, as the Scriptures contend. Thus: a) Reformed Theology is herein mucked up because they do not believe the Bible's accounting of Body, Soul, and Spirit. b) Reformed Theology via Goodwin, herein states the absurdity, “The spiritual body is body, and not spirit, and therefore must come under the definition of body. If it were to be mere spirit, then every man in the future state would have two spirits the spirit that he has here and another spirit received at the resurrection.” And c) Reformed Theology rejects Bible for philosophy and ends up in a quagmire of illogical and verbose argument which they often excuse as 'systematic theology.'

8. Why is it necessitated that Thiessen carefully clarify the timing of the resurrections?

Ans pg 493. Thiessen is taking baby steps away from Reformed Theology and Reformed Augustinian Theologians have used their allegorical methods to muck up both the understanding of and the timing of the resurrections. It is herein clarified that: A. Various things have already been said disproving the 'general resurrection' of all. B. There is a 'first resurrection' for all believers OT, and NT and even Tribulation saints taking part after the rapture of 1Thes 4. C. Reformed Theologians foster much confusion about the resurrections because of the use of the phrase “in the last day” thinking it must be only the last day, which, to their allegorical, fanciful interpretations, is sometimes called a thousand years and is yet the very last of all the days. Selah, i.e. go figure.

Thiessen's Chapter XLV Q&A

The Judgments

pg 496 – 505 (10pgs)


1. What does Strong quote from a statesman about judgment?

Ans pg 496. Thiessen gives Strong's quote of a statesman who would greater fear no judgment coming rather than fear the coming of a judgment. Indeed judgment is expected, deserved, and sure.

2. Give a dozen Scriptures that assure the coming judgment.

Ans pg 497. A dozen Scripture that assure the coming judgment are:

A. Gen 18:25b Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

B. 1Chron 16:33 Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the LORD, because he cometh to judge the earth.

C. Ps 96:13 Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth. 98:9 Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

D. Ps 9 7 But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment. 8 And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

E. Joel 3:12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.

F. Isa 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

G. Mat 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

H. Acts 17:31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

I. Acts 24:25 And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

J. Rom 2:16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

K. 2Cor 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

L. Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

3. Name six objectives of the judgment.

Ans pg 498 Six objectives of judgment listed by Thiessen are:

A. :Strong well says “The object of the final judgment is not the ascertainment of, but the the manifestation of character,

B. And the assignment of outward conditions corresponding to it.

C. The revelation of the righteous judgment of God

D. Memory, conscience, and character “are evidences and preparations for this final disclosure.” Ibid

E. The judgments will take place in order to show God's righteousness in treating men as He treats them.

F. To the purpose that “Every mouth shall be stopped.”

4. What two verses clearly indicate who the Judge is to be?

Ans pg 498. Two verses that clearly indicate who the judge is to be are: Heb 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and John 5:22 - 23 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

5. List seven things that Christ will judge.

Ans 498. Christ will judge the following: A. The living and the dead Acts 10:42; B. The believers for their works 2Cor 5:10; C. The Beast and the False Prophet, and their armies Rev 19; D. The nations gathered before Him Mat 25; E. Satan Rev 20:1-3; F. The nations of the Millennial earth Isa 2:4; G. The impenitent dead (Thiessen's Catholic word, not a Bible word) Rev 20:11-15 (11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.)

6 List 7 various judgments called out in Scripture.

Ans pg 498. Seven various judgments called out in Scripture are: A. The Judgment of the Believers; B. The Judgment of Israel; C. The Judgment of Babylon; D. The Judgment of the Beast, The False Prophet, and Their Armies; E. The Judgment of the Nations; F. The Judgment of Satan and His Angels; G. The Judgment of the Unsaved Dead Rev 20:11-15, 21:8

7. List the Bible references that deal with the judgment of believers.

Ans pg 499. Scripture references which deal with the judgment of believers are: Rom 14:10, 2Cor 5:10, 1Cor 4:5, 3:11-15, Matt 25:14-30, Luke 19:11-27.

8. List the Bible references that deal with the judgment of Israel.

Ans pg 499. Scripture references which deal with the judgment of Israel are:Jer 30:7, Rev 12:6, 13-17, 7:1-8, Ezek 20:33-34, Mal 3:2-5

9. List the Bible references that deal with the judgment of the Beast, False Prophet and their Armies..

Ans pg 500 Scripture references which deal with the judgment of the Beast, False Prophet and their Armies are:2Thes 2:8, Rev 19:19-21, Rev 16:12-16, Zech 12:1-9, 13:8-14:2, 2Thes 1:7-10, Rev 19:21.

10. List the Bible references that deal with the judgment of the nations.

Ans pg 501. Scripture references which deal with the judgment of Nations are:2Thes 1:7-10, Matt 25:31-46, Joel 3:11-17, Acts 17:31

Thiessen's Chapter XLVI Q&A

The Millennium

pg 506 – 513 (8pgs)

1. Rather than start out with Scripture as his primary source for the millennial reign of Christ what two sources does Thiessen lead with?

Ans pg 506-507. Rather than lead out with Scripture as his primary source for the millennial reign of Christ, Thiessen leads with :”The Human Expectation” for a millennial reign, and “The Belief of the Early Church.” This is more troublesome giving that Thiessen is stepping out of a whole line of skeptics in this area.

2. Thiessen denies the perpetuity of the doctrine of the second coming of Christ but quotes Silver who provides what evidence for it?

Ans pg 507. Although Thiessen denies the perpetuity of the doctrine of the second coming and millennial reign of Christ, he quotes Silver as saying, “Silver claims that the Waldensiann, Paulicians, Cathari, Savonarola, the harbingers of the reformation and the early Reformers, held that judgment introduces the Millennium.”

3. Where did the opposition of the literal millennial reign of Christ originate?

Ans pg 507. Interestingly the opposition to the literal millennial reign of Christ originated in the same place all modernist bibles get their accepted text, in the Alexandrian philosophers like Origen.

4. List 8 verses that speak of the Day of the Lord more literally than the allegorical teachings of the Reformed Augustinian Theologian dares to quote.

Ans pg 508. Eight verses that speak of the Day of the Lord more literally than the allegorical teachings of the Reformed Augustinian Theologian dares to quote are:

(1) Joe 2:11 And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

(2) Am 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

(3) Zep 1:14 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

(4) Zep 1:15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

(5) Zep 1:16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.

(6) Zep 2:2 Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD’S anger come upon you.

(7) Zep 3:8 ¶ Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.

(8) Mal 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

5. What progression of a day does Thiessen present concerning The Day of The Lord?

Ans pg 508. A unique presentation of the progression of The Day of The Lord is Thiessen's coverage of Christ's first Advent was the day spring or Sunrise, Luke 1:78 ...Now the Church is the light of the world, and He is the Light of the World; Joh 9:5 even as “Ye are the light of the world.” We are Reflecting the Invisible sun 2Cor 4:6 and further ...Already the Day (actually night) is far spent, and the day is at hand when ... The morning star will herald the breaking of a new day, Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star. ...2Pe 1:19 as ...The Sun of Righteousness will fully usher it in shortly thereafter Mal 4:2.

6. When Thiessen talks of The Church being the Light of the World, why are we justifiably nervous?

Ans pg 508. Whenever Thiessen talks of The Church, herein, it being the light of the world, one would be wise to use caution because of his over development of The Holy Catholic Church and complete underdevelopment of the Local New Testament Church.

7. What Scripture verses define that the God of Heaven will set up a Kingdom that will never be destroyed?

Ans pg 508. The Scriptures given that establish that the God of Heaven will set up a Kingdom that will never be destroyed are:

(1) Da 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

(2) Da 7:13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

(3) Da 7:14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

(4) Da 7:26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.

(5) Da 7:27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

(6) Re 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

7. Strong states the position of the loudest naysayers to the Millennial Reign of Christ; what is that position?

Ans pg 509. Strong States the Post millennial position thus: “Through the preaching the Gospel in all the world, the kingdom of Christ is steadily to enlarge its boundaries, until Jews and Gentiles alike become possessed of its blessings, and a millennial period is introduced in which Christianity generally prevails throughout the earth.” He gives the following verses to prove this (# Da 2:44,45 # Mt 13:31,32 24:14 # Ro 11:25,26 # Re 20:4,5,6 # Col 1:23).

8. What are Snowden's four presuppositions to his post millennial view?

Ans pg 510. Snowden strongly advocates the post millennial view in The Coming of the Lord, But he has these four presuppositions: (1) The belief of the post-apostolic church is truth; (2) a superstitious regard for modern “scholarship”; (3) An allegorical interpretation of predictive prophecy; and (4) A pious devotion to the evolutionary hypothesis. Snowden states it “Daniel and Revelation both unroll panoramic visions which portray catastrophic calamities and judgments which could not be taken literally and yet conveyed great practical lessons.”

9. What profound statement does Thiessen make to point out the speck in Snowden's eye?

Ans pg 510. A Profound statement wherein Thiessen sees the spec in Dr. Snowden's eye, but not the beam in his own, “Needless to say that when a man has more regard for the speculations of science falsely so called, than for the teaching of the Word of God, he is not to be taken seriously by those who accept the Bible as the infallible revelation of God.” (Thiessen pg 510) (and doubtless observed only when Thiessen had a gray head.)

10. The Character of the Millennium is given in seven regards, what are they?

Ans pg 510-513. The seven regards given to the Character of the Millennium are: A. As Regards Christ, He will reign over all the earth; B. As regards the Church, the Church will reign with Christ over the Gentile world; C. As Regards to Israel – Regathered, In Promised Land; D. As Regards to Nations Sheep will enter into Kingdom; E. As Regards Satan to Be Bound; F. As Regards Nature the regeneration with lion and lamb, child and adder, life span, fertility and farming; G. As Regards Conditions in General – Joy and Happiness.

Thiessen's Chapter XLVII Q&A

The Final State

pg 514 – 518 (5pgs)


1. What is the final state of Satan?

Ans pg 514. The final state of Satan comes when he will be loosed from his Prison, Rev 20 and he will be finally judged and sentenced, Rev 20.

2. What are four characteristics of the final judgment?

Ans pg 515. Four characteristics of the Final Judgment are: Great White Throne Judgment, for those in 2nd Resurrection; The Books are open, for those whose names are NOT written in the Lambs Book of Life.

3. Thiessen lists two characteristics of the Final Kingdom; what are they?

Ans pg 515. Two characteristics of the Final Kingdom are: A. Death the final enemy will be abolished, 1Cor 15:24; and B. All things subject unto Christ, 1Cor 15:28.

4. Give three 'News' of the New Creation?

Ans pg 516. Three 'News” of the New Creation are a New Heaven and a New Earth, and The New Jerusalem.

5. Give four Scripture references that address the New Heaven and the New Earth.

Ans pg 517. Scriptures that reference the New Heaven and the New Earth are 1) Rev 21:1,2; 2) Isa 65:17; 3) Isa 66:22; 4) 2Pet 3:10-13.

6. What Scripture evidences the New Jerusalem?

Ans pg 517. The New Jerusalem is described in Rev 21:2-22:5.

7. What three characteristics of the New Jerusalem?

Ans pg 517. The Scriptures point out three interesting things about the New Jerusalem: 1) Its Character Cube,... or Pyramid; 2) Its Inhabitants, 21:22; and 3) Its Blessedness, 21:24.

8. What verse best characterizes the close of this chapter?

Ans pg 518. The verse which best characterizes the close of Thiessen's chapter “The Final State: is “Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!


This very thorough coverage of Henry Clarence Thiessen's Lectures in Systematic Theology's eschatology chapters, is presented herein because he was so close to the truth, yet so muddied with error and compromise. It is extensive and included here because in 2011, the review of Thiessen's eschatology convinced and persuaded this author to document a legitimate, Bible based, Systematic Theology. This critique is not intended to detract from Thiessen's genius, character, or integrity, although it is often a direct and a harsh critique of his work. It is only intended to guard against such error and compromise in present day students of the Holy Bible.

Critique of Chafer's 1948 Eschatology

Critiques of some other systematic theology works are taken directly from the authors Advanced Systematic Theology II TH80X Written Report, A Written Report Presented to the Faculty of Louisiana Baptist University, In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Doctorate of Philosophy in Theological Studies,” wherein Dr. Chafer's six volumes of “Systematic Theology” was the text assigned for analysis and comparison to other theology works. The critiques are at times harsh and often pointed but are not intended to discredit in any way the genius, character, or integrity of Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952), founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary. His magnum opus, “Systematic Theology” work embodies his extensive theological reflection and thought over a lifetime of service to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Critique of Chafer's Volume IV Ecclesiology and Eschatology Introduction

A review of Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer's Ecclesiology and Eschatology in Volume IV of his Systematic Theology must begin with a review and documentation of his three most critical and systematic flaws. His whole Systematic Theology is seriously flawed in its organization, in its doctrines, and in it communication. Dr. Chafer's Ecclesiology is profoundly effected by all these shortcomings, but his Eschatology represents, at least, baby steps away from the flawed doctrine of Protestants, their Reformed Theology, and John Calvin's Covenant Theology.

Dr. Chafer has a very verbose and conglomerated communication method. His work is laden with run-on passive voice sentences. His commentary drones on for pages without significant content, and it takes careful scrutiny to discern his main point. This may be a purposeful style. Pleasing 70 + denominations at Dallas Theological Seminary is easier when some of them do not know exactly what you are saying. It is not, however, a competent way to write a systematic theology.

The doctrines of Dr. Chafer must be drawn out of his verbose commentary. As was stated in critique of his volume on Soteriology, it is easier to draw doctrine out of the Holy Bible than to draw it out of Chafer's voluminous effort. It is doubtless more accurate to do so as well. Again, trying to capture a doctrine agreed to by 70+ denominations is an undue challenge. None the less, this critique will address his doctrines on Ecclesiology and Eschatology, especially as they differ from Bible Doctrine.

The most profound flaw in Dr. Chafer's Systematic Theology is his lacking organization and lack of a system in what he considers systematic. This profoundly effects each volume and each doctrine of his work. Here, in Volume 4 of his work, this lack annuls his presentation of a Biblical Ecclesiology and a Biblical, dispensational, premillennial Eschatology.

When one sets out to write a Systematic Theology they must organize every revealed doctrine in the Holy Bible. To some extent every man is a theologian because he organizes, in some fashion, what he knows about God. In that organization he distinguishes which parts he believes. Hopefully that is done consciously. Making such organization systematic entails a considerable effort and focused purpose. To do a systematic analysis each substantial part of a system is partitioned and isolated into a separate subsystem which is carefully defined and understood. Then all the systems are analyzed in concert to understand the larger system.

In a Systematic Theology, in a volume on Ecclesiology and Eschatology, those topics would be partitioned and isolated and therein carefully and Biblically defined. Dr. Chafer's Volume IV has none of that.

Chafer's Systematic Error

As documented in Volume 09 Ecclesiology of this work, Chafer's Volume IV of Systematic Theology contains 250 pages of his Ecclesiology, and 190 pages of his Eschatology but it includes much material not related to either topic at all. Such inexcusable organization is the result of both an overall poor organizing practice and an inadequate definition of a Systematic Theology in general. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer contends that a Systematic theology is "The collecting, systematically arranging, comparing, exhibiting, and defending of all facts concerning God and His works from any and every source."111 This author stated previous that in making such a brash definition Chafer unwittingly puts philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato, and Roman Catholics such as Saint Augustine and Saint Aquinas, and Protestants who persecuted Baptist, men such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, on equal grounds with Holy Scripture. In writing his seven or eight volumes on Systematic Theology he repeatedly makes this blunder.

A Systematic Theology is not to be an unabridged rendition of everything ever believed about God, as Chafer has boasted. It is to be a systematic organization of each truth that God has revealed in his inerrant, infallible record. Truths that are then given systematic analysis wherein they can debunk the theoretical conjectures of previous philosophers and theologians.

In his fourth volume Dr. Chafer needs both a strong organization of the truth about the Church, the Church age, and the end times and then a relentless attack of the Reformed Theologian's Covenant Theology, Replacement Theology, and Catholicness of the Church. Chafer's lacking organization and discipline make such a success unachievable. Chafer's unsystematic system and flawed organization of material brings about a very flawed doctrine. A flawed doctrine which it conceals in exaggerated verboseness.

Previous theologies have been built as if theology were a science. Dr. Chafer falls into the same trap. A scientific method starts with a hypothesis which it twists and refines with experiment until it holds enough merit to advance to a theory. Theologians have considered theories reliable enough to place in their science based systematic theologies. In the scientific method, after a theory receives more extensive testing and refinement, it becomes a law. As an engineer this author loves and respects the scientific method. Kepler used it expertly to derive the laws of planetary motion. As a theologian this author insists that the scientific method has no place in deriving the "Thus saith the LORD" kind of truth which a true theologian is looking for.

Pilot asked Jesus "What is Truth?" In my statistics class I taught that truth is discovered by four primary means, only one has proven reliable. Philosophy says "I think therefore I am." In their field one thinks, reasons, deduces and believes, expecting he has therein discovered truth. Then, in the turn of the last century scientists formalized the scientific method, and used it in founding natural laws operating in our universe. In this method a hypothesis is tested, refined, and observed into a theory, which is tested, refined, and observed into a natural law. Leading theologians pounced on this, and considered theology as the chief of the sciences. They filled their Systematic Theology books with theories that they documented into laws expecting that they had discovered the truths about God. But science is only an able tool to lead and surmise the truth about natural laws, not supernatural laws.

Statistics had an ugly beginning. It had trouble overcoming its nemesis, "Figures don't lie, but liars figure." The surveys and studies, the analysis and presentation of averages and standard deviations could surely lead to truth. But consider how statisticians and politicians readily misleads people into some grandiose untruths. In statistics a majority believing something is supposed to derive the truth. Know that philosophy and science do the same misleading. For philosophy rationally comprehending something makes it a personal truth. One need only mention Christian Science founder Mary Baker Glover Eddy's idea that this world is only in the mind to alert the dangers of philosophy. Now we have come to where science has elevated the spontaneous generation of life to a teachable truth, and even teach as truth the insane idea that "survival of the fittest" had changed beagle dogs into Clydesdale horses, and lizards into bald eagles. Thus science-so-called112 cannot discern the truth. Ergo these forms of discriminating truth have their notable flaws.

The forth method of discerning truth is the "Thus saith the LORD" method. This is not the religious method. Indeed religions source of their truth is generally some ugly combination of the previous three mentions. Even in Dr. Chafer's Systematic Theology this "Thus saith the LORD" method to often takes a back seat to religion and survey. One would expect that a section on Ecclesiology would begin with God's notable definition of the Church and its formation. Instead Dr. Chafer first philosophizes about angels, Jews, Gentiles and Christians. He then gives the scientific method a spin and presents theories that have been advanced. Chafer then presents a statistical survey of who believes what. Organizing theology systematically requires that a baseline of truth be established up front. That base line must proceed with a "Thus saith the LORD" as its sole source. All other methods are fraught with blunder. Dr. Chafer's eight volumes make up example “A” in that blundering.

Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer has purposed to "collect and systematically arrange, compare, exhibit and defend all facts concerning God and his works from any and every source." Systematically such an approach is theological malpractice. To be Biblical and Systematic there must be a sole source. His lack of organizing thoughts and direction is serious, but his total miss-organizing the "system" in systematic, coupled with his strong reliance on extra Biblical sources make this volume, and his previous three, inexcusable.

It is reiterated here that Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder of Dallas Theological Seminary in 1924, does not use the sharpest language and does not expose the error of the 70+ denomination that he is pandering to. He is the epitome of neoevangelicalism as herein defined.


A Critique of Dr. Chafer's Eschatology

If there was an area where Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer's premillennial, dispensational position could over power Reformed Theology's shortcomings, it would be in his Eschatology. The Covenant Theology of John Calvin, the Presbyterian Church , and the Roman Catholic Church, could finally take its proper position in the theological trash can. The Replacement Theology of the Roman Catholic Church, the Presbyterian Church and John Calvin, could finally hold its justified label of Apostasy113 Alas, however, it has already been shown that Dr. Chafer is, in his heart, leaning into neoevangelicalism and not truly a militant Fundamentalist. Otherwise he would engage in rebuke, reproof, and separation from the certain apostasy found in these theologies, and more particularly the Presbyterian Church which he targeted for correction, instead of reproof.

The Roman Catholic religion promoted itself as the replacement of God's Chosen People Israel. The Holy Catholic Church, in their doctrine, was to incorporate every promise made to Israel and be the spiritual fulfillment of all the hope and promise God placed in them. This is Replacement Theology. When Protestants reformed Roman Catholic doctrine into a Reformed Theology they carried all this Roman allegorical error into their precepts. It is called Covenant Theology. A brief history of that whole travesty is in order here.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, Origen (184-253 AD) and his mentor Clement of Alexandria Egypt (150-215 AD), both sainted fathers/founders of the upcoming Roman's Catholicism, concluded that that was the destruction of all Judaism. Gone, in their mind, was any promise for a literal restoration of Israel and their reentry to their promised land. Impossible, in their mind, was a literal fulfillment of Psalms 2:6, "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." God's chosen people, the Hebrews, God's chosen nation, Israel, and God's chosen remnant, Judaism, were indeed, in their mind, annihilated and gone forever. Something must be done with all the promises made about Israel's restoration and eternal existence114.

Origen, a renown scholar of Scripture, came through with a method of rejecting what the Bible literally states, and supposing that the Bible was written with a secret and concealed intent. Only the very pious and astute could interpret this secret intent of Holy Scripture. This hermeneutical method, this method of spiritualizing away the literal meaning of Scriptures, is called the allegorical method of Bile interpretation. It became the mainstay of Roman Catholicism, wherein if the unapproved commoner were found reading a Bible, he was executed. Luther, Calvin, and all Protestantism rejected this allegorical method for interpreting "So Great Salvation", but they retained every evil bit of it for keeping Israel annihilated. In their reformed theology the Protestant's Catholic Church is the spiritualized replacement for an annihilated Israel. Straight from John Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion" comes this Covenant Theology, where believers are the elect replacement for Israel. His misleading antics about election are much larger than the gross errors captured in a TULIP model of Calvinism. In the larger realm, that wicked concept of an annihilated Israel, never to be restored in the Kingdom of God, is captured and promoted as Preterism.

This false teaching of Covenant Theology, Reformed Theology, and Preterism, can trace its roots all the way back to the first century, and in this age of easy access to every published work every written, they very effectively do just that. It is important to know the root of their error and the evil of this error. It is still a root of false teaching and false teachers. One need only reference the false teachings of amillennialists, Calvinists, or both in one Dr. Harold Camping115 to illustrate the dangers of this sweeping error.

Dr. Chafer does cite the total ignorance of Protestant Theologians where Biblical prophecy is involved. Without calling it gross, he points to the negligence of Dr. Charles Hodge, Dr. B.B. Warfield, and Dr. R.L. Dabney.116 The root cause of the gross negligence of these protestant theologians when it comes to Bible prophecy, is their subtle acceptance of the Roman Catholic Church's doctrine of Replacement Theology and John Calvin's doctrine of Covenant Theology. It is subtle because in all their writings they never detail what John Calvin's Covenant Theology is all about, and never, ever broach the grotesque error of Replacement Theology, which is wholly encapsulated in Covenant Theology. Albeit the Presbyterian Denomination, which was Chafer's primary target, is by no means subtle in its acceptance of Calvin and rejection of premillennialism.

These theologians "have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the works of unrighteousness; But was rebuked for his iniquity; the dumb ass speaking with mans voice forbade the madness of the prophet" (2Pet 2:15-16). Dr. Charles Hodge is an intellectual giant. Perhaps dwarfing Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, and certainly dwarfing this author, even as much as Balaam's ass was dwarfed by the prophet that rode him. But when a rebuke is in order the dumb should speak out. Dr. Chafer did not, at least he did not with enough force (militantism) to curb the 70+ denominations which frequent Dallas Theological Seminary.

Dr. Chafer attempted to champion the premillennial position in a Presbyterian Denomination which rejected it. Champions cannot tip-toe. His section on Eschatology, the doctrine of last things, tip-toes through seven important facts.

1. "The neglect of the prophetic Scriptures on the part of theologians is all but complete."117 Implicit here is that Chafer is referencing Protestant, non-Baptist theologians. George Dollar cites a host of stalwarts of Fundamentalism, all of which are premillennial. Perhaps they fall short of Chafer's definition or circle of theologians.

2. "It is a common practice with some theologians to brand chiliasm118 as a modern theory... Reformers did not restore all features of doctrine... they retained the Romish notion that the Church is the Kingdom, fulfilling the Davidic covenant, and appointed to conquer the world by bringing it under the authority of the church."119 Although Chafer does not say it out loud, this is in the doctrine of Covenant Theology, and Replacement Theology. Both contest the literal 1,000 year millennial reign of Christ on the throne of David from the city of Jerusalem, on the hills of Zion, clearly referenced in Psalm chapter two. Any, and every denomination holds to some aspect of this error in its denominational control of churches. The error is wholly engulfed in John Calvin's doctrine.

3. "What is declared in Scriptures respecting prophecy is as credible as those portions which are historical. The language is no more complex, nor is the truth any more veiled." Also "(The prophetic message) is dependent upon language - simple terms known to all - for its conveyance... let the Bible's simple prophetic terminology bear the message that it naturally conveys"120 Although Dr. Chafer, again, does not say it out loud, this is his argument against the Romish and Reformed use of the allegorical method. The mainstay of Covenant Theology, ergo Reformed Theology, is its use of the allegorical method of hermeneutics. Any denomination or religion, for that matter, which maintains a clergy class, does so on the premise that commoners, often called laity, are not equip to interpret the secret allegorical communiques of Scripture. Rome took this separation of their clergy so serious that laity caught reading or memorizing their Bibles were burned with their Bibles. Protestants only occasionally took this murderous tactic, but they endorsed all of the clergy class vs laity class principles, and promote it still today, even in Dallas Theological Seminary's 70+ denominations.

4. "The Scripture presents but one system of truth... The word of God does not lend itself as support to postmillennial, amillennial,... schemes of interpretation."121 This partial quote was extracted from Chafer's verbose explanation which, perhaps, was meant to communicate that several competing interpretations cannot exist together. Elsewhere in his verbose effort, it is surmised that he holds to a premillennial position.

5. "No decrees of councils; no ordinances of synods; no 'standard' of doctrines; no creed or confession, is to be urged as authority in forming the opinions of men... What is based on the authority of apostles and prophets is true, and always true, and only true."122 This would have been an excellent place for Dr. Chafer to emphasize the infallible, inerrant, plenary, verbally inspired Word of God, but, alas, he does not.

6. "The whole Bible is harmonized only by the (literal millennial reign of Christ for 1,000 year, with a premillennial second advent) interpretation." Chafer continues, "(The Reformers) were Augustinian in their doctrine and gave no support to the idea of a millennium prior to the second advent."123 Again, it was necessary to trim Chafer's verbose mannerisms and detail what he meant to say for his Greek code word chiliasm.

7. There is no denomination which holds a premillennial doctrine. 124

With those seven truths delineated in his 1947 publication of Eschatology, my thesis that Dr. Chafer had more Neoevangelicalism in his heart than he had Fundamentalism in his heart needs to be reiterated. Such a thesis does have its crux in Chafer's desire to move the denominations, particularly the Presbyterian denomination, to an acceptance of the Biblical premillennial position, and his failure to accomplish this desire.

Make no mistake, Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer was a fundamentalist. The song leader under C. I. Scofield became a gifted teacher for the newly formed World's Christian Fundamentals Association (WCFA) and in 1924 his Evangelical Theological College became Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas, a fundamental seminary.125 Evangelicals became Neoevangelicals when they scoffed at the Fundamental Separatist position and refused the Fundamentalist's militant attitude. Dr. Chafer never scoffed, but he never separated either. Dr. Chafer never mocked militantism, but he never became one, and he never camped with any.

Instead of rationalizing with these seven truths, Dr. Chafer could have very well rebuked and reproved. A reproof is in order when protestant/reformed theologians 1) reject Biblical prophecy, 2) reject premillennialism, 3) hold to Roman Catholic allegorical methods which elevate clergy in priestly garb, 4) advance amillennialism/postmillenialism, 5) reject the Bible as a sole inerrant, infallible source, 6) reject the literal millennial reign of Christ on the thrown of David from the Hills of Zion, substituting the Catholic Church in its stead. and 7) advance their apostasy with denominational controls. That is Chafer's list with bluntness and some measure of militantism.

One cannot say that had Dr. Chafer been a militant, separatist fundamental that he would have met more success. Protestants are no more likely to leave their reformed theology than any king was likely to leave "the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin."126 There is a time to "answer a fool according to his folly, (Prov 26:4-5) and Dr. Chafer did not step up to the plate. Instead he settled in among them, he waxed just as scholarly as they, and he became a middle-of-the-road bridge which could conduct exploring minds into their ranks. The bridge is a one-way street. If one is to get back out of Reformed Theology's anti-whosoever will, anti-premillennialism, anti-Israel stance, Chafer's bridge will not lead the way.

In its day, the GARBC127 was, for Baptists, as fundamental as one gets. Dallas Theological Seminary was not on their approved list of schools and the perpetual warning to students who would go there is telltale. "Students who go to Dallas Theological Seminary come out middle-of-the-road evangelicals, never to be Baptist again."128 Their emphasis on "never" was so pronounced that a graduate of Dallas would "never" get a recommendation from GARBC when he candidated as a pastor. The GARBC used careful syntax to make sure they were perceived as an association, or fellowship, and not a denomination. However, their ability to excommunicate often made that distinction blurry, and they too, in time, fell into neoevangelicalism.

What can be said of Dr. Chafer's Eschatology can be said of all seven volumes of his Systematic Theology. He uses three tactics to tip-toe around in the apostasy where he finds himself encamped. He attempts to generalize and detail each theory and belief of all men from every source. This warms him to his apostate audience, and displays a scholarly flare. He then enters into a tirade of verbiage, using passive sentence structures and run on sentences. This allows that none in his audience really understands all he is saying, but their favorite beliefs are in there somewhere, so they keep reading. This is really an aged tactic of intimidation, and Dr. Chafer uses it with great subtlety. Lastly, Chafer presents his truth as a gentle correction.

The difference between teaching and preaching, is in the level of the pressure for required change; teaching has none, preaching forces one to the very brink of a decision. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer was an exceptional teacher. But the protestant denominations do not need mixers, they need separators, they do not need smooth teachers, they need militant preachers. Although Dr. Chafer was listed as a fundamentalist, he was not a separator or a militant. That is a reasonable assessment of all seven volumes.

Dr. Chafer's List of Predicted Events.

Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer does have a surprising discipline and thoroughness in some areas of his Systematic Theology. In Volume 4, Chapter XXV Predicted Events in Their Order (pages 390-401) he meticulously list forty-five events with considerable detail and commentary. That listing is included here for reference:


I. Noah's prediction respecting his sons: Genesis 9:25-27.

II. Israel's bondage in Egypt: Genesis 15:13-14.

III. The future of Jacob's sons: Genesis 49:10, 24.

IV. Israel in the land: Deuteronomy 4:14-20; 31:14-23; Genesis 15:13-14.

V. Israel's captivities:

a. Egyptian bondage: Genesis 15:13-14;

b. Assyrian and Babylonian captivities: Jeremiah 25:11-12;

c. Final scattering among the nations: Deut. 28:63-68 (many cross-references).

VI. Judgments to fall upon surrounding nations:

a. Babylon: Isaiah 13:1-22; 14:18-27; Jeremiah 50:1-51:64;

b. Moab: Isaiah 15:1-9; 16:1-14; Jeremiah 48:1-47;

c. Damascas: Isaiah 18:1-14; Jeremiah 49:23-27;

d. Egypt: Isaiah 19:1-25; Jeremiah 46:2-28;

e. Tyre: Isaiah 23:1-18; Jeremiah 47:1-7;

f. Ammon: Jeremiah 49:1-6;

g. Edom: Jeremiah 49:7-22;

h. Elam: Jeremiah 49:34-39.

VII. A partial restoration: Isaiah 44:28; Jeremiah 25:11-12; Daniel 9:2.

VIII. The coming and ministry of John the Baptist: Isaiah 40:3-5; Malachi 4:5-6; Luke 1:5-25.

IX. The birth of Christ: (extensive number not listed here) Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; Luke 1:31-35.

X. The offices of Christ:

a. Prophet: Deuteronomy 18:15-19 (many cross-references);

b. Priest: Psalm 110:4; Zechariah 6:12-13; much of Hebrews;

c. King: 2 Samuel 7:16; Psalm 2:6-10; 72:1-19; Isaiah 9:6-7; Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:1-9; 27:11; Luke 1:32-33.

XI. The ministries of Christ: Isaiah 49:1-7; 61:1-3.

XII. The death of Christ:

a. Directly predicted: Psalm 22:1-21; Isaiah 52:13—53:12;

b. Prophesied by Christ Himself: Matthew 16:21; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22; 18:31-34; John 12:32-33.

XIII. The burial of Christ: (important part of the gospel: 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; and in the sanctification of the believer: Romans 6:1-10) Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57-60.

XIV. The resurrection of Christ: Leviticus 14:4 ff.; Psalm 16:8-11 with Acts 2:25-31; Psalm 22:22 with Hebrews 2:12; Psalm 118:22-24 with Acts 4:10-11. Christ's own expectation is also recorded: Matthew 12:38-40; 16:21; 17:9, 23; 27:63; Mark 8:31; 9:9; 10:34; 14:58; Luke 9:22; 18:33; John 2:19-22.

XV. The ascension of Christ: John 20:17 with Psalm 24. Leviticus 23:9-12 as type.

XVI. The present age: Matthew 13; Matthew 24:4-8; Galatians 1:4; 2 Timothy 4:10.

XVII. The day of Pentecost: Leviticus 23:15-21 type.

XVIII. The Church: Matthew 16:18.

XIX. The destruction of Jerusalem: Luke 21:20-24 with Matthew 24:2; Mark 13:1-2.

XX. The last days for the Church: (not the last days for Israel, Acts 2:17) 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; James 5:1-10; 2 Peter 2:1 ff.; Jude 1:1-25; Revelation 3:14-22.

XXI. The first resurrection: 1 Corinthians 15:20-24; John 5:25-29; Revelation 20:4-6. (Note the three diverse resurrections and the timing of each: Christ, believers, unbelievers.)

XXII. The rapture of living saints: 1 Corinthians 15:35-57 (35-50 is about believers who have died). (Many cross references.)

XXIII. The Church in heaven: Revelation 4:1 ff.

XXIV. The believer's rewards: 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 9:16-27; 2 Corinthians 5:9-11; Revelation 3:11; 22:12.

XXV. The marriage of the Lamb: Revelation 19:7-9

XXVI. The great tribulation per se: Deuteronomy 4:29-30; Psalm 2:5; Jeremiah 30:4-7; Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:9-28; 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12; Revelation 3:10; 7:13-14; 11:1—19:6.

XXVII. The appearing of the Man of Sin: Ezekiel 18:1-10; Daniel 7:8; 9:27; 11:36-45; Matthew 24:15; John 5:43; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; Revelation 6:2; 13:1-9; 19:19-20; 20:10.

XXVIII. Israel's final sufferings: Deuteronomy 28:63-68; Jeremiah 30:4-7; Matthew 24:21-27.

XXIX. The destruction of ecclesiastical Babylon: Revelation 17.

XXX. The battle of Armageddon: Revelation 16:13-16; Zechariah 12:1-9; Isaiah 10:28-32; Matthew 24:29-30; Zechariah 14:2; Isaiah 63:1-6; 2:12; Daniel 2:35.

XXXI. The destruction of political and commercial Babylon: Revelation 18-19.

XXXII. The Day of the Lord per se: Matthew 24:42-44; 1 Thessalonians 5:4; 2 Peter 3:10.

XXXIII. The second coming of Christ per se: Revelation 19:11-16; Ezekiel 20:33-44; Isaiah 63:1, 4; Romans 11:26-27.

XXXIV. Satan bound and confined: Revelation 20.

XXXV. The regathering and judgment of sorrowing Israel: Deuteronomy 30:1-8; Isaiah 11:11-2; Jeremiah 23:7-8; Ezekiel 37:21-28; Matthew 23:37; 24:31.

XXXVI. The judgment of the nations: Matthew 24:37—25:46 with Genesis 12:1-3; Joel 3:2-16; Psalm 96:13; 98:9.

XXXVII. Human life in the earthly kingdom: Psalm 72:1-19; Isaiah 11:1-10, 14:1-2; 60:12; 61:5; Jeremiah 31:31-33; Matthew 5:1—7:29; 25:34; Romans 8:18-23.

XXXVIII. The loosing of Satan and the last revolt: Revelation 20.

XXXIX. The doom of Satan: Revelation 20:10.

XL. The passing of the present earth and heaven: Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; Hebrews 1:10-12; 2 Peter 3:3-13; Revelation 20:11; 21:1

XLI. The Great White Throne judgment: Revelation 20:12-15; 21:8; 22:10-15.

XLII. The destiny of the wicked: Revelation 20:14-15.

XLIII. The creation of a new heaven and a new earth: (see #40).

XLIV. The destiny of the saved:

a. New earth: Revelation 21:3-4; Isaiah 66:22;

b. New heavens: Hebrews 12:22-24; Revelation 21:9-22:7; John 14:1-3.

c. The day of God: 2 Peter 3:12 with 1 Corinthians 15:28.

d. Only major events have been included in this listing. Unnumbered lesser events all of them themes of prediction—should have their full and worthy consideration.

XLV. The Day of God. In distinction from the Day of the Lord, which is terminated by the ending of the thousand years and the passing of the present heaven and the present earth (2Pet 3:10), is the eternity to come which is designated the Day of God (cf. 2Pet 3:12, with 1Cor 15:28).




Critique of Geisler's 2002 Eschatology

Norman L. Geisler wrote a tremendous single volume, 1600 page book that he called “Systematic Theology.”129 It is an unabridged compilation of “everything ever believed about God” from an “evangelical” point of view. The thesis of this effort, in contrast to Geisler's effort, is to systematically layout everything revealed by God in sixty-six books, 1,189 chapters, of his revelation. That is less effort, involving less research than what was undertaken by Dr. Geisler. His work is exceptional reference material, but his premise that truth is determined by what the majority of orthodox theologians believed is dangerous and often fickle.

Of Norman L. Geisler's Systematic Theology in One Volume130, Dr. Paige Patterson, President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary said,


Great theologians are best when they are outstanding philosophers also. Then, of course, you often cannot fathom what they are saying. Norman Geisler has the unique ability as a philosopher and theologian to deal with profound concepts in ways that the common man can easily grasp. Consequently, this systematic theology will not only sit on the desk of the scholar but also of the pastor, and on the coffee table of many a layman131.132


Geisler's single volume of systematic theology is indeed superior to Charles Hodge, and Augustus Strong's work. Charles Hodge was a meticulous and scholarly Princeton graduate but he was first and foremost a Presbyterian with a staunch reformed theology. Augustus Strong was a Baptist, equally meticulous and scholarly, but desiring to meld Baptist doctrine with reformed theology and atheistic evolution. Where Dr. Henry Thiessen did not believe that an inspired, inerrant, infallible Holy Bible was in existence in his day, Dr. Geisler uses such as his prima facie source, and at times his sole source for his doctrine. Dr. Geisler's work in one volume is also superior to Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer's verbose eight volumes of systematic theology.

Whereas Dr. Chafer tip-toes around the apostasy of denominational eschatology without clarity or soundness, Dr. Geisler's concise style and organized coverage of it excels past Dr. Chafer's verboseness. Just the same, Geisler, in presenting an unabridged compilation of “everything ever believed about God”, is hopelessly mired in the Roman made quagmire concerning the end times. His 285 pages on eschatology, briefly outline in his TOC illustrate this confusion.


Part Eight: Last Things (Eschatology).

77. The intermediate State and the Resurrection 1213

78. The Final State of the Saved (Heaven) 1247

79. The Final State of the Lost (Hell) 1266

80. The Alleged Temporary State of the Saved (Purgatory) 1282

81. Annihilationism 1301

82. The Interpretation of Prophecy 1317

83. The Kingdom of God 1347

84. The Covenants of God 1377

85. The Second Coming and Millennium 1413

86. The Tribulation and the Rapture 1450


Just the same, Geisler does systematically step through each doctrine. First presenting the Bible evidence and giving some competent explanations, then answering objections to the doctrine and finally giving some historical basis (i.e. everything ever believed...) for the doctrine. In the case of Purgatory and Annihilationism, you can imagine no Bible evidence and Geisler deals very thoroughly with such apostasy.

Geisler's forty-six pages on the tribulation and the rapture deal very favorably with dispensational truths in presenting a kind of survey of “everything ever believed.” I found his survey of the facts more encouraging and enlightening than Thiessen or Chafer's tip-toeing around these truths.

Geisler, as I said previous, has his moments. For a Bible student that has a sound Biblical systematic theology, Norman Geisler's “Systematic Theology” is a good reference book. But for the Bible student that does not have a solid Authorized KJV foundation for what God has reveled to man, reading Geisler will quickly gender instability, whereby a student is awash in learned opinions of orthodox theologians using ecumenical, sometimes Evangelical, bible translations which express what scholarly men think God meant to say. Geisler is thorough at documenting what orthodox theologians believed, but such Roman bias makes it dangerous for the Bible student striving to determine absolute Bible truth.


Chapter 9 Eschatology Conclusion


Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And (Jesus) said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. (Acts.1:6)


The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: … Write the things which … shall be hereafter; (Rev.1:1,19).


That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:(Eph 1:10).


We're in the last of the last days and there are three essential concepts to understanding the doctrine of last things. First there is coming a kingdom age where Christ will fulfill the promises made to the nation of Israel. “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Rom.11:26). The disciples with the risen Christ asked, “Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times …” (Acts.1:6-7). But it will happen!

Secondly know, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass”, … records, “the things which shall be hereafter” (Rev.1:1,19).

And third know the hereafter comes after this dispensation of grace, the church age, closes. “Dispensation” and “stewardship” come from the same Greek word. Jesus gives multiple stewardship parables (Luk.16,19,20 Matt.21,25, Mrk.12), and then Paul uses that same stewardship principle stating, “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God … Which is now revealed … That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Eph.3:2-6). The church age must end before the dispensation of the fullness of times (Eph.1:10) arrives. And before the King of kings receives his kingdom, the Title-Deed of this world must be opened, and “the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof” (Rev.5:5). With that understood, study the Revelation. Without it, flounder.

In this volume on eschatology there is assembled an outline of the many unfulfilled promises that are revealed and will be completely fulfilled, the dispensationalism that gives the big picture for their fulfillment, Cambron's doctrine of last things that defends it, and Ironside's Expository on Revelation that details it, and additional chapters that define it.

Studying eschatology is important for Christians, because it ennobles them. As the Apostle Paul put it for the Corinthians


Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. … For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. … Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: … and (he) hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; … and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. (1Cor.5:9-11, 14,15, 17-20).


Every born again Christian should be a student of Biblical Prophecy, it is ennobling, and enables a intimacy with God who says “Shall I hide from my friend that thing which I do?” (cf. Gen.18:17) In pursuit of this study a Christian needs only two tools; an open mind that will believe all that the prophets wrote, and an open Bible, that contains all that the prophets wrote. Studying Biblical Prophecy is fraught with obstacles and false teachers who deny the pre-tribulation rapture of the church, or the literal 1000 year reign of Christ. Use the two tools and your earnest desire for an intimacy with God for He has revealed his whole plan in the pages of his 66 books.

When the redeemed step into the presence of our eternal God we will gain a proper and holy perspective of all things. In the mean time we are to study to shew ourselves approved unto God, and to rightly divide the Word of truth. That Word of truth unfolds the most intimate plans of God. Biblical prophecy is ennobling; it is written for our comfort, not our curiosity. The rapture, the Bema Seat Judgment of the bride, the marriage supper and our eternal union with Christ are a consolation. Even the described seven year tribulation, the battle of Armageddon and the salvation of Israel culminating in the thousand year reign of Christ from the throne of David are to bring us solace. There is coming a second resurrection wherein all unregenerate souls stand before our Holy God on his Great White Throne (Rev20:11) before they partake of their second death. And then, finally, there is a new heaven and a new earth. This present heaven and earth “shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat” (2Pet3:10). Peter gives pause to ponder these prophecies, “Seeing then that all these things shall
be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness?” (vr.11). It is ennobling that God has shared his hopes and plans for the future; it is a great act of intimacy when friends do that. Only the believing eye can see these portrayalsin Scripture. The old adage is reversed for Revelation, here, Believing is seeing.” Bible revelation is thus meant to change our attitude as our world plunges toward his prophesied end. As our country leans reprobate, what manner of persons ought we to be? Ministers of reconciliation (2Cor 5:17-21).

God bless you in your studies of eschatology.

Appendix Penny Pulpit Essays on Eschatology.

Msg #1939 The Last October?

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

September 30, 2019 is Rosh Hashanah, Hebrew for “head of the year.” Depending on the phase of the moon the Biblical seventh month falls in our late September and according to Leviticus 23:24 marks “a memorial of blowing trumpets.” This “Feast of Trumpets,” where Israel is called together for holy convocations, and sabbath days, is significant to Christians because we are also listening for a trumpet that will call us together (1 Cor 15:52, 1Thes 4:16-17, Rev 1:10, 4:1). The tenth of the month is Yom Kippur, the 'Day of Atonement' (Lev 23:27-28), and is significant to Christians because Christ is our Atonement and our redemption also draweth nigh (Luke 21:8, 28). The fifteenth day starts the seven day feast of tabernacles (Lev 23:34), denoting our temporary tabernacle here. This is significant to Christians because this world is not our home (John 17:11-13, Hebrews 11:9-10).

These blasts of the trumpets are the wake-up call to repent before it is to late. For the nation of Israel their redemption draweth nigh, for the born-again Christian the rapture of Christ's church draweth nigh. In Scripture Christ first returns “for” his saints, and then returns “with” his saints. In between, the wrath of God will be poured out on this world in seven years of great tribulation (Matt24:21,29, Mark 13:24, Rev 16). According to three 5:9s in 1Thes, Romans and Hebrews, his Church will not taste that wrath. The seven year tribulation ends with a Battle of Armageddon and the redemption of Israel. No man knows the day nor the hour, but there is coming a last October in this dispensation, this age of grace, the Church age. Be ye ready, and watch ye therefore, … We at GSBC are in the 21st annual “Hunt for the Last October Bible Prophecy Conference.”

An Essay for week #39 Sep 29, 2019

Hunt for the Last October ppt slides at www.gsbaptistchurch.com/last_oct


Msg #1940 Then Shall be Great Tribulation

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice


The next tick on God's prophetic time clock is the rapture of Christ's church out of this world wherein we meet him in the air and “so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1Thes 4:13-18). For the church, the second coming of Christ is divided into two distinctions, when he comes “for” his church at the rapture, and when he comes “with” all his saints at the battle of Armageddon. In between these two comings of Christ there “shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt 24:21). In the first of the Apostle Paul's epistles he is clear that Christ will be coming “for” his saints (1Thes 4:13-18) and then “with” all his saints (1Thes 3:12-13). The last Bible writings to the churches describes this coming “with” all his saints using the line, “And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (Rev 19:14). Revelation 19 then describes the ensuing battle of Armageddon, And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army” (Rev 19:19). The battle is named in Revelation 16:16 and comes about after the seven seals are opened, the seven trumpets have sounded, and the seven golden vials full of the wrath of God are poured out upon the earth, sea, rivers, sun, seat of the beast, the great river Euphrates, and air (Rev 16). That catastrophic “climate change” and “global warming” has nothing to do with carbon-dioxide that we exhale and everything to do with the rebellion against Jehovah God that we exhale. The born-again miss this tribulation period, PTL.

An Essay for week #40 Oct 6, 2019

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs191006.mp3

Hunt for the Last October ppt slides at www.gsbaptistchurch.com/last_oct


Msg #1941 Rapture then the Marriage Supper

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice


When the rapture of the church occurs the removal of the saints, each being indwelt by the Holy Ghost, will constitute a significant removal of the Holy Spirit of God from world affairs. This is spoken of in 2Thes 2. Saints are gathered together unto him (vr.1), the day of Christ is at hand (vr.2), but first there is a falling away and the “man of sin” is revealed (vr.3). It is the presence of the Holy Ghost that prevents that wicked from being revealed (vr.6-8), and that presence is predominately (perhaps completely) via the presence of his born-again indwelt believers. The sequence of events for the end times is laid out very clearly here. The saints are raptured out, the day of Christ is at hand, the abomination of desolation is revealed, then we find in the Revelation of Jesus Christ that the wrath of God is poured out, and the Lord Jesus Christ rides in to the Battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16, 19). In any event, it is the rapture of the church that starts the ball rolling.

After the rapture Christian's works are judged before they go to the marriage supper of the Lamb. “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, ... for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready... Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. ” (1Cor 3:13, Rev 19:7, 9). After the marriage supper of the Lamb,“I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, .... And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (Rev 19:11, 14). It all fits.


An Essay for week #41 Oct 13, 2019

Hunt for the Last October ppt slides at www.gsbaptistchurch.com/last_oct


Msg #1942 Seven Years, Jacob's Trouble

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice


The LORD spake these words to Jeremiah the prophet, “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer 30:7). And Jesus said of that day, “For then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt 24:21). This trouble and tribulation for Israel is centered in a seven year period often called the 70th week of Daniel. God prophetically laid out his plans for Israel with the revelation, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city” (Dan 9:24). Each week was a seven year period, and sixty-nine weeks were fulfilled exactly as God said. The last seven year period, the 70th week of Daniel 9, was not fulfilled, but will be, exactly as prophesied.

In the first 1,260 days, forty-two months (Rev11:3,2, 13:5 Dan12:11), time-times-and-a-half-time (Dan12:7, Rev12:14), or 3½ years of the seven, seven seals are removed from the book of judgment, and then seven trumpets announce and demonstrate how bad it is going to get when the book is actually opened (Rev 6, 8-9). The exact middle of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, verse 202-of-404, marks the very middle of this seven year period. The indestructible witnesses are destroyed and caught up to heaven (Rev11), Satan is booted out (Rev12:8, or verse 202-of-404), and the abomination of desolation is revealed as Jerusalem is abandoned by enlightened Jews (Matt24:15-26). In the next 1,260 days, forty-two months, or 3½ years, complete chaos ensues and the seven vials of the wrath of God are poured upon the earth (Rev 16). The Battle of Armageddon immediately ensues (Rev19). Even so, come, Lord Jesus.


An Essay for week #42 Oct 20, 2019

Hunt for the Last October ppt slides at www.gsbaptistchurch.com/last_oct


Msg #1943 The Battle of Armageddon

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity... for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy... Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling ... in that day, I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem ...Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, ... For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle;.. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations,.. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which .. shall cleave in the midst thereof... and there shall be a very great valley. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon” (Isa26:20-21, Zeph3:8, Zech12:2,9, 14:1-4, Rev16:16). The world mocks the Battle of Armageddon, and Christians fail to comprehend its reality. The Genesis of sin crescendos for heathen nations until the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18-19, and for God's chosen nation with the judgment of Sodomites in Judges 19-20. This year NYS congressmen passed a law that they could use the ladies room and that counseling sodomy as sin is considered hate speech.133 Democrats report that over 50% of Americans favor socialism, abortion-on-demand, and their sodomite agenda. Perhaps the USA is the great eagle of Rev12:14, but the noise of DC makes one doubt. Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand.


An Essay for week #43 Oct 27, 2019

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs191027.mp3

Hunt for the Last October ppt slides at www.gsbaptistchurch.com/last_oct

Msg #1944 Die Once or Die Twice, Choose Wisely

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice


In our Bible the word “dispensation” and the word “stewardship” come from the same root word and are thus very closely related. It is just like our longsuffering LORD God to give mankind seven distinct dispensations which consume seven thousand years of the earth's existence. Each dispensation ends in man's failure to be a good steward; our present one, wherein it has never been easier for man to be redeemed, and actually and literally be the temple of God, tasting the kingdom of God, ends as it was in the days of Noe with the question “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

We cannot now speak particularly about all the operations of the upcoming dispensation, the last in the series of seven, the Millennial Kingdom, but its ending is Bible certain. In it the curse is lifted, the Christ is present (and ruling the world from the throne of David in the holy city of Zion), and Satan, the opposer of God, is bound in a bottomless pit (Rev 20). The end of that thousand years concludes with three short verses in Revelation 20 and that chapter concludes with a “Great White Throne,” the second resurrection (that is the resurrection of the dead, that is the resurrection of all those who did not attain eternal life), and the horrid eternal destiny that is called “the second death.” It behooves us all to be very familiar with Revelation 20. If you're saved it will make you a better soul-winner; if you are lost it will give you a sobering look into eternity. It has been succinctly said, “ If you are born once you will die twice; if you are born twice you will die only once.” You must be born-again!


An Essay for week #44 Nov 3, 2019

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs191103.mp3

Hunt for the Last October ppt slides at www.gsbaptistchurch.com/last_oct


Msg #1342 Prophetic Truth and Accuracy

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice


For us it is a minor thing to comprehend how two witnesses slain in the streets of Jerusalem are seen all over the world for three days. For Martin Luther and other Protestant Reformers it was so incomprehensible that they thought the Revelation of Jesus Christ and its companion book, Daniel, were not inspired or belonging in the Bible, at best calling them allegorical, apocalyptic fiction. Protestants believed so little of these books they carried Roman Covenant Theology right into their reformation where it presently leavens as Reformed Theology. For the Bible believer, however, these books are true and accurate. Daniel has six chapters of history and six chapters of Biblical Prophecy. The first six teach us how to accurately read the last six. The interpretation of Neb's dream, and its exact unfolding in history reveals that the Stone Cut Out without hands, which smashes all previous kingdoms into chaff, is indeed the Christ who will come as King of kings and Lord of lords to a battle called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. He is the Ancient of Days, with hair like pure wool, and he is the Son of man come with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of Days. All power is given to him. Likewise, in the literal, grammatical, historical understanding there is a little horn which, in separate visions, replaces three of ten, and comes out of one of four. It waxes great, has eyes of a man, speaks great things, and desecrates the daily sacrifice in the Temple at Jerusalem. He casts down hosts of heaven and is called the King of Fierce Countenance. He persecutes the Woman, Israel for 3 ½ years of a seven year tribulation. Jesus calls him the Abomination of Desolation. I'd sooner believe Jesus than a Reformed Theologian.

An Essay for week #42 Sun, Oct 20, 13

In paperback at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

Msg #1440 Don't Be Left Behind

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

There is coming a Last October. “In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation... Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: ...and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD... The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles...” (Lev23:23-24,27,34). Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the Feast of Tabernacles mark the important fall memorial of blowing of trumpets. Bible believing Christians are listening for the trumpet symbolized in this feast. It will be a voice “as it were of a trumpet, talking with me; which said, Come up hither” (Rev 4:1). “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible” (1Cor 15:52). “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and (we) shall be caught up... to meet the Lord in the air” (1Thes 4:16-17). This is the rapture of the Church, and one must here distinguish between Bible believers and the Bible allegorizers. The Roman Religionists taught their reformers to allegorize away Jews and the premillennial return of Christ. Consequently Protestants do not perceive the rapture in these verses, and the Reformed cannot conceptualize our Christ on the Throne of David, in Jerusalem, for a 1,000 year dispensation. The truths in the 2nd advent of Christ are reserved for those with ears to hear, and eyes that don't allegorize. Bible believers often “stand gazing up into heaven” (Acts 1:8-11). A “Hunt for the Last October” begins, don't be left behind.

An Essay for week #40 10/05/2014

In paperback at www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs141005.mp3

Part 2 in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs141005pm.mp3


Msg #1441 The 7 Year Tribulation is not Allegorical!

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

The seventieth week of Daniel marks a seven year period where Jesus tells us, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor even shall be” (Matt 24:21). Roman and Reformed Theologians try to allegorize the reality of a premillennial advent and a literal seven year tribulation period into disbelief, but when Christ divides the seven years in half, seven distinct times, their false teachings come unraveled. A Hebrew calendar has twelve, thirty day months, and they add an extra month in seven years. Daniel 12 divides the seven year tribulation into 1260 days and then 1290 days, calling them time, times, and half a time. The times of the Gentiles in Revelation 11 is forty-two months, or half the tribulation period. The two indestructible witnesses in Jerusalem prophecy for 1,260 days before Satan destroys them and God tells them, “Come up hither.” (Rev 11:3-12) After the seven seals and the seven trumpets, halfway through the tribulation, and exactly halfway through the 404 verses of Revelation, Satan is booted from heaven and torments the earth, knowing his time is short. The persecuted Israel is fed in the wilderness for 1,260 days of Satan's vile persecution. The commercial Babylon is fallen is fallen, halfway through the 7 year period. And Mystery Babylon, the false church and Jezebel is devoured and destroyed by the Dragon, Beast, and False Prophet of the new world order. Mid-trib is a very busy time indeed, and the week of tribulation, the literal 7 years such as was not since the beginning of the world, is not an allegorical pretense, it is a Bible reality. You can only be saved from the wrath to come, by first calling on Christ, the soon coming judge.

An Essay for week #41 10/12/2014

In paperback at www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs141012.mp3

Bibliography for Theology

The Holy Bible

Bancroft, Emery H., Elemental Theology, 1932, Baptist Bible Seminary, 1945, 1960, Zondervan 1977, [In 1932 Emery H. Bancroft became the first Dean of Baptist Bible Seminary, Johnson City, NY and published his text for his course Elemental Theology. In 1968 the Seminary relocated to Clark Summit PA. In 1970 this author attended Practical Bible Training School on the Johnson City campus and studied Bancroft's text. In 1999 – 2000 this author attended Baptist Bible Seminary to take Greek (NT502 and NT503) via a 3 hour commute from Hammondsport NY to Clark Summit PA, and was reintroduced to Bancroft's exceptional work.]

Cambron, Mark G. Bible Doctrines. Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing House, 1954, [Independent Baptist, Professor, Tennessee Temple Bible School, 1954].

Carroll, James Milton, The Trail of Blood, 1932, open source, public domain, from https://archive.org/details/TheTrailOfBlood.

Chafer, Lewis Sperry. Systematic Theology, Volume I Prolegomena and Bibliology , Volume II Angelology and Anthropology, Volume III Soteriology, Volume IV Ecclesiology and Eschatology, Volume V Christology, Volume VI Pneumatology, Volume VII Alphabetical Doctrinal Summarization, Volume VIII Biographical Sketch and Indexes, Dallas Seminary Press, 1948. [Lewis Sperry Chafer was an American theologian. He founded and served as the first president of Dallas Theological Seminary, and was an influential founding member of modern Christian Dispensationalism. Born: February 27, 1871, Rock Creek, Died: August 22, 1952, Seattle, Education: Oberlin College, Wheaton College. For my Doctorate of Philosophy in Theological Studies through LBTS, I was tasked to analyze all six volumes of his Systematic Theology]

Satan, 1909, Free ebooks - Project Gutenberg,2004, http://www.gutenberg.org accessed 06/01/2013

Christian, John T., A History of the Baptists, Vol 1&2, The Baptist Bible Institute, New Orleans, Louisiana, first published in 1922, public domain, soft copy http://www.pbministries.org/History/John T. Christian/vol1/ or http://www.reformedreader.org/history/christian/ahob1/ahobp.htm.

Dollar, George W., A History of Fundamentalism in America, Bob Jones University Press, 1973.

Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology. Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 1985.

Finney, Charles G., Power from On High, Christian Literature Crusade, public domain, from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/finney/power.html

Gaussen, L., Theopneustia – The plenary Inspiration of The Holy Scriptures deduced from Internal Evidence, and the Testimonies of Nature, History and Science, David Scott's translation, Chicago, The Bible Institute Colportage ASS'N., 1840.

Geisler, Norman L, Systematic Theology in One Volume, Bethany House, 2002, 3, 4, 5, 11 [Geisler, also a neoevangelical, sharply contrasts with Lewis Sperry Chafer in that Geisler 1) admits what he is, neoevangelical, 2) admits what he is attempting, a compilation of evangelical theologies, 3) shows superb organization and structure of thought, 4) contains depth, and 5) is a masterful communicator. This author cannot endorse all that Geisler believes to be true, but can endorse that he seems to capture all that has been believed by conservative evangelicals.]

Gordon, S. D., “The Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation”, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1914, EBook #23038 via www.gutenberg.org October 16, 2007 [S. D. Gordon (1859-1936) was a popular writer and speaker in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Philadelphia, at the age of twenty-five Gordon became affiliated with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), with which he served at various secretarial levels for more than ten years. During this period he developed some public speaking skill and became a popular lecturer on devotional biblical themes. Between 1896 and 1900 he traveled to Europe and the Orient as a missionary. Gordon authored some twenty-five books, the majority of which were devotional books under the general theme, Quiet Talks, e.g. Quiet Talks on Prayer, Quiet Talks on Service, etc. The Quiet Talks series has been collected and reprinted many times, having sold in the neighborhood of some two million copies.]

Grant, F. W., “The Prophetic History of the Church”, NEW YORK LOIZEAUX BROTHERS, 1910, First Edition, 1902, Seventh Printing, 1955, available at http://plymouthbrethren.org/series/6114 and http://www.gsbaptistchurch.com/theology/grant_prophetic_history_church.pdf and www.brethrenarchive.org/people/fw-grant/pamphlets/the-prophetic-history-of-the-church/ [When Henry Allen Ironside writes in his 100 year old book that, “On the seven churches, I especially commend F. Grant's 120 year old book”, it behooves one to secure a copy; the full title being “The Prophetic History of the Church – Some Evils Which Afflict Christendom and Their Remedy, as Depicted by The Lord's Own Words to the Seven Churches (Rev. ii. and iii.).” ].

Hodge, Charles, Systematic Theology: Volume I-IV, Charles Scribner & Company, 1871, Hardback- Grand Rapids, Mich., Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1940, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org, public domain. [The Internet Archive www.archive.org/details/systematictheolo01hodg], [Charles Hodge, 1797-1878, Presbyterian Minister, Princeton Theologian].

Ironside, H. A., “Revelation: An Ironside Expository Commentary”, Kregel Publications, 1920. [Henry Allen Ironside (1876 Toronto Canada, 1951 New Zealand) lived through two world wars (WWI 1914-1918, and WWII 1939-1945) and understood from God's Word that no Catholic Church was going to bring peace on earth or usher in a kingdom age. Ironside was a gifted Bible expositor and orator of the 20th century; a genuine dispensationalist. Ironside removes all Catholic and Protestant allegorical interpretation of the Revelation of Jesus Christ and rightly divides the Word of Truth.]

Larkin, Clarence. The Spirit World, Published by the Clarence Larkin Estate, 1921, Cosimo, 2005

Miley, John, Systematic Theology Vol. 1 & 2, The Library of Biblical and Theological Literature, New York: Eaton and Mains, 1894, The Internet Archive http://www.archive.org/details/systematictheolo01mile, [John Miley (1813-1895, Methodist Theologian].

Rice, Edward G., The 357 Magnum Errors of the Modernist's Critical Texts, Public Domain, http://www.gsbaptistchurch.com/baptist/bible/texterror.pdf, http://www.lulu.com/shop/pastor-edward-rice/the-357-magnum-errors-of-modernists-critical-texts/paperback/product-5586759.html

Ryrie, Charles C., Basic Theology. Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1981.

Schaff, Philip. The Creeds of Christendom. Three volumes, 1877, reprint, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1977.

----------. History of the Christian Church. Third edition, revised in eight volumes, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1910.

Scofield, C. I., Prophecy Made Plain, Photolithoprinted by Grand Rapids Book Manufacturers, Grand Rapids, MI, 1967.

Shedd, William G. T., Dogmatic Theology, Roosevelt Professor of Systematic Theology in Union Theological Seminary, New York, Charles Scribner & Sons, 1888. [The Internet Archive www.archive.org/details/dogmatictheology01sheduoft], [William G.T. Shedd, 1820-1894, Old School Presbyterian & Reformed Theologian].

----------. Calvinism: Pure and Mixed, A Defense of the Westminster Standards. 1893, reprint, Edinburgh, UK: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1986.

----------. Commentary on Romans. 1879, reprint, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1980.

Strong, Augustus H., Systematic Theology:Three Volumes in 1, Philadelphia, Valley Forge PA, The Judson Press, 1907, 35th printing 1993. [Augustus H. Strong, 1836-1921, American Baptist Pastor & Theologian].

Strong, James, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1890, Public Domain, [Generally known as Strong's Concordance, it is a numeric-alphabetic index of every Hebrew and Greek word translated into the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. The nomenclature <3623> indicates the 3623rd alphabetical word in his Greek Lexicon; the nomenclature <03623> indicates the 3623rd word in his Hebrew Lexicon. James Strong (1822-1894) first published “The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible in 1890, while he was professor of exegetical theology at Drew Theological Seminary.]

Thiessen, Henry Clarence, Lectures in Systematic Theology, Grand Rapids, Mich., William B. Eerdman Publishing Company, 1949. [Henry Clarence Thiessen, ? -1947, President of Los Angles Baptist Theological Seminary, later renamed John MacArthur's The Master's College].

Lectures in Systematic Theology. Revised by Vernon D. Doerksen, Grand Rapids, Mich., William B. Eerdman Publishing Company, 2006.

Waite, D.A.. Defending the King James Bible, The Bible For Today Press, 1992 & 2002.

Yoho, Walter Allan, YAHWEH The Greatness of God, Volume 1 thru 3, FBCPublications.com, 2010. [Dr. Yoho teaches theology at Tabernacle Baptist Theological Seminary 717 Whitehurst Landing Rd. Virginia Beach VA 23464 under Pastor. James Baker. We met after our military-hop to Norfolk VA on our return from Mazara Del Vallo, Italy in May 2016. I have been enthralled with his three volumes of theology since that meeting.]



About the Author

Pastor Ed Rice is a retired USAF Systems Engineer surrendered to be a Baptist Preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Saved in 1960 at the age of eight he grew up tutored in the Scriptures through Tuscorora Baptist Church in Addison NY, where he married his high-school sweetheart Beverly Cook Rice. Drafted into the military off of the dairy farm in 1972, Ed and Bev Rice raised 3 boys while serving as a Missile Technician in the USAF. After completing a USAF AECP bootstrap program he graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in electrical engineering and was commissioned in the USAF where he served until 1995 as a systems engineer and weapons integration specialist at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and Rome Laboratories, Rome NY. He finished his Masters degree in Electrical Engineering through The Air Force Institute of Technology in 1990.

After being commissioned as a USAF officer in 1982 he pursued his systems engineering work in several classified research and development programs. While moving around the USA in his twenty three year military career he was a youth pastor and associate pastor in Independent Baptist Churches near his station. In 1995 he became Captain Rice, USAF retired, and surrendered to be a Baptist Pastor.

In 1998 he took the senior pastorate at Good Samaritan Baptist Church, in Dresden, New York where he pursued his theological studies at Louisiana Baptist Theological Seminary. At LBU Pastor Rice received his second masters degree in 2013, and his PhD in 2017. His son Michael is US Army retired living near Fort Hood Texas, Shane is an Independent Baptist Missionary pastoring Chiesa Biblica Battista, Mazara Del Vallo, Italy, and Matthew is serving our Lord Jesus Christ near Hamilton NY. Capt Rice has spent seven years teaching math and science with the ABeka Christian High School Curriculum, and seven years teaching college mathematics, a love of his life, at both Corning Community College, and Elmira College.

Dr. Rice's staunch belief in the preserved accuracy of the inspired Scriptures and his extensive background in systems engineering make him uniquely qualified to assemble “A Systematic Theology for the 21st Century.”


Personal Testimony of Pastor Edward Rice.


I was saved in 1960 at the age of eight. My father and mother were saved and founding members of Fellowship Baptist Church in Gang Mills New York. In 1958 my dad, Levi O. Rice, an agnostic, was invited by Cecil Palm to be a founding member of that church; both of my parents were born-again-saved two weeks later. My mother, Doris was converted form Roman Catholicism, and became a Christian. She stopped her Roman penance and practiced Bible repentance, stopped praying to Mary and called upon the Lord Jesus Christ to save her. She was thus converted from Roman Catholicism to the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone needs converted from something. Mom and Dad were now born again, and two years later I was saved in revival services with Evangelist Dale and Opel Linbaugh. Opel cut the flannel graph burden of sin off little Christian's back in her Pilgrim's Progress presentation, and I was born-again-saved before it hit the basement floor. In 1995 I retired from the USAF as a systems engineer and became an ordained Baptist Preacher of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 18:3). Being converted is quite like a new birth, Jesus said so. If you have not been converted you should trust Christ today, and you must tell him that that is your intent. (see Romans 10:9-13).

1The Holy Bible.

2 C. I. Scofield, “Prophecy Made Plain, Addresses on Prophecy”, The Gospel Hour Inc., 1910, pg 26.

31Pet.1:10-11 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

4Ibid. pg 9-14.

5 ology is from the Greek meaning a word, a discourse, a doctrine, a teaching, a matter under discussion, a thing spoken of or talked about, also the mental faculty of thinking, meditating, or reasoning about. Others have limited this suffix by equating it to the English word science, which is “The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.” There really is no English equivalent that can capture the depth of “ology”, it is literally to go on, and on, and on about a topic with pen, or speech, or thought. Notice that “ology” comes from the root Greek word logos which has it's well known founding in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God.”

6 s.v. “ears to hear”, De 29:4, Eze 12:2, Mt 11:15 13:9,43, Mr 4:9,23 7:16, Lu 8:8 14:35, s.v. “ear to hear” Ps 10:17, Isa 50:4, Jer 25:4, Re 2:7, 11, 17, 29 3:6, 13, 22, 13:9

7Gaebelein, Scofield, “The Jewish Question” by Gaebelein, Arno Clemens, 1861-1945; Scofield, C. I. (Cyrus Ingerson), 1843-1921 , New York, Publication Office "Our Hope",1912, pg 8.

8For a full explanation of the error of Origen's Allegorical Method see Volume 2 Bibliology, Chapter 10 Christian Biblical Hermeneutics – The School of Alexandria.

9C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible”, Oxford University Press, Inc., 1909, public domain, pg 934, Introduction to Amos.

10Moses wrote at Mount Sinai in BC 1492 (remembered from when “Columbus sailed the ocean blue”), and the Apostle John set down his pen in 100 AD.

11“Jot and tittle fulfillment” of God's Word, as used by Jesus in Matthew 5:18 and Luke 16:17 is fulfillment to the very letter used in God's Hebrew words, and yea, even to the finest jot and tittle characteristics that distinguish those Hebrew letters. Jesus' fidelity of promised fulfillment is thus far finer than our mere verbal fulfillment. This is most aptly seen by examining the Hebrew letter “ yjod where the tiny letter itself is often called a jot. The jot can be examined closely from a good KJV Bible as it appears above Psalm 119:73-80 because these verses all begin with that letter. The tittle can be most aptly seen by examining the differences between the Hebrew letters “ bbeth and” kcaph and/or “ ddaleth and “ rresh. The tiny tiny flag extending off of both “ bbeth and “ d daleth is called a tittle. These four letters can be found in your Bible above Psalm 119:9,81, 25, and 153 respectively. The 22 Hebrew letters are depicted in Psalm 119 because it is an octal acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet, or “alph-bet” (Hbrw). It might behoove a Bible student to learn that Hebrew “alphbet” right out of Psalm 119 of their King James Bible. Many understand that we will all be speaking Hebrew very shortly.

12Daniel 9:25-26 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

13A word must be included about the sabbath days called for in each of these feasts. The Holy Roman Catholic Church (which was not holy or catholic) initiated and spread like leaven a lot of false teachings about sabbath days. There is no “Christian Sabbath” that they invented, thinking “to change times and laws” (Daniel 7:25). A Bible student understands that the weekly Sabbath Day is always the 7th day of the week, which is, and has always been, a Saturday.

Leviticus 23:3 helps clarify that the sabbath days called out in these feasts fall on particular days of a month, not on a particular day of the week. These sabbath days are separate from, and in addition to the weekly Saturday Sabbath Day.

An excellent case in point, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was on the 15th of Abib, the day after the Passover lamb was slain on the 14th. The 15th of Abib, no matter what day of the week it fell on, was to be a sabbath day. The Apostle John differentiated it from the weekly Sabbath by calling it out specifically “for that sabbath day was an high day” (John 19:31). Christ was crucified and placed in a tomb on the Passover, he was our Passover Lamb. The next day was the 15th of Abib the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it was a high sabbath day.

Also, just as the passover lamb was separated from the rest of the “flock” on the 10th of Abib (Exod. 12:3), so too, the perfect Passover Lamb was separated from the flock in the triumphal entry of that 10th of Abib that we now call Palm Sunday,... it was on a Sunday. It is quite indisputable that if the 10th was on a Sunday, then the 14th was on a Thursday, making it a Thursday when the Passover Lamb was slain. Then Friday was the 15th , a high sabbath day, and first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

A Bible student, swayed more by Bible than by orthodox tradition, quickly understands that Christ, the Passover Lamb, was crucified on Thursday; the women could not gather to anoint the body of the Saviour on Friday, it was a high sabbath, or on Saturday it was the weekly Sabbath Day, and so on Sunday, the first day of the week, at their earliest opportunity, very early in the morning...well the Gospels tell that account very well. Also consider that the disciples on the Emmaus road said to Jesus himself, “And beside all this, today (Sunday) is the third day since these things were done” (Luke 24:21). (One day from that Sunday was a Saturday, two days was a Friday, and three days was a Thursday, … that also points to a Thursday crucifixion.) Ergo, clear Bible evidence points out that Christ was crucified on a Thursday, the 14th day of the Hebrew month Abib, 30 AD.

The Holy Roman Catholic Church, which is not holy or catholic, understands nothing about these special sabbath days connected with the feast days. They, and their Protestant children that inherited their ignorance, albeit somewhat reformed, still suppose that Friday was “Good,” because Saturdays, they suppose, are the only Jewish Sabbath Days. Don't let such ignorance persist in your studies.

14Some modernist “scholars”, in following Roman Catholic doctrine, have misconstrued the leaven in the kingdom parable of Matthew 13:33 and Luke 13:21 in a very errant manner. They suppose that the Roman Catholic Church taught correctly and that the gospel here is likened to leaven, and it is the gospel that will, in time, leaven the whole lump. So, they suppose, the whole world will be converted into the Catholic Church. That is heretical apostasy. In the Bible leaven is bad, gospel is good.

15C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible”, Oxford University Press, Inc., 1909, public domain, pg 156, Note 4 on Leviticus 23:10.

16It is curious to some born-again Trump-Pence supporters during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, that in the Bible there are two Trumps and the Good Samaritan's giving of two Pence. Some supposed, playfully and hopefully, that that was pertinent to our righteous cause in keeping a conservative direction for two “Trump-Pence” tickets prior to the trumpet call for the rapture of the church.

17C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible”, Oxford University Press, Inc., 1909, public domain, pg 157, Note 2 on Leviticus 23:24.

18C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible”, Oxford University Press, Inc., 1909, public domain, pg 157-8, Note 3 on Leviticus 23:27.

19C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible”, Oxford University Press, Inc., 1909, public domain, pg 158, Note 1 on Leviticus 23:42.

20In the age of grace, Christians too are listening for a trumpet, and expecting a holy convocation in the clouds. Thus these trumpet feasts resonate with the Biblical teaching of the rapture of the Church (1Thes4:13-18, John 11:25-26, Acts 1:11, Rev 4:1-3, 1Cor 15:51-58). Such a mirrored fulfillment must never detract from the upcoming complete fulfillment of Israel's restoration.

21Num. 14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

22Ezek. 4:6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

23The Hebrew calendar has twelve 30 day months in a year, and they synchronize with the solar calendar by adding a thirteenth month every 7 years (approximately).

24C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible”, Oxford University Press, Inc., 1909, public domain, pg 1349, Note 2 on Revelation 19:20.

25When adding an ellipsis in the middle of speech, it indicates a pause, an omission, or an unfinished thought.

26Eph 2:6-7 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

27Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, “The Scofield Study Bible,” 1909, pg iii.

28A day for a year is likewise called out in God's economy in Numbers 14:34 and Ezek 4:6.

29Rev 16:16-17 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. ¶ And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

30Zeph 3:8 Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. Zech 14:2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and 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.

31Rev 14:20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

32Rev 19:19-20 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

33Rev 19:21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

34Rev 20:1-3 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

35C. I. Scofield, “Prophecy Made Plain, Addresses on Prophecy”, The Gospel Hour Inc., 1910, pg 9-14.

36C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible”, Oxford University Press, Inc., 1909, public domain, pg 1331-1332, Note 3 (Rev. 1:20).

37Charles Hodge, “Systematic Theology: Volume III”, Charles Scribner & Company, 1871, Chapter III Second Advent, pg 823

38Augustus Strong, “Systematic Theology:Volume Three”, Philadelphia, Valley Forge PA, The Judson Press, 1907, Part VIII. Eschatology, or The Doctrine of Final Things, pg 982.

39That period of time opens with all heaven and earth of this universe being “very good” as stated in Gen.1:3. After Gen.1:31 Satan falls in rebellion and shows up in Gen.3:1 lying and deceiving. The Bible does not dictate how long this period of testing is, nor should we. The Bible does not tell us when Satan rebelled but one dare not move his rebellion outside of these 1:31 to 3:1 boundaries. Especially do not move it to some fictitious gap imagined by C. I. Scofield (1834 – 1921), and portrayed by Clarence Larkin (1850 – 1924)!

40C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible”, Oxford University Press, Inc., 1909, public domain, pg 5, s.v. Genesis 1:28 note 4 & 5.

41Ibid., pg 10, s.v. Genesis 3:23 note 2.

42Ibid., pg 16, s.v. Genesis 8:21 note 1.

43Ibid., pg 20, s.v. Genesis 12:1 note 1.

44 Recall that true Christianity has no clergy, or laity, or Nicolaitans, cf Rev 2:6, 15.

45Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

46Ellen White (1827 – 1915) insisted that her followers keep the 5th commandment in order to keep their salvation. She also supposed, from her hundreds of visions, a bunch of peculiarities about the advents of Christ and her misguided followers came to be called Seven Day Adventists!

47Ibid., pg 94, s.v. Exodus 19:8 note 1.

48This was a well rehearsed thought of noted evangelist Dr. Laren Dawson, who had and heard more recordings of fundamental preachers of the gospel than any other evangelist.

49Ibid., pg 1115, s.v. John 1:17 note 1,2,3.

50Luke 21:24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

51Ibid., pg 1250, s.v. Eph 1:10 note 3.

52Michael J. Vlach, “VARIOUS FORMS OF REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY”, TMSJ 20/1 (Spring 2009) 57-69, https://legacy.tms.edu/JournalIssue.aspx?year=2009 (accessed 10/29/2016) . [Michael J. Vlach is a Ph.D. and Assistant Professor of Theology at Dr. John MacArthur's Masters Seminary. The neo-evangelical positions of Masters Seminary do not represent the views of this author.]

53 James Showers, “Facts and Flaws of Covenant Theology”, from The Friends of Israel. Website: www.foi.org. Toll free: 1-800-257-7843, www.foi.org/free-resources/article/facts-and-flaws-covenant-theology-part1/ ...part-2/ ...part-3/ ...conclusion/ (accessed 9/9/2016). [James A. Showers is executive director for The Friends of Israel. Permission to copy and distribute this material is granted provided that you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction or alter the wording in any way. Please contact The Friends of Israel if you are making more than 100 physical copies. Proper accreditation must be visible on each copy. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred (where applicable). Any exceptions to the above must be formally approved by The Friends of Israel. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: From The Friends of Israel. Website: www.foi.org . E-mail: webmaster@foi.org. Toll free: 1-800-257-7843.]

54Dr. Mark G. Cambron, B.A., M.A., Th.B., Th.M., Th.D., D.D., L.L.D., Litt.D., was one of the foremost theologians of our times. Born in Fayetteville, Tennessee on July 31, 1911. He was born-again in 1919. It was during a Billy Sunday campaign in Chattanooga that he trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. He served for many years at Tennessee Temple College (1948-59) with Dr. Lee Roberson and served as Dean of the College. From http://www.thecambroninstitute.org accessed 10/16/2013

55Mark G. Cambron, Bible Doctrines, 1954, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing House.

56The Cambron Institute, 35890 Maplegrove Road, Willoughby, Oh 44094.

57It is noted and reproved in the Bibliology section of this work that Dr. Cambron's Bible Doctrines book recommends using the R.V., instead of the Holy Bible, 41 times for 54 Bible verses.

58After seeing where modernist ecumenical copyright mongering translators were going, there is a larger realization that the fifty-seven highly skilled linguists, employed and paid by King James from 1603 through 1611, divided into six companies which met in cities of Cambridge, Westminster, and Oxford, as they, under the unction of the Holy Spirit of God, took seven years to translate God's inerrant, infallible, verbally inspired Old Testament and New Testament books into an authorized Holy Bible which answered only to the original Hebrew and Greek, … well there is a larger realization that the context of the text and the doctrine of the whole Bible determined how the words “Sheol” and “Hades” should be translated “Hell” rather than be transliterated to “Sheol/Hades” as Dr. Cambron suggests.

59Again the fifty-seven highly skilled linguists who decided to translate the word rather than transliterate the Hebrew are to be trusted above Dr. Cambron's preferences for transliteration.

60Again the actual Authorized Holy Bible properly translates the word's “Sheol” and “Hades” into the English equivalent “Hell” in both Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27. Dr. Cambron's preference that these words be transliterated instead of translated is unfortunate, inaccurate, and divisive. Here he actually misquotes scripture itself in order to propagate his preferences. Modernist ecumenical copyright mongering translators eventually removed hell from their bible altogether; Dr. Cambron did not likely see that coming with his transliteration suggestions in this context.

61Christ's return for his saints is indeed imminent, i.e. there is nothing preventing the sounding of the trumpet that “in a moment” or “in any moment” will call church saints home.

62An accurate Bible states this verse, “Rev. 1:9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” The ecumenical translators who Dr. Cambron unwittingly trusted here misrepresented both the texture and tense of this verse. Shame on him, and them.

63An accurate Bible states this verse, “John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” The ecumenical translators who Dr. Cambron unwittingly trusted here misrepresented both the “everlasting life” and the “shall not come into condemnation but IS past” of this verse. Shame on him, and them.

64An accurate Bible states this verse, “Heb 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.” The ecumenical translators who Dr. Cambron unwittingly trusted here misrepresented the “that is passed”, the “into the heavens” and the “hold fast our profession” of this verse. Shame on him, and them.

65Mark G. Cambron, Bible Doctrines, 1954, Grand Rapids, Michigan, block quote pg 205-238, Zondervan Publishing House, 249-288

66Any author that is “critical” of God's Word is an infidel, and should be treated as such.

67A 2004 print copy by Kregal Inc. of Grand Rapids adds a sentence calling the Authorized Version of this verse an “erroneous translation”! Such talk is in no online versions of Ironside and is likely a fabrication of Kregal Inc. who suppose that they know more than the fifty-seven highly skilled linguists, employed and paid by King James from 1603 through 1611, divided into six companies which met in cities of Cambridge, Westminster, and Oxford, as they, under the unction of the Holy Spirit of God, took seven years to translate God's inerrant, infallible, verbally inspired Old Testament and New Testament books into an authorized Holy Bible which answered only to the original Hebrew and Greek! Shame on them.

68Systematic Theology for the 21st Century Volume 02 Bibliology - Chapter 10 Christian Biblical Hermeneutics - The Historical View of Hermeneutics – The School of Alexandria, pg 435-437

69Word Web 8 by WordWeb Software, Princeton University, 2006, s.v. “apocalyptic”.

70S. D. Gordon, “Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation”, Fleming H. Revell, 1914,EBook #23038 via www.gutenberg.org October 16, 2007 [S. D. Gordon (1859-1936) was a popular writer and speaker in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Philadelphia, at the age of twenty-five Gordon became affiliated with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), with which he served at various secretarial levels for more than ten years. During this period he developed some public speaking skill and became a popular lecturer on devotional biblical themes. Between 1896 and 1900 he traveled to Europe and the Orient as a missionary. Gordon authored some twenty-five books, the majority of which were devotional books under the general theme, Quiet Talks, e.g. Quiet Talks on Prayer, Quiet Talks on Service, etc. The Quiet Talks series has been collected and reprinted many times, having sold in the neighborhood of some two million copies.] pg 47-49.

71James W. Knox, “The Christ-Honoring Commentary Series The Book of Revelation”, https://store.jameswknox.org/products/revelation, 1999, Preface – Regarding Book One, pg 11.

72Ibid. pg 12.

73There are seven spirits of God listed succinctly in Isaiah 11:2 “And the 1) spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, 2) the spirit of wisdom and 3) understanding, 4) the spirit of counsel and 5) might, 6) the spirit of knowledge and of 7) the fear of the LORD;”

74S.D. Gordon,Ibid., pg 135-138

75User List # Isa 2:12 13:6,9 34:8 # Jer 46:10 # La 2:22 # Eze 13:5 30:3 # Joe 1:15 2:1,11,31 3:14 # Am 5:18,20 # Ob 1:15 # Zep 1:7,8, 14,18 2:2,3 # Zec 14:1 # Mal 4:5 # Ac 2:20 # 1Co 5:5 # 2Co 1:14 # 1Th 5:2 # 2Pe 3:10 [This list is compatible with onlinebible.net verse listings]

76C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible”, Oxford University Press, Inc., 1909, public domain, pg 1349, Note 1 on Rev. 19:19.

77C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible”, Oxford University Press, Inc., 1909, public domain, pg 1151, Note 1 on Acts 2:17.

78The dates in such an analysis are easily derived from Genesis 5 and the Hebrew calendar that counts the years after creation (the modern Hebrew calendar dates creation at 3760 BC which is 244 years off from Usher's more exacting calculation of 4004 BC used by this author.) Such an analysis dates Enoch (622-987), Methuselah (687-1656), Lamech (874-1651), Noah (1056-2006) and the world flood 1,656 years after God's creation of Adam.

79Volume 09 Ecclesiology of this series, Systematic Theology for the 21st Century, developes the correspondence of these seven church messages to seven distinct periods of church history. In these periods Ephesis (1-3rd century) had patience – but left their first love; Smyrna (4th century) was faithful unto death – but nothing; Pergamos (5 - 6th century) held fast – but had doctrine of Balaam; Thyatira (7-11th century) had charity – but allowed Jezebel; Sardis (12-16th century) had nothing – but art dead; Philadelphia (17-18th century) had an open door (i.e. America 1776) and kept his word (i.e. KJV 1611) – but nothing; and lastly Laodicean (19-21st century) had nothing and kept nothing – but is lukewarm and spewed out.

80“Israel's occupation (of Palestine)... has proven to be at the root of evil acts committed against innocent people...” etc., says the Presbyterian counsel. In separate votes, the General Assembly also adopted policies rejecting “Christian Zionism” (belief that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 were in accordance with Bible prophecy) as being incompatible with Presbyterian theology on the grounds of it being an offshoot of premillennial dispensationalism).

81These five were fully developed in volume 8 – Soteriology of this Systematic Theology for the 21st Century.

82 Mt 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.... Mt 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. ...Mr 13:13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

83For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2Cor 5:21).

84See “Augustines letters to Donatists” referenced in Ecclesiology section of this work.

85Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matt 7:13-14)

86Landmarkism is a type of Baptist ecclesiology developed in the American South in the mid-19th century. It is committed to a strong version of the perpetuity theory of Baptist origins, attributing an unbroken continuity and unique legitimacy to the Baptist movement since the apostolic period [Wikipedia, sv, “Landmarkism”]

87www.wayoflife.org/database/are_you_a_baptist_brider.html (Accessed Oct 2019)

88Ibid.

89Chambers, Oswald, “My Utmost For His Highest

90The Holy Bible

91Many Bible references given in this section are given to indicate where the information is found, and some verses may be paraphrased to set them in the context of this narrative. These referenced verses are given without quote marks to differentiate them from the exact quotations.

92Every instance of the name “LORD” or “GOD” (all caps) might be read, by the born-again believer, as “Jehovah,” the actual and personal name of God. Hebrews never pronounced this name aloud and consequently, in a commemoration of Hebrew custom. it is only printed as necessitated four times in the King James Bible (Ex.6:3, Ps.83:18, Isa.12:2, 26:4); all other times it is given with this all caps code. The born-again, blood bought Christian has a union with Jehovah God, and it is believed by this author that they have every right to pronounce God's personal name. Modernist ecumenical leaning scholars suppose a revised standard pronunciation might be “Yahweh” because they do not understand where the proper pronunciation Jehovah comes from, and I am not sure they know him that personally.

93Psalm 72:17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed. 89:36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. 78:69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever. 104:5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

94The context of these two verses is set in 1John 5:1-13 which can only be found in an Authorized Bible; all modernist ecumenical bibles omit verse 7).

95It has been surmised that the population that entered the Kingdom Age could have been two billion. In a normal logistic population model the Kingdom Age would have easily climbed back to a world population of eight billion in that thousand year period. Of those, if 90% were destroyed in Rev.20:8-9, then 800 million “saints” remained alive at the close of the Kingdom Age.

96Noah Webster, 1828 Dictionary of English

97The modernist ecumenical copyright bibles only have “rooms” in John 14 due to the unmitigated compromise of the copyright mongers.

98 Rev 20:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

99 From a message “How To Destroy the Jews!” by George Zeller, Middleton Bible Church, 349 East Street, Middletown, CT 06457 as published in www.biblicalevangelist.org Volume 36, Number 4, July Aug 2005

100John Bowker, “Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Religions”, Oxford University Press, 2000, c.v. “Methodism”, pg 375.

101Ibid. c.v. “Anglicanism”, pg 40.

102John Miley, “Systematic Theology Vol. 1 & 2”, The Library of Biblical and Theological Literature, New York: Eaton and Mains, 1894, The Internet Archive www.archive.org/details/systematictheolo02mile , Vol 2, pg 443.

103Ibid.

104Ibid. Vol 2, Chapter VI, pg 462

105Charles Hodge, “Systematic Theology: Volume III”, Charles Scribner & Company, 1871, Chapter III Second Advent, pg 823

106Augustus Strong, “Systematic Theology:Volume Three”, Philadelphia, Valley Forge PA, The Judson Press, 1907, PART VIII. ESCHATOLOGY, OR THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL THINGS, pg 982.

107Ibid., pg 1012

108Ibid. pg 1004 Vol III.

109Erickson, Millard J. “Christian Theology. Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 1985, pg 1151-1164.

110Graydon F. Snyder writes (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, v. 3, p. 148): The early Christian document Hermas, or Shepherd of Hermas, was known to the early Church Fathers. The Muratorian canon, a list of canonical books from about the 3d century, says Hermas was written by the brother of Pius, Bishop of Rome, about 140-154. Despite much speculation, the author remains unknown. It was written in Rome and involves the Roman church. The document was composed over a longer period of time. Visions I-IV were composed during a threatened persecution, probably under Trajan (the Clement of 8:3 could be Clement of Rome). Vision V - Similitude VIII and Similitude X were written perhaps by the same author to describe repentance to Christians who were wavering. Similitude IX was written to unify the entire work and to threaten those who had been disloyal. This last phase must have occurred before Irenaeus (ca. 175). A preferred date would be 140. On the basis of this internal analysis multiple authorship seems necessary (Giet 1963), though the work could have been composed by one person over a long period of time (July 1958). from http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/shepherd.html

111from www.ChristianBook.com book promotion paragraph quoting Dr. Chafer's promotion of his “Systematic Theology” accessed Dec 2013

112 1Ti 6:20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

113www.wiktionary.org s.f. Apostasy The ancient criminal offense of heresy or non-belief in religion. (Herein used that definition includes non-belief in the inerrant, infallible, plenary, verbally inspired Holy Bible, rather than non-belief in mere religion.)

114There is an effort to keep this work's reading ease at or below a 12th grade reading level. This complex paragraph resulted in a Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 45.2, Average Grade Level 12.4 from https://readability-score.com

115 Harold Egbert Camping (July 19, 1921 – December 15, 2013), the radio preacher who convinced thousands of followers that Jesus would return on May 21, 2011, to usher in the end of the world, has died, according to a statement released late Monday (Dec. 16) by his Family Radio network. He was 92. from http://www.huffingtonpost.com. After numerous failed doomsday predictions, Family Radio founder Harold Camping announced this month that he has no plans to predict ever again the day of God's Judgment. He also issued an apology to listeners, admitting that he was wrong. "We have learned the very painful lesson that all of creation is in God's hands and He will end time in His time, not ours!" a statement on Family Radio's website reads. "We humbly recognize that God may not tell His people the date when Christ will return, any more than He tells anyone the date they will die physically." Camping, 90, has made predictions about Judgment Day, Christ's return and the end of the world for the past few decades – with the May 21, 2011, forecast receiving the most media attention. Each time the date passed, he did not admit to mistaking the timing but instead reasoned that the events happened "spiritually" rather than physically. But once Oct. 21, 2011 – the day Camping said the world would be destroyed physically – came and went, the Christian broadcaster began to reevaluate his views about being able to calculate and know the exact date of the apocalypse. "Even the most sincere and zealous of us can be mistaken," Camping and Family Radio staff stated in their March letter. "We realize that many people are hoping they will know the date of Christ's return. In fact for a time Family Radio fell into that kind of thinking. "But we now realize that those people who were calling our attention to the Bible's statement that 'of that day and hour knoweth no man' (Matthew 24:36 & Mark 13:32), were right in their understanding of those verses and Family Radio was wrong. Whether God will ever give us any indication of the date of His return is hidden in God's divine plan." from www.christianpost.com/news/ accessed 9/27/2014

116Chafer, Systematic Theology, Volume IV, 255-256

117Ibid., 255

118Chafer uses this Greek word Chiliasm, Greek for 1,000, to soft shoe the brazen literalness of a millennial reign of Christ, a millennial reign which is preceded by his 2nd Advent, i.e. premillennialism.

119Ibid., 257

120Ibid., 258 and 259

121Ibid., 261

122Ibid., 262

123Ibid.267 and 278

124Ibid., 282-283

125Dollar, A History of Fundamentalism in America, 160

1261Ki 14:16, 15:26, 15:34, 16:13, 16:26, 21:22, 22:52, 2Ki 3:3, 10:29, 10:31, 13:2, 14:24, 15:9, 15:18, 15:24, 15:28, 23:15

127General Association of Regular Baptist Churches

128Multiple sources from my childhood.

129 Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology In One Volume,Bethany House, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2002, 3, 4, 5, 11.

130 Ibid.

131 This author objects to the Roman Catholic categorization of Christians being clerics, or clergy, who are denominationaly trained to read and interpret the Holy Bible, and laity or laymen, who were not trained and professional in their denomination. True, Bible believing, Born-again ones, are indwelt by the Christ and have eyes made to see, and ears made to hear. Such exude the priesthood of all believers.

132 Ibid., flyleaf

133On January 15, 2019, the New York State Senate voted 42-19 to pass the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) (Bill S.1047-Hoylman/A.747-Gottfried), also known as the Bathroom Bill. On the same day, the New York State Assembly passed the Bathroom Bill by a vote of 105 to 43. ... Jan 26, 2019 - Calling it an "emotional day," Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed bills that provide protections to transgender New Yorkers and bans the use of conversion therapy on children. Feb 25, 2019 - The GENDA law also bans gay conversion therapy, and makes offenses eligible for a hate crime.