Introduction to Man
To orient something means to align or position it relative to the points of a compass or other specified positions. Here you are the it, and the specified position is “Thus saith the Lord”
The is a program I designed, as led by the Lord, for the Church I pastor in Cochin. That program lasted from August to December, and we have only 9 days. So from the beginning, I am warning you that this is going to be hyper-condensed yet conclusive in its own nature.
We are going start with a study four events from Genesis that still affects us today, and end with finding out what the apocalypse is all about. In between, I’ll be throwing in some basic principles so that you do not misunderstand God.
I wish someone had taken the time to teach me this from the Bible when I got saved and wanted to know and serve God better. Though there were many studies, I could not find any that did not have a denominational slant. Here, we look at only what the Bible says. The Scripture explains Scripture.
Hopefully, this will raise more questions, and that is a good thing, because I look forward to answering all your question, but in the correct format. I do not know everything, but that which I know, I will share. Till this day, the Lord has not failed to answer any of my doubts. He is a living God.
My approach to this study also has to do with the way I first studied the Bible; to prove that it is false.
This program assumes that you have counted the cost of following Christ, and have decided to put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, and like Isaiah have said to the Lord, “Here I am, send me”.
Spirit Soul Body
Who are you?
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NKJV) Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For those not familiar with the Bible, the terms Spirit and Soul can mean anything, but the Bible tells us that we are made up of three definite parts, the spirit, soul and body.
Man is a triune. That the human soul and spirit are not identical is proved by the facts that they are divisible. and that soul and spirit are sharply distinguished in the burial and resurrection of the body.
Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV) For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Briefly, that distinction is that the spirit is that part of man which “knows” his true state; the soul is the seat of the affections, desires, and so of the emotions, and of the active will, the self.
1 Corinthians 2:11 (NKJV) For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
It is in the spirit that you commune with God.
The soul is the seat of the affections, desires, and so of the emotions, and of the active will, the self.
Matthew 26:38 (NKJV) Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”
Matthew 11:29 (NKJV) Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
· Because man is “spirit” he is capable of God-consciousness, and of communication with God;
· because he is “soul” he has self- consciousness Ps 13:2; Ps 42:5, 6, 11
· because he is “body” he has, through his senses, world consciousness.
In English, the word Salvation means deliverance from sin and its consequences, believed by Christians to be brought about by faith in Christ. It has three tenses, past, present and future if you are born again.
Then, if your name is in the book of Life that belongs to Jesus Christ, you have been saved: From the penalty of sin, that is positionally. This is called Justification. This has to do with your spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV) But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
Now, if your name is in the book of Life that belongs to Jesus Christ, in the present tense you are being saved operationally from the power of sin by the Holy Spirit. This is called Sanctification. This has to do with your soul.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 (NKJV) For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
If your name is in the book of Life that belongs to Jesus Christ, in the future, there will come a day when he will save us from the presence of sin through the redemption of our body. This is called Glorification.
The reason I brought this up is because you need to know that though it is your soul that makes the decision to call on Jesus, whereby your spirit is saved and born again, you are responsible for the saving of your soul.
In other words, the spirit and the body belong to God, but where they spend eternity depends on the decisions made by your soul.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV) 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
God will save your spirit when you believe in Jesus and call upon him
And one day, the Lord will gather those who are His. At that time, He will give you a new body.
In the meantime, you are responsible to choose to follow Jesus
James 1:21 (NKJV) Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
As we can see from the fall of man, what starts with man affected his family and the entire world. As we read Genesis, we can see the immediate corruption of sin spreading from the individual to the family, and then to all humanity.
The process is laid our clearly in the Bible for us to understand what went wrong, and how Jesus fixed it.
Born Again
John 3:3-6 (NKJV) 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
God made man in His image
Genesis 1:26 (NKJV) Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
What is His image.
John 4:24 (NKJV) God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
God warned man that he would die
Genesis 2:16-17 (NKJV) 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
We know that sadly that happened.
Genesis 3:6 (NKJV) So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
However, we do not see them dying. Did God lie?
Hebrews 6:18 (NKJV) that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
Is the Bible wrong?
John 10:35 (NKJV) If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),
So where is the death? To answer that, we must ask what is death.
Death is separation. A physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual death, which is of greater significance, is the separation of your spirit, soul and body from God.
This death then was in that which gave them life, which is the image of God, and that is in the Spirit.
Galatians 4:4 (NKJV) But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
Romans 10:9-13 (NKJV) 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
What is that name?
Acts 4:12 (NKJV) Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Philippians 2:8-11 (NKJV) [8] And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. [9] Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, [10] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, [11] and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Let us look at a couple of verses more
Hebrews 9:27 (NKJV) And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
Revelation 2:11 (NKJV) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” ‘
Salvation sandwich.
The easiest way to understand is to divide it into three tenses; past, present and future.
The Past Tense.
Justification
Acts 13:39 (NKJV) and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Romans 5:8-9 (NKJV) [8] But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [9] Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
Adoption – a judicial and personal act of God (it is not a process).
· It changes the legal status of the individual from the position of subject to the position of child;
· it changes your relationship with God from a distant, impersonal relationship with Him to one that is both personal and intimate in nature.
· This is a personal act of God, done by God.
Romans 8:13-16 (NKJV) [13] For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. [14] For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. [15] For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” [16] The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Present Tense:
Sanctification
Sanctification means consecration – a separation of someone or something unto God; from a profane, secular and carnal use to a sacred, religious and Spiritual use.
It refers to persons, places, days and seasons, objects used for worship, and other things in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament in the main, it is vitally linked to the salvation experience and stresses the personal dimension of Holiness.
Unlike regeneration, sanctification is not momentary or instantaneous, but a lifelong process which must be lived out daily through Christians’ total consecration to the service of God and complete yieldedness to the authority of His word.
John 17:17 (NKJV) Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 (NKJV) For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
Future tense
Glorification
“Glorification” is God’s final removal of sin from the life of the saints (i.e., everyone who is saved) in the eternal state.
It is the removal of our bodies from the presence of sin.
1 Corinthians 15:52-53 (NKJV) [52] in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. [53] For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1 John 3:2 (NKJV) Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Seed Wars
Genesis 3:14-15 (NKJV) 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
This predicted battle between the serpent and the woman would not be a literal confrontation in the Like the word “sheep” in English, the word “seed” in Hebrew is both singular and plural, meaning either descendants without number, taken as a whole, or one particular descendant.
Jesus Christ is the seed of the woman. As we will study, is He is real, there are among us the seed of the serpent, whom the Bible calls the dragon and Satan.
Revelation 20:2 (NKJV) He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
The Relevant Past
In a science fiction movie where people travel in time, a man travels back to find his younger self to save him from a gang of thugs, only to realize that he was already captured by this gang from his future. As he attempts to run and hide, the gang starts chopping off fingers from the younger self. This works its way to the future self who suddenly and rather painfully finds his limbs disappearing one by one.
Whether you like it or not, the past affects the present. What the Lord Jesus has given us is the ability to choose the future He has given to us, instead of a future that is not only a consequence of our actions, but also destined for destruction because of sin.
This choice starts with you as a person, then overflows to your family, and then to your community, and by community, you can extend it to the world at large.
The Fall of Man
Since the creation of man, starting at what the Bible reveals from Genesis 3, the Garden of Eden, to the celestial battle mentioned in Revelation 12, Satan has been trying to destroy God’s destiny and purpose for man.
Genesis 2:15-17 (NKJV) 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
What unfolds is revealed in Chapter 3
Genesis 3:1-5 (NKJV) 1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
You should be familiar with this account of human history now. Here are some more scriptures you should be familiar with
Romans 5:19 (NKJV) For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
1 Timothy 2:14 (NKJV) And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
1 Corinthians 15:45 (NKJV) And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
In Genesis 3 we saw how Satan moved against the first Adam, Revelation 12 portrays a celestial battle that illustrates Satan’s attempt to thwart God’s plan through the second Adam, who is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Revelation 12:1-10 (NKJV) 1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. 7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
The reason I illustrated all this is for you to understand the deeper aspect of what the Apostle Paul states in Ephesians 6
Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Keeping this in mind, let us get into our study. We are going to start by studying four major events from Genesis to see how they affect us today, how the world we live in today is still under the influence of these acts of God.
1. The Fall of Man
2. The Flood of Noah
3. The Tower of Babel
4. The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
Five Effects of the Fall in Genesis 3
The world we live in today is not the very good world that God created (Genesis 1:31). Adam’s disobedience toward God brought about several significant changes that affect not only each and every one of us but also creation.
1. Loss of Righteousness
Righteousness simply put is right standing with God. It is produced by the Holy Spirit
Romans 14:17 (NKJV) for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
2. Separation from God
Isaiah 59:1-2 (NKJV) 1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
Adam was not a sinner when he was created, but he fell from a state of innocence and from the fellowship he once enjoyed with God.
3. Cursed Environment
The punishment of Genesis 3:17-18 reveals that man’s sin caused the curse against the ground, resulting in the troublesome thorns and thistles and a change in the way the natural world works (Romans 8:19-22).
Genesis 3:17-18 (NKJV) 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.
There is a “toil” prescribed to the fallen humanity vs the blessing of the Lord
4. Spiritual and Physical Death
Romans 6:23 (NKJV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The fulfilment of God’s promise that Adam would die reveals the punishment Adam received for disobeying God’s command (Genesis 3:19; cf. 2:17).
Genesis 3:19 (NKJV) In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
Adam disobeyed and physical death came not only to him, but also to his descendants (Romans 5:12).
Romans 5:12 (NKJV) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned
5.Clothing
Genesis 3:7 (NKJV) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
Genesis 3:21 (NKJV) Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
The first shedding of blood, when God makes garments of skin after Adam and Eve sinned. God was showing that there will be no covering, no remission, without shed blood. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, their “eyes were opened” and they became aware of their nakedness, trying to cover it up by sowing fig leaves together. Nevertheless, this was ineffective, and ultimately God Himself clothed Adam and Eve because they could now no longer walk before Him in innocence.
Before Adam found himself naked, he was clothed with God. In other words, the Spirit of God, in whose image he was created, was His clothing. When creation looked at Adam, all it saw was God, there was no difference.
Now we are called to be clothed with Christ.
Galatians 3:27 (NKJV) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Romans 13:14 (NKJV) But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
Mise en place for next session.
1. Read Genesis 5 to 9 for the day after tomorrow’s session.
The Flood of Noah
If you go to any Christian conference, you will find that topics like UFOs, extraterrestrial visitation to our planet, alien abductions, alien breeders, “the watchers”, and fallen angels breeding with human beings listed with a great number of teachers.
One of the reasons these formerly fringe topics are mainstream today is the notion of the great deception in the last days. 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 teaches:
2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 (NKJV) 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Such lying wonders today need to be exposed through the truth laid out in the Bible if Christians are to understand “what is really going on”.
We know even our culture has ancient accounts of breeding between human and “gods”. Among many cultures there are reports (throughout their history, both oral and inscribed in pictographs) of strange visitors claiming to have come to Earth from another planet.
Today’s study will reveal how these accounts can be reconciled to what the Bible teaches about ancient history and begin to give you a “Bible-centric” view of the Cosmos
There are so many gems in these chapters I asked you to read that it would be impossible to cover them all in one session. For the purpose of this orientation program, I am only including that which the Holy Spirt has revealed to me as relevant to our existence and purpose of this program.
If you do not wish to glean the vineyard of the Word of God, you would never understand how relevant these incidents are to us in the present and also for the future, not just of the Church but also the whole world. However, a casual reader of the New Testament will see a remarkable reference made by our Lord Jesus to the portion we are covering today.
Matthew 24:37-39 (NKJV) 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
“But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” You have heard this from the Lord Himself. So it is good to study this.
Sons of God.
Genesis 6:2 (NKJV) that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
The ‘sons of God” portrayed here, as I will explain today, refer to fallen Angels, which had thrown in their lot with Lucifer, who led a revolution against God some time in eternity past.
Remember that the serpent is now aware that he is going to get trouble from the seed of the woman. In order to spoil the human lineage through which the Messiah would ultimately come, they sought to corrupt that lineage by marrying the “daughters of men.”. This produced a mongrel race; all who were the result of such a union were tainted.
In his Epistle, Jude mentions these particular “Angels. ” He said that they “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation”; he then said what their sin was: “going after strange flesh. ” Concerning this, Jude also said that God “has reserved them in everlasting chains unto darkness unto the Judgment of the great day”.
Jude 1:6-7 (KJV) And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
A basic understanding of this passage supplies some interesting detail to be sure. But when looking at the original Greek, we gain a much keener appreciation for what was being stated.
For starters, we see the phrase, “their first estate”. The word first comes from the Greek word arche, meaning “a high rank”, such as “to be first in position of political power”. Then the word estate comes from the Greek word peri, which can mean a “locality”. From this combination of terms, we conclude that the angels did not keep their highest-ranking location. That is, Heaven comprised the highest-ranking location an angel could enjoy. Heaven stands as “elevated” in status as any place can possibly be. And yet, the angels gave this up.
The word habitation comes from the Greek word oiketerion and means “a residence”, such as “a family household”. This may be saying that certain angels left their heavenly family and their heavenly home (their residence with God and the other angelic beings). It seems likely that these angels had taken part in the earlier rebellion — that they were part of the satanic revolt that Revelation tells us resulted in ‘one-third of the angelic host” being cast down to earth.
If we consider 2 Corinthians 5:2, we see that Paul using the Greek word oiketerion speaks about being “clothed upon with our house which is from heaven”. In context, it becomes evident the “house comprises a metaphor for a body.
2 Corinthians 5:2 Here indeed, in this [present abode, body], we sigh and groan inwardly, because we yearn to be clothed over [we yearn to put on our celestial body like a garment, to be fitted out] with our heavenly dwelling,
It is possible that the fallen angels not only forsook God and Heaven when they rebelled with Satan, but also forsook their heavenly spiritual bodies for a type of physical body they could use to operate within our physical dimension.
We can understand just how serious the angel’s actions were given the nature of God’s judgment upon them. This passage compares what they did to the reproachable actions of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah (and the surrounding cities), which resulted in God locking up these angels “in chains” (a supernatural restraint of some sort) until the moment known as the great “White Throne Judgment” when these angels along with unrepentant humans will suffer the “vengeance of eternal fire”
It was taught for many years that the “Sons of God” referred to the children of Seth with many theological sounding arguments, but scripture has to validate and interpret scripture, and if so, scripture always points to the “Sons of God” as being angels.
Job 1:6 (NKJV) Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.
Job 2:1 (NKJV) Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
Job 38:4-7 (NKJV) 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, 7 When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Angels
We are going to study about Angels towards the end when we study about the household of God. For now, you need to understand that 0riginally all angels were created good. The Scriptures speak of a fall of angels—”the angels that sinned.”
2 Peter 2:4 (NKJV) For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
Jude 1:6 (NKJV) And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
When we read about the Sons of God in Genesis 6, the Bible refers to the fallen angels. Let us get back to our topic after looking at a very interesting note that the Apostle Paul made
2 Corinthians 11:14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
Giants
When we look at the Genesis 6 account, we discover these sons of God saw the daughters of men and took them for wives. Something very peculiar took place when they mated. Shortly after the match made in hell transpired, Genesis 6:4 states,
Genesis 6:4 (NKJV) There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
The Hebrew word translated as giants is “nĕphiyl”. Most translations refer to them as giants; their formal name is Nephilim. The Nephilim are a hybrid race of part human, part angelic origin. They are the mixture of terrestrial flesh and celestial flesh.
Just in case it isn’t obvious, in this passage Moses just told us that those Greek mythological figures, the Titans, Olympians, the sons of Pandu, the Pandavas, and the Dasha-avatar had a biblical basis. These demigods were not just plucked out of thin air —real history stands behind these myths.
They are the reason God had to destroy the earth by a flood. They are the reason the children of Israel were instructed to kill every man, woman and child in their land of inheritance; they had been defiled and corrupted at a DNA level.
These offspring of the union between the sons of God and the daughters of men take us back to the seed war mentioned in Genesis 3, while the Nephilim need not be the seed of Satan, for that might depict another class of beings altogether, nevertheless, Satan will use these beings in the future, just as he did in the days of Noah, to attempt to derail the plan of God and corrupt the seed of man.
The Destruction of the Nephilim Through the Flood
Genesis 6:5-7 (NKJV) [5] Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. [6] And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. [7] So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Prior to the ark’s voyage, God began His first wave of judgment against the rebel angels who left their first estate. Jude tells us they were “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness” (verse 6).
They are now confined to eternal destruction; they await their final sentence (Revelation 20: 10; Matthew 25:41).
Matthew 25:41 Then He will say to those at His left hand, Begone from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!
The Flood Was Effective
The flood was 100 percent effective. It destroyed all flesh from the face of the earth, except that which was aboard the ark. Now the purposes of God could be restored upon the earth.
These became disembodied spirits confined to the earth and under the earth by the judgment of God.
This sounds like a movie with a happy ending, one you leave and feel good inside. Then, just at the last moment, that which you thought was dead … isn’t. So it is with the Nephilim. Remember the haunting phrase from Genesis 6:4, “And also afterward”?
Genesis 6:4 (NKJV) There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
A resurgence occurred after the flood, for the Nephilim were on the earth after the flood, just like before.
Numbers 13:33 (NKJV) There we saw the giants (nĕphiyl) (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Some of the more famous Nephilim are Goliath (who David killed) and Og, King of Bashan (1 Samuel 17:4-6; Deuteronomy 3:11).
Model of Salvation
The ark is an illuminating picture of our salvation in Christ.
1 Peter 3:20-21 (NKJV) 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. 21 There is also an antitype which now saves us–baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
… The salvation and the ark were planned by God, not invented by humans. God invited Noah and his family into the ark (7:1), then, once they were in, God shut them in so that they were secure (7:16).
… There is only one way of salvation and there was only one door in the ark.
… The ark saved Noah and his family from judgment because they believed God’s promise; Christ saves us from the wrath to come as we believe Him.
1 Thessalonians 1:10 (NKJV) and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
The Fear of Man
Genesis 9:1-2 (NKJV) 1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.
Genesis 1:28 (NKJV) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
The command to fruitful and multiply; to fill the earth remains the same, but when we come to Noah, we find certain changes. We find that the tools that God gave Adam are different from the tools God gave Noah to get this job done.
Adam, by nature, had dominion to subdue. He just had to be, and this emanated from him.
Noah on the other hand, had no such tools within him, but had to work with what God did outside of him, that being God putting the fear of man and the dread of man on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into man’s hand.
In other words, because mankind had lost its authority, God had put a fear of man in all animals, if not, they would have destroyed mankind long ago.
It is important to know that whatever it is the mankind lost as the result of the fall is restored completely by and in Jesus Christ. However, when the fourth seal in opened in Revelation 6, the LORD will have taken away that fear and dread and the animals will rise up.
Revelation 6:8 (NKJV) So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
Rainbow Covenant
Let us now continue reading from Genesis 9
Genesis 9:12-13 (NKJV) 12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. Genesis 2:5-6 (NKJV) 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground..
The word covenant means “to cut”, referring to the cutting of the sacrifices. What you need to understand is that God does not work outside of His covenants.
The Lord said “I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth”.
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc.
Job 26:8 (NKJV) He binds up the water in His thick clouds, Yet the clouds are not broken under it.
While there were clouds before the flood, there seems to have been no rain. Since water can be bound up in thick clouds, there will be no droplets suspended in the air outside of the cloud or falling to the earth for, and consequently no rainbow is formed.
Here is the point that you need to understand, and it is not about whether there was rain before the flood or not, but that there was a drastic change in the atmosphere after the flood.
There are some who say that the atmosphere had become less dense, that could be true, but what is certain is that the land mass changed forever. In other words, the earth as we know it started then.
Fire next time
In verse 15, God says “the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh”. It is interesting to note that this is not the first time that waters covered the earth.
Genesis 1:2 (NKJV) The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
More on that later, but understand that there is a judgment coming, but it is not by water.
2 Peter 3:7 (NKJV) But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
2 Peter 3:12-13 (NKJV) 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The Law of First Mention
There is a principle or rule called the Law of First Mention. In the Bible, when a topic, word or doctrine first mentioned, it will have the simplest and clearest presentation upon which doctrines can be developed further. In the passage we read last week, there are many notable “first mentions”, but I would like to highlight two.
Grace
Genesis 6:8 (NKJV) But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Then word for Grace in Hebrew is “chen”. This can mean favor, grace. It is translated grace 38 times in the Old Testament, proving that grace is not just a New Testament doctrine.
Psalm 84:11 (NKJV) For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly.
Proverbs 3:34 (NKJV) Surely He scorns the scornful, But gives grace to the humble.
Only the fullness of grace came by Christ.
John 1:17 (NKJV) For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Drunkenness
The first drunkenness on record resulted in the second mention of nakedness.
Genesis 9:21 (NKJV) Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.
The first mention of nakedness, as we will soon study, is in Genesis 3. Drunkenness is condemned in both testaments.
Drunkenness results in nakedness. It might be that you might manage to keep your clothes on, but you will never ever fail to become uncovered in your tent spiritually when you get drunk.
Even I thought the addition of drunkards in this list of unrighteous fellows was rather drastic, so I will share what I learned about this.
Do you know what Kajal is? Kajal is a very fine black powder which women use to outline their eyes. This word is derived from the Arabic word “kohl”.
The word “alcohol” is from the same Arabic kohl or al-kuḥl. Al- is the Arabic definite article, equivalent to “the” in English. The current Arabic name for alcohol al-ġawl.
We get the word Ghoul from this word. A ghoul is a monster or evil spirit in Arabic mythology, associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh.
In other words, The word “Alcohol” comes from the Arabic “al-kuhl” which means “body eating spirit”, and gives root origins to the English term for “ghoul”.
Hosea 4:11 (NKJV) “Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart.
Proverbs 4:23 (NKJV) Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
Now we begin to understand what really goes on when drunkenness brings on the spiritual nakedness, and why it disqualifies you from inheriting the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NKJV) 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
Though intoxication by alcohol and drugs, we open a spiritual door for these spirits to destroy our lives. The practitioners of pagan religions and the occult know this very well, but they are deceived into believing that these are good spirits.
Ephesians 5:18 (NKJV) And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
Conclusion
In Luke 17:26-30, Jesus preached that the last days would be like the days of Noah and Lot. Of all of God’s unexpected judgments Jesus could have chosen, He selected Noah and Lot as His examples. We know that Noah’s days were unique in no small part because of the presence of the Nephilim.
2 Peter 2:4-7 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast [them] down to hell and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, [one of] eight [people,] a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned [them] to destruction, making [them] an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, [who was] oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
The above passage ties it all together, but there is more. Jesus said “As in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.” Through the scientific development of Transhumanism, we appear to be on the cusp of seeing the human genome successfully modified to “improve” humanity. The consequences could be disastrous.
If in the process of improving your DNA, you cease to be classified as human, then does the blood if Jesus speak to you? Could this be what the mark of the beast does to you?
Revelation 13:16-17 (NKJV) 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Revelation 20:4 (NKJV) 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years
We know that Satan attempted to corrupt the human genome in Genesis 6, and that Jesus said that it will be like that when he comes, but there is also another angle that I wonder about.
In a way, the OT is natural and the NT Spiritual. You had to commit adultery in the OT to be guilty, in the NT, you just have to think it. The events were a shadow of things to come, and have a symbolic value, but the substance is Christ
Colossians 2:17 (NKJV) which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
I wonder if that principle when applied means that Satan no longer needs to corrupt the human genome, but only corrupt the human heart.
2 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV) Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.”
James 4:4 (NKJV) Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Mise en place for next session
Read Genesis 10 and 11. Revelation 17
The City and the Tower in Shinar
Before we begin our study, let us read from Matthew where Jesus was tempted by Satan.
Matthew 4:1-4 (NKJV) 1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ “
When we visit this incident again at the end of this teaching, your eyes will open to its relevance.
Genesis 11:1-9 (NKJV) 1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Nimrod
There is a passage in the Bible we need to look at before we study this portion
Genesis 10:6-14 (NKJV) 6 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. 8 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.” 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city). 13 Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim).
Nimrod was a grandson of Ham through Cush, and his name means “rebel”.
He began to be a mighty one – He Chalaled (polluted his body) to become a” gibbowr” a mighty one. While it means a valiant man, in this context, a giant is a better rendering of this idiom peculiar to the Hebrew language in context.
The word “hunter” does not refer to the hunting of animals, but rather to the hunting of men.
Revelation 18:10-13 (NKJV) 10 standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ 11 And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore: 12 merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men.
He was a mighty tyrant in the sight of God, the first dictator. Nimrod was the founder of the Babylonian empire and the organizer of the enterprise that led to the construction of the tower of Babel. History informs us that Nimrod and his wife devised a new religion built around “the mother and child”.
Nimrod established the first kingdom and the first universal false religion opposing God since the flood of Noah. This was done “before the Lord,” that is, openly: in the presence of God with all defiance.
In Genesis 10:11, we read that Nimrod “went to Assyria and built Nineveh.” This is very important to our future, because speaking of the “Anti-Christ”, the Lord reveals through Micah the following
Micah 5:5-6 (NKJV) 5 And this One shall be peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land, And when he treads in our palaces, Then we will raise against him Seven shepherds and eight princely men. 6 They shall waste with the sword the land of Assyria, And the land of Nimrod at its entrances; Thus He shall deliver us from the Assyrian, When he comes into our land And when he treads within our borders.
Antichrist, among other things, is called “The Assyrian,” for he will come from the territory Assyria ruled over in ancient times.
Mystery Babylon
After the flood, God had commanded men to replenish the earth.
Genesis 9:1 (NLT) Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth.
Genesis 9:7 (NLT) Now be fruitful and multiply, and repopulate the earth.”
In disobedience they decided to settle down on the plain of Shinar where Babylon was located. This was deliberate rebellion against God’s Word.
They decided to unite and build both a city and a tower. Their purposes were to
1. maintain unity in opposition to God, and
2. make a name for themselves.
The name “Babel” comes from a Hebrew word which means “gate of God”. This entire operation is a forecast of the final opposition of man (and Satan) against Christ, centered in the Babylon of Rev. 17-18.
Revelation 17:3-15 (NKJV) 3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. 5 And on her forehead a name was written:
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.
7 But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. 8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. 9 Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. 10 There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. 11 And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition. 12 The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. 14 These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” 15 Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.
A couple of points to note before we move on.
Revelation 17:8 (NKJV) The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Revelation 17:11 (NKJV) And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.
Revelation 1:8 (NKJV) “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 4:8 (NKJV) The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
Is this the return of Nimrod? Even if it not, by now you should have no doubt in your mind what the events in the plains of Shinar foretell. This is the reason that God, when He came down to see Babel, took action to counteract the rebellion of Nimrod.
“Babylon” in the Bible symbolizes rebellion against God and confusion in religion. Babylon is based on two principles – distrust of God and the consequent disobedience. Nations can be that way and so can individuals.
… When God’s people in Old Testament Jerusalem distrusted God and disobeyed (2 Chronicles 36:11-20), thus taking part in Babylonian philosophy, they became literal captives in literal Babylon.
… In the end time entire churches, nations and organizations will distrust God (not trust His word or promises, or believe it’s important), and will form an alliance to supplant God.
Let us build ourselves
Let us look at what man did in the plains of Shinar.
Genesis 11:3-4 (NKJV) 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
1. They said to one another
· Isaiah 30:1 (NKJV) “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the LORD, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, That they may add sin to sin;
· Micah 2:1 (NKJV) Woe to those who devise iniquity, And work out evil on their beds! At morning light they practice it, Because it is in the power of their hand.
2. They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. In the Word, stone signifies truth, and therefore brick, because it is made by man, signifies falsity or the flesh; for brick is stone artificially made.
· Exodus 20:25 (NKJV) And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.
· Psalm 118:22 (NKJV) The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
· 1 Peter 2:5 (NKJV) you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
3. A tower whose top is in the heavens
· The Tower of Babel was man’s endeavor to ascend to heaven by his own will and powers, his striving to equal God. Babel was man’s attempt at godhood.
· If God was worried about the height, then it was taller than Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is 828 m or 2717 ft in height, because God has not struck that towering building down. Also, if it was height the builders of the Tower of Babel was after, it is strange that they found a plain in the land of Shinar to build it.
Genesis 28:10-12 (NKJV) 10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
· In both passages the Hebrew for
o top is “ro’sh” which means head, top, summit, upper part, etc
o Heaven(s) is “shamayim” which means visible heavens, sky and Heaven, the abode of God.
· In the KJV the words “reached unto” or in the NKJV “is” is italicized. Either top reached unto Heaven or top is Heaven. This is because there are no original words to represent them. This was only an assumption by the translators.
· What it says is “ro’sh shamayim ” top heaven, or head heaven. So it could just as easily be “likened unto heaven.” A tower whose top is likened unto Heavens.
Now let us look at God’s reaction.
Genesis 11:5-8 (NKJV) 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.
This is what they begin to do
“What they begin” is the Hebrew word Chalal. This means to profane, defile, pollute, desecrate, begin, as in Nimrod, but it also means to bore through, pierce, bore.
So it means to bore or pry open like a wedge in the sense of this being an act of polluting. There is no other way to look at this. They are actually trying to bore into or pry an opening into heaven!
The Heaven and earth represent eternal and temporal dimensions. They are separated from each other as a result of the fall or sin. But the actual physical separation is one of time – temporal verses eternal.
Therefore, it stands to reason that the travel they are trying to accomplish here is inter-dimensional.
The language here would confirm this. To pry or wedge is to open a portal into the eternal realm.
· “Nothing will be restrained from them.” The Hebrew word “Batsar” means secrets, mysteries or inaccessible things will no longer be restrained.
· Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV) ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things (batsar), which you do not know.’
· Job 42:2 (NKJV) “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld (batsar) from You.
This can only mean a breach in the space/time continuum or a portal of some sort. They had succeeded in opening a portal to the living room of God.
Scattered them abroad
The confusion of the language and the scattering was to save mankind from uniting against God till Jesus comes. This was really an act of mercy as well as judgment, for had they persisted in their plan, a more terrible judgment would have followed.
This was not to force mankind to be “good”, for God values free will. At that time, man was a slave to sin, so he could not choose to be free. After Jesus rose again, mankind had the freedom to choose.
The description of God’s action here explains the origin of the languages of mankind.
However, when we come to Revelation 17, we can see that somehow people have managed to unite against God with one mind.
Revelation 17:13-14 (NKJV) 13 These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. 14 These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”
The Return of Nimrod?
The building of this City and Tower was about 560 years after the flood of Noah. Even with such a long period of time, people were still living to a ripe old age of about 600 years. The Babel event would have been only one generation from the remembrance of the pre-flood era.
Those alive would have remembered the “technology” of the fallen, the secret revelations of the fallen angels, the hidden knowledge, or the occult as we call it today.
The city and the tower represents the attempt to use this pre-flood knowledge to settle themselves, and not be scattered by God again.
It was also about preserving what was remembered of the secrets knowledge of heaven, including how to occupy it. Ever since then, mankind has formed secret societies to pursue and acquire this hidden knowledge.
· In “The Masonic Quiz Book” about Free Masons, the question is asked, “Who was Nimrod”, the answer is, “He was the son of Cush. In the old Constitutions referred to as one of the Founders of Freemasonry, and in the Scriptures as the architect of many cities.” (William Adrian Brown, Facts, Fables and Fantasies of Freemasonry, Page 169)
Not just the Free Masons alone, but there are innumerable secret societies and other institutions fathered by Satan to “help” the fallen man’s endeavor to ascend to heaven by his own will and powers, without Jesus.
Any attempt of man now to get to God, to be equal to God, without Jesus is nothing but Satan’s deception with the same words he used in the Garden of Eden; “You shall be like Gods”. Humanity, being deceived, believe this.
They will continue to believe this until the light of the Gospel shines on them. For that the Lord needs some Lampstands burning bright.
It is interesting to note that today the world is rapidly moving toward the “one world” concept politically, and towards the “one mind” concept starting with the unification of language through technology.
There are those who believe that the large hadron collider (LHC) at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland CERN constitutes a new “Tower of Babel” in several respects. The leadership behind CERN through its public “mouth pieces” states that their goal is to “open other dimensions” through portals created by breaking the “strong force” (the gluon) and creating a gap through which other universes or other entities can access us and we them.
Thus, they hope to “reach unto heaven” In doing so, they might open the Abyss mentioned in Revelation 9.
Nimrod established the first kingdom and the first universal false religion opposing God since the flood of Noah. We saw indications from Scripture (Micah 5) earlier that the final world ruler is tied to the land of Nimrod. Is he the beast that was and is not and will ascend?
Revelation 17:8 (NKJV) The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition.
If so, how can he entice? He must have something to offer for those who seek spiritual power.
Revelation 2:24-25 (NKJV) 24 Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. 25 But hold fast what you have till I come.
So watch out for those who wish to teach you the secrets of Satan, or tell you that you can grab things from heaven.
Deuteronomy 29:29 (NKJV) The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
The reason men seek this doctrine, to know the depths of Satan, is to have earthly power.
Psalm 75:6-7 (NKJV) 6 For exaltation comes neither from the east Nor from the west nor from the south. 7 But God is the Judge: He puts down one, And exalts another.
We do not need to know the deep things of Satan because God has already revealed it to us
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (NKJV) 9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
So to conclude, let us go back to what we read from the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 4:1-4 (NKJV) 1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ “
It is God who gives man bread to eat. He is the source of every blessing, Creator of everything.
Imagine God is the great baker in heaven, then the sin of the builders on this city and tower is that they attempted to take over the bakery to secure bread for themselves without the baker.
What is your reason for existence? Are you trying to live your life, establish yourself without your maker? Then this applies to you.
When we say Jesus is Lord, it means He is the owner. He decides what we need to do, not us. Do we still choose our own paths with the body He has given us? If so, are we not attempting to supplant God as its owner, our owner?
1 Corinthians 8:6 (NAS) yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord , Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
Remember, we exist for Him, the Father, and we exist through Him, the son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Built on Revelation.
I already taught you that anything the Lord does is built on Revelation.
2 Peter 1:2-4 (NKJV) [2] Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, [3] as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, [4] by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Note the definition of a Christian in v. 4—”partaker of the divine nature.” The Christian has been born into God’s family and has God’s nature within.
1 Corinthians 2:12 (NKJV) Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
We do not need to open a portal to heaven. God now lives in us.
1 Corinthians 6:19 (NKJV) Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
2 Corinthians 2:11 (NKJV) lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Amos 3:7 (NKJV) Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
Isaiah 45:11 (NKJV) Thus says the LORD, The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons; And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.
1 Corinthians 2:16 (NKJV) For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
So what to we need to do? We need to be faithful to the revelation given to us already
Luke 16:10 (NKJV) He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.
Sometimes if we can’t hear from God at all, we need to check for a couple of things,
Matthew 5:8 (NKJV) Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
Hebrews 12:14-15 (NKJV) [14] Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: [15] looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
Purity in heart is expounded into Holiness and pursuit of peace with all people. This peace is not compromise, but the result of you not being defiled. Bitterness is the fruit of unforgiveness,
Matthew 6:14 (NKJV) “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Ephesians 4:32 (NKJV) And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
Colossians 3:13 (NKJV) bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
You need to forgive. Make a list of people you need to forgive and meet me individually.
Mise en place for next session.
2. List of those who you need to forgive.
3. Read Genesis 5 to 9
The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
Genesis 19:24-25 (NKJV) 24 Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
The first mention of Sodom and Gomorrah is in Genesis 18. Its judgment and destruction is chronicled in the next chapter. It is mentioned throughout the Bible, both in the new and the old Testament. We are going to look at a few of those scriptures to see how this is relevant to us today.
Genesis 18:20-21 (NKJV) 20 And the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
What is this sin that is very grave?
Genesis 19:4-5 (NKJV) 4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”
From this passage, we understand that homosexuality was prevalent there. This is confirmed in the New Testament also.
Jude 1:7 (NKJV) as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
God’s attitude toward homosexuality is portrayed in the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. I haven’t been able to locate a single verse in the Bible that decries sex as sinful, dirty, or wrong. It’s only the misuse of sex (when it is experienced outside a loving, intimate commitment between a husband and wife) that gets God angry. There is a reason for this.
Before Adam and Eve fell, God instituted marriage as a covenant. This was to be the basis on which all regulations are to be framed. The marriage relation is used to represent the union between God and his people.
Isaiah 54:5 (NKJV) For your Maker is your husband, The LORD of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.
Jeremiah 3:1 (NKJV) “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man’s, May he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,” says the LORD.
Hosea 2:20 (NKJV) I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD.
In the New Testament the same figure is employed in representing the love of Christ to his saints.
Ephesians 5:25-27 (NKJV) 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
With this idea rooted in our mind, let us continue studying this event further.
Initially, I thought here was a bunch of homosexual perverts whose actions angered God, and he judged them, but because of Lot’s begging, I thought the judgment was not complete. This, I reasoned, is the reason for homosexuality being prevalent today.
Genesis 19:18-22 (NKJV) 18 Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords! 19 Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die. 20 See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.” 21 And he said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. 22 Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
The Sin of Sodom
I thought to myself “I wish the judgment would have been complete”, but then I read what the Lord revealed through Ezekiel the prophet.
Ezekiel 16:49-50 (NKJV) 49 Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50 And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.
Here social injustice rather than sexual perversion is highlighted. Judah was called the “sister” of Sodom since both Israel and Judah had followed the same course as Sodom in pride and perversion.
Three things are mentioned here as iniquity
1) Pride
Proverbs 16:5 (NKJV) Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.
2) Fullness of food
· Speaking of a just man, the Lord says
Ezekiel 18:7 (NKJV) If he has not oppressed anyone, But has restored to the debtor his pledge; Has robbed no one by violence, But has given his bread to the hungry And covered the naked with clothing;
Isaiah 58:5-8 (NKJV) 5 Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the LORD? 6 “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
3) Abundance of idleness
1. First mention is in Joshua 11:23. Here and elsewhere, it is mentioned as a blessing.
Joshua 11:23 (NKJV) “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war.”
Judges 18:27 (NKJV) So they took the things Micah had made, and the priest who had belonged to him, and went to Laish, to a people quiet and secure; and they struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.
So from this we know that they had a rather comfortable life without no obvious threats from anywhere. They thought highly of themselves, had plenty of food to throw way, and have no lack. They have plenty of free time for seeking their pleasure, perhaps on Facebook, YouTube or on whatsapp groups.
Deuteronomy 8:17-18 (NKJV) 17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ 18 And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
They failed to remember the Lord, that He was their God, and that it was He for gave them the ability to make their money.
I realized then that what Sodom and Gomorrah had was not a localized problem.
· They were not infected with homosexuality by a mosquito bite or some virus.
· They were not genetically predestined by God to be sexual perverts, if so, God would not have judged them.
Downward Spiral
The Apostle Paul reveals this in further depth in his epistle to the Romans.
Romans 1:16-32 (NKJV) 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man–and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
From this we understand the Homosexuality and other perversion ARE the result of God’s abandonment.
Romans 1:24 (NKJV) Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
Let us look at this highway to hell step by step, check our own lives, lest we find ourselves abandoned by God.
1) They did not glorify God (Rom. 1:21).
· Though they knew God, they did not glorify God as God
2) They became unthankful (Rom. 1:21).
· They did not acknowledge God.
3) They were vain in their imaginations (Rom. 1:21).
· Instead of pursuing peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, they choose the pleasures of sin. (Hebrews 12:14))
4) They became dark in their hearts (Rom. 1:21).
· They literally chased light away from their hearts.
5) They professed to be wise (Rom. 1:22).
1 Corinthians 3:19 (NKJV) For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”;
6) They became fools (Rom. 1:22).
Psalm 14:1 (NKJV) The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.
Proverbs 14:1 (NKJV) The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish pulls it down with her hands.
7) They changed God’s glory (Rom. 1:23).
Isaiah 42:8 (NKJV) I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.
8) They dishonored their bodies (Rom. 1:24).
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NKJV) 16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
9) They exchanged the truth of God to a lie (Rom. 1:25).
Isaiah 5:20 (NKJV) Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
10) They worshiped creation as God (Rom. 1:25).
Exodus 20:4 (NKJV) “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
11) They served creatures, not God (Rom. 1:25).
· Anything that is created, including your jobs and your iPads, and anything you create, you are not to worship
Deuteronomy 10:12 (NKJV) “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
Romans 12:11 (NKJV) not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
Proverbs 23:4 (NKJV) Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease!
Proverbs 10:22 (NKJV) The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.
Ecclesiastes 5:19 (NKJV) As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor–this is the gift of God.
Proverbs 3:9 (NKJV) Honor the LORD with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase;
12) They submitted to vile passions or unholy desires (Rom. 1:26).
Colossians 3:5 (Darby) Put to death therefore your members which [are] upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, vile passions, evil lust, and unbridled desire, which is idolatry.
13) Women became lesbians (Rom. 1:26). Men went into sodomy (Rom. 1:27).
1 Corinthians 6:9 (NKJV) Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
14) They rejected knowledge of God (Rom. 1:28).
Hosea 4:6 (NKJV) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
15) They became reprobate in mind or of a debased mind (Rom. 1:28).
2 Corinthians 13:5 (KJV) Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
2 Timothy 3:8 (KJV) Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
Titus 1:16 (KJV) They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
16) They were completely perverted sexually (Rom. 1:29).
1 Corinthians 6:18 (NKJV) Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 (NKJV) For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
17) They were filled with iniquities (Rom. 1:29-31).
2 Timothy 2:19 (NKJV) Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
1 John 5:17 (NKJV) All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
1 John 1:9 (NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
18) They despised the coming judgment.
Hebrews 9:27 (NKJV) And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
19) They gloried in wickedness (Rom. 1:32).
Revelation 21:27 (NKJV) But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
We know from Jude that the Lord judged Sodom and Gomorrah for having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans that sexual immorality is a consequence (almost a symptom?) of rejecting God.
Ezekiel reminded Judah, however, that Sodom was destroyed because of its pride, laziness, gluttony, and unconcern for the poor and needy.
1 John 4:20 (NKJV) If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
In this passage, our love for our neighbor is integrated with love for God. Earlier, John states very clearly that God is love
1 John 4:8 (NKJV) He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
This bring us to the core of the issue. There is no love in our midst, and without love, we are nothing by a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal, but what is love you ask?
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NKJV) 1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
This is not love for yourself, but for the Lord and for what He loves.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NKJV) 1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
So this, my brethren is the playing out of the fourth judgment of Genesis, the reason that Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed.
IF you stand righteous in the eyes of God, in the position He has established you in Jesus Christ, He will remove you from His wrath to come.
So what is the moral of this story?
Like Sodom and Gomorrah, we are blessed with plenty of pursuits that bring pleasure to our life on earth. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with living a good life, what God hates is a life lived forsaking God.
Psalm 14:2 (NKJV) The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
Ezra 8:22 (NKJV) For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.”
Luke 16:13 (NKJV) No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
1 Timothy 6:10 (NKJV) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
There is nothing more desired among men than riches and leisure, and yet these gave birth to the sins that brought destruction upon the Sodom and Gomorrah. Their useless idle life made them a prey to Satan’s temptations, and they defaced the image of God, and became satanic rather than divine.
Proverbs 10:4 (NKJV) He who has a slack hand becomes poor, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Idleness is one of the greatest curses that can fall upon man, for vice and crime follow in its path. It enfeebles the mind, perverts the understanding, and debases the soul. Satan lies in ambush, ready to destroy those who are idle.
Flesh
The expression “the flesh” often carries a special doctrinal meaning in the NT. In this usage it does not refer to the body, but to the old nature of the believer, with its tendency to sin even after the miracle of the new birth.
While believers should be spiritual, some are fleshly or carnal,
1 Corinthians 3:1 (NKJV) And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.
These individuals are said to walk according to the flesh,
2 Corinthians 10:2 (NKJV) But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
They serve the law of sin,
Romans 7:25 (NKJV) I thank God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Walking in the flesh is contrasted with walking in the Spirit,
Romans 8:4-5 (NKJV) [4] that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. [5] For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Christians are admonished to make no provision for the flesh and its filthiness
Romans 13:14 (NKJV) But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
2 Corinthians 7:1 (NKJV) Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
A dreadful list of the works of the flesh appears in Gal. 5:19-21.
Galatians 5:19-21 (NKJV) [19] Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, [20] idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, [21] envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
They that are “in the flesh” cannot please God; their minds are at enmity with Him
Romans 8:7-8 (NKJV) [7] Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. [8] So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
The flesh is contrary to the Spirit. No good thing dwells in the flesh.
Galatians 5:17 (NKJV) For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
Romans 7:18 (NKJV) For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
The notion that spiritual Christians may eradicate the old nature by a superior form of holiness is in error.
1 John 1:8-10 (NKJV) [8] If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [9] If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [10] If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
The teaching of Scripture is that in a believer the flesh is controlled by the Spirit,
Galatians 5:16 (NKJV) I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
How can you walk in the Spirit if you do not hear from God?
Romans 8:14 (NKJV) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
If you want to be led by the Spirit of God, then seek God and live
Amos 5:4-6 (NKJV) [4] For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live; [5] But do not seek Bethel, Nor enter Gilgal, Nor pass over to Beersheba; For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, And Bethel shall come to nothing. [6] Seek the LORD and live, Lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, And devour it, With no one to quench it in Bethel–
This is the only way out of idleness and the consequent fall led by the flesh into the sin that brought judgement upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
Think about how you have wronged God and man, anything you need to be forgiven. Think as far back as possible. Make a list.
1 John 1:9 (NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We are going to burn our bridges and start afresh.
Mise en place for next session.
1) List of sins against God and man.
2) Read Genesis 12. Ephesians 1
Basic Principles for not misunderstanding God
Many concepts in the Bible are not understood because of inadequate knowledge of the context and generally of the Word of God. Take for example what Jesus said in Mark 14
Mark 14:61-62 (NKJV) 61 But He kept silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked Him, saying to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 Jesus said, “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
When I first read it, I saw nothing that showed me that Jesus was saying that He was God, and the Son of God. For if He indeed was that, I thought to myself, should he not have said that He was the Son of God? Then I saw the high priest’s reaction
Mark 14:63-64 (NKJV) 63 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “What further need do we have of witnesses? 64 You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?” And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.
What just happened? What did Jesus say that made him deserving death in their eyes? After all, He did not say that He was the Son of God, but the Son of Man, depicting his humanity, right?
Wrong. You see, to the Jews, to say you are the Son of God is no big deal. Adam was the son of God, and that you are all gods.
Luke 3:38 (NKJV) the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Psalm 82:6 (NKJV) I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High.
To say that you are the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven could have meant only one thing, that Jesus is saying that He is the one that Daniel got a vision of
Daniel 7:13-14 (NKJV) 13 “I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. 14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.
This is why they tore their clothes and condemned Jesus to death. He actually said that He was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed.
The point I am trying to make is that there is no way you will get this if you read only the New Testament. You have to have an adequate understanding and knowledge of the what the new testament writers and Jesus identified as scriptures.
John 5:39 (NKJV) You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.
Hebrews 10:7 (NKJV) Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come– In the volume of the book it is written of Me– To do Your will, O God.’ “
Timothy 3:16 (NKJV) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
The purpose of this course is to tell you in a sense where to look and what to look out for.
My job is not to dish this understanding out to you, you will have glean that from the revealed will of God.
Proverbs 4:7 (NKJV) Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.
2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV) Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. .
Why two trees?
Why did God speak of two trees in the garden? He spoke about the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He said, “Don’t eat of this Tree” but we find no command about the Tree of Life. But it was just as accessible as this one was.
This is the forbidden Tree. Why did God put it there? I asked myself that question. It’s very simple. If only the Tree of Life was there and you go to it and you take it; what do you miss out on? Have you thought about it?
Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV) But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
God puts this extra Tree so that we can make a choice, and decide for Him. It is for this choice that Christ died. Let me explain. Before Jesus died and rose again, whatever you did you were sold to sin – you had no choice to decide for God. So Jesus came and fixed that problem. And He said, “I am The Way, The Truth and The Life, no man can come to the Father except through Me.” He did everything possible and said on the cross, “It is finished;” so that we can choose tChrist) instead of the world.
Galatians 5:1 (NKJV) Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
What the Lord Jesus has given us is the ability to choose the future that He has won for us rather than the future that is a consequence of our actions.
There will always be that choice. There will always be two trees in your life. Some of you will have 8 trees, some 16, and some 32. The more trees you have, the better;
Instead of a predestined plan where we are headed for destruction because of sin, the Lord has given us a choice to choose His plan for us. In other words, you don’t have to live the consequences of your past if you come to the plan that Jesus has for you because in every way, you are a new creation. What Jesus has done has given us the freedom to escape from ourselves. And this is a decision you and I can personally make – ONLY WE CAN MAKE IT. The choice starts with you as a person – then it overflows to your family – then to your community and by the community you can extend it to the world at large.
You have a work to do.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 (NKJV) For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
It is his will for us, and because it is His will for us, the power to lead a godly life comes from God. We don’t have the resources to be truly godly, therefore God allows us to “share his divine nature” in order to keep us from sin and help us live for him. When we are born again, God by his Spirit empowers us to walk into and in his own goodness.
Prophecy
Before we continue to the next teaching, there is a crucial element of the Bible that we need to get a grasp of.
2 Peter 1:20-21 (KJV) 20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Everything we study will be based solely on what the “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. By this I mean the canon of the scripture, the books that are considered the authoritative Word of God.
Proverbs 25:2 (NKJV) It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
This tells me there is more in the Bible than what meets the eye, that there are matters concealed. However, for those who are His, there is revelation
Amos 3:7 (NKJV) Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
Deuteronomy 29:29 (NKJV) The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
The fact that the Bible is so cryptic in nature, that only the Holy Spirit can reveal that past, present and future, is lost on most Christians. Even most believers accept what is taught from the pulpit without checking it out for themselves.
Instead of wracking your brain with spiritual things that does not concern you and shipwrecking your faith, racking up folly and pride, there is something about the Bible that you need to understand before we go on.
Psalm 131:1-3 (NKJV) 1 LORD, my heart is not haughty, Nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, Nor with things too profound for me. 2 Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3 O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever.
What you need to understand is that there are things that God has hidden, which will only be revealed at the right time.
God deliberately did not reveal His “plan” fully in the old testament because then the cosmic enemies of God would then have figured it out, and ruined his plan. It is very important that we understand this, for even Jesus warned us not to give pearl to swine.
Take Jeconiah for example. Jeconiah, also known as Coniah and as Jehoiachin, was a king of Judah whom God had pronounce a curse upon because he was so evil.
Jeremiah 22:30 (NKJV) Thus says the LORD: ‘Write this man down as childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days; For none of his descendants shall prosper, Sitting on the throne of David, And ruling anymore in Judah.’ ”
The problem is that he was a descendant of King David from whom the Messiah had to come, and because Satan knew this, he worked evil into that lineage in such a way as to give God no choice but in all fairness pronounce a curse. Jeconiah had children, but they were disqualified.
God worked around this through the lineage of Mary (Luke 3) and a man name Zelophehad whose daughters sought and got an amendment to the Jewish law.
The point I am trying to make is that the Bible is set up by God in such a way that only the Holy Spirit can reveal.
1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (NKJV) 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Rulers – not human – Archon. Eph 2:2 Prince of the power of the air.
Ephesians 2:2 (NKJV) in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
The demons knew who he was, but had no idea what God’s plan was. So they all got together and conspired to kill Him, which was the plan of God fulfilled.
Galatians 4:4-7 (NKJV) 4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
God was able to do this because of the cryptic nature of the prophecies. Cryptic means having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure.
Mark 4:11 (NKJV) And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables,
Ephesians 3:4-5 (NKJV) 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:
It was actually a mystery to those who did not have the benefit of the revelation of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Remember Jesus said that His church would be built on the revelation of Himself. Without that revelation even the most obvious scriptures might seem obscure or foolishness.
1 Corinthians 1:18 (NKJV) For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (NKJV) 9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
Only the Holy Spirit can reveal, and He will only reveal at the right time to those who need the revelation.
No word in the Bible is there to fill up space. Genealogies are often difficult to read through, but if you understood that they too have meanings, then it would open up a whole new dimension.
… Adam Man (is)
… Seth Appointed
… Enosh Mortal
… Kenan Sorrow; (but)
… Mahalalel The Blessed God
… Jared Shall come down
… Enoch Teaching
… Methuselah His death shall bring
… Lamech The Despairing
… Noah Comfort, Rest
It is not my desire to teach that to you now, but since we are in the portion of the Bible where there is a genealogy is given, let us consider their meanings.
A study of other genealogies in the Bible could open up more meaning to you, but I leave that for you to do at your time.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV) 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Revelation of Jesus Christ
Matthew 16:13-18 (NKJV) 13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
What does Jesus mean upon this Rock I will build my Church? Let us break this down
… Who is Jesus talking to? Peter.
… What are they talking about?
· “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
· To which Peter responded “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
· Then Jesus said “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
· So what is the key point here? Revelation, and specifically, the revelation of who Jesus is.
Peter
Let us look at verse 18
… And I also say to you that you are Peter,
· Peter was named Simon by his parents. Simon is from the Hebrew Simeon, the second son of Jacob by his wife Leah.
· Not a reed in Hebrew, but the root word is Shama, which can mean to hear or to obey.
Genesis 29:33 (NKJV) Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon.
Deuteronomy 6:4 (NKJV) “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
· Jesus did not replace “Simon” with “Peter”, but added a revelation of a character, that is patros a rock or stone.
· In a sense you could say that it meant a living stone upon which Jesus will build His Church, but that is not just Peter alone as he himself testifies
1 Peter 2:4-5 (NKJV) 4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
… Jesus goes on to say “and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Rock
Let us settle the debate of who or what this “rock” is once and for all.
Deuteronomy 32:3-4 (NKJV) 3 For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God. 4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.
Deuteronomy 32:15 (NKJV) “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick, You are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
Deuteronomy 32:17-18 (NKJV) 17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear. 18 Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, And have forgotten the God who fathered you.
Deuteronomy 32:31 (NKJV) For their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves being judges.
Deuteronomy 32:37 (NKJV) He will say: ‘Where are their gods, The rock in which they sought refuge?
From these Scriptures, it is obvious that the Rock is not a man, but is symbolic of God. Let us look at some more scriptures
Psalm 18:2 (NKJV) The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Psalm 18:31 (NKJV) For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?
Psalm 18:46 (NKJV) The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted.
Now, let us look at what the New Testament has to say about the Rock
1 Corinthians 10:4 (NKJV) and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
Matthew 7:24 (NKJV) “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
So who is this Rock as far as we are concerned? Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior
Jesus Christ
The revelation of Jesus Christ that Peter received is the Rock on which the Lord will build His Church. Without a revelation, you cannot build anything for the Lord.
And upon hearing the revelation and obeying (Simon), the hearer and the one who obeys becomes the living stone (Peter) upon which the Lord can build his Church.
Revelation 1:3 (NKJV) Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
So not only the Church, but our own life cannot be built useful for God without a Revelation of Jesus Christ.
2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Remember the Gathering? Paul warned that there will be a falling away before that.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 (NKJV) Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
Now, the Lord is able to keep you from falling, if you continue to seek Him
2 Peter 1:2-4 (NKJV) 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Peter 1:10-11 (NKJV) 10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
If I were allowed to take the liberty of using this entrance as a symbol, then I would say that this entrance starts the day you get saved and is the original stairway to heaven, where each step is a revelation building you up to the next step.
2 Peter 1:2-3 (NKJV) [2] Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, [3] as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
This knowledge of Him is the Revelation that gives us the divine power pertaining to life and godliness.
Amos 5:4-5 (NKJV) [4] For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live; [5] But do not seek Bethel, Nor enter Gilgal, Nor pass over to Beersheba; For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, And Bethel shall come to nothing.
Sometimes we seek divine intervention instead of availing the power God has already placed within us. Let us look at the difference
Luke 1:35 (NKJV) And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
Matthew 1:18-24 (NKJV) 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” 24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife,
Matthew 2:13-14 (NKJV) 13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” 14 When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt,
Matthew 2:19-21 (NKJV) 19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” 21 Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.
… The miraculous birth was divine intervention.
… Then all that Joseph had was a revelation. That was enough. In it contained all the divine power he needed to get the job done.
… Notice that the angels did not even promise to make a straight path for them to Egypt
For the rest of the session, I hope to open your eyes to the following points.
… There are things we are only going to know about when it happens. General interpretation is often unknowable until hindsight.
… The Lord will reveal all we need to know before it happens, but only what we need to know for the work ordained for us.
… We need to be faithful with what has been given, revealed, for this concerns our work.
… Above all, loyalty to God, above all else, is absolutely mandatory.
Mise en place for next session.
1. Read Genesis 5 to 9
Timelines
Positional
Scene 1
In the beginning there was God. In the Old Testament, four words are translated as the English word “God”. Those words are El, Elah, Elo’ah, and Elohim.
Genesis 1:1 (NKJV) In the beginning God (Elohm) created the heavens and the earth.
There is, however, one name that is unique to the God of the Bible. Our Heavenly Father reveals Himself in the Old Covenant as Yehowah / Jehovah / Yahweh, the first mention of this name, here stated as the only creator.
In Hebrew Scriptures, this name is recorded as YHWH. Ancient Hebrew did not use vowels in its written form. The vowels were pronounced in spoken Hebrew but were not recorded in written Hebrew. The appropriate vowel sounds of words were passed down orally. As a result, when ancient Hebrew is studied, scholars and linguists often do not know with absolute confidence how certain Hebrew words were pronounced.
This is the reason that the pronunciation of YHWH, also known as the tetragrammaton, is still not universally agreed upon. Some prefer “Yahweh” (YAH-way); others prefer “Yehowah” or “Yahuweh”; still others argue for “Jehovah.”
Genesis 2:4 (NKJV) This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD (Yehovah) God (Elohim) made the earth and the heavens,
Isaiah 42:8 (KJV) I am the LORD (Yĕhovah): that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
He is the one we call our heavenly father.
The Bible doesn’t even come close to teaching that there exists an assemblage of equal and sovereign “gods.” But it is clear that our heavenly Father created a court-like assembly of divine beings, also known as Elohim, through which He directed the original affairs of His kingdom work. According to both the Old and New Testaments, He continues to administer His kingdom relationships through this divine structure.
Scene 2
Psalm 82:1 (NKJV) God (elohiym) stands in the congregation of the mighty (el) ; He judges among the gods (elohiym).
The Jews understood that there were two families; upper and lower. This is confirmed in the New testament
Ephesians 3:14-16 (NKJV) [14] For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, [15] from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, [16] that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
God has two families. Various Bible translations render the name of this council of elohim” as: ‘the great assembly,” “heaven’s court,” “the divine council,” and “the assembly of El.” The heavenly council is also rendered in English translations as “His own congregation,” “the congregation of the mighty,” “the assembly of God”, the assembly of the angels,” “the hosts of heaven,” “the heavenly host,”, “the company of God,” or “watchers”.
Scene 3
Angels
Part of this Elohim class of beings is a sentient class of creatures known as angels. We learned about the Angelic incursion and the disastrous effect it had and continues to have on human beings.
1 Timothy 5:21 (NKJV) I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.
There are three angels whose names are made known in the Scriptures:
1. Michael, the archangel. Most angels in the Bible are portrayed as messengers, but Michael is described in all three books as contending, fighting, or standing against evil spirits and principalities.
2. Gabriel. This angel seems to be a special messenger of the Lord. He is mentioned three times in Scripture:
3. Lucifer, son of the morning (Satan). This is a fallen angel, who was created a perfect and powerful angel.
The Bible also describes different classes of Angels.
Archangel – The word “arch” simply means chief, and it suggests that there is a class of beings higher than ordinary angels.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 (NKJV) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Seraphim – This word means fiery ones. Their form appears to have been human, with the addition of wings.
Isaiah 6:2 (NKJV) [2] Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
This word is used elsewhere only of the “fiery serpents” sent by God as his instruments to inflict on the people the righteous penalty of sin.
Numbers 21:6 (NKJV) So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
Cherubim – “Cherubim” is the plural of “cherub,” from the Hebrew word for “draw near.”
The cherubims look like men except that each one has four faces and four wings and feet like a calf. Two of their wings join tip to tip, and the other two cover their bodies. Their faces are like those of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle.
Ezekiel 1:10 (Sept.) And the likeness of their faces was the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right of the four; and the face of a calf on the left of the four; and the face of an eagle to the four.
When Moses was up in the mountain talking to God, what did the Israelites form a Golden image of? Do you see any connection? We will see it soon. Cherubim were placed in the Garden of Eden to guard the Tree of Life, after the fall of Adam and Eve (Gen.3:24).
Genesis 3:24 (NKJV) So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Satan was the “anointed cherub”. It appears that he was the head of the cherubim. Speaking of his fall, the Bible has this to say.
Ezekiel 28:13-15 (NKJV) [13] You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created. [14] “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. [15] You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.
Isaiah 14:12-14 (NKJV) [12] “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! [13] For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; [14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’
1. Though he is commonly called Lucifer, the exact word in Hebrew is Heylel – Heylel ben shachar.
2. This word Heylel appears nowhere else in the Bible.
a. Root: from hālal (in the sense of brightness)
b. to be clear (origin of sound, but usually of color);
c. to shine; hence to make a show, to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish;
d. to rave; causative to celebrate;
e. also to stultify :- (make) boast (self), celebrate, commend, (deal, make), fool (-ish, -ly), glory, give [light], be (make, feign self) mad (against), give in marriage, [sing, be worthy of] praise, rage, renowned, shine.
3. Shachar means the morning. Ben Shachar means the son of the morning.
4. Whatever his name is, he is the one ultimately responsible for all sin and rebellion in the Universe. We know that he took down a third of the Elohim class of beings with him into damnation.
Revelation 12:4 (NKJV) His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
Satan’s demand to Jesus was that he be worshipped as God. This was is shown even in the OT where the fallen Elohim took up the place of false gods of various nations: Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the demon God of Moab and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites
1 Kings 11:33 (NKJV) because they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess (elohiym) of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god (elohiym) of the Moabites, and Milcom the god (elohiym) of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David.
Demons [shedim] (Deut 32:17)
Deuteronomy 32:17 (NKJV) They sacrificed to demons (shed), not to God (Elo’ah), To gods (elohiym) they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear.
Disembodied human dead are also called Elohim (1 Sam 28:13)
1 Samuel 28:13 (NKJV) And the king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What did you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I saw a spirit (elohiym) ascending out of the earth.”
Scene 4
Into this cosmic mess after judgement, God creates man in His own image.
Psalm 8:5 (NKJV) For You have made him a little lower than the angels (elohiym), And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
The unfallen man walked in the dominion and authority that God had. This includes authority of the fallen Elohim.
Genesis 3:5 (NKJV) For God (elohiym)knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God (KJV- ye shall be as gods) (elohiym), knowing good and evil.”
The woman was deceived, the man disobeyed.
1 Timothy 2:14 (NKJV) And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
Romans 5:19 (NKJV) For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
Scene 5
Adam handed his authority over to Satan, who using Adam’s God given authority and dominion became the God of this age.
2 Corinthians 4:4 (NKJV) whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
He also became “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience” (Eph.2:2).
Ephesians 2:2 (NKJV) in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
Scene 6
Galatians 4:4-6 (NKJV) [4] But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. [6] And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father
Colossians 1:20 (NKJV) and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
Scene 7
Ephesians 2:6 (NKJV) and raised us up together,
and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Scene 8
Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV) 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Scene 9
Revelation 21:1 (NKJV) Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
Spiritual
According to the Bible, every single person on the earth, after Adam, is born into the middle of a war.
The battle lost in this war had a devastating effect when that ancient serpent, also known as the devil and Satan, entered the garden and tempted the first man and woman to disobey God. Through this sin, death entered the world. This fallen mankind began to multiply and cover the face of the earth, not without hope, but with a promise of a savior through the seed of the woman.
The first full assault on humanity to eradicate the seed of the woman from the Earth came soon after. They sired the Nephilim, their hybrid abomination offspring. They corrupted the genetics of not just humanity, but of animals and plants as well.
These Angels conspired to abandon their assigned posts in the firmament, where they carried out the commandments God had given them. Using this knowledge they had been given by God to perform their original tasks in the heavens, they proceeded to teach mankind all sorts of forbidden things, in order to “civilize” them, to equip them in the building of cities, vast kingdoms, where these fallen angelic beings could rule as gods.
Like in the garden of Eden, This knowledge was presented as being the keys to humanity’s path to enlightenment; the technological know-how that would eventually allow us to take our seats alongside them, as gods, but of course this was all a lie. This forbidden knowledge brought nothing but destruction, perversion, wickedness and death.
The Flood of Noah
God, the Creator, finally became so grieved by the immensity of the wickedness on the earth, and the corruption of his creation, that he decided to wipe it all out, and begin again. Sparing one single family and the animals which God brought to ride out the waters with them,
Satan’s direct rule over the whole earth through his vassals, the Fallen angels, was over. However, no sooner than the earth began to be filled once again with trees and plants and animals, and people began to spread out and fill it once again, did the enemy of mankind begin working, seeking to rebuild what God had destroyed, his beloved empire, whose sole purpose was the enslavement and destruction of mankind.
However, it would be different this time around. No longer did the Fallen one have the ability to send his rebellious emissaries to the earth, to take wives and build cities and palaces, where such self declared deities could sit and rule directly over their subjects. No longer could they walk amongst men and be revered for their brilliance and stature.
No, instead the satanic kingdoms that would be built after the flood had to be done through the worship of now invisible deities, forced to orchestrate their rule through various systems of interdimensional communication, since God had now bound them behind a spiritual veil. Once again a spectrum of forbidden knowledge was disseminated amongst these newly reborn civilizations in order to facilitate the connection between these civilizations and their demonic benefactors.
Thus, in the courts of all the human kings and leaders of these kingdoms, worked a host of occult priesthoods, sorcerers, mediums, astrologers, and practitioners of divination.
The Tower of Babel
The rebellion against God resumed in earnest after the flood, from the first failed attempt by Nimrod to build a tower into the heavens and storm the throne of God, through all the following kingdoms which were founded after the scattering from Babel.
After God destroyed the tower at Babel and confused the languages of mankind, paganism and occultism were gradually spread and developed throughout the world yet again, until once more the true God of heaven and earth chose to intervene, this time by setting apart a man, a people, a kingdom, to bear His name to the rest of the world.
Abraham to Jesus
From Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, down through Moses, Aaron, and Joshua, judges like Samson and Gideon, Kings like David and Solomon, prophets like Elijah, Samuel, Daniel, and Joel, on through the centuries, and amidst the rise and fall of many demonic empires, the God of all creation revealed himself, and began to reveal his plan to redeem humanity from their curse of sin, and death, and demonic oppression.
Finally, from the humble town of Nazareth, Jesus stepped forward and revealed himself as the promised Messiah, the son of God, the Word made flesh, and the one whose own sacrifice would once and for all destroy the curse, and make it possible for men and women to be reborn through the Spirit of God, who would actually come and live within us as the new Temple of God.
For many centuries that followed, the truth of God began to advance upon the various territories of these demonic kingdoms, freeing people from the bondage they had been held in for generations. For the first time since the great flood, large numbers of people began to truly understand who they had actually been in servitude to, in these pagan kingdoms. Throughout stretches of Europe, Africa, and Asia, the truth of Jesus kept spreading. People kept getting set free.
From that point on, the great spiritual war began to take on a rather new twist.
The first tactic Satan brought against us was brute persecution. He used his puppet Emperors of the Roman Empire to imprison kill and torture the first Christians, but somehow this only wound up revealing the power of the gospel, and the hope in eternity that it truly brought. So faith in Jesus only spread.
Next Satan tried a different approach, which many ways proved more effective than the first. Instead of trying to crush the spread of faith in Jesus with the powers of empire, he would usurp it. From the time of Constantine onward, the enemy began a blasphemous campaign of rebranding many of his old demonic kingdoms, and demonic occult priesthoods, as now being Christianized. This way he could seduce the Christians with wealth, power, and earthly pleasures, and corrupt the Church of Christ from within.
Pagan temples were repurposed as Christian churches. Pagan rites and rituals were reinvented as Christian ceremonies.
Still by the sheer grace of God, the truth endured, the gospel spread, and genuine faith in the creator and savior of mankind continued to grow.
Covenantal Timeline
One of the most crucial timelines to follow is the one that marks off the covenant God makes with man. God does not operate outside a covenant, which basically is a contract or agreement between two parties.
In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. Berith is derived from a root which means “to cut,” and hence a covenant is a “cutting,” with reference to the cutting or dividing of animals into two parts, and the contracting parties passing between them, in making a covenant (Gen 15; Jer 34:18, 19).
The corresponding word in the New Testament Greek is diatheke, which is, however, rendered “testament” generally in the Authorized Version. It ought to be rendered, just as the word berith of the Old Testament, “covenant.”
The word is used with reference to God’s revelation of himself in the way of promise or of favour to men. Here is the first mention of the word Berith.
Genesis 6:18 (NKJV) But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark–you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
The Call of Abraham
Genesis 12:1-3 (NKJV) [1] Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. [2] I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. [3] I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Abraham set out to pursue the call of God, but failed to obey completely initially in that he took Lot. His nephew with him. He and lot separated later. Lot moved to Sodom, and was rescued by Angels just before the judgement of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Abraham had Isaac. Isaac had Jacob. Jacob had 12 children. Because of a famine, they moved to Egypt where Joseph was the prime minister. The generation that followed were made slaves by the Egyptians. God heard their cry and raised up a deliverer by the name of Moses.
With great signs and wonders, God delivered the Israelites from Egypt. The came to a place called Sinai where God gave them His laws.
After the death of Moses, the Lord instructed Joshua to lead His people into the promised land and divide for them an inheritance.
After the Joshua and Caleb generation, Israel was ruled by judges ordained by the Lord. Whenever there was a judge, they followed the Lord, but did whatever was right in their own eyes after a judge died. This would cause them to go into captivity, after which they would cry out. The Lord would hear their cry and raise up another judge.
This cycle went on until Israel demanded a king. This began the tragic reign of Saul, followed by the might reign of King David, and the prosperous reign of his son Solomon.
The Divided Kingdom.
· The division of the kingdom. North – Israel. South – Judah. Comparison of the two kingdoms.
The Exile.
· The first was the exile of the Israelites of the northern kingdom (Samaria) carried out by the Assyrians.
· The next major exile involved the destruction of the southern kingdom (Judah) and the city of Jerusalem. It, too, took place in several phases, all under the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (Jr 52:28-30), the most terrible of which was in 586 b.c. (Jr 52:29). This was when Solomon’s temple was destroyed and the dynasty of David came to an end.
The Restoration.
· Following a decree by the Persian King Cyrus, conqueror of the Babylonian empire (538 BCE), some 50,000 Jews set out on the first return to the Land of Israel, led by Zerubbabel, a descendant of the House of David.
· Less than a century later, the second return was led by Ezra the Scribe. Over the next four centuries, the Jews knew varying degrees of self-rule under Persian (538-333 BCE) and later Hellenistic (Ptolemaic and Seleucid) overlordship (332-142 BCE).
· As part of the ancient world conquered by Alexander the Great of Greece (332 BCE), the Land remained a Jewish theocracy under Syrian-based Seleucid Empire.
· The Romans eventually replaced the Seleucids as the great power in the region. In 37 BCE Herod, a son-in-law of Hyrcanus II, was appointed King of Judea by the Romans. It was during this period that Jesus was born
· The third major exile of the Jews took place under the Romans and also was in two phases. In a.d. 70 the Roman general (later emperor) Titus destroyed Jerusalem and Herod’s temple.
· The land went from hand to hand, and finally ended up in the hands of the British Empire. On Friday afternoon, May 14, 1948, at 4:00 p.m., the final hours of the British authority over the land was ticking away. Then in the Tel Aviv Museum, David Ben-Gurion, the leader of Israel’s National Council, read The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel.
God’s Marriage and Divorce
It is hard to imagine that God got married. When I first heard it, I thought it was crazy, but as we will see today, it is the basis of even our reconciliation with God.
Let us study the covenant God made with Moses and Israel now. The Lord told them over and over not to break this covenant, or to make any other covenant with other Gods.
Exodus 24:7 (NKJV) Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.”
Their marriage was recorded in the “book of the covenant” (a mere four chapters), similar to a Ketubah (Jewish “marriage contract” of today).
It was a marriage contract, complete with prenuptial agreements – that is, terms and conditions of what was expected, and what would happen in case of infidelity. The terms and conditions were Yahweh’s ten words (commandments) which He gave for her good!
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (NKJV) [12] “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, [13] and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?
Unfortunately, it was not a happy marriage as the old testament reveals and as was acted out in the life of Hosea. GOD often had to put away his unfaithful wife, in fact God divorced her. This effectively ended the covenant He made with her.
Hosea 2:1-2 (NKJV) [1] Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’ [2] Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, And her adulteries from between her breasts;
Jeremiah 3:8 (NKJV) Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.
Their divorce created a seemingly unsolvable dilemma because, according to His own Instructions in Deut 24:1-4, a husband cannot take back his wife who has been with another husband (who has also sent her away or died).
Deuteronomy 24:4 (NKJV) then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
How could Israel be brought back into a marriage covenant without Yahweh violating His own law?
The only way the wife (Northern Kingdom Israel) could be released of her fate of having been put away [shlichah] וְשִׁלְּחָ֖הּ] and divorced [kritut כְּרִיתֻת֙] by Yahweh was for Yahweh (her husband) to die which would annul and dissolve original marriage contract.
The Apostle Paul understood that when, using the law to explain, he reminded the Jews (who knew the law) that the law only has jurisdiction over a person until their death. When the person dies, any judgments, contracts, or obligations are then dissolved:
Romans 7:1 (NKJV) Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
Paul then explains how a woman is covenanted to her husband only as long as he lives. When he dies, she is free to remarry at will.
Romans 7:2 (NKJV) For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
So God had to die, but even if He did that, without a covenant that would be put into effect, there can be no relationship with Him. So then, this is what the Lord did by speaking through Jeremiah as a prophecy,
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NKJV) 31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah– 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
This is the only time a new covenant is mentioned in the Old Testament. Let us look at this passage in the new testament.
Hebrews 8:8-13 (NKJV) 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah– 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
The Grafting
Who is the covenant made with? The house of Israel and the House of Judah. This is very important. Then how do you and I, those who are not the biological offspring of Israel fit it? Once again, I am glad you asked.
Romans 11:11-24 (NKJV) 11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. 12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! 13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. 15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
The Apostle Paul likens Israel to the natural branches of a cultivated olive tree. This symbolizes the first covenant. You and I, the Gentile believers, are likened to the branches of a wild olive tree.
The natural branches (Israel) were broken off, and the wild branches (Gentiles) were grafted in (verse 17). You and I, through this, have been made partakers of the promises and inherit the blessings of God’s salvation. So, we are “grafted” into the “olive tree” and nourished by the “root”, the promises to Abraham.
The tree thus signifies the collective people of God; the “wild branches” grafted in are Gentile believers; the “natural branches” that are cut off are the Jews in unbelief. Jewish believers remain in the tree but are joined with Gentiles and “made” into a “new body,”.
Ephesians 2:11-22 (NKJV) 11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh–who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands– 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. 19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
· in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ
· so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace
· members of the household of God,
We will end by going to a portion we read from Hebrews.
Hebrews 8:13 (NKJV) In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
This will vanish away when both houses are reunited and gathered to Him. Once we orient ourselves to see the history of man through God’s covenant of marriage with Israel,
· about how their unfaithfulness caused a split; the house of Israel and the House of Judah,
· about how God divorced the House of Israel, and not Judah, although Judah was not much better
· about how God without breaking His own laws of divorce found a way to restore His marriage through a New Covenant.
· How we who were Godless, could are now adopted to God’s family.
· How He will gather both and us along with them, a process we call rapture.
In other words, from God’s point of view, He is gathering those of us to him. If you are alive at this time, then the process is called Harpazo, which can mean “to carry off by force”, “to snatch out or away”. This is commonly called the rapture, but as we shall see in our further studies, rapture is the process God uses to gather those who are living at the time of His gathering.
Mise en place for tomorrow
1. Read 1 Thessalonians 4
2. Read 2 Thessalonians 2
The Gathering
We ended our previous session by looking into the following verse from Hebrews.
Hebrews 8:13 (NKJV) In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. This will vanish away when both houses are reunited and gathered to Him.
Once we orient ourselves to see the history of man through God’s covenant of marriage with Israel,
· about how their unfaithfulness caused a split; the house of Israel and the House of Judah,
· about how God divorced the House of Israel, and not Judah, although Judah was not much better
· about how God without breaking His own laws of divorce found a way to restore His marriage through a New Covenant.
· How we who were Godless, could are now adopted to God’s family.
· How He will gather both and us along with them, a process we call rapture.
In other words, from God’s point of view, He is gathering those of us who belong to him. If you are alive at this time, then the process is called Harpazo, which can mean “to carry off by force”, “to snatch out or away”. This is commonly called the rapture, but as we shall see in our further studies, rapture is the process God uses to gather those who are living at the time of His gathering. His only
We studied earlier that our heavenly Father has two families
Ephesians 3:14-16 (NKJV) 14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
That there are things on earth and things above, that Jesus will reconcile.
Colossians 1:20 (NKJV) and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
Now let us see what the scripture has to say about our gathering to Him.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-15 (NKJV) 1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.
Seven points to note from this passage that are relevant to our study.
1) Coming of the Lord Jesus and gathering to Him are the same event.
2) That Day will not come unless the falling away comes first,
a. The Falling away. Greek: apostasia, defection, revolt, apostasy. Used only here and in Acts 21:21, but the same as apostasion, divorce, in Mt. 5:31; 19:7; Mk. 10:4.
b. Acts 21:21 (NKJV) but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake (apostasia) Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.
c. Matthew 5:31 (NKJV) “Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’
d. Matthew 19:7 (NKJV) They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”
3) The man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
a. He will oppose God.
b. He will exalt himself above God.
c. He will accept worship as God.
d. He will claim to be God.
e. He sits as God in the temple of God as God
4) The mystery of the lawlessness was already at work at the time the Apostle Paul wrote this
5) There is someone who restrains who “will do so until He is taken out of the way.”
6) Only then can the lawless one be revealed.
a. the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.
b. with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved
c. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness
7) The Lord will consume the lawless one with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming (Parousia).
a. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NKJV) Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming (Parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When our Lord Jesus returns
1) We are gathered to Him
2) The Lord will consume the lawless one.
Two of Paul’s letters to the church in Thessalonica are part of the scriptures. In the first one, he gives them hope about this gathering of our Father God through Jesus, about those who have died, by explaining how they along with those who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them in the clouds
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NKJV) 13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
· Fallen asleep is koimaō. This may refer on occasion to normal sleep (Mt. 28:13; Lk. 22:45), predominately (15 of the 18 times) this word is used figuratively for the “sleep” of death (see Mt. 27:52; 1 Cor. 15:20; 1 Thes. 4:13-15).
Matthew 27:52 (NKJV) and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;
· God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus
† Since we are talking about the gathering of the saints, does it not make sense to read this as “God will gather to Himself” those who sleep in Jesus? Let us look at how this is written in the KJV
1 Thessalonians 4:14 (KJV) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring (agō) with him.
† The reason I make this clear is that I was taught that this is Jesus bringing the resurrected dead with Him to fight with him
Revelation 19:14 (NKJV) And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.
† We will see upon further study, and indeed I have taught you all this before, those who were with me for Hebrews and Dove, that when we read the correlating verses from Joel and other places, the armies of heaven cannot be resurrected humans.
2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 (NKJV) 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 26:53 Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?
† Based on what we just learned about the upper family, it should be absolutely clear who these armies are.
† The problem some people have in accepting this is verse 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
† We will be with Jesus, yes but it is not a choreographic group dance.
Acts 17:26-28 (NKJV) [26] And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, [27] so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; [28] for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
† Romans 12:2 Jesus seated. Always seated? Acts 7:55, Stephen sees Jesus standing. No Terra Cotta heaven
† We are the body of Christ, but we are not the armies of heaven.
· we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
† For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.
† And the dead in Christ will rise first.
· Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up (harpazō) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
Matthew 11:12 (NKJV) And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take (harpazō) it by force (harpazō).
Revelation 12:5 (NKJV) She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up (harpazō) to God and His throne.
· And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
If what has been taught so far has been made clear to you, Praise the Lord. The nature of this topic demands that we get this understanding into our spirit before we continue. Therefore, I will make one more thing clear and the continue in the next session.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 (NKJV) 1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. 11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.
The brethren, the church is not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake us as a thief
So let us
1) Not sleep (1Th. 5:6-7). Greek: katheudo (GSN-<G2518>), to repose one’s self in sleep.
a) Used of the sleeping, indifferent, careless, and unfaithful virgins (Mt. 25:5);
Matthew 25:5 (NKJV) But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
b) of the sleeping disciples who could not watch with Christ one hour (Mt. 26:45);
Matthew 26:45 (NKJV) Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.
c) and of indifferent and backsliding men (Eph. 5:14; 1Th. 5:6,7,8).
Ephesians 5:14 (NKJV) Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”
d) The warning here is that we not go back into sin.
2) Watch (1Th. 5:6).
a) Be always alert and live godly in Christ; do not permit yourself to be overthrown by temptation (Mt. 24:42-51).
3) Be sober (1Th. 5:6-8). Greek: nepho,
a) to drink no intoxicants; live soberly and righteously (Tit. 2:11-12).
Titus 2:11-12 (NKJV) 11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,
b) Translated be sober (1Th. 5:6,8; 1Pet. 1:13; 5:8) and
1 Peter 1:13 (NKJV) Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1 Peter 5:8 (NKJV) Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
c) watch (2Tim. 4:5; 1Pet. 4:7).
2 Timothy 4:5 (NKJV) But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
1 Peter 4:7 (NKJV) But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.
d) It was counted a disgrace even among the heathen to be drunk in the day, hence the admonition to live as children of light and of the day (1Th. 5:5-8).
4) Put on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet — the hope of salvation (1Th. 5:8; Eph. 6:10-18).
Ephesians 6:10-18 (NKJV) 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints–
a) We are not only to be sober and watch, but we are called to fight the fight of faith and lay hold of eternal life (1Tim. 6:12; 1Cor. 9:24-27).
1 Timothy 6:12 (NKJV) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NKJV) 24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
If you do all these things, this event will not catch you off guard. You are called to know the times and the seasons, but what is this event?
This gathering, if you remember, is on the day of the Lord.
The Day of the Lord
Hebrews 9:27 (NKJV) And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
John 16:8 (NKJV) And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
In his first recorded sermon in a Synagogue, Jesus stopped on a coma.
Luke 4:16-21 (NKJV) 16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” 20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Isaiah 61:1-2 (NKJV) 1 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,
The day of vengeance of our God. This is a day of comfort to those who seek Him, and a day of judgment to those who deny Him.
Today a man may be a blasphemer of God, an atheist, can denounce God and teach bad doctrine. Seemingly God does nothing about it. But the day designated in Scripture as “the day of the Lord” is coming when God will punish human sin, and He will deal in wrath and in judgment with a Christ-rejecting world. One thing we are sure of, that God in His own way will bring every soul into judgment.
Today, you may be wondering when your vindication will come, wondering what the point in living for God is, that day will prove you, and God will vindicate you.
1 Timothy 5:24-25 (KJV) [24] Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. [25] Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.
This is the landmark event, one that is to come, that serves as the passing of this age to the next.
It is in the future, and it is drawing closer as we speak. You can spend a lifetime studying it. I have taught a two-hour session on it. Speak to me if you need the link to the video online.
For our program, I am going to orient you to what it is by going through a few scriptures about the Day of the Lord.
Zechariah 14:1-4 (NKJV) [1] Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst. [2] For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. [3] Then the LORD will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle. [4] And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south
Parousia
Acts 1:9-12 (NKJV) 9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, 11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” 12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey.
The same Jesus will return, as He went up, so He will come down. This what we just read about in Zechariah.
I want to give a brief explanatory note for the Greek noun behind the word “coming,” which is parousia, meaning “an arrival and a continuing presence.” It is the term behind the expression “second coming” or “second advent.” The Lord’s second coming (parousia) will be a comprehensive-complex whole.
We can illustrate this by looking at Jesus’ first coming. When we think of this event, we do not think exclusively of his birth. His birth was his arrival, but his subsequent presence included his upbringing, teaching ministry, miracles, discipleship, death, burial, and resurrection. It was a complex whole that God used to fulfill his purposes.
Similarly, the second coming will begin with Jesus’ arrival in the clouds to resurrect the dead and rapture them along with believers who are alive at that time (1 Thess. 4:13–18).
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NKJV) [13] But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. [14] For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. [15] For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. [16] For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. [17] Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. [18] Therefore comfort one another with these words.
The biblical writers often emphasized the arrival aspect of the parousia because they wanted to induce godly living in their listeners. But it would be a mistake to think they viewed it as limited only to Jesus’ glorious appearing in the sky to resurrect the dead and rapture all believers.
This is because his subsequent presence (parousia) will encompass major events such as the day of the Lord’s wrath, bringing the remnant of Israel to salvation, and reclaiming his earthly regal-rule, which will extend into the millennium.
In short, Christ’s parousia will be realized in his delivery of God’s people, judgment upon the wicked, and reign over the world.
It will be His day of rule on earth, not man’s day. The day of the Lord is a day of punishment for the living wicked;
Isaiah 4:2-6 (NKJV) [2] In that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious; And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing For those of Israel who have escaped. [3] And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy–everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. [4] When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, [5] then the LORD will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering. [6] And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.
a day of destruction from the Almighty;
Isaiah 13:6-9 (NKJV) [6] Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. [7] Therefore all hands will be limp, Every man’s heart will melt, [8] And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be like flames. [9] Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it.
Joel 1:15 (NKJV) Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
a day of God’s wrath upon the enemies of Israel;
Isaiah 34:8 (NKJV) For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
a day of darkness and gloominess;
Joel 2:31 (NKJV) The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
2 Thessalonians 2:7-10 (NKJV) [7] For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. [8] And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. [9] The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, [10] and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
Jude 1:14-15 (NKJV) [14] Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, [15] to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
a day of trouble and distress;
Zephaniah 1:7-18 (NKJV) [7] Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD; For the day of the LORD is at hand, For the LORD has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests. [8] “And it shall be, In the day of the LORD’S sacrifice, That I will punish the princes and the king’s children, And all such as are clothed with foreign apparel. [9] In the same day I will punish All those who leap over the threshold, Who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit. [10] “And there shall be on that day,” says the LORD, “The sound of a mournful cry from the Fish Gate, A wailing from the Second Quarter, And a loud crashing from the hills. [11] Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh! For all the merchant people are cut down; All those who handle money are cut off. [12] “And it shall come to pass at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And punish the men Who are settled in complacency, Who say in their heart, ‘The LORD will not do good, Nor will He do evil.’ [13] Therefore their goods shall become booty, And their houses a desolation; They shall build houses, but not inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine.” [14] The great day of the LORD is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out. [15] That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, [16] A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers. [17] “I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the LORD; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.” [18] Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In the day of the LORD’S wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured By the fire of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance Of all those who dwell in the land.
… Saved from wrath
Romans 5:9 (NKJV) Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
1 Thessalonians 5:9 (NKJV) For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
This day of the Lord is the time that Paul said would come after the hinderer of lawlessness is removed from the earth, and after the reign of the Antichrist. In 2 Thess. 2:1-12 Paul made it clear that two things must precede the day of the Lord-a great falling away and the man of sin being revealed.
Two Events Precede the Day of the Lord
2 Thessalonians 2:3(NKJV [3] Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition
1. The Falling away. Greek: apostasia (NT:646), defection, revolt, apostasy. Used only here and in Acts 21:21, but the same as apostasion, divorce, in Matthew 5:31; Matthew 19:7; Mark 10:4.
2. The man of sin is revealed (2 Thes. 2:3).
Next week, we will study this further, but right now, I want you to see that the whole purpose of Jesus Christ coming was to save those who believe from the wrath of God.
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 (NKJV) 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
Mise en place for the next session.
1. Read Matthew chapters 13 and 24.
2. Read Revelation chapters 6, 7, 8 and 14
The Last Days
The Gate Pass
Now that we have understood that God gathers those who have entered into a covenant with Him, let us look that the requirements laid out by the Lord. In the Old Covenant, it was circumcision, but that is just the gate pass, once inside, you had to obey the rules of the house, or you will get kicked out.
Genesis 17:10-14 (NKJV) 10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
So the two conditions for receiving this gate pass were.
1) You had to be circumcised. The ritual of circumcision did not automatically enter into a covenant with God.
2) You either had to be a descendant of Abraham or be his slave – “you and your descendants after you” or “he who is bought with your money”. No one else was qualified
Now let us look at what conditions are laid out for the New Covenant gate pass.
Mark 16:14-16 (NKJV) [14] Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. [15] And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. [16] He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Similarly, we see two conditions; belief and baptism. “He who believes and is baptized will be saved;”
Belief
John 3:16-17 (NKJV) [16] For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. [17] For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:3 (NKJV) Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Baptism
Colossians 2:6-13 (NKJV) 6 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. 11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
God willing, tomorrow I will be baptizing those who wish to enter into this covenant. If you have not been baptized, and you have now put your faith in Christ, then get baptized tomorrow. If you had been baptized before belief, then get baptized tomorrow. I will be taking a lesson on baptism after class.
Times and Seasons
Genesis 1:14 (NKJV) Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
Amos 3:7 (NKJV) Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
Romans 8:14 (NKJV) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Matthew 16:1-3 (NKJV) 1 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.
Like we discern the face of the sky, we are called to discern the signs of the time.
Ephesians 5:15-16 (NKJV) 15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
The Signs of the times.
A great surprise to a number of Bible students is the discovery that Paul had a full revelation of the end-times – in vision form – before the apostle John’s famous Patmos vision, which resulted in the book of Revelation. This fact is immensely important in that, once we are armed with this information, we can use Paul’s words to shine interpretation assistance upon John’s words – and vice versa.
This truth becomes extremely important when considering John’s vision of the seven trumpets given in the book of Revelation – because Paul spoke several times about trumpets in his writings, particularly in the books of 2 Corinthians and 2 Thessalonians.
We studied that Paul taught about the end times and what to expect.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NKJV) 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Apparently, after that was written, something caused the recipients of this letter from Paul to get shaken in mind and troubled, Because they thought the day of Christ had come and they got left behind. In other words, they thought they missed the “catching up together”, or the rapture.
They knew as we do that this catching up has happened before. Enoch, Elisha are a few examples. The witnesses mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Revelation are also called to come up after they are resurrected from the dead in verse 12.
We do not know what it is was that made the church in Thessalonica believe a lie that they missed the rapture, but it could be, as Paul states, by an evil spirit, or by a deceptive word or by a falsified letter, as if from Paul. He clears this confusion in his second Epistle to Thessalonians as listed in the New Testament.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-6 (NKJV) 1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time
So the Apostle Paul taught them about “these things”; the events in the last days.
Before that, our Lord Jesus told us what the last days are going to be like. He then revealed it to the apostle John in Revelation. We are going to do a comparative study of that today.
The “Olivet Discourse” is an overview of the end times Jesus shared with His disciples the week before His death.
The flow of the discourse follows in the order the disciples asked the questions:
… “…when will these things be?” (Matthew 24:4-26, Mark 13:5-23)
… “…what will be the sign of Your coming?”(Matthew 24:27-31, Mark 13:24-27, Luke 17:24-25)
… “…and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:32-51, Mark 13:28-37, Luke 12:37-40, 17:26-37)
The event described in Matthew 24:29 is the single most important clue as to the timing of the Rapture.
The Revelation Seals
It is commonly accepted among leading Bible scholars that John’s revelation on Patmos occurred around AD 95. The earliest that most reputable scholars would date the book of Revelation is around AD 70. The point is that the apostle Paul died in AD 67 – anywhere from three to twenty-eight years before John would have his Revelation at Patmos.
• Vision of Christ among the lampstands (1:9-20)
• Letters to the seven churches (2:1-3:22)
• The throne scene (4:1-5:11)
Seal one
Matthew 24:1-51 (NKJV) Mt 24:1 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.
Mt 24:2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
Mt 24:3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
Mt 24:4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.
Mt 24:5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
Revelation 6:1-17 (NKJV) Rev 6:1 Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.”
Rev 6:2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
Seal Two
Mt 24:6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Mt 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Rev 6:3 When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.”
Rev 6:4 Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.
Seal Three
And there will be famines,
Rev 6:5 When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.
Rev 6:6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.”
Seal Four
pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
Mt 24:8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Rev 6:7 When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.”
Rev 6:8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
Seal Five
Mt 24:9 Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
Mt 24:10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
Mt 24:11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
Mt 24:12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
Mt 24:13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Mt 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
It is to be understood that Jesus was not saying the incidents in v 14 and v15 are part of the events that happen at that time, but rather a summary of the end; that we should endure to the end, and that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Revelation 14:6 (NKJV) 6 Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth–to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people–
Rev 6:9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
Rev 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
Rev 6:11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
Mt 24:15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand),
Mt 24:16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Mt 24:17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.
Mt 24:18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.
Mt 24:19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!
Mt 24:20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
Mt 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Mt 24:22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.
Mt 24:23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it.
Mt 24:24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Mt 24:25 See, I have told you beforehand.
Mt 24:26 Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.
Mt 24:27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Mt 24:28 For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.
Seal Six
Mt 24:29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Mt 24:30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Rev 6:12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
Rev 6:13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
Rev 6:14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
Rev 6:15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,
Rev 6:16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
Rev 6:17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Mt 24:31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Revelation 7:1-17 (NKJV) Rev 7:1 After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.
Rev 7:2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea,
Rev 7:3 saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”
Rev 7:4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:
Rev 7:9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
Rev 7:10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Rev 7:11 All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
Rev 7:12 saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
Rev 7:13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
Rev 7:14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Matthew 13:24-30 (NKJV) Mt 13:24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;
Mt 13:25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.
Mt 13:26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.
Mt 13:27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
Mt 13:28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’
Mt 13:29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
Mt 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ‘ ”
Revelation 14:14-19 (NKJV) Rev 14:14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”
Rev 14:16 So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.
Rev 14:17 Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:18 And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.”
Rev 14:19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Mt 24:32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.
Mt 24:33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near–at the doors!
Mt 24:34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.
Mt 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Mt 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.
Seal Seven
The seventh seal is not an event in and of itself, but rather, it opens into the first trumpet and continues until the last trumpet is blown. In other words, all seven trumpets of Revelation are contained within the revelation of the seventh seal.
Revelation 8:1-6 (NKJV) [1] When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. [2] And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. [3] Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. [4] And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. [5] Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. [6] So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
Saved from Wrath
Romans 5:9 (NKJV) Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
1 Thessalonians 1:10 (NKJV) and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Jesus is the most important figure in all of human history. He is God in flesh (John 1:1,14; Col. 2:9), physically risen from the dead (John 2:19-21), Lord (Luke 24:34), and Savior (Acts 5:30-32). He came to die for sinners (Rom. 5:8) and to deliver people from the righteous wrath of God upon us.
Baptism
For those of you who wish to be baptized tomorrow, please stay back to meet me.
The End of Days
This is the last session of the Orientation program.
· We started with the four events in Genesis starting with
1) The Fall of Man
2) The Flood of Noah
3) The Tower of Babel
4) The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
· Then we looked briefly at how the fall of man affected humanity. That was the study of the past.
· This was followed by a period by period study of the Biblical history. This brought us from the past to the present. We also understood how God looked at his relationship with man in a manner similar to the covenant of marriage that he established for man.
· The spiritual history of heaven and earth showed us the true nature of the world we live in and what is to be expected in the near future,
· The study of Elohim and the heavenly family opened our eyes to the reality that God has two families. We learned that in the earthly family, one of the branches were broken off and that we were grafted in. This is where Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior comes in. He is the mediator of the New Covenant of God.
· This was the study of the present.
· The eschatological portion of the orientation focused on how our heavenly father will united all that are His. I emphasized the fact that the only reason we are qualified for being gathered to God is that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has saved us from the righteous wrath of God that is coming to all creation.
· I also pointed a few landmarks to you, like the day of the Lord, the revelation of the son of perdition, who is also called the lawless one.
Christian Eschatology
Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning “last” (ἔσχατος) and “study” (-λογία), is the study of ‘end things’, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, the end of the world and the nature of the Kingdom of God. Broadly speaking, Christian eschatology is the study of the destiny of humankind as it is described in the Bible, which is the primary source for all Christian eschatology studies.
The major issues and events in Christian eschatology are death and the afterlife, Heaven and Hell, the Second Coming of Jesus, the Resurrection of the Dead, the Rapture, the Tribulation, Millennialism, the end of the world, the Last Judgment, and the New Heaven and New Earth of the world to come.
Premillennialism
Premillennialism, in Christian eschatology, is the belief that Jesus will physically return to the earth before the Millennium, a literal thousand-year golden age of peace. The doctrine is called “premillennialism” because it holds that Jesus’ physical return to earth will occur prior to the inauguration of the Millennium. It is distinct from the other forms of Christian eschatology such as postmillennialism or amillennialism, which view the millennial rule as occurring either before the second coming, or as being figurative and non-temporal.
Premillennialism is based upon a fundamentalistic-literal interpretation of Revelation 20:1–6 in the New Testament, which describes Jesus’ coming to the earth and subsequent reign at the end of an apocalyptic period of tribulation. It views this future age as a time of fulfillment for the prophetic hope of God’s people as given in the Old Testament.
Revelation 20:1-6 (NKJV) [1] Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. [2] He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; [3] and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. [4] And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. [5] But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. [6] Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
Twice Reaped
Almost every denomination has a different take on the events of the last days. I prefer to stick with what the Bible tells me.
The reason I do this is because when I was taught the Bible, it was to tear it apart, to prove that it was false. So after I got saved, I decided not to believe anything unless the Bible defends it.
One of the things I’ve never heart taught is that there are two reaping of the harvest, but it is plainly stated twice in the Bible. We are going start with that and wind down this program with a look at another end-time time-line
Revelation 14:6-7 (NKJV) 6 Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth–to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people– 7 saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”
This is what Jesus is talking about in Matthew
Matthew 24:14 (NKJV) And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Our Lord brings this up again a little later as he explains the events that are going to take place at the end time.
Matthew 24:31 (NKJV) And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
We see the correlating scriptures again in Revelation 14.
Revelation 14:14-20 (NKJV) 14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.
17 Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” 19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.
We will notice that there are two reaping of the harvest, Notice the differences
1) The first angel came from out of the temple, the second angel came out from the altar.
a. Revelation 6:9-10 (NKJV) 9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
b. Revelation 8:3 (NKJV) Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
c. Revelation 16:7 (NKJV) And I heard another from the altar saying, “Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”
2) The first harvest is by Him who sat on the cloud (v16). The second harvest is by an angel (v19)
3) The first is the gathering to Him those who are His. The second is thrown into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
If you are still confused about this, our Lord Jesus explains what is going on.
Matthew 13:24-30 (NKJV) 24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ‘ ”
Using words like “The Kingdom of Heaven” and “field”, it would not be farfetched to say that this could be talking about the Church. If it is not, then why would the servants ask about His field? ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ (V27).
Now, I want you to know, to get into your spirit, that we are not called to walk around with blissful unawareness of this gathering, saying it can happen without warning at any instance, anytime, no, that is not what the Bible teaches us.
1 Thessalonians 5:4-6 (NKJV) 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
Ephesians 5:15-16 (NKJV) 15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Review of the “Last Days” Timeline.
1. The “beginning of birth pains” start with wars, famines and earthquakes around the world (Matthew 24:19). This duration is thought to cover the first 3.5 years of Daniel’s 70th week, which starts when the Antichrist confirms or strengthens a seven year “covenant with the many” (Daniel 9:24).
Matthew 24:19 (NKJV) But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!
Daniel 9:24 (NKJV) “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
2. The Antichrist starts his reign with the “abomination of desolation” (Matthew 24:15) at the midpoint of the 70th week, putting an end to sacrifice and offering (Daniel 9:27). His reign, along with the false prophet (Revelation 13:11), lasts for 3.5 years.
Matthew 24:15 (NKJV) “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand),
Daniel 9:27 (NKJV) Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”
Revelation 13:11 (NKJV) Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
3. The Antichrist’s rule begins the great tribulation, a worldwide distress unequaled to any across history (Matthew 24:21). At this time the believers of God face persecution.
Matthew 24:21 (NKJV) For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
4. During the latter half of the 3.5 years and prior to Jesus’ return, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, stars will fall from the sky (Joel 2:10, Matthew 24:29). In Revelation 6:12, this coincides with the opening of the sixth seal, when the sun turns black and the moon turns blood red.
Joel 2:10 (NKJV) The earth quakes before them, The heavens tremble; The sun and moon grow dark, And the stars diminish their brightness.
Matthew 24:29 (NKJV) “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Revelation 6:12 (NKJV) I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
5. Jesus appears coming on the clouds of the sky to all, and angels will bring about the rapture of the Church (Matthew 24:30-31, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52). In Revelation, his appearance is signified by the people calling out, “hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” (Rev 6:12)
Matthew 24:30-31 (NKJV) 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NKJV) 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (NKJV) 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed– 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
6. God’s wrath falls on the remaining unbelievers, called the “day of the Lord” (Joel 2:11). Since the Second Coming and the rapture of the Church occur immediately before the Day of the Lord, they occur before God’s wrath. The 7th seal encompasses the wrath of the seven trumpets (Revelation 8:2); the seventh trumpet may represent the seven bowls of wrath, which complete the mystery of God (Revelation 11:15).
Joel 2:11 (NKJV) The LORD gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great; For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; Who can endure it?
Revelation 8:2 (NKJV) And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
Revelation 11:5 (NKJV) And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.
7. Since the Antichrist’s reign lasts for 42 months (or 3.5 years) according to Revelation 13:5, the Antichrist’s rule ceases at the end of the 70th week.
Revelation 13:5 (NKJV) And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.
8. Then there is a universal war, whether it is WW3 or WW4 is not important, but what is important is that there has never been such a war before. It is commonly referred to as the Battle of Armageddon and is often portrayed as taking place in the north of Israel, in the plains of Megiddo between the nations of the Earth and the Lord. Though we are not going into that study now, it would seem that the actual battle is in the valley of Jehoshaphat next to the Mount of Olives. All this is part of Jesus’s next Parousia.
Revelation 16:14-16 (NKJV) 14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15 “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.” 16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
9. There is a 1000 year rule of Jesus Christ, where Satan is bound. This is explained in Revelation 20.
Revelation 20:1-15 (NKJV) [1] Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. [2] He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; [3] and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. [4] And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. [5] But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. [6] Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. [7] Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison [8] and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. [9] They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. [10] The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. [11] Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. [12] And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. [13] The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. [14] Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. [15] And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
10. Then everything is made new again.
Revelation 21:1-8 (NKJV) [1] Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. [2] Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [3] And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. [4] And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” [5] Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” [6] And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. [7] He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. [8] But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
… Born once – Die Twice
… Born Twice – Die once.
This ends our Orientation program. It is my sincerest desire that this program has given you a hunger for God’s word, and a determination to live a holy life that is acceptable to our Father God.
This is not just my desire, but this is the specific reason for the letter to the church in Right before the Apostle Paul reveals that we are all going to be caught up, those who are alive, at the gathering, he plainly lays down the condition of the covenant.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 (NKJV) [3] For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; [4] that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, [5] not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; – This is where we should start.
Bible Study Questions
Note: The question paper given to the students is double spaced with lines printed for long answers.
Introduction to Man
1) What are the three tenses of Salvation for a born again Christian?
2) Match the following: –
… spirit a. the seat of affections, desires, emotions, active will, self (Psalm42:5)
… soul b. the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19)
… body c. ‘knows’ his true state (1 Corinthians 2:11)
3) What were the five effects of the Fall of Man in Genesis 3?
4) Physical death is the separation of the ____________________ from the ____________________
5) Spiritual death is the separation of your ____________________, ____________________ and ____________________ from God.
6) What did God mean when He told Adam (Genesis 2:17) “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”?
The Flood of Noah
1) Genesis 6:2 (NKJV) that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. Who are being referenced here as the ‘sons of God’? (Refer to Job 1:6, Job 2:1) ______________________________________________________
2) 2 Peter 2:4 (NKJV) For if God did not spare the _______________________________. but cast them down to hell and delivered them into ______________________________, to be reserved for judgment;
3) Jude verse 6 (NKJV) And the angels who did not keep their _________________________________ _____________________________, but left their own abode, He has reserved in _________________ _____________________________________________ under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
4) The command to be fruitful and multiply; to fill the earth remains the same in Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 9:1-2, but there were differences, certain changes. What is the most important difference?
5) What is the Law of First Mention?
6) Where in the Scriptures are the following first mentioned?
1) Nakedness: _______________________________
2) Grace: _______________________________
3) Drunkenness: _______________________________
4) What is the spiritual consequence of drunkenness?
The City and the Tower in Shinar
1. Genesis 9:1 (NKJV) So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “_____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________.
2. What were the attributes of the people who made their dwelling at the plains of Shinar? What was their single-minded intention?
3. …a tower whose top is in the heavens… Was it merely tall in the physical dimension? Who was its architect? What does his name tell us about him?
3. Match the following:
1. Rosh A) Mighty One
2. Shamayim B) Head, Top
3. Chalel C) Secret
4. Batsar D) Profane
5. Gibbowr E) Heavens
4. What re the parallels we see today to what man attempted to do then?
The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
Fill in the blanks:
1) Ezekiel 16:49-50 (NKJV) Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had ________, ______________ __ _________, and _________________ __ _____________; neither did she strengthen the hand of the _____________ and ________________. And they were ______________ and committed ________________________________ before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.
2) Romans 8:4-5 (NKJV) [4] that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who __ ___ ________ ____ according to the flesh but_____________________ __ ___ __________________. [5] For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
3) Romans 8:7-8 (NKJV) [7] Because the carnal mind is _________________________against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. [8] So then, those who are in the _____________________cannot _____________________ God.
4) 1 John 1:8-10 (NKJV) [8] If we say that we have no sin, we _____________________ ourselves, and the ________________________ is not in us. [9] If we ____________________________ _________________ __________, He is _____________________ and ________________ to forgive us our sins and to c__________________________ us from all u_________________________________________. [10] If we say that we have not _______________________________, we make H_____________________ a liar, and His word is not in us.
5) Would you like to put down in words, how the study of the past through the four events in Genesis has touched you?
Basic Principles for not misunderstanding God
1. Why was the High Priest so offended at Jesus describing Himself as the Son of Man that he tore his clothes? (Refer Daniel 7:13-14)
2. Why were there two trees in the Garden
3. Please write Psalm 131 and explain what this means to you
4. Based on 1 Corinthians 10:4 and Matthew 7:24, what does the Rock mean?
5. Why is a revelation from God an absolute must for His work?
Timelines
1. Use the blank triangles to fill in the 9 scenes of the “Triangle Gospel”
2.What are the two classifications of God’s family? (Ephesians 3:14-16)
3. What have you understood about the usage of the word Elohim.?
4. Though commonly known as Lucifer, what is this being’s real name and what does it mean?
5. Who did God say that He will make the new covenant with? (Jeremiah 31:31, Hebrews 8:8)
6. Based on Romans11:11-24, how do you and I partake of this covenant with God?
7. Ephesians 2: 13 (NKJV) But now in Christ Jesus you who once were _____________________________ have been __________________________by the _______________________________________
8. What is a covenant?
The Gathering
Fill in the Blanks – Refer to your notes
1. Coming of the Lord Jesus and _________________________ to __________________ are the same event.
2. That Day will not come unless the _________________________________ _______________ comes first,
3. Then the man of sin is ____________________________________________________, the son of perdition,
a. He will _________________________________ God.
b. He will ___________________________ himself above God.
c. He will accept ____________________________ as God.
d. He will claim to be ____________________.
e. He ____________________ as __________ in the _________________________ of God.
4. The __________________ of _______________________ was already at work at the time the Apostle Paul wrote this.
5. There is someone who _________________ “will do so until He is _____________ ___ __ ___ ____.”
6. Only then can the __________________________________ _________________________ be revealed.
a. The lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all ______________________, ________________, and lying ___________________.
b. With all ___________________________ ____________________ among those who ________________, because they did not receive the ____________ of the _______________, that they might be saved.
c. And for this reason _____ will send them a _________________ _____________________that they should believe _____________ ___, that they all may be condemned ___ ____ ____ __________ ___ _____ but had __________________________________ in ______________________________________.
7. The Lord will _______________________ the lawless one with the ________ __ ____ _______ and ___________ with the b_____________________________________________________ __ ___ ___________.
9. What does the Apostle Paul mean when he says,” For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night” and follows it by, “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief?”
The Last Days
1. What are the two mandatory conditions of the old covenant?
2. Based on Mark 16:14-16, what are the mandatory requirements to be saved?
3. Briefly describe your understanding of the events that take place in the opening of the seals
4. What does Romans 5:9 and 1 Thessalonians 1:10 speak about?
The End of Days
1. What is Eschatology?
2. What is Pre-millennialism?
3. What is meant by the first resurrection?
4. Write out 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
Fill in the blanks – Refer to your notes.
1. The “beginning of birth pains” start with wars, __________________ and _____________________ around the world (Matthew 24:19).
2. The Antichrist starts his reign with the “_____________ of _________________” (Matthew 24:15) at the _____________________ of the 70th week, putting an end to _____________ and _______________ (Daniel 9:27). His reign, along with the __________ ____________ (Rev. 13:11), lasts for 3.5 years.
3. The Antichrist’s rule begins the _____________ ________________, a worldwide distress unequaled to any across history (Matthew 24:21). At this time the _____________ of God face _______________.
4. During the _______ half of the 3.5 years and prior to Jesus’ return, the sun will be ______________, the moon will not give its light, stars will __________ from the sky (Joel 2:10, Matthew 24:29). In Revelation 6:12, this coincides with the opening of the __________________ seal, when the sun turns black and the moon turns _____________________ red.
5. _________________ appears coming on the clouds of the sky to all, and angels will bring about the ___________________ of the Church (Matthew 24:30-31, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52). In Revelation, his appearance is signified by the people calling out, “__________ us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the ______________ of the ___________!” (Rev 6:12)
6. God’s wrath falls on the remaining ______________________, called the “Day of the Lord” (Joel 2:11). Since the Second Coming and the rapture of the Church occur immediately ___________________ the Day of the Lord, they occur before God’s wrath.
7. Since the ______________________________ reign lasts for 42 months (or 3.5 years) according to Revelation 13:5, his rule ceases at the end of the _______________________ week.
8. Then there is a universal war. It is commonly referred to as the Battle of _______________________
9. There is a _________________________ year rule of Jesus Christ, where Satan is bound.
10. Then everything is made ________________ again.
11. Revelation 20:12-15 [12] And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the _____________________. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. [13] The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were __________________, each one according to his _________________. [14] Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the ______________________ death. [15] And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the _____________________of _________________.
In your own words, please explain what you have gained from this study, how has this changed you?
How can we get in touch with you? (Address/email/phone etc.)