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| | The Lamb (14:1) of God<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"which taketh away the sin of the world"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 1:29), is Jesus. In this vision, John sees the LORD Jesus Christ on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"mount Sion"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:1), which in this instance, refers to a heavenly scene.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Hebrews 12:22). It has become more apparent that much of what God has directed man to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>do,</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in Heaven, so in Earth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Luke 11:2), and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>build</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>upon Earth, has been modeled upon what exists in Heaven, i.e., earthly Jerusalem was based upon heavenly Jerusalem.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Hebrews 8:5).<br> | | The Lamb (14:1) of God<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"which taketh away the sin of the world"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 1:29), is Jesus. In this vision, John sees the LORD Jesus Christ on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"mount Sion"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:1), which in this instance, refers to a heavenly scene.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Hebrews 12:22). It has become more apparent that much of what God has directed man to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>do,</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in Heaven, so in Earth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Luke 11:2), and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>build</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>upon Earth, has been modeled upon what exists in Heaven, i.e., earthly Jerusalem was based upon heavenly Jerusalem.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Hebrews 8:5).<br> |
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| − | The 144,000 (14:1)-- the same 144,000 Jewish Believers, who were sealed in Chapter 7 shortly before the Middle of the Tribulation Week-- are standing<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>with Christ in Heaven.</i></font><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This triumphal scene in Heaven indicates that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>the 144,000 were preserved from the Antichrist and were Pre-Wrath Raptured,</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Hurt not the Earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(7:3). Again, why the trouble to seal the 144,000 from the effects of the Divine Judgments, only to be killed by the Antichrist?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">3<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">O LORD, Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit...<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">9<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise Thee? shall it declare Thy Truth?"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 30:3, 9).</font></p>
| + | [[Next Part 2 The 144,000 ]] |
| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
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| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">2</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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:"</font></li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">The<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"voice from Heaven"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:2) that John heard was that of the Almighty God, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"as the Voice of many waters"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:2).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and His voice was like a noise of many waters: and the Earth shined with His glory"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Ezekiel 43:2). God's awesome Voice was heard as a mighty Niagara, and His Speech was punctuated with the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Voice of a great thunder"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:2).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"The LORD thundered from Heaven, and the Most High uttered His Voice"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(2Samuel 22:14). As mortals, we often forget that this God of power and majesty has condescended to make a covenant with us-- His presence in exchange for our trust-- i.e.,</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine. When thou passest through the waters,<b>I will be with thee</b>; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 43:1, 2).<br>
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| − | Throughout the ages, the Saints have been enjoined to sound their praises of God with<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"all manner of instruments"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(2Samuel 6:5), even as David and all Israel used harps, psalteries, timbrels, cornets, and cymbals. Both men and angels are seen before the Throne praising God with harps, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"And when He had taken the Book, the four beasts</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[angelic seraphim]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">and four and twenty elders</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[glorified Saints]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">fell down before the Lamb,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>having every one of them harps</b>, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of Saints"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Revelation 5:8).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 33:2). Who are the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"harpers harping with their harps"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:2)? Most probably the harpers are the 144,000 Jewish Believers, who have been Pre-Wrath Raptured-- for they would have much to celebrate!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">1<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of Our Salvation.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">2<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 95:1-2).</font></p>
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| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
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| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">3</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And they sung as it were a New Song before the Throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that Song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the Earth."</font></li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">Jehovah Jesus, Who is the Lamb (14:1) before the Throne, will teach His people their New Song, because He personally will serenade us after we come into His presence.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"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,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>He will joy over thee with singing</b>"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">(Zephaniah 3:17). Likewise, the 144,000 will sing a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"New Song before the Throne"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:3) of God. The Creator alone is truly the Author of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"all things new"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Revelation 21:5).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"And have put on the New Man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Colossians 3:10). In Salvation, Jehovah<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"hath put a New Song in my mouth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 40:3).</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"No man could learn"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:3) the song of the 144,000, because God has covenanted His secret personally and only to those that fear Him.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"The secret of the LORD is with them that fear Him; and He will shew them His covenant"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 25:14).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">The 144,000<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"were redeemed</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[Greek, agorazo]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">from the Earth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:3) by a miraculous Rapture. The Father, Who purchased us<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"with the precious Blood of Christ"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Peter 1:19), will simply take delivery on His purchased possessions, i.e., the Tribulation Week Saints at that Rapture.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Ye are bought</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[Greek, agorazo]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">with a price; be not ye the servants of men"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Corinthians 7:23).</font></p>
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| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
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| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">4</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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 firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb."</font></li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul speaks of the entire Body of Believers as a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"chaste virgin"</font><font size="4">, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"For I am jealous over you with Godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to One Husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[Greek, parthenos]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">to Christ"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(2Corinthians 11:2). The Apostle John also uses the Greek word<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>parthenos,</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in describing the 144,000 as<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"virgins"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:4). Virginity, though it most often describes a woman who has not known a man sexually, was also used to identify both the men and women of Israel, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"This is the Word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[Sennacherib king of Assyria]</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 37:22). However, the</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"virgins"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:4) here described,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"were not defiled with women"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:4), seems to indicate that the 144,000 are unmarried and chaste men, who will abstain from marriage during the difficult days of the Tribulation Week. Even the married Saints of these Last Days, as much as possible, should dedicate themselves more to the LORD than their devotion to their cherished spouses.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Corinthians 7:29).<br>
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| − | To<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:4) describes the 144,000; but, should no less characterize the Saints of these Last Days.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Peter 2:21). Consequently, the 144,000 have simply followed their Master home to Heaven, with His blessing and at His Command, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Come Up Hither"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Revelation 11:12). Just as the 24 Elders, who represent the entirety of both Old and New Testament Saints, were bought, purchased, and redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"And they</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[24 Elders]</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[Greek, agorazo]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">us to God by Thy Blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(5:9), the 144,000 will also be<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"redeemed from among men"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:4).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"And from Jesus Christ, Who is the Faithful Witness, and the First Begotten of the Dead, and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own Blood"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1:5). These 144,000 male virgins represent the first of the eventual harvest of Elect Israel at the Second Coming of the LORD Jesus Christ; therefore, they are called the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:4).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"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"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 66:8).</font></p>
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| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
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| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">5</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the Throne of God."</font></li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">In completing the description of the 144,000, John records that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the Throne of God"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:5). Guile is the willful deceit of heart that cannot be separated from a man without the cleansing that comes from the forgiveness of God.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"If we confess our sins, He is Faithful and Just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1John 1:9). Salvation under both the Old and New Covenants has always been by the LORD imputing His righteousness to man, in response to faith and repentance.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 32:2). It will take the miraculous preservation of the Almighty to keep alive these 144,000 during the Second Half of the Tribulation Week, for they imitate their LORD's guileless conduct before His persecutors.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">22<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth:</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>23<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Peter 2:22-23). Their position is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"before the Throne of God"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:5), meaning that they have been translated from their earthly position to the joyousness of Heaven, where Jesus is.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">2<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">In My Father's House are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">3<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">And 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"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 14:2-3).</font></p>
| + | |
| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
| + | |
| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
| + | |
| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">6</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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,"</font></li>
| + | |
| − | </ul>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">Three angels preach to the Earth (14:6-11), much like a team of evangelists:</font></p>
| + | |
| − | <blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
| + | |
| − | <p>(1)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><font size="4">The First Angel (14:6-7)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>universally</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>declares the necessity and opportunity of embracing the fear, glory, and worship of God.<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | </font>(2)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><font size="4">A warning is given by the Second Angel (14:8) that the worship system of Babylon the Great is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>collectively</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>dead. And,<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | </font>(3)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><font size="4"><i>individually,</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the Third Angel (14:9-11) warns his hearers against their personal participation in the worship of the Beast.</font></p>
| + | |
| − | </blockquote>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">Since<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"God is no respecter of persons"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Acts 10:34), the Everlasting Gospel (14:6) is not limited to any specific location or group of people, but it will be preached, as it was always intended, to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"them that dwell on the Earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:6).</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"</font><font size="4">19<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">20<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Matthew 28:19-20).<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | What a compelling event! Three angels canvas the globe, assaulting the senses of all Earth dwellers with the sight and sound of the preaching of the Gospel (14:6-11).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"O Earth, Earth, Earth, hear the Word of the LORD"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Jeremiah 22:29). This is akin to giving the Earth dwellers one last chance before the Almighty returns for the Final Judgment of the Earth, which occurs only a few days hence.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Who hath heard such a thing?"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 66:8). Though the term Gospel has many connotations today, it specifically describes the Good News of man's opportunity to turn away from his selfishness and return to trusting God.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Repent ye, and believe the Gospel</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[Greek,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>euaggelion,</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or Good News]</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Mark 1:15). As the Gospel announces man's opportunity for repentance and Salvation, the Law of God simply declares what God justly requires of man,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Thou</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind... and... thy neighbour as thyself"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Matthew 22:37, 39). The Gospel understands that man has transgressed that Law, thus, requiring his death.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"The soul that sinneth, it shall die"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Ezekiel 18:20).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">2<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>3<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">how shall we escape, if we neglect So Great Salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the LORD, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him"</font><font size="4">(Hebrews 2:2-3).</font></p>
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| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
| + | |
| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
| + | |
| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">7</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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."</font></li>
| + | |
| − | </ul>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">The Gospel message preached by the First Angel is a righteous command to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"fear God"</font><font size="4">,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"give glory to Him"</font><font size="4">, and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"worship Him"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:7). Though the Gospel offers the opportunity of repentance for Eternal Salvation, it requires, then as well as now, obedience to the commands of the Gospel, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"But they have not all obeyed the Gospel"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Romans 10:16). When the First Angel preaches the Everlasting Gospel (14:6) with a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"loud voice"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:7), the impression is that all the inhabitants of the Earth are constrained to hear his command to respond to the Gospel. This has always been the case with the preaching of the Gospel, that God<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"now commandeth all men every where to repent"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Acts 17:30). The command to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"fear God"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:7) is the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"beginning of wisdom"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Proverbs 9:10). To<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"give glory to Him"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:7) is God's demand to return to the original purpose of man, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Thou art worthy, O LORD, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(4:11). And, to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"worship Him"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:7) is the clarion call whereby God requires man to return to True Worship, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"True Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 4:23).<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | The phrase,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"the hour of His Judgment is come"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">(14:7), similarly refers to the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"hour of temptation"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(3:10), which is a period of 15 days from the Pre-Wrath Rapture (the Second<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Come Up Hither"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[11:12]) to the Millennial Reign of the LORD Jesus Christ.</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Though the Promise to the Church of Philadelphia,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(3:10), is commonly appropriated as a Promise for the Pre-Tribulational Rapture (the First<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Come Up Hither"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[4:1])-- which this writer believes to be spiritually true, since<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>there is more than one Rapture--</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>but, it more specifically applies to the last 8-9 days of the Tribulation Week following the Pre-Wrath Rapture, as well as the approximately 6 days following the Tribulation Week, i.e., Armageddon and the Second Coming, up to the beginning of the Millennial Reign of the LORD Jesus Christ. An appropriate Scripture of encouragement for the Pre-Tribulational Rapture would be Luke 21:36, which promises escape from<b>all</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the events of the Tribulation Week for those who watch and pray, thus, necessitating a Pre-Tribulational deliverance.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Luke 21:36).</font></p>
| + | |
| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
| + | |
| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
| + | |
| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">8</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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."</font></li>
| + | |
| − | </ul>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">Advising all Earth dwellers that</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"Babylon is fallen"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:8) is appropriate, because at this point Babylon has already fallen. By this, it is meant that the judgment of</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Babylon the Great"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(18:2), the Harlot Religious System that seats itself in that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"great city"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:8) of Rome, must have already occurred at the beginning of the</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"hour of</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[Jehovah's]</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Judgment"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:7) upon the world. It appears that this judgment of Religious-Economic Babylon, as described in Revelation 17 and 18 occurs immediately after the Pre-Wrath Rapture, which takes place about 8-9 days before the End of the Tribulation Week.</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Few cities have ever had the infamy of representing the wickedness of the world system than Babylon and Rome.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Acts 7:43). Babylon the Great is primarily<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>the</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Harlot Religious System that makes<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:8) through an ecumenical sharing of her<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>false religious practices;<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>however, she exerts inordinately large influence through her<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>enormous</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>economic power</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>throughout the Earth.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"The love of money is the root of all evil"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Timothy 6:10).</font></p>
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| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
| + | |
| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
| + | |
| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">9</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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,"</font></li>
| + | |
| − | </ul>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">Thus far, the preaching of the Everlasting Gospel (14:6-7) and a powerful reminder of the deadness of the Harlot's Religious System, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Babylon is fallen, is fallen"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:8), have been given to all Earth dwellers by the first two angels; but, the third angel's warning is even more personal to his audience of entirely unregenerate mankind. Since the Pre-Wrath Rapture has just removed all the remaining Tribulation Saints, only a portion of lost humanity that remains is "elect-but-still-lost"-- to be saved at the appearance of Messiah Jesus.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Thus saith the LORD GOD, Behold, I will lift up Mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 49:22). The third angel begins a loud warning to all that remains of mankind on the planet-- unhushed by Satan, the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and their minions-- saying,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand..."</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:10). Worship of the Antichrist and reception of the Mark of the Beast (13:11-18) have already been a stark fact of life for nearly 3 1/2 years. When the Faithful God tires of warning humanity of the eternal perils of their present course of actions, then all hope has been removed.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"And the LORD said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Genesis 6:3). After the warning stops, only Judgment remains.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"God is a Consuming Fire"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Hebrews 12:29).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Matthew 10:28).</font></p>
| + | |
| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
| + | |
| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
| + | |
| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">10</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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:"</font></li>
| + | |
| − | </ul>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">Question? With only 8-9 days left in the Tribulation Week, all of the regenerate of mankind Pre-Tribulationally and Pre-Wrath Raptured from the Earth, and only the horrors of the Vial Judgments (16:1-21) remaining, why now would the angel warn those who have received the Mark of the Beast, about the consequences of receiving that mark? Evidently, the All Wise God expects to see the very Last Fruits to be finally and certainly harvested, for He is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(2Peter 3:9). But, how so?</font></p>
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| − | <blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <p><font size="4">First, the Almighty never gives anyone the impression that they can continue in present sin, without a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Hebrews 10:27), i.e., the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:10). Even our witness that we are His, is based upon our present loving obedience to Him; whereas, a present disobedience can only be given God's anger, fearful displeasure, and threatening of Eternal Judgment.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">3<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His Commandments.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">4<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His Commandments, is a LIAR, and the Truth is not in him"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1John 2:3-4).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"ALL LIARS, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the Second Death"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Revelation 21:8).<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | Second, the certain consequences of worshipping the Beast and receiving his mark (14:9) is Eternal Damnation, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:10). No one ought to doubt the sincerity of this threat from the God<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"that cannot lie"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Titus 1:2).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Numbers 23:19).<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
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| − | Third, this threat, bulwarking the Doctrine of the Justice of the Endless Punishment and Misery of the Wicked, however, does not diminish mercy from the character of the Almighty, especially to those who may yet repent.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"I will proclaim the Name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Exodus 33:19). God delights in mercy, for which His people rightly exalt Him.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Micah 7:18).<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | And, finally, the "just-in-time" repentance of the "elect-but-still-lost" Jews and Gentiles will take place as the LORD Jesus Christ begins His descent in the clouds to the Faithless Earth, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the Earth?"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Luke 18:8). These "just-in-time" penitents will be the seed population and citizenry of the Millennial Earth, while all others will simply wail and cry without True Repentance or Faith.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"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"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Revelation 1:7).</font></p>
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| − | </blockquote>
| + | |
| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
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| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">11</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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."</font></li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">The enormity of the reprobate Earth dwellers' rejection of the True Christ for the Substitute Christ is measured by the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"smoke of their torment<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">[that]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">ascendeth up for ever and ever"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:11).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Romans 1:28). Because man has such a low estimation of the value of God's Law, they would necessarily esteem His Judgments as nonsense or excessive; but, the Judge of All the Earth<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"will render to every man according to his deeds"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(2:6).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">8<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the Truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">9<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile"</font><font size="4">(2:8, 9).<br>
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| − | <br>
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| − | Those who<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:11), are reprobated by God for their foreseen iniquities from which the Omniscient God knows they will never repent.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font></p>
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| − | <blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <p><font size="4" color="#440000">"Do you ask how I know that the reason why God does not make you willing is, that he sees that it would be unwise in him to do so? I answer, that it is an irresistible inference, from these two facts, that he is infinitely benevolent, and that he does not actually make you willing. I do not believe that God would neglect anything that he saw to be wise and benevolent, in the great matter of man's salvation. Who can believe that he could give his only-begotten and well-beloved Son to die for sinners, and then neglect any wise and benevolent means for their salvation? No, sinner, if you are a reprobate, it is because God foresaw that you would do just as you are doing; that you would be so wicked as to defeat all the efforts that he could wisely, make for your salvation. What a variety of means he has used with you. At one time he has thrown you into the furnace of affliction; and when this has not softened you, he has turned round and loaded you with favours. He has sent you his word, he has striven by his Spirit, he has allured you by the cross; he has tried to melt you by the groanings of Calvary; and tried to drive you back from the way to death, by rolling in your ears the thunders of damnation. At one time clouds and darkness have been round about you; the heavens have thundered over your head; divine vengeance has hung out, all around your horizon, the portentous clouds of coming wrath. At another time mercy has smiled upon you from above like the noon-day sun, breaking through an ocean of storms. He urges every motive; he lays heaven, earth and hell, under perpetual contributions for considerations to move your stony heart. But you deafen your ears, and close your eyes, and harden your heart, and say, 'Cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us</font><font size="4" color="#000000">[Isaiah 30:11]</font><font size="4" color="#440000">.' And what is the inference from all this? How must all this end? 'Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord has rejected them<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#000000">[Jeremiah 6:30]</font><font size="4" color="#440000">'"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font></p>
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| − | </blockquote>
| + | |
| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
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| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">12</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Here is the patience of the Saints: here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."</font></li>
| + | |
| − | </ul>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">Verse 12 introduces verse 13, both of which are an interlude of peace between the warnings and threatenings to those who<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:9-11) and the Final Judgments of the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"great winepress of the wrath of God"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:14-20). Three words stand out in verse 13-- patience, Commandments, and faith.</font></p>
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| − | <blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <p><font size="4">First, the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"patience of the Saints"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:12) is that attribute of love that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things"</font><font size="4">(1Corinthians 13:7). Patience comes only from the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"trying of your faith"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(James 1:3), which will be greatly needed by the Tribulation Saints to complete their appointed course of trying, testing, and suffering, that they<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(James 1:4)-- in preparation for Heaven.<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | Second, keeping the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Commandments of God"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:12) is not simply the hallmark of a True Saint, i.e.,</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"My sheep hear My Voice, and I know them, and they follow Me"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 10:27); but, it represents our joyful opportunity to demonstrate our love for Him, i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Thy Law do I love"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 119:163). Resisting fidelity to the Antichrist by refusing his mark is an act of the Tribulation Saints' loving obedience to the Commandment,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Exodus 20:3).<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | And, finally, the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"faith of Jesus"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:12) is the Saints' supreme confidence in our LORD and Saviour, Whose Name<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"is above every name"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Philippians 2:9)-- especially above the name of the Antichrist-- that Jesus will<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"yet deliver us"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(2Corinthians 1:10) from the Antichrist or from dishonoring Him by yielding to temptation.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"The LORD knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(2Peter 2:9).</font></p>
| + | |
| − | </blockquote>
| + | |
| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
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| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
| + | |
| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">13</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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 labours; and their works do follow them."</font></li>
| + | |
| − | </ul>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">Normally, we speak about events in a chronological fashion, but we may also need to regress in order to emphasize and develop thoughts that need additional explanation.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Let all things be done decently and in order"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Corinthians 14:40). Verse 13 speaks of a retrospective, referring to a time<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>before</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the Pre-Wrath Rapture, where there are still Tribulation Saints awaiting martyrdom or Rapture.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Blessed are the dead which die in the LORD from henceforth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:13) makes special reference to the Martyred Tribulation Saints, giving the Apostle John a third personal message from the Father (10:4, 8), i.e., a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Voice from Heaven saying unto me"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:13). The encouragement is true for all Saints throughout history, but is especially necessary for those who will be martyred, reminding them of the Eternal Blessedness of those that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"resist stedfast in the faith"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Peter 5:9). Later, we are told that those Martyred Tribulation Saints will be numbered among those who will rule and reign with Christ during the Millennium.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"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 worshipped the Beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(20:4).<br>
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| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | A fugitive knows no rest; and, those Tribulation Saints who are not caught after they are converted, will be Pre-Wrath Raptured.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"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"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Revelation 11:12). However, the Tribulation Saints that will not be Pre-Wrath Raptured, may not be simply caught at the outset of their conversion to the LORD Jesus Christ, making flight a reasonable alternative before they are caught and executed.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">(Luke 21:21). Rest is a luxury that belongs only to those who are beyond the reach of their pursuers. These martyred</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"dead which die in the LORD"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:13) will ultimately, successfully evade the enemy and will cheat the Second Death of its prey.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">55<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>56<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the Law.</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>57<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our LORD Jesus Christ"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Corinthians 15:55-57). Not simply rest, but<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"great recompence of reward"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Hebrews 10:35) awaits the Martyred Tribulation Saints, i.e., they<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"rest from their labours; and their works do follow them"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:13).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 35:10).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font></p>
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| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
| + | |
| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">14</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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."</font></li>
| + | |
| − | </ul>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">Christ Jesus, Who is the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"LORD of the Harvest"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Luke 10:2), i.e.,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"in His hand a sharp sickle"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">(14:14), is also the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Judge of All the Earth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Genesis 18:25), to Whom the Father<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"hath committed all judgment"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 5:22). Here, the Apostle John is directed to gaze upon a white cloud, and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of Man"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:14). Painters often depict God surrounded with clouds.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Clouds and darkness are round about Him: Righteousness and Judgment are the habitation of His Throne"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 97:2). Scripture describes the Almighty as:</font></p>
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| − | <blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
| + | |
| − | <p>(1)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><font size="4">the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"High and Lofty One That Inhabiteth Eternity"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 57:15),<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | </font>(2)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><font size="4">flying<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"upon the wings of the wind"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 18:10),<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | </font>(3)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><font size="4">the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Blessed and Only Potentate, the KING of Kings, and LORD of Lords"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Timothy 6:15), and<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | </font>(4)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><font size="4">coming again<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"with clouds; and every eye shall see Him"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Revelation 1:7).</font></p>
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| − | </blockquote>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">The</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"golden crown"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:14) on the head of the LORD Jesus, can only be seen by the eyes of faith, until the time will come that all must admit-- willingly or unwillingly-- that Jesus<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"ONLY hath immortality, dwelling in the Light which no man can approach unto; Whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to Whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Timothy 6:16).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">9<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">10</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth;<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">11<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Philippians 2:9-11).</font></p>
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| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
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| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">15</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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."</font></li>
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| − | </ul>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">The Apocalyptic<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Harvest of the Earth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:15) will be both a gathering of the Righteous and a separating out of the Wicked.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">10<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>11<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">I</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[John the Baptist]</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[the LORD Jesus Christ]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">that cometh after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">12<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[the Righteous]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[the Wicked]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">with unquenchable fire"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Matthew 3:10-12). A repeated theme of the Gospels is that the LORD Jesus Christ is the King of Glory (Psalm 24:7, 8, 9, 10) that will sit upon His Throne, making His enemies His<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"footstool"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">(110:1).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">31<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">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:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">32<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">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"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(25:31-32).<br>
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| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | Harvest festivals in Old Testament Israel took place in both the spring and fall. Leviticus 23 outlines Seven Feasts that Jehovah declared which Old Testament Israel was to observe.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#440000">"The feasts are the foreshadowing-- of events that were yet to come. The Seven Feasts of Israel prophetically forecast and outline the main events of Israel's relation to Jehovah"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">16<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">17<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Colossians 2:16-17). The fall feasts yet point to the fulfillment of the Pre-Wrath Rapture (Feast of Trumpets a.k.a. Rosh HaShanah), the Second Coming of Christ (Day of Atonement a.k.a. Yom Kippur), and the Inauguration of the Millennial Reign of the LORD Jesus Christ (Feast of Tabernacles), making the harvest festivals a time of anticipation.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her Appointed Times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgment of the LORD"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Jeremiah 8:7).</font></p>
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| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
| + | |
| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
| + | |
| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">16</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the Earth; and the Earth was reaped."</font></li>
| + | |
| − | </ul>
| + | |
| − | <blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
| + | |
| − | <p><font size="4">John the Beloved informs us that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the Earth; and the Earth was reaped"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Revelation 14:16). It may be difficult for the human mind to imagine, but the Almighty's judgment of the Earth is in keeping with the Eternal Law of Love.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"If ye fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(James 2:8). Not so strange to say, but the Eternal God only demands of man what He is willing to give Himself. And, the righteous demand of God's Moral Law has always been supreme love and consideration for God (for it is only right and fitting) and an equal love of our neighbour as ourselves.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind... and... thy neighbour as thyself"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Matthew 22:37, 39). So then, when Christ the Judge harvests the Earth, He may, without divorcing Himself of Perfect Love, say,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Vengeance is Mine; I will repay"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Romans 12:19).<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | A great failure of Professed Christianity, is not to properly distinguish between the two kinds of love--<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>disinterested benevolence</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>complacent love</i>-- that God employs in the administration of His vast Moral Government. The nineteenth century American evangelist Charles G. Finney used the terms<i>disinterested benevolence</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>love of complacency</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to make the distinction.</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Disinterested benevolence</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>would be represented in the Scriptures with the love that God demonstrates to all men, regardless of their character-- evil or good.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"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"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 3:16). The good will of God towards man is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>disinterested</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(free of bias or self-interest)<i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>benevolence</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in that</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Romans 5:8).<br>
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| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | Further, the term<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>complacent love</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>love of complacency</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>has virtually lost its meaning in the 21st Century.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Complacent</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>complacency</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>now has the negative connotation of being self-satisfied or unconcerned, while the nineteenth century used the term<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>complacent</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to encompass the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>positive</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>idea of resting in a satisfied way upon something. Scripturally, God manifests<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>complacent love</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>towards<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>only</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the Godly, i.e., He rests in a satisfied way upon the right character of the righteous.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"He that hath My Commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 14:21). And, when man demonstrates True Obedience to God, it is the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>love of complacency,</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>for man is then demonstrating his satisfaction with the character of the God that he obeyed.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"If ye love Me, keep My Commandments"</font><font size="4">(14:15). It is appropriate, then, to say that God<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>loves complacently</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>only those who love and obey Him.</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"</font><font size="4">23<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My Words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>24<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">He that loveth Me not keepeth not My Sayings: and the Word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 14:23-24). Then, to equate the love of God, i.e., the love man ought to have toward God, with our obedience to God, is to describe why God can approve and rest in our character, which is<i>complacent love.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"For this is the love of God, that we keep His Commandments: and His Commandments are not grievous</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[i.e., unbearably burdensome]</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1John 5:3).<br>
| + | |
| − | <br>
| + | |
| − | So then, how can the God of Love be also the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"LORD God to Whom Vengeance Belongeth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 94:1), reaping the Earth in the Apocalypse? Since the Almighty has manifested Himself in His Son as the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Saviour of the World"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1John 4:14), it is unequivocal that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"God so loved the world"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 3:16) with a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>disinterested benevolence,</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>giving to the good and to the evil the Gift of His Son. But, since<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"all men have not faith"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(2Thessalonians 3:2) and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"many"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Matthew 7:13), ultimately, will be cast<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"into outer darkness"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(22:13), then God<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>does not cease</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to love the damned with a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>disinterested benevolence.</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>But</b>, He<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>never did<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>love these finally damned with the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>love of complacency,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>because there was never anything in them, in which He could approve of their character, i.e., these wicked never repented.</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"</font><font size="4">37<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed NOT on Him:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">38<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, LORD, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the LORD been revealed?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">39<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">40<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 12:37-40).</font></p>
| + | |
| − | </blockquote>
| + | |
| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
| + | |
| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
| + | |
| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">17</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And another angel came out of the temple which is in Heaven, he also having a sharp sickle."</font></li>
| + | |
| − | </ul>
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| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Another</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[Greek, allos, another of the same kind]</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>angel"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:17), again, refers to another angel of the same kind as verse 15, i.e., the angel which said to the Son of Man to thrust in His sickle and reap. Multiple angels are described as having a part in the Final Harvest of the Earth, because they are messengers [Greek, aggelos, translated as angel or messenger], transporting a message of judgment, which translates into their execution of the command to judge the Earth.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels... The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Matthew 13:39, 41). Since God's Word is depicted as a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"sharp sword"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Revelation 19:15) proceeding out of the mouth of the Son of Man, Whose<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Name is called The Word of God"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(19:13), and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"with it He should smite the nations"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(19:15), then the angelic bearers of that message become the effective tools of the execution of that judgment.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">1<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">2<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">And, behold, six men</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[i.e., angels]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">3<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon He was, to the threshold of the house. And He called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side;<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">4</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">5</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And to the others He said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>6<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Ezekiel 9:1-6).</font></p>
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| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
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| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">18</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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."</font></li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">Verse 18 describes</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"another angel"</font><font size="4">, which had<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"power over fire"</font><font size="4">. Jehovah is a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Consuming Fire"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Deuteronomy 4:24), and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"His angels spirits, and His ministers</font><font size="4">[i.e., angels]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">a flame of fire"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Hebrews 1:7). Just as the Angel of the LORD, which was the Pre-Incarnate Christ, ascended into Heaven with the flame from off the altar, i.e.,</font><font size="4" color="#000000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward Heaven from off the altar, that the Angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Judges 13:20), this angel of the Apocalypse (14:18) deals with the holiness of the sacrifices to God, i.e., he<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"had power over fire"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:18).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Romans 12:1). Fire represents the cleansing, purging, and acceptance of the sacrifice by God.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Leviticus 9:24). The Bema Seat Judgment of the Saints will not reveal the sinfulness of the Saints' works, but the worth of all that is done by the Saints, while in the flesh, for the purpose of reward-- not punishment.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">13<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Every man's work 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.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">14</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">15</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1Corinthians 3:13-15).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4"><br>
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| − | <br>
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| − | This angel<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"from the altar"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:18) instructs the angel previously described in verse 17,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"that had the sharp sickle"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:18), saying,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the Earth; for her grapes are fully ripe"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:18). The Almighty must be instructing the angel as to the appropriateness of the timing of this Judgment, for it would take a Mind of Omniscience to know how to deal with the ungodly and wicked, without destroying the Godly, at the same time.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">27<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">So the servants of the Householder came and said unto Him, Sir, didst not Thou sow good seed in Thy field? from whence then hath it tares?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">28<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto Him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">29<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[i.e., the ungodly]</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">, ye root up also the wheat</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[i.e., the Godly]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">with them.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">30<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Let both grow together until the Harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Matthew 13:27-30). For the comfort of the Godly in these Last Days, the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"LORD knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(2Peter 2:9).</font></p>
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| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
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| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">19</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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."</font></li>
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| − | </ul>
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| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">It may be viewed by the modern reader as very poetic or figurative that the Apostle John records that the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"angel thrust in his sickle into the Earth, and gathered the vine of the Earth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:19), but it is most certainly a more accurate description than any attempt by an uninspired writer of a humanly unimaginable event.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">8<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">9</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>For as the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 55:8-9). Negatively, the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"vine of the Earth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:19) describes the world with its interconnected groupings of wicked man together with his evil fruit.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">31<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">32<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">(Deuteronomy 32:31-32). Even the righteous are described as part of the Living Vine of the LORD Jesus Christ, but have no part in this<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"vine of the Earth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:19).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(John 15:5).<br>
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| − | <br>
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| − | The very fact that the harvested vines with their fruit are cast<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"into the great winepress of the wrath of God"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:19) indicates that the harvest does not expect to produce the excellency of the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"wine of Lebanon"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Hosea 14:7); but instead, it knows that it will yield the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:10). This is also known as the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"wine of astonishment"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 60:3), the</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"wine of violence"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Proverbs 4:17), and the</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"wine of the condemned"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Amos 2:8). Asaph the Psalmist declared that the dregs of the winepress would be consumed by the wicked (as well as themselves being pressed for the yield).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and He poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the Earth shall wring them out, and drink them"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 75:8). The close of chapter 14 of the Apocalypse is the definitive picture of the Judgment of the Lamb as viewed from the winepress of His Wrath.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Psalm 2:12).</font></p>
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| − | <p align="CENTER" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">----</p>
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| − | <ul style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
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| − | <li><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">20</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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."</font></li>
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| − | </ul>
| + | |
| − | <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4">The<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"city"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:20) undoubtedly refers to Jerusalem, for it and its Godly inhabitants will again make it the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"apple of</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[Jehovah's]</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>eye"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Lamentations 2:18).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"And give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 62:7). The<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"blood of the grapes"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Genesis 49:11) has figuratively described the pressed juice of the grapes, but here it actually describes the blood of formerly living human beings, who have been slain in the judgments surrounding the Second Coming of the LORD Jesus Christ.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"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"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 63:3). The LORD God has never taken pleasure in the death of the wicked.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Ezekiel 33:11).<br>
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| − | <br>
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| − | However, at this time (14:20), the death of the wicked will purge humanity of sin; and, the Almighty will defend the purity and integrity of the City or the Great House that He has invited all men to dwell in-- which invitation, only His children have accepted.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">24<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Therefore whosoever heareth these Sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">25<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>26<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">And every one that heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">27<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Matthew 7:24-27). Blood will come out of the winepress<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"even unto the horse bridles"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">(14:20). Some speculate that the blood of slain men at Armageddon will yield a flow of blood deep enough to come up to the bridle of a horse, while others conjecture that it represents only a liberal splattering of blood. However the LORD brings His Word to pass, we are assured that the life of humanity will be liberally dissipated in this Judgment, for the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"life of the flesh is in the blood"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Leviticus 17:11).<br>
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| − | <br>
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| − | A<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"thousand and six hundred furlongs"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:20) is the distance in which the blood will flow<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"unto the horse bridles"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(14:20). A furlong, according to "Easton's Bible Dictionary" (1897), is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#440000">"a stadium, a Greek measure of distance equal to 606 feet and 9 inches</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[or, 606.75 feet]</font><font size="4" color="#440000">"</font><font size="4" color="#000000">.</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>1,600 furlongs would then be the equivalent of 183.86 miles. What do we believe to be the manner of the LORD Jesus Christ's Second Coming?</font></p>
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| − | <p>(1)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><font size="4">Christ will descend to the Mount of Olives, just as He previously ascended from it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">11<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Which also said, 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.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">12<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[i.e., approximately 2,250 feet, or less than half a mile]</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Acts 1:11-12).</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"</font><font size="4">3<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">4<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">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; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Zechariah 14:3-4).<br>
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| − | </font>(2)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><font size="4">Christ will then pursue His enemies, slaying them, down to Bozrah. Bozrah lies approximately 18 miles southeast of the Dead Sea in the mountain district of Petra, according to the "Davis Dictionary of the Bible", and it is approximately 58 miles southeast of the Mount of Olives.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">6<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>7</font><font size="4" color="#AA0000"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 34:6-7). And,<br>
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| − | </font>(3)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><font size="4">Christ will then continue His pursuit and slaying of His enemies from Bozrah to Megiddo-- Megiddo being the ancient city close by the final conflict at Armageddon-- traveling approximately another 128 miles.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">"</font><font size="4">1<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">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.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">2<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like Him that treadeth in the winefat?</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>3<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">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.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">4<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and the year of My redeemed is come.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4">5<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">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.</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>6<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font><font size="4" color="#AA0000">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"</font><font size="4"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Isaiah 63:1-6). Combining the distances from the Mount of Olives to Bozrah of 58 miles with the distance from Bozrah to Megiddo of 128 miles, is a distance of 186 miles, which is approximately the same as 1,600 furlongs (14:20).
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