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How Shall We Tell The Children?
By Edward Chamberlain

Table of Contents

THE APOCALYPSE

It has been said that John Calvin did not write an exposition of The Revelation because he did not understand it. I do not know if Calvin understood the Revelation or not. But if he did understand it, he did not try to share his understanding with anyone else. I believe the reason he did not write about the Revelation is because he either did not understand it, or because it so completely disagreed with his overall exegesis of the Bible and life that he simply ignored it. Calvin was a humanist plain and simple. He was a saved humanist, but none the less a humanist. The reason I can say this is because we are all humanists to some extent and have been so since the Faith got tied up with first, the Roman Babylon and then, with the Enlightenment. We cannot understand the Revelation and remain a committed humanist. As apostasy was the result of materialism in the Holy Catholic church when she wed herself to the political power of Rome, so apostasy is the result of Protestantism having wed herself to the materialistic humanism of the enlightenment.

Understanding of the Book of "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show his servants," must begin, not at Rev. 1:1, but at 2 Cor. 10:3-6, and Eph. 6:10-18, and Col. 2:8-15, & 3:3, and 2 Pet. 3:10-13. We will include 2 Cor. 10;3-6 below and I encourage you to look at those other passages also and see that we are not engaged in warfare within the material reality. Also see that when we continue to concern ourselves with the preservation of the "doomed" material reality we are acting as humanists and marching contrary to our marching orders. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

"For though we walk [live] in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled."

We don't have any choice about the first part of that text, we are born in the flesh, and we are going to die in the flesh, and in between those two times we are going to live out our lives inside of this flesh. But we are not at war with any flesh and blood human beings. Our warfare is spiritual warfare; our weapons are spiritual weapons, our enemies are spiritual enemies, and most of that war takes place within our own minds for control of our own "selfs." But by engaging in the battle within ourselves, we can, as we deny self and yield ourselves to the victorious Christ, be victorious over those spiritual beings who would defeat us in our daily lives even though they are powerless to disturb our eternal lives in Christ Jesus.

Notice now what our weapons of warfare are "mighty unto," or in other words, what they are good for. For our weapons are not good for establishing the kingdom of God on earth, neither are they mighty for preserving the kingdom of Babylon on earth, but they are only fit for:

1) Pulling down strong holds;

2) Casting down imaginations;

3) Casting down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God;

4) Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and

5) being ready to revenge all disobedience when our obedience is fulfilled

We don't have a single weapon that is fit for political, or philosophical, or commercial construction. In fact just the opposite is true because, our weapons are mighty for pulling down strongholds. Strongholds are those material things, in which, like a fortress, men place their faith for their security and safety. Such things as governments, finances, bank accounts, armed forces, police forces, locks on doors, science, education, and false humanistic religions, etc. are all strongholds in which men place their trust and hope.

Our weapons are also mighty for casting down imaginations. Imaginations are those reasonings or philosophies of man in which men have confidence that they have understood the principles necessary to construct a working civilization.

Also, our weapons are mighty for tearing down every high thing that raises itself against God. And they are mighty for bringing thoughts into captivity. Our weapons are not for building, but for taking "something" apart. That "something" is the strongholds of Babylon, the strongholds from which the Antichrist will be completely loaded down.

The Bible speaks about these philosophers, merchants, and kings, who construct the strongholds of civilizations and who have faith in them when it says that "measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, they are not wise." (see 2 Cor. 10:12). It is the reasonings (philosophies) of man which Marx said had explained the world and made it necessary to change the world. "Enlightened Christians" also believe that the world must be changed through the political efforts of the church.

The whole truth is that it is not the world which must be changed but the heart of man. Both Marx and the enlightened church were only half right, and since both were only half right about opposite ends of the truth, they went in opposite directions in trying to accomplish the same purpose.

The world truly has been explained, but it is through the revelation of the Holy Spirit that it is so, and it is truly necessary to change, but it is man and not the world which must be changed. But the same revelation also says that the heart of corrupted man and his corrupt world will never accept such change of their own accord. The Bible says that the only way that man and his world are going to be changed is by exchanging them for new creations.

God has told his church to wait upon him with patient endurance until he accomplishes that task by himself, "without hand." The church is told to bear witness of these things, calling others out of this evil darkness, while we are waiting upon God.

The Revelation is primarily a picture of the triumph of the spiritual realm of Christ Jesus over the material realm which man abdicated to Satan, but in which mankind still places his complete confidence. Jesus Christ has won back, through obedience to God, that which man gave to Satan through disobedience, and because Jesus Christ is victorious as "a man," all mankind who have placed their lives in his hands are also victorious. When Jesus overcame this world while taking upon himself the nature of man, he vindicated the wisdom of God in having created man in the first place.

It will be shown during the Millennial Kingdom that man can conform to the administrations of godliness when Satan is prevented from lying to him and tempting him. However, Jesus previously proved that man is not compelled into sin by Satan, but that by his choices, man either agrees with Satan's lies, or disagrees with them. The core lesson of the scripture concerning Satan is that he has no power to compel but is expert in soliciting our agreement through his lies by which he appeals to our selfish motivations whereby he manipulates the emotional chemistry of the flesh causing us to respond to our "feelings" instead of our reason.

Satan is able to push our emotional buttons because he understands our degenerated nature better than we do ourselves. Much of what is today called worship is but seeking to fulfill the lust of the flesh for "feeling" instead of "knowing." God never said, "Be still, and "feel" that I am God." This is not to say that the emotions do not have a part in full fellowship with God in Christ Jesus, but that the emotions must always be subjected to, and under the constant scrutiny of, the knowledge of God, through the intellect.

Those who condemn intellectual belief in Christ Jesus as being incomplete or insufficient knowledge for salvation are straying far from the truth, for the Bible speaks continually about the understanding and knowledge of God and never about the "feel" of him. The word of God truly strikes at the emotions of man, but it does so, in and through the intellect. At no place in the Bible is it recorded that any person was ever saved because of their feelings.

Commitment is made with the intellect; counting the cost is accomplished with the intellect; and the decision to sin is made with the intellect. The notion that Jesus Christ was prevented from sinning because of the virgin birth is untenable. The virgin birth allowed him to be born without having been conceived in sin, and thus, kept him from inheriting death, that penalty of sin which has come upon all of the rest of us because of our "father", Adam.

It was necessary that he not inherit death as the penalty of Adam's original sin, because: of his own volition, he had to take death upon himself, and it was also necessary that he should have lived sinlessly in order to pay for our sins and not his own. Jesus, while he was in the flesh, was every bit as able to commit sin as had been Adam, but he was more committed and made better intellectual choices.

When God created Adam, he made him from the clay of the ground, and God breathed his own Spirit into Adam and gave him life. This Spirit of life was, and is, the same as the Spirit that conceived and indwelt Jesus in the virgin birth, and it is the same Spirit that indwells us through faith in Jesus. The difference in Jesus' birth and ours is that he was born spiritually at his first birth, and you and I are born spiritually only at our rebirth.

God did not make the body for Jesus from the stuff of the earth as he had done for Adam because he had put a curse upon the earth because of Adam's sin. But God "prepared" (in the sense of "fitted") a body for Jesus when, in the determined counsels of the Godhead, Jesus agreed to take on the likeness of the flesh so that he could condemn the works of the flesh (sin) even while he was in the flesh (Heb. 10:5 and Rom. 8:1-3). In doing this, Jesus emptied himself of his divine nature and took upon himself the nature of the flesh in order to vindicate the wisdom of God to the heavenly angels that God had not made a mistake when he created man in the first place. The heavenly powers are being shown through all of history that man has made, and continues to make, a terrible mistake when he hearkens unto other men (as in Eve) and to Satan, and not to God.

This picture of the triumph of Jesus Christ in winning back the creation which man had handed over to Satan, begins with Jesus speaking to his church concerning Christian endurance, Christian doctrine, Christian living, and Christian worship. Eight times in the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation Jesus makes promises to those who "overcome." They are of the same sort of promises that we mentioned earlier that God had given to Cain when Cain had rebelled at God's election of Able, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him."

Man has a choice and he must bring both his knowledge of God and his own will into play to defeat Satan, the adversary of man, who goes "about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour."

"Sin lies at the door!!!" A single step toward him, invites him to attack, and once the attack is launched every moment of dalliance with him weakens the resolve to turn away. A close look at the recorded temptations of Jesus Christ will show agreement with this proposition.

Look at Luke 4:1-13. After Jesus had fasted for 40 days and was exceedingly weak and hungry, Satan came and pushed the button of self preservation and said something like this, "As the Son of God there is no reason for you to suffer hunger and starvation, command these stones to become bread and you can eat and you will survive." The most reasonable of propositions to man is that self preservation is the universal imperative. But Jesus said it is better to die than to "survive" outside of the provision and the known will of God. By using the knowledge of God, who had decreed that man would not live by just eating bread (a material life), but also by every word from His mouth (a spiritual life), and not the words from anyone else's mouth, and by exercising his will in the application of that knowledge to the situation at hand, Jesus was able to resist Satan.

The other temptations recorded in the New Testament follow the same pattern. Satan pushes the button of self glorification, and offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth. According to Rev. 11:15, this was his purpose, it was for this cause that he had he come into the world; to make these earthly kingdoms his kingdoms and God's kingdoms. All of mankind seek fulfillment in their lives, and Satan merely offered to let Jesus fulfill or glorify himself before God had done so, but for a price; the kingdoms would never be God's, and Jesus must worship Satan. Jesus, by the knowledge of God, chose to obey God, and refused to take Satan's shortcut, and declined to pay Satan that price. When the church aspires to political action today, she is falling into the trap of Satan's shortcuts.

Next, Satan stood with Jesus upon the highest portion of the Temple and pushed the button of self righteousness. He told Jesus, "Since you are the Son of God, realize all of the promises that God has made to you right now. Jump from this tower and claim those promises for yourself, for it is written that God will charge his angels to keep you from all harm. Satan told Jesus that he should read God's word existentially because God had promised these things to him. Each of us seeks his own identity, why we were born, who we are, what is our purpose. Satan merely offered Jesus an expedient and an existential way to demonstrate and to realize the truth of his purpose. Jesus by the knowledge of God and by his choice to apply it, resisted the temptation to put God to the test, and choose rather to live out his life in the expectancy of the promises of God, waiting upon God to make real those promises. Because Jesus waited upon the Father to justify him, we have a savior.

An even closer look at what Satan offered to Jesus will reveal that these offers also involved the principles of commerce, politics, and false religion. Commerce: Turn a stone into bread, the control of a cheap source of a required commodity. Think of the ultimate wealth and power; Jesus could have been the bread king of all the earth. Just a little step toward sin; a little dalliance there, and wealth, prestige, and power untold could have belonged to him. It was Satan's to offer. But Jesus had not come to be "Bread King" by Satan's timing, He came to be King of Kings in The Father's timing, and in waiting for God he became not the King of Bread, but the Bread of Life.

Politics: Satan offered Jesus the Lordship over all of the kingdoms that ever had been and ever would be in this world, but he could not offer him the kingdom that is not of this world, the heavenly kingdom. By refusing to take Satan up on his offer, and choosing to wait upon God, Jesus will become King of not only the earthly realms, but of the heavenly ones also. Look closely at what Satan is offering and you will see that it is never a good deal.

False religion: The religion of "self" which makes God over into its own image and manipulates him to personal advantage and satisfaction while glorifying these works of self and justifying the "self" as achieving Godhood for itself. By resisting Satan, Jesus chose the "better part" and worshipped God, and waited upon God to bring him glory and justify his work to man. Because he did, all who shall ask it of him will also be heirs to his glory and justification.

Once again we see these three, commerce, politics, and false religion and we will meet them again soon. The Bible does not say that Satan left Jesus alone permanently after those temptations, but that he left him for a season. Jesus lived his entire life in this pattern of being tempted and exercising his will in the knowledge of God to defeat Satan in Spiritual Warfare.

Except for the obscurity of the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, the teachings of Christ in the first three chapters of The Revelation concerning Christian Endurance, Christian Doctrine, Christian Living, and Christian Worship are all straight forward and germane to godliness in every church of every generation that has ever existed or that ever will exist. The things which Jesus said to these churches are plain and open. They do not require comment so much as obedience. However, the number of churches, and the particular churches, to which he spoke must have some meaning, otherwise why did he not simply speak to "His church?"

He spoke to seven churches and 7 is the number of completeness, but if he had only wanted us to understand that he was speaking to the complete church, why not just tell John to write to His Church and tell her what he had said? Rather he told John to write down the things he that he saw and send them to the 7 churches that were in Asia. No matter how loosely or tightly the geographical restrictions are that have been placed upon the interpretation of the region that John would have known as "Asia," there were many more churches in "Asia" than just these seven. Is there then something to be learned from the Lord's choosing these 7 to represent His Church? I think several things can be learned from looking at various things about these seven churches.

Firstly, every one of those churches is in the region that eventually became, first, politicized in the Byzantine empire, and then overwhelmed in the Ottoman Empire, and they are now under the political dominion of Islamic governments. Each of those churches suffered the persecutions of the Islamic warriors from Turkestan as the false religion of Islam spread over that part of the Roman Empire.

Ephesus was a city of political, commercial, and religious importance from the time of the ancient Greeks on into the Roman era. Ephesus was completely Athenian in her culture at the time the Romans arrived, and she remained such until the region fell into the hands of the Islamic Turks that swarmed out of Turkestan and established the Ottoman Empire. Ephesus means "permitted." Ephesus is symbolic of that church that will exist within the permitted strongholds of politics, commerce, and false religion. Jesus said that this church had left her first love, and he cautioned this church that was completely surrounded by Babylonian Strongholds to remember her origins, and repent, and return to the first works.

Smyrna means "myrrh." Myrrh is the fragrance that was used in holy anointing oil. The Lord said nothing negative about the church of the fragrance of the Holy Anointing at Smyrna. The Holy Anointing is representative of Jesus Christ, the anointed of God, and oil is representative of the Holy Spirit. It must therefore be, that the church of the Holy Anointing Oil has not left her first love, which is Jesus Christ, and is yet doing the first works which are Spiritual works.

Pergamos means "fortified." Jesus said that Satan's seat was in a place called "fortified." He told the church that was in this fortified place that he knew that they were yet holding fast to his name, and had not yet denied his faith. Nevertheless, Jesus told this church that existed among the fortifications of Satan that he had this against them: There were some among them that held to the doctrine of Balaam, whom he said taught Balac to cast a stumbling block in front of the children of Israel, and to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.

If you will read the account of Balaam and Balac in Numbers, chapter 22 through chapter 24, you will be hard pressed to find anything wrong with what Balaam told Balac until you realize that even though Balaam was saying the right things, he was working for the wrong authority. Balaam may not have known who the children of Israel were when he was hired to prophesy against them, but he certainly knew who they were when he finished prophesying about them, and yet, he did not choose to go with them. Rather he remained in the kingdom of the one who was opposed to God's people and it eventually cost him his life (see Numb. 31:8).

The second chapter of 2nd Peter says that the reason Balaam chose to remain with Balac was that he loved the wages of unrighteousness, and, like all false prophets, he brought in damnable heresies among the people, eventually even denying the Lord that redeemed them. That passage in 2nd Peter says that all such prophets are like natural brute beasts and that they are materially minded (they walk after the flesh). Sure is beginning to sound familiar. According to Jesus in this passage of The Revelation, Balaam had eventually come to preach to Balac's itching ears and taught him that idolatrous worship (false religion) and fornication were not sinful.

The meaning of the name "Thyatira" has been lost in obscurity, and it is uncertain if any special significance can be attributed to the fact that the waters of Thyatira made it the best place in the world to dye purple and scarlet cloth, which were the cloths of kings. Some Thyatirans were holding to the teachings of a false prophetess concerning the same kinds of errors of Balaam that were held by some in Pergamos. It does seem, however, that the condition was more wide spread in Thyatira than in Pergamos.

Sardis gave the red gem stone, the sard, its name. Sardis had at one time been the capital city of Lydia, but was a place of little importance by the day of The Revelation. Sardis had once been famous as a wealthy textile and jewelry manufacturing center until it had been destroyed and robbed, first by Alexander, and again later by Antiochus. There is perhaps some significance then in the fact that Jesus said that the church at Sardis had a name that lived, but was in fact dead. Sardis had been killed by believers in the destiny of Grecian culture to dominate and civilize the world. Jesus essentially told this spiritually dead church the same sort of things he told the church at Ephesus.

The name Philadelphia means "brotherly love." Neither this church nor the church of The Holy Anointing Oil in Smyrna received any condemnation from the Lord. It would seem then that there are two characteristics of a proper church: Spiritual Anointing and Brotherly Love. Chapters 12, 13, and 14 of 1 Corinthians certainly bear this out.

We have already mentioned Laodicea and the lukewarm church where the people rule. There can hardly be anything more ludicrous than a body that is all heads. Of all the churches to which he spoke, only the church of the Laodiceans, the church where "the people rule," is not commended for at least one good thing. But when Jesus looks at the Laodiceans, that materialistic church where the people rule and who cannot see the need to repent, he wants to vomit. Jesus strongly urges that church to repent and purchase from him the gold of faith instead of buying the golden necklaces, rings, bracelets, tie tacks, and studs of Babylon.

The order in which the Lord listed these seven cities has at least one interesting aspect. Jesus listed them in this order: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and lastly Laodicea. If you will locate these cities on a map of the region and draw a line from point to point in the order that Jesus named them, you will see a reasonably good likeness of a spear head pointing toward Sofia, Bulgaria, and Pergamos, the fortified seat of Satan, will be at the tip of the point. It should not be necessary to further comment upon Sophia, the she god of the RE-imaginers.

Concerning the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, Unger's Bible Dictionary says that the oldest opinions say that they were a sect who held to the lawfulness of eating things offered to idols, and who encouraged the mixing of idolatrous and Godly worship, and who denied God to be the creator of the world, and held that its origin was with other powers, and that they initiated a licentious doctrine called the community of women.8

The meaning of the word Nicolaitanes itself has some significance for it comes from "Nicolas" which means, "victor" and "laos" which means "the people" as it did in the word "Laodicea." Nicolaitanes then means "victor over the people." If there is a single doctrine that has gained dominion in the world today, and become "victor over the people," it is that doctrine of the Neo-Nicolaitanes, that teaches the creation of the world was through "powers other than Almighty God." Jesus said he hated both the "deeds" of this doctrine and the doctrine itself, and those who would try hold it within the context of Christianity ought to get shed of it because Jesus said that he hates their doctrines.

Beginning in chapter 4, the scene is shifted, and John is called up to heaven in the Spirit. Some believe this to "imply" that the church is "raptured" at this point. Such a position can not be maintained without having the Lord Jesus Christ come back to earth at least two times, and fabricating a separate age and dispensation for the tribulation saints who are mentioned during the times of the tribulation, none of which has any scriptural support.

I believe such fabrications involving implied doctrines should be rejected in favor of hard scriptural evidence such as we discussed previously. I believe the reason this must be so is because we would otherwise be entirely dependent upon the "special knowledge" of enlightened interpreters to tell us about the times and the meanings of the ages and the dispensations. If this were the case, Jesus would not have been able to tell us to read individually to understand and to overcome individually.

The Apostle Paul was caught up into the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:1-7) and no one has suggested that the church age ended then, and neither does it do so when the Apostle John was called up in the spirit to record "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which shortly¹ must come to pass;" (Rev. 1:1).

In chapter 4, verse 3, John says there was a rainbow around the throne. Ezekiel 1:26-28 reports the same rainbow. God put the rainbow in the sky as a sign of his everlasting covenant with Noah and all the living animals of earth. This rainbow circles over the throne where God sits in judgment reminding us that he will not forsake or forget his everlasting covenant .

Verse 5 says that lightnings and thunderings and voices proceeded out of the throne. These three will be seen again and again in the verses of The Revelation, and their source will always be from around the Throne and they are symbolic of such things as the voices and worship of the people and the judgment of God (e.g. Rev. 19:6).

Verse 4:6 talks about that "sea of glass" which we previously discussed in the section on the tribulation and the rapture of the church. As we noted then, this "sea" is mentioned here and in two other verses in The Revelation.

Look at the text closely and notice that no one is standing on the sea of glass at this time. The twenty four elders representing both the Old and New Covenants are in view, but where are all of the saints who have passed on to be with the Lord from each of those Covenants? The removal of the 5th seal revealed to the church that all of the saints were going to be beneath the altar, hidden from the general view of the heavenly realm, until the Heavenly Temple is opened. The only altar in heaven is inside of the Temple in front of the Holy of Holies, and the Heavenly Temple is closed until the 7th trumpet first begins to sound. Rev. 10:7 says that when the 7th trumpet begins to sound, the mystery of God will be finished in the exact fashion that he had declared through his prophets. The scripture cannot be broken, it will happen just exactly like Jesus and the prophets said it would.

Then beginning in Rev. 4:6 and continuing in verse 7, we are introduced to four beasts. What do the beasts represent? What did they represent in the Book of Daniel? They represented Kingdoms, or political administrations. They are representative of the same type of things here, except these do not represent earthly administrations as did those of Daniel's vision, but these represent heavenly ones in the Kingdom of God as did the ones in Ezekiel's visions of like imagery.

There is, however, a big difference between the administrations of heavenly government and the earthly ones. You will notice every time that the heavenly ones are pictured they give glory to God. In the pictures of the earthly governmental administrations, they never do so.

Look again at the temptation of Jesus by Satan as recorded in Luke chapter 4, verses 5-7. "And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: "for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it" [quotations added for emphasis]. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine."

In a single moment of time, Satan showed to Jesus all of the civilizations that will ever exist on earth. Satan told him that they had every one been delivered unto him, (and that includes the democracy of the United States of America). Some say that Satan lied about these kingdoms belonging to himself, but that is not so; the body of Biblical instruction concerning Satan and the earth is that Satan is the spiritual prince of the earth. The entire lesson of scripture is that this world has been given over to Satan because of man's rebellion to God. Satan told Jesus that since all of these kingdoms belonged to him, he could give them to whomsoever he chose. It must be remembered here that kingdoms or civilizations include the three principles of politics, commerce, and false religion and that these all belong to Satan. Satan's first choice was to hand these over to Jesus, but Jesus turned him down flat. Satan's next choice will be his Antichrist. All Satan has ever been able to offer is "seconds."

Comparing the four "beasts" of Rev. 4:7-9, and the four living creatures of Ez. 1:5-28, we see first of all that the faces of the living creatures which Ezekiel saw were the same as the beasts which John saw. John saw a lion, a calf (bullock), a man, and an eagle. Ezekiel saw four living creatures each having four faces of a lion, an ox (bullock), a man, and an eagle. John was looking at them from the heavenly perspective, Ezekiel was looking at them from the earthly. To John they appeared to be stationary and in place around the throne, to Ezekiel they appeared to be in constant motion over the earth, and back forth between earth and the heavens, under the throne.

Ezekiel saw the throne above the living creatures; John saw it the midst of them. The differences in the two visions suggests that the throne is securely set in the Temple in heaven, and that the governmental administrations that administer the heavenly realm from that Temple, are in agreement with the rule and dominion of Jesus Christ, but that on earth, where such is not the case, the heavenly administrations are constantly in motion, actively pursuing the program and policy of God in bringing the kingdoms of this world to "become the kingdoms of our Lord, and his Christ." (Rev. 11:15). Remember what we said about the 4 winds in the 7th chapter of Daniel.

Since the images of the administrations of the Heavenly government and the earthly government are very similar, it would seem to indicate that types of administrative concepts are very much the same in heaven as they are on earth. The difference, that makes all the difference, is that the heavenly administrations are dedicated and obedient to God who ordained them, while the earthly ones are in rebellion to him. This is also the difference that makes all the difference when dealing with democracy. When contained within a Christian people, even though it still belongs to Satan, and even though Christians are still imperfect, selfish human beings, the laws of the spiritual realm will make it the best that man can achieve on this earth. But when it is not contained by Christianity, it is Satan's best form of government. It then should be obvious that Satan will work tirelessly, allowing the church to install democracy on earth, and then attack the church from within those democracies.

The next thing which John reported seeing was a book in the right hand of "him that sat on the throne." There has been much debate concerning this book and what it represents. Some think it is the book of Revelation itself, some think it is the entire counsel of God, some think it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The scripture says it is written upon both the inside and the outside. It seems to me that what we see is the Book of The Revelation itself as the outside writing. This outside writing had been "covered" by the seals until Jesus Christ prevailed to remove them. Having prevailed to remove the seals, Jesus is given "The Revelation" which he then shows to his servant's as the seals are removed. But we are never informed of what is written on the inside of the book. It therefore appears that the simplest understanding is to identify this book as having the Book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ written on the outside, which was given to Jesus Christ to show to his servants: and then to identify the inside, not by what is revealed under the seals, but by what is revealed to happen after the entire book has been "unsealed." The unsealing of the outside reveals the culmination of history in the millennial kingdom and subsequently, the eternal kingdom. That which is inside the book then is the everlasting Gospel, that is revealed under the 7th seal, in which God commands that all creatures in heaven and earth shall: Fear the Creator; Give glory to the Creator; and worship the Creator.

That which is written inside is, therefore, I believe, the Book of the Covenant for those men of earth who will acquire the eternal kingdom during the millennial kingdom, the covenant of Faith being completed and over, and men will be walking by "sight" under that covenant. That which is written inside the book is the "new song" of Rev. 14, sung by 144,00 Hebrews which no other man could learn. It is the song which will be taught to mankind of the millennium.

Also notice after the "Lamb that was slain" prevails to open this book, when he comes to the throne and takes "the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne," what does John see? John says he saw the heavenly administrations and both the Old and the New Testament saints represented by the 24 elders, fall down before the Lamb. They are holding harps, and golden bowls full of the prayers of saints from both covenants at this time, and they all sing a NEW SONG. This cannot be the New Song of the Christian New Testament or our 12 elders would not have been there to sing it. This New Song is what the inside of the book with the seven seals is about, and it concerns the reign of Jesus Christ on earth with all of his saints and the covenant with those humans who populate earth during that time. It will be "opened and read" to mankind at, or just prior to the start of the Millennial Kingdom. It may well be revealed through the prophesying of our sons and daughters of which we have spoken earlier.

I think it is important to note here that just because the church received The Revelation at the time that Jesus prevailed to open it, does not mandate that all of the heavenlies also received it at that time. When John was called up into heaven, he found himself inside of the Temple and the Temple has not yet been opened in the heavenlies. John was shown the things that he saw from inside the Temple courts behind closed doors. One of the things that was revealed to the church through John when the 7th seal was removed was that at some point in time there would occur some visions in the heavens which would reveal to all of the heavenlies the things of this Revelation which the church has already been shown.

Next John watches as the Lamb removes the seals one at a time. The things revealed under these seals do not occur at the time of the removal. After all, they were removed nearly two thousand years ago. The book was said to have been sealed and "no man" in heaven, or in hell, or on earth was "found worthy" to open the book and to look on it. This book had been written in the past eternity but was a mystery until Jesus Christ prevailed to open it. Had he not prevailed, it would have remained sealed for all eternity and it would be as if both mankind and the material creation had never been. As he peels the seals from the outside of the scroll, the things under the seals, which were previously hidden, are revealed for the church to see and understand.

I believe much the same thing happens in heaven, when, as has been revealed by removal of the 7th seal, just before the end of this age the Temple of God and the Ark of His testament are going to be opened in heaven for Satan and his angles to see the purpose of God in Christ Jesus. When they become aware that it has always been God's purpose to redeem mankind unto himself by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, they become incensed, and Satan and his legions begin the war in the heavenlies.

The first three seals are a group unto themselves and they are related to the fourth because of the nature of the three horsemen who were revealed by the removal of the first three seals. Under these first 4 seals the spread and conquest of the Babylonish system over the earth, and the results of that conquest, have been shown to the church.

The 5th and the 6th seals form another group, and show the ultimate destruction and destiny of this empire of "civilizations" and of all mankind who have hope in them. The ultimate victory of Jesus Christ over Satan and his hellish Babylonian system, which is represented by the first three seals, is shown by the individual destiny depicted under the 5th seal, and the universal destiny depicted under the 6th and 7th seals. The 7th seal reveals the execution of God's judgment upon this Babylonish system. The 7 trumpets and the 7 bowls of wrath are all revealed under the 7th seal. Under the 6th trumpet we are told about 7 thunders that speak, but we are not told what the thunders said or what they represent.

It is useless to speculate about something that God has so totally hidden from the scrutiny of man, and therefore we will not do so. The voice of these seven thunders will remain as obscure to man, as the purpose of God in Christ Jesus is now obscure to Satan and his angels, until God opens them to us. I believe he will do this through an end time prophet, perhaps even through the "two witnesses" which we will discuss later. I also believe there will be false prophets who will attempt to tell the church about these seven thunders, and so we should be very vigilant to test both the prophets and the spirits.

When John saw the Lamb open the first of the seals, one of the four beasts told him to come and look, and he saw a white horse and its rider. What is represented by this horse and this rider? Some say it represents Christ as he conquers the Earth. Some say Antichrist as he conquers kingdoms and the hearts of men. I believe this horse and rider represent all false religions in general which will ultimately result in the revelation of Antichrist himself. The horse is symbolic of strength and power in the scriptures, and as such, it is a picture of those "strongholds" (2 Cor. 10:4) in which men have, since Babel, historically misplaced their faith and trust. (see Ps. 147:7-11 and Ps. 33:17.) It is appropriate that this horse is white and that he and his rider are difficult to discern, for they intend to deceive. As such they stand in stark contrast to the victorious Jesus Christ in chapter 19 who leaves no doubt concerning his identity.

This horse and its rider have surely deceived many, for they represent the "self" centered false religions of man that originated all the way back in ancient Eden and continued on into Babel, and unto Babylon today. This horse and its rider can not be identified by appearances, but they must be known by the company they keep and by the fruit they bear. They must be known by the company of the remaining two horsemen who follow them as they ride rough shod over the earth together. It is not because of their goodness that Death and Hades follow hard upon the heels of these three horsemen.

These "horses" were not being turned loose at the time that John was shown the Revelation. They were being "revealed" to the servants of Jesus Christ as having been given free reign to cover the earth throughout all history since Cain's Enoch and Nimrod's Babel.

We have previously looked at Nimrod's Babel and noted that it was not God's will that these powers would come into being, but that He has ordained their universality and direction. Nimrod's name meant rebel. That alone tells us something about the kingdom he founded in the land of Shinar. The land of Shinar, Babel, and Babylon are all the same general place, and all refer to the same general kingdom. Notice from the Genesis account that Nimrod was a mighty one in the earth and not in the kingdom of God, and that Babel was the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom and not God's kingdom. All earthly empires have shared a Nimrod and "his" kingdom in common.

Remember from the Book of Daniel that all governments now upon earth have proceeded from Babel because Babel was the early beginnings of the Babylonian Empire. The Babylonian Empire and the several smaller Sumerian and Syrian kingdoms before it, all came from what man accomplished at Babel. Civilizations have come and gone by the score since that time, but conceptually, they all have had their roots in Babel, and share in common the ideas of a political authority taken unto some "self" or group of "selves." This political administration is supported by some exploitive system of "self" based commercial enterprise. And both of these administrations are bolstered and authenticated to the masses by a self righteous false religion wherein man is encouraged to accept the authority and dominion of the politics and commerce of the civilization and by his own efforts and works support the system and build heaven on earth. Man is self preserved, self glorified, and self justified in all of this because it is all the work of man. In this scheme man must continually be encouraged to accept the authority of the government and servitude to the systems of commercial enterprises. The government, its religion, and its commerce are all in direct opposition to the character of God. The fact that the white horse and its rider is shown going forth to conquer before being followed by the other two is evidence of Satan's program of religiously controlling humanity before establishing his methods of political and commercial enterprise among us. The "missionary" efforts among the American Indians and the Hawaiian Islands is typical of how easily a sincere evangelistic effort of Christians can become the implement of Satan's agenda when it is allied politically and commercially to his regime.

The heart of the system that originated in Babel is the unity of man wherein man can make a name for himself through the religion of faith in man and his works, and faith in the political philosophies of man, and in the commerce of man. It should be apparent by now that the saints have been called out of this system.

The judgments about to be revealed against this system show in no uncertain terms that man cannot, by his reason, discover all causes, and cannot, by his reason, solve all of the problems of living on this planet, for some of these judgments come in the form of natural phenomena for which man has discovered the cause but has no possible capacity to control. Others come in forms for which man has discovered neither the cause nor the control. It should be completely apparent to all men by the time the smoke and dust rises from the destruction of this system to block out the sun and the moon that man is entirely dependent upon a Supernatural God for his existence and perpetuation.

The horse of the 2nd seal is red, and his rider has the power to take peace from earth, and it says that they (the people) should kill one another, and the rider is given a great sword. The sword, not the horse and rider, represents war. War is merely one of the tools in the tool box of this "stronghold." Red is the color of sin, and sin always leads to violence, and wickedness, and evil, all of which are likewise tools of this rider.

This horse and its rider represent the ancient Babylonian concept of government or politics in which man, and not God makes the laws. Man and not God decides what is good and what is evil. Man, and not God, will decide who is to survive, and who is to perish, and what is "right thinking" and what is social pathology. Since the dawn of history what other force except government, or politics, has had the power to take peace from earth? It is only governments that wage war, individuals commit murder not war. It is governments that reserve unto themselves the right act above the laws and principles to which they hold their subjects accountable. Rebellions and insurrections are fought not by individuals but by organizations. No rebellion against any government has ever had a hope of success unless its supporters first believed they would be recognized by other governments. Look at the Irish Republican Army if you do not believe that revolutionary success is dependent upon recognition from other governments. The IRA has done nothing that all governments have not done at some time or the other, but because they are not recognized politically, they are known and treated as criminals. I am not saying the IRA is righteous in its actions; I am saying it is no different from all other politics. This red horse and its rider represent the politics of Babylon, plain and simple. What will ever bring lasting and real peace to earth but the return of the Lord Jesus Christ when he shall put down all of the rule and authority of this system and make the kingdoms of this earth to become his kingdoms?

The next horse is black and the rider holds a pair of balances in his hand. Many have thought these two to be famine, but they are more than that. They are the source and the cause of famine. Those scales represent buying and selling. Look at the world and see if you do not believe that it is the union between the commerce that is derived from selfishness, and the politics that protects that commerce, and that is supported by that commerce, that allows wealth to accumulate with small men with huge pockets, while small babies with loud cries die by the millions every year from hunger, and poverty, and disease, and captivity. It is this union between government and commerce that generates parochialism, and serves self interests, and mandates the protectionism that keeps the necessities of life scarce and profitable. And it is false religion that sustains and perpetuates the belief in the other two.

Look at The Revelation, Chapter 18, verses 11 through 16 below and see if this is not so.

Revelation 18:11-16

11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: 12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, 13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. 14 And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. 15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, 16 And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

The desire to solve the problems born of the conflict between profit motives and human necessity is one of driving forces behind the efforts to unify all governments, and all religions, and all commerce into one. Once again because these issues are not being addressed from the pulpits, Satan is using them to cover his real purpose of unifying the empire of Antichrist. Those who support this effort have the noblest of motives without realizing that it is Satan's plan to create these problems so mankind will be compelled toward his empire. This unity, without Christ, is Satan's program.

In scarcity, there is greater return per unit of investment. If it were not for governmental interference, and commercial greed, and false religion and apostasy in the church, we could save nearly every one those souls who are even now starving in the world. If it were not for greed, there would be no medical care crisis in America, there would be no Social Security scams, there would be no Savings and Loan scandals, and there would be retirement fund misappropriations. As we mentioned earlier, we have only begun to see the failure of this system, and when the world population doubles in the next 40 years, even as they starve to death now by the thousands every day, they will then die by the tens and hundreds of thousands. The clamor for world unification of these three strongholds to solve the problems of an overcrowded planet will increase continually until that preordained empire is realized.

Even today, the amount of grazing land for cattle and sheep is eroding and blowing away annually. According to a recent world watch report, there will be 22 percent less grazing land available in 2010 than there was in 1990. There will 12 percent less irrigated crop land, and 30 percent less timber land. At the same time there will be over 40 percent more people by 2010. This report concluded that planet earth had already reached its biological limit. They said that all indicators point to hungry times ahead as third world populations were already exploding. According to the Population Institute, the populations of Asia and Africa will grow to 6 to 8 billion people by the year 2020. This is more than the population of the entire earth in 1993.

America today represents only 5 percent of the world's population but uses 30 percent of its resources in maintaining the American Dream. But as the competition becomes more intense for the necessities of life, and as the population in America grows, it will become increasingly more costly and prohibitive to maintain such things as sewage disposal, water purification, sanitation services, etc. If something does not happen to change things, I don't have any trouble imagining hordes of wild gangs pouring out of hungry, crowded urban areas, killing each other, and stripping the land as they rampage across the country sides, until America once again is populated by a few wandering tribes of cold and hungry savages.

This black horse and its rider represent the concept of commerce which is founded upon greed, and has at its core the idea that labor is to be paid only enough to keep the laborer alive and fearful, with everything over and above that minimum going to the wealthy and to the system that the laborer supports. By any fair evaluation of the distribution of wealth it must be admitted that there is something terribly wrong with a system that gives the least reward to those who must perform hardest labor. To arrogant, intellectual ignoramuses that say that anyone can dig ditches, I will say, "Go do it for ten years and see if anyone can do it, then come back and tell me that the pay is fair to those who do such work."

The church is neither to aid nor to resist these three horsemen, but she is certainly supposed to point out injustices, inconsistencies, and the ungodliness of this system, reminding all who will listen that while their powers come from Satan, their permission comes from Heaven. The church is to labor almost invisibly from within them, alleviating the sorrow, suffering, shame, and pain they cause, and quietly and gently showing those lost souls that the cross of Jesus Christ can translate all of us out of this Babylonian nightmare into that same kingdom of God which Abraham sought as he sojourned here.

Even if the church could change this system, which it can not, to what system should it be changed? No other system will work any better until mankind is changed. The facts are that we are stuck in an evil world that we have no power to change, and that it is a world that is doomed to fail, and that we of the church need to stop our harlotries with these political and commercial powers and strive to bring healing to those whom it is breaking.

Following the first three horses, comes the pale horse whose rider is the only one for which an identity is given. The rider of the Pale Horse is identified as Death, and it says Hades follows hard by him. So many untimely deaths are attributable to these first three, that Death and Hades can no longer wait in their places, but now have to follow closely to the other three riders, picking up the dead and finishing off the wounded. One out of every four persons that has ever been born has not lived a normal life span because of these first three riders. And still this system is insufficient to handle the population exploding out of it. One fourth of all death is attributable to the policies of this system.

There are two different Greek words translated as "beast" or "beasts" in the Book of Revelation. All of the "beasts" of the heavenly administrations are called "zoon" or "living creatures," which is what Ezekiel called them. The beasts that represent the earth governmental systems are called "therion" which means "a dangerous animal." The types of things represented by each type of beast is not changed, but there is a definite difference in their natures. Kingdoms on earth are pictured as wild and dangerous animals, while those of heaven are called living creations or creatures. There is a good reason for this; such institutions on earth are all owned by Satan, and Satan goes all over the earth seeking whom he may devour.

Several years ago there was a political cartoon in the Texas Baptist Newspaper,"The Baptist Standard," in which two men were discussing the "institutions" operated under the umbrella of that Baptist Convention. One man was complaining that they were being run like a business, the other man asked him just how unbusiness-like would he like them to be operated. Therein is the problem when the church decides to go into business, for as soon as the decision is made to operate a service for which there is a charge to be made for that service, the church has left off being the hands, and the heart, and the eyes of Christ and begun to be the Business Manager of Satan.

Principles of business and commerce originate in a system developed by Satan, and it does not matter how humane or how righteous our intentions are for this business, it is still the business of Satan. The organ of the church should share nothing in common with the principles of business, for business operates on income, and the organ of the church operates on outgo. I do not imply that the saints should not individually live and work in this system because the Lord Jesus Christ left us here to live within it, but not to be a part of it. We should not allow ourselves to become soiled by it. (James 1:27).

While the church as a body, whether of a single assembly or of a million assemblies, should in no way entangle itself with the fundamentals of Babylon, all Christians have to work at honest occupations within this system, but our bottom line must not be driven by self or by profit, but by love. We are commanded that all that we do within this system is to be done for the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not advocate the abolishment of this system, but the recognition of it. We must know it for what it is, and continually fight the battle to keep ourselves unspotted by it.

This is not easy, and we are seldom completely successful for any length of time. But this is the battle we have been called out to fight.

When the 5th seal is opened, John sees the souls of all the saints of Jesus Christ from all ages under the altar who have endured this hellish world and have "redeemed the time" of their lives, and they ask the Lord how much longer he is going to delay judgment upon "them that dwell upon the earth." No better reason can be found for not claiming citizenship to this world than the fact that the Lord is going to avenge the blood of his saints upon those whose lives are rooted in, and based upon this world. Truly this world is not our home, but we are only temporarily passing through it.

The things we are about to discuss in "The Beginning of the End of Sorrows" below, are an expansion of those things of which Jesus spoke in Matthew 24:4-8. It is uncertain how much time will pass between the events revealed under the 6th seal and the events revealed under the 7th, but it is evident that both groups of events will occur within the lifetimes of that generation which sees them begin. When these things begin to come to pass, they are going to be the worst things that have happened to earth since Adam sinned. And the worst part is that there are even worse things yet to come.

Nearly all of the Old Testament prophets that spoke of the day of the Lord said that the Lord God who Created us is going to shake this earth until all of the works of man have fallen in a heap of rubble. Whether you are ready or not, He will do it.

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