Overview of Prophecy #4

Daniel/Revelation

Fred R. Coulter—February 27, 2016

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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services. Sabbath is a great day for all of us every week. When we get together, and we're all here with God's Spirit, wanting to learn of His Word, He is here. He has given the promise that 'wherever two or three are gathered in My name, there I will be in the midst of them.'

Why did He say that? Because He knew there would be times when there would be very small groups. That's why! I believe that's why God inspired that we have Church at Home.

The way that happened, that was about eleven years ago now, flying back to Cincinnati for the Elders' Conference. I was reading the book, Christianity Without God, by Lloyd Geering. Can you imagine that? Christianity without God?

He was explaining, and I've given some sermons on it and I have it on churchathome.org, so you can go on churchathome.org and listen to it.

Sitting on the plane for four and a half hours, because at that time it was direct non-stop from San Francisco direct to Cincinnati, It was how they were planning on changing all of the churches to be more secular. Has that happened? Yes, indeed, that's happened!

When I was reading the conclusion, and he was bragging 'how well this is working and how we're going to accomplish it through political means,' I said to myself, 'But you can't take it out of our homes.' You may be able to control groups, but you can't control our homes. So, that's when the idea came of Church at Home.

How do we reach new people? They're so turned off, the idea of going to church becomes a labor for them. So, Church at Home. Another advantage of that is you get people who are sincere. They are looking; they are wanting. Rather than having numbers of people come just because you want people to come. That's how it started.

Every week we send out the DVD of what we record here. Hello out there in DVD land, whether you're two or ten or twenty or whatever, we all love you. Take care. We now send out about 245 DVDs every week. That is if Jonathan gets them done for us. He's been faithful in it, so we get it done.

It's also very interesting, the things that we're going through right now, Overview of Prophecy. As I explained in part 3, and this happens over and over and over again throughout the Bible. You think about it. It starts right in Genesis with Adam and Eve. God said, 'You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.' Had the information. God told them, face-to-face, person-to-person.

Eve also knew because she told Satan the devil, 'God said don't even touch it.' That shows there was additional instruction. Some people like to come along and say, 'Eve added to it.' I don't think so. I think God told them, 'Don't touch it.' He warned them.

• What happened when they sinned? The judgment came!
• What did it start with? It started with the promise of the Savior, Who would come nearly 4,000 years later.
• Why wait that long? Because God has a great plan!

He also has the Bible this way. You can't understand it unless you obey.

I've been doing some on how to study the Bible. It's reduced to three words: Obey My voice. It's also reduced to the Sabbath, the Holy Days, the appointed times. Sabbath and the appointed times keep us in communication with God. His Word then, as it unfolds to us, especially living in the last days, really takes on a whole lot of added meaning.

Think on this: When it came time for Noah, what did God say? 'Noah, I want you to build an ark, because all flesh is going to die.' So, he built the ark, only eight came through the Flood. Like I've said: one man means a lot, so they had a new start. He said that they were to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, start all over again.

Then we come down to one man. Let's see the summary with no details whatsoever in this promise. Everything that we've talked about of understanding the Word of God also has to do with receiving the promises of God. We will see quite a few elements right here.

This is why when you study the Bible, you study through it, and then you come back and you keep doing that your whole life. Every time you do, you learn more. Never can we at any time say that 'we've come to a point in the Bible that we know everything that is there.

Why? What did Jesus say? 'The flesh profits nothing, the Spirit gives life. The words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and life!' Not only has God given us the Bible, the most widely distributed book in the world, but very few understand it because they are not willing to do what God has said. It starts out very simple.

Look at how simple this is. Genesis 12:1: "And the LORD said to Abram, 'Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house into a land that I will show you…. [sounds good enough] …And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you. And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed'" (vs 1-3).

That is an overall summary. That's a promise, but an overall summary of the rest of the Bible, and it reaches back to Gen. 3:15 about the promise of a Messiah. Remember, Abraham had nothing like we have with the Bible. But he had a personal relationship with God.

• God walked with him
• God talked with him
• God gave him visions
• God tested him

You know the whole story of the life of Abraham, which is that he had no children. At 85-years-old God promised that he would have a son, so that's ten years later. Then Abraham had to wait another fifteen years in order for his wife, who was 90-years-old at that time and he was 100, to have Isaac. How's that for a great nation? One son!

Yes, he had Ishmael and he had sons from Keturah, but the promise was through Isaac. Look at all the details from there, we can look back and go through it. However, when you get the chronologies squared around, you can see that Abraham lived long enough to see Jacob born. I think Jacob was two-years-old when Abraham died.

Bingo! He dies! When he's resurrected and the angels take him up to the Sea of Glass, and Jesus Christ welcomes him with great love and open arms and says, 'Abraham, when I promised you way back there when you first left where you were living, to go into a land you knew nothing about, way before Isaac was born, and way before[transcriber's correction] Jacob was born, this is what you have produced. Now there are three aspects of it I need to inform you of:

• the physical children, the physical people who are known as the house of Israel and the house of Judah
• then all the other nations
• 'I promised Ishmael that he would be great'

Look down there. There's all the descendants of Ishmael.'
And Isaac will be there and then God will show Isaac what happened with the promised seed and what happened with Esau. So, what I'm bringing out is when there is a general statement or promise, then the details come later.

There's something else in understanding the Word of God. What I want you to do is take this principle that I brought out to you, and I want you to study the Bible with that in mind. Look for the preview and then look for the fulfillment. The preview is already given.

What did Jesus say when He came into Galilee preaching the Gospel? 'Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand; the time has been fulfilled!' You take that in isolation, without the ministry of Christ, and without the twelve apostles, look at what came of that.

Furthermore, He also told the disciples that the minds of people who flatter God, or use His name, or who want the blessings of God, without obedience, automatically are blinded.

• Why does God cause them to be blinded?
• Wouldn't you think that God would want to have just the opposite? Yes!

The reason is He starts small and builds up!.

• Why did He do that?
• If God is a God of love, why would He blind them?
• if they're not willing to obey, He wants them blinded so they won't commit the unpardonable sin
• because He loves them so much there's a second resurrection

How about that!

But you really don't understand that. Imagine this now. In the 600sB.C. Ezekiel was given the prophecy of the physical resurrection of Israel (Ezek. 37).

It's not until the book of Rev., chapter 20, only two chapters left, that we find out what's going to happen to them. There are some other Scriptures to put in there and put together (Matt. 12; Luke 13).

For us, we have the whole Bible. What a fantastic blessing that is. The most important book in the world, because this tells us:

• Who God is
• What He is doing
• Where He is going
• How we fit into it

At the end of the age, we are given the blessing of being able to understand it, because of the promise of God to Daniel that 'in the time of the end the wise shall understand, but none of the wicked shall understand.' That's an amazing thing! Never has there been a book in the world that has been written that depends upon your obedience, your belief, and understanding about God. He'll reveal it. He will lead you.

God will send one of the seven spirits to be with you when you start, so you begin to understand. As you begin to understand and start to obey and start to do the things that you see that are there, then He will begin to draw you. God is going to do it, personally in your life.

You might say, 'Look at Abraham. He had God right there standing with him.' True! But what does God promise us who repent and are baptized? He'll send His Spirit to dwell in us! Think on that! After He was resurrected from the dead, we'll see what He did with the disciples.

Psalm 119:18: "Open my eyes so that I may behold wondrous things out of Your Law." Here is the key: only God, with His Spirit leading you, or within you, because all the words of God are Spirit and are Life! Also, it says about the Word of God, 'it's sharper than any two-edged sword.'

"Open my eyes so that I may behold wondrous things out of Your Law."

• What does this tell us?
• Who ends the blindness? God!
• How is it ended? You pray to Him!

You might have to start, 'God, I don't know Who You are or where You are, but here I am and I need some help.' Maybe that's how you start.

Even after all the time that Jesus was with them, and the Spirit of God was with them, because Jesus said it was with them. He suddenly appeared in the room. That would be astonishing! He walked through the wall, came down through the ceiling, walked through the door, whatever. Didn't make a sound, and all of a sudden there He is, right in the middle. It scared the disciples to death. They didn't know what to do. They thought, 'This is demonism.' Then He said, 'Look at My hands, look at My feet.'

Luke 24:41: "But while they were still disbelieving and wondering for joy, He said to them, 'Do you have anything here to eat?' Then they gave Him part of a broiled fish and a piece of honeycomb. And He took these and ate in their presence" (vs 41-43). Very interesting!

Sidebar: I think it was about a couple months ago and I was hungry I had some sardines packed in water; I like sardines packed in water. So this Scripture came to mind. I thought, honey and fish, that doesn't sound like a very good combination to me, but Jesus ate it so I'll try it. I put some honey on the sardines and it was really, really good.

Verse 44: "And He said to them, 'These are the words that I spoke to you when I was yet with you, that all the things which were written concerning Me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.'"

In other words, you need to understand this. Every word of God is true. There is no lie and if He says it, it will be! However, maybe not in the timing that we may expect. Have you ever gone along and then all of a sudden you realize that God answered a prayer? It also says that He will hear us, and will answer more than we can pray or think. Have you ever had a fleeting thought in your mind, and then later on down the road, 'Hey, God remembered that.' I have and all of you are shaking your head, yes.

{This ties in with Psa. 119:18}: v 45: "Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures." Doesn't depend on what your IQ is. It has to be somewhere above idiot level in order to understand. But we are very simple-minded people.

I was thinking the other day, here are all these scientists, so excited about some of the things they are discovering in the universe, and everything like that. There is everything that God has made and they are studying it and analyzing it, and putting it together, and they don't believe in God, and think that they have accomplished a great thing in discovering it.

I think a lot of them at the resurrection are going to be like Thomas, because he wasn't here at this one. He came eight days later. What did Jesus say to Thomas when he was there? He said, 'Thomas, come here. Here's My hand and here's My side.' So, 'doubting Thomas' became convinced.

Isn't it something that the universe and the earth came from nothing by a big bang? If big bangs just automatically occur at any time, don't you think we're all in danger? Think about that. Then they brag about all the things that they make, and all of these spacecraft going out exploring the universe and sending back pictures.

They have one that flew way out to Pluto and took pictures of the moon of Pluto. Stop and think, that's done by microwave. What are all the things that we have today in technology? What are they run on? Microwave! Doesn't take hardly anything. All the way out there, billions of miles away and here is this big huge rock that's a moon of Pluto. They've argued back and forth, 'Is this a planet, or what is it?' Some of the scientists said, 'We're not going to call it a planet.' Then after they got the craft out there and everything, they said, 'We will call it a planet.' However, when you look at the universe, never forget this: God says He created it, laid it out with a span. He has them all numbered. Are we all numbered with DNA? Yes, everyone of us. We're all individual in particular to God. God made us that way. He did with all the stars.

I want to be around the time of the second resurrection, and I want to be there at the time God says, 'All right now, time to resurrect all the scientists.' Hello, guys; how are you doing? That would be something.

Verse 45: "Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, 'According as it is written, it was necessary… [from the Greek which means obligatory] … for the Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day. And in His name, repentance and remission of sins should be preached to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. For you are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you; but remain in the city of Jerusalem until you have been clothed with power from on high'" (vs 45-49).

So, He was with them forty days and forty nights. What an education they had during those forty days and forty nights. But they were just starting. He said at the end of Matt. 28, He says, 'Go into all the world, preach to all nations, baptizing them, making disciples, and behold, I am with you to the completion of the age.'

Summary of everything that was to happen after His resurrection to His return in that one paragraph. Look at all the details, down through history, down through Scripture, down through time. An amazing thing! The Bible is an amazing, amazing Book, to steal a few words from Donald Trump.

1-Cor. 2 is how we understand the Bible. We're going to look at some things in the book of Revelation on this Overview of Prophecy.

1-Corinthians 2:4: "And my message and my preaching was not in persuasive words of humanwisdom…" Remember the account when he was on Mars Hill with all the philosophers. Those are the great brains and writings for western civilization today. They respected people of great vocabulary, great thinking, logical, all this sort of thing.

Sidebar on logic: All Truth is logical, but all human logic is not truth. Persuasive words of wisdom, and wisdom in the Greek is 'sophia,' for which you get 'philosophia,' which means lover of knowledge.

"…rather, it was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; so that your faith might not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now we speak wisdom among the spiritually mature; however, it is not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. Rather, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery… [because God has to open the understanding] …even the hidden wisdom that God foreordained before the ages unto our glory" (vs 4-7).

Think about this: Here we sit today and we wonder how long it is to the second return of Christ. Think how much God has given us to know and to understand. God is the One Who foreordained it before the ages. Think about that!

That's why I say all the time, since I finished the book, From a Speck of Dust to a Son of God: Why Were You Born?, when you get all excited about how good you are, about how much you have done, about what you have accomplished, in a quiet hour, just put down the little dot and look at that. That's how big you were when you started. So, don't get all carried away.

Imagine what a fantastic thing that is. The people of God have more understanding than the wisest people in the world, as far as Truth and knowledge, and what God is doing.

Verse 8: "Which not one of the rulers of this world has known (for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory); but according as it is written, 'The eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'" (vs 8-9).

Add another key to understanding. In addition to obeying God, you have the Sabbath, you have the Holy Days, you have the Word of God, you have the love of God.

Is He going to reveal this to those who reject Him? No! Why should He? Those who love Him. What is the first commandment? Another thing I want you to understand about the Word of God. It comes full circle back. The first and greatest commandment is:

• love God with all your heart, mind, soul and being
• love your neighbor as yourself
• love each other as Christ has loved us
• love your enemies.

All tied in with the love of God.

Verse 10: "But God has revealed… [How?] …them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit…" It's not just the Bible alone that we have, it is the Spirit of God. That's what's important, because the words are Spirit and Life.

What other book in the world is like the Word of God? It's a sharp two-edged sword! It can be a blessing to you on the one hand. It can be corrective to you on the other hand. Because it is 'a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.' What other book is there, unless it's quoting the Scripture and you read a Scripture, where it says you shall not do this, and you read it and say, 'I shouldn't do that'? You find out that you have been doing that. No other book like it.

Verse 10: "But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things—eventhe deep things of God."

When we get to the book of Revelation, we're talking about some of the very deep things of God. Why? Because there are seven divisions to the Bible! Revelation is the seventh division, the one book. The reason that is the seventh division is because everything else in the Bible projects forward to the book of Revelation.

You can find everything. Remember where we read last time, 'Blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy, and who keep the words written therein.' You study it for:

• all the commandments of God
• the faith of God
• the love of God

You also can find in there the things concerning:

• Satan the devil
• the demons
• the way of human nature

It's interesting. The Catholic Bible does not have the book of Revelation in it. A lot of people say, 'You'll never understand the book of Revelation.' That's true, without the Spirit of God and knowledge of the rest of the Bible. Everything else in the rest of the Bible is pointing toward Revelation.

Verse 11: "For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man, which is in him? In the same way also, the things of God no one understands except by the Spirit of God…. [that's how it is] …Now we have not received the spirit of the world… [Where does the spirit of the world come from? Satan the devil!] … but the Spirit that is of God, so that we might know the things graciously given to us by God" (vs 11-12). He wants us to know.

Think about it at this time. Let this Scripture, and what we're covering today in the first part of this message, let it remind you the next time you think you don't have time to study. The next time you think, 'I'll do it tomorrow.' What happens tomorrow? Oh, I'll do it tomorrow. I have so many things stacked up here, I can't handle it today! I bet if you took some time, you could handle it all—couldn't you? Yes, you can!

I preach to myself that way, too. We all talk to ourselves. Our minds are always talking to us. So I follow the Scripture that says: If you are a teacher, do you not teach yourself? I better! Because if I stand up and say, 'Look at all I know. Look at what I've done,' remember Nebuchadnezzar? Yes, indeed!

Verse 13: "Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit… [Which are what? The words of God] … in order to communicate spiritual things by spiritual means. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned…. [especially Revelation.] …However, the one who is spiritual discerns all things, but he himself is discerned by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord?...." (vs 13-15).

What are we to receive? 'Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus' (Phil. 2:5)! No one has known the mind of the Lord, but He will give us the understanding like He has in His mind bit-by-bit and then at the resurrection, can you imagine the change that is going to be?

"…Who shall instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ" (v 16). There it is right there.

We'll look into the book of Revelation, and let's see how that is put together with the rest of the Word of God. It is a fantastic thing.

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We finished with the two witnesses (Rev. 11). God says, 'These are My two witnesses.' Never forget that. No man is going to appoint himself. No man is going to rule over them. God does.

Then we came to the seventh trump. Understand that when it talks about the last trumpet (1-Thes. 4), the only place in the Bible where you have a sequence of first to last in trumpet blowing is Revelation; the only place.

Revelation 11:15: "Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet…" That's the resurrection. That's the beginning of the end of the rule of man on earth without God.

Here's something very interesting, because when you look at it, you have almost a sequence: Rev. 1-11 run pretty much in sequence. But there's so much information that has to come in connection with these first eleven, that you have to have some summaries.

Rev. 12  is very unusual. As a matter of fact, it contains a chronology before the renewing of the earth in Gen. 1. So let's look at it. What we're looking at is a symbol of God's overall plan.

Revelation 12:1: "Then there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." That is depicted by God's plan and the woman; we have first of all the plan, then we have Mary, then we have the Church. That's how it follows here.

Why would Mary become part, so there's more than one fulfillment of the woman and the events taking place here in Rev. 12. So, it's very compacted in its summary. Twelve stars are the twelve tribes of Israel.

Verse 2: "And being with child…" Stop and think here for just a minute.

Revelation 13:8: "And all who dwell on the earth will worship him… [the beast] … whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

So, God's plan was before the foundation of the world. What did God ask Job? Remember what He asked Job? First of all Job said, 'Oh, I would that God would talk with me.' So, God answered his prayer, came in a whirlwind. He said, 'Job! Where were you when I laid the foundation of the world?' Christ's coming was planned before the creation of man.

This also tells us when Satan rebelled. He rebelled when he found out about the plan of God that all the human beings through the plan of God becoming the sons and daughters of God, would be over him.

Because being in the God Family is greater than being an angel. If you are a son or daughter of God, you are greater than an angel. Jesus said, 'We are like the angels, inasmuch as at that time we won't marry or be given in marriage.' But we are actually greater than angels.

So the plan was there. What was the first prophecy in Gen. 3? The coming Savior! There's an awful lot connected with Rev. 12. This is talking about the impregnation and birth of Christ.

I have a big question mark in my mind that none of us will be able to answer until the resurrection, which is this: Mary received the impregnation from God the Father and she bore Christ. What will be her position in the Kingdom? I do not know! There isn't one Scripture that tells us. But here it's being talked about it.

Revelation 12:2: "And being with child, she cried in travail, and was in pain to deliver." This is a summary of the coming of Christ.

Here's something we need to always understand concerning prophecy. It's called the future-perfect, a future completion, as good as already done by the verb that is used. That's what we have here in essence with v 2 and Christ.

When you read the word and, it looks like that it follows in sequence. Not necessarily, because we're told that the Bible is put together 'here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept,' and so forth. This is not in a continuous flow, but it will come together in a few verses later. Verses 1 and 2 is the preview; v 3 tells us why it happened this way:

Verse 3: "And another sign was seen in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads." We know that's Satan the devil. This is a beast. Is a dragon a beast? Yes! Keep that in mind.

When did Satan rebel? Not right when God first laid the foundation of the world, because it says that the sons of God and the stars of heaven sang for joy. So, he rebelled when he found out about the plan of God.

• how long that took, we don't know
• How long did it take to subvert one-third of the angels?
• What was it he told them?

We know one thing he told them: 'I'm just as good as God; I'm going to be like Him. Why don't you join me, we're going to overthrow His throne and we're going to take over.' But he was cast down.

Here is the tale of what happened, the story, v 4: "And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven… [that's a third of the angels; they became demons and Satan became Satan the devil] …and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman…" Look how far forward this goes from one sentence to the next from before the creation of the world, clear to the time of delivering of Christ. How long that was, we don't know.

"…who was ready to deliver, so that he might devour her child when she gave birth" (v 4).

What do we find in Matt. 2? Satan's attempt to kill Christ! Satan was after Jesus all the time, but protected by the angels as a youth. He was taught by God the Father every morning (Isa. 50).

Verse 5: "And she gave birth to a man Child, Who was to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron…" That is a complete description of Christ. You can tie in there, 'Unto us a Son is born, a Child is given. He's the mighty Counselor, the mighty God. He's going to sit on the throne of David. Of the increase of His kingdom it will go on forever and ever.' (Isa. 9). All of those are the verses you could plug into this one verse here. I want you to understand how compact that Revelation is.

"…and her child was caught up to God and His throne" (v 5). Right here is a complete summary of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ. Right there, that one verse! With that then you can plug in how many things? All the Gospels, all the prophecies.

Now then it shifts. The woman becomes the Church. Isn't that interesting? Because the result of bringing forth the man-Child is the Church, and the Church is to become the Bride of Christ.

That's why if anyone was to read the book of Revelation, and not know anything about the Bible, this would really be a mystery. Even those of us who have been in the Church a long time, a lot of these things we haven't understood until we have studied and studied and studied, and gone through how many Sabbaths and Holy Days, and how many years, and how many Feast of Tabernacles, and all of these things. God gives the promise that in the end-time we would understand. So, it's all of God anyway.

Now here's the Church. Let me just say this. If you don't have the DVD of Israel of the Alps (produced by the Seventh Day Adventist Church), get it. There is a perfect example of that if you're a Seventh Day Adventist you have a certain amount of knowledge, because you keep the Sabbath.

But then if you don't keep the Passover and Holy Days, you limit yourself on other knowledge that you need to know, or you misunderstand passages in the Bible. We'll talk a little bit about that when we get to Rev. 13.

But they have it exactly right from 325A.D., when Constantine took over and brought in Roman Catholicism, the Church had to flee beyond the confines of the Roman Empire. They do a very good job in showing that.

Verse 6: "And the woman escaped into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there for a thousand two hundred and sixty days"—a day being a year. Sometimes a day is just a day, other times it is a year.

Verse 7: "And there was war in heaven…" Now we come to something that's very interesting. We have a duality in prophecy. Look at what the woman represents.

• God's plan
• Literally Mary, to give birth to Christ
• The Church, the result of Christ being born and His ministry

There was war in heaven. Was there a war in heaven when Satan rebelled? Yes, indeed! Was that the only time he rebelled? No! He's going to rebel again. This is called duality of prophecy. There's also a trilogy of prophecy, meaning three fulfillments. We saw that with the woman, that's a trilogy, there are three. There's a duality here with the war in heaven.

"…Michael and his angels warred against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels warred" (v 7). This interprets the third of the stars that the tail of the dragon took were angels. The dragon and his angels warred.

Verse 8: "But they did not prevail, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, who is deceiving the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him" (vs 8-9). And they've been here ever since. They're going to try and go back up and war again. That's what all this space technology is all about, and be cast down again.

Verse 10: "And I heard a great voice in heaven say, 'Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ…'" That tells us an awful lot. This shows us there's a plan of salvation for mankind. It's going to be by the power of God, and it's going to bring in the Kingdom of God on the earth under the authority of Christ.

"…because the accuser of our brethren has been cast down… [there is another casting down of Satan] …who accuses them day and night before our God.…" (v 10).

They do have some access to God, but they have no place in heaven. They have no place to live, to stay, to be with God. They can come before God (Job 1), but they have no place in heaven. They are on the earth. The angels have places in heaven, the true angels of God.

"…And his angels… [the demons] …were cast down with him" (v 9).

Just like human beings, if they don't believe God, they don't obey God, their minds are blinded. The demons and Satan were corrupted in evil power. Look at the curse that came upon them because of their rebellion.

Sidebar: All demons do not come to you in the form of saying, 'I'm a demon; I'm from Satan the devil and I want to destroy you.' No, there are a lot of demons that come as an angel from God and they bring benefits.

If you rob a bank, do you have a benefit? Yes, you have all that money! Do you also have a curse? Yes, indeed! The law enforcement is after you, looking for you. There is one gold heist they have never, never solved: the robbery of the Brinks gold armored car heist. They've never solved it. They've come just so far. They have so many facts of it, but the only thing they can figure out is that they took the gold bars and melted them down with silver. Mix in silver and gold and then you take this to another refiner and he separates them out. Nobody knows where all that gold went.

However, God knows! Why? Because God says, 'All gold and silver is Mine!' We just have the use of it, that's all! Same way with earth, same way with life, we have it because God has given it.

They were cast down. Now there's coming a time when Satan is going to sweep this world again and when is that going to be? Remember what we studied in Dan. 9, the 70-weeks prophecy. The seventieth week, in the middle of it, that's when the Tribulation begins.

Could it be that Satan and the demons rise up again to try and attack God and they're cast down again? Then Satan comes against the Church? We'll see it right here in the rest of Rev. 12, which has a lot of things in it that you need to get from the rest of the Bible to put the whole story together. Otherwise you just read it and it doesn't make any sense. What is it talking about?

Verse 10: "And I heard a great voice in heaven say, 'Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ because the accuser of our brethren has been cast down, who accuses them day and night before our God. But they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb, and through the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death'" (vs 10-11). Summation of what it is to be a Christian, right there, when Satan is after you.

Verse 12: "Therefore, rejoice you heavens and those who dwell in them. Woe to those who inhabit the earth and the sea! For the Devil has come down to you… [His final casting down] … having great wrath because he knows that he has only a short time."

This gives us a clue that it's probably right at that point where that 70th week of the book of Daniel, that covenant is broken. Then possessed by Satan the devil, the beast power goes into the Holy of Holies, proclaiming that he is God.

Verse 13: "And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who had brought forth the man-Child."

Sidebar: We see how Satan works. How many of you have watched what Hitler did in Germany? How did he come after the Jews? First of all he besmirched them and befouled them and everything that they did! Then he started persecuting them. How did he do that? Remember what is called 'the crystal night,' the breaking of the glass of the Jewish stores and everything. Persecution! Then the war against them came how? Round them up for the death camps!
The war against the saints will be the fifth seal (Rev. 6). There's an awful lot here in Rev. 12. This is really quite a chapter.

Verse 13: "…the woman who had brought forth the man-Child…. [the Church] …And two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman, so that she might fly to her place in the wilderness…" (vs 13-14). This is where the 'rapture people' get it all wrong. Never, never at any time in the Bible is heaven called a wilderness. So, this is a place on the earth where some are spared.

• Why does God keep some alive and let others be martyred?
• Why not let them all be martyred?
• Why not have equal-opportunity martyrdom for everybody?
• Why does He save some of the physical Christians from the tribulation?

—this is before the resurrection—

• Can you think of a promise why? 'The gates of the grave will never prevail against the Church.'

All of those who are Christian, who are left behind, it's going to be easy to distinguish them. Yes, they won't have the mark of the beast. Be easy. They can almost do a computer census where everybody has a mark of the beast. Who knows how much time is left, and who knows what the technology will be when we get right down to this time in prophecy, and how absolutely all-encompassing it will be.

Verse 14: "And two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman, so that she might fly to her place in the wilderness…" Specific place! Everyone wants to know where is it?

• If you know where it is, but you don't get there, what good did the knowledge do you? None!
• If you don't know where it is, and all of a sudden one day in all the trouble, here come a couple of angels and say, 'Come on with me.' Where are we going? 'You'll see when you get there.' When you arrive, you will know where the Place of Safety is, if you are there.

So, don't worry about it! In years past when they were told, 'Church is going to flee in 1972 and it's going to be in Petra, over there in the Middle East.' May very well be, we don't know, could be.

Some people actually packed up a box of some physical things that they wanted to take with them when they go to Petra, because it says, when the time comes, like it was there in Judea, 'don't go back in the house, don't get anything. If you're at the end of the field, just flee.' Those in Judea they better do that. They figured that they better have their box with them. You know what some of them did? They kept the box in the trunk of their car when they went to church on the Sabbath! They forgot the Scripture which said, 'Don't let your flight be on the Sabbath or in the winter.' But that's how people get carried with things.

"…where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time… [three and a half years] …from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast water out of his mouth as a river, so that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood" (vs 14-15). Wanted to destroy.

This shows it's going to be quite an escape. Talk about exciting times. You better be ready for tough times. Wherever you go, I guarantee, you're not going to have a motel to lay your head down at night. Don't know where it will be. If it's a cave, you'll have a nice comfortable slab of rock to lie on. If you have back problems, that will straighten it out right fast. Don't know about that, I don't know if my back could handle that or not.

Verse 16: "But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed up the river that the dragon had cast out of his mouth. Then the dragon was furious with the woman and went to make war with the rest of her seed…" (vs 16-17). That's when the fifth seal takes place, the war. Maybe not exactly at the minute, but that is what the fifth seal is about.

"…who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (v 17). That's something! That identifies the people of God. Keep the commandments of God.

I'm going to read to you, maybe next week or the week after, what Franklin Graham wrote about the fate of this nation—charismanews.com/154170-franklin or charismapodcastnetwork.com—or go online and look up Franklin Graham and the fate of America. I'm going to have an answer for that. He says the nation is lost—period! It's over and done, but he assumes no responsibility for the condition it is in. So, I'll have my answer for Franklin Graham and his father, Billy. Just think if they would have preached the Truth of God, the commandments of God, the way that it is in the Bible.

I can remember going back into the late 50s that Billy Graham was going around the nation, great revivals and rallies. There were a lot of people coming to those and accepting Christ. But they're just fixated on having sin forgiven. They figure if you get your sins forgiven, Christ has done everything else for you; you need nothing else. They are the ones who are responsible for the condition of this nation, because they never taught keeping the commandments of God! Look where we are today.

I don't want to get into Rev. 13 today, because chapter 12 took quite a bit of time.

Scriptural References:

• Genesis 12:1-3
• Psalm 119:18
• Luke 24:41-49
• 1-Corinthians 2:4-16
• Revelation 11:15
• Revelation 12:1-2
• Revelation 13:8
• Revelation 12:2-10. 9. 10-17

Scriptures references, not quoted:

• Genesis 3:15
• Ezekiel 37
• Matthew 12
• Luke 13
• Matthew 28
• Philippians 2:5
• 1-Thessalonians 4
• Genesis 1; 3
• Matthew 2
• Isaiah 50; 9
• Job 1
• Daniel 9
• Revelation 6

Also referenced:

Books:

• Christianity Without God by Lloyd Geering
• From a Speck of Dust to a Son of God: Why Were You Born? (coming soon)

DVD: Israel of the Alps (produced by the Seventh Day Adventist Church

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 3-16-15
Formatted: bo—3-18-16

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