A voice in the wilderness

What you will find here are thoughts and commentary on what I happen to be studying. As for me, I have two daughters who have grown up without me. Education wise, I have two AS degrees, one being in Horticulture, but no bachelors degree. The longest time spent at any one job was 15 years. Sadly, I have not been the great success I had dreamed I would be, but I find that I am becoming more content as my relationship with the Father God grows. God's word is my passion.

Showing posts with label Hallelujah. Show all posts

Friday, March 18, 2022

For the marriage of the Lamb has come. Revelation 19:6-9.

Revelation 19 opens with the declaration that His judgments have come to pass; the logical assumption is that this is after the wrath of God has been poured out upon Israel for their rejection of God and upon nations - this should be thought of as the controlling bodies, for abuses committed against humanity. Apparently, evidence of this judgment is the smoke rising from "Babylon," which is symbolical of Israel. The passages from Revelation 18 do not clearly explain, as I have stated in previous posts, why this is Israel, but it does emphasize Babylon's burning and the speed with which it falls.

"And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird." (Revelation 18:2 NASB)

"And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come." (Revelation 18:9-10 NASB)

Why talk about judgment?

Well, if you have spent your life in the church, as I have, then you have heard about forgiveness and how Jesus took all sin upon Himself at the cross. Only to have someone, just minutes later, remind you of your sinful past. Unfortunately, this is the typical pattern among religious people. I am not telling you this to keep you out of fellowship, you need that, but they have to be safe people willing to address when you are perpetuating some sin.

His judgments?

Honestly, I am not positive about how this judgment stuff is supposed to work, seeing as my years of immersion in the Bible have demonstrated Jesus to be a merciful God. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 how we, the believers, are immediately present with the Lord upon our death. If a person was driving drunk and had given their life to Jesus at some point and crashed into a pole. We often assume little more than Jesus took them to heaven if they die. If they lived, we would tell them what a sinner they are and that they are going to hell because of their sins, which we are sure would be many. Do you see something wrong with the logic here? Me too, and I do not think it can be both ways. Either the price Christ paid on the cross is valid and authentic, or it is not, and we have been duped. What God did through His Son was very real and valid. But I have people in my life that I struggle with. I suppose God's answer to that is I am NOT the judge, He is, and His judgment is faithful and righteous.

Here is how I understand it.

If you have given yourself to God through Christ, then you are considered a part of the body of God's Son, Jesus. God, through Jesus, has taken all of the wrath that we deserved because of sin upon Himself, and that is why we, the church, are NOT subject to the wrath that is coming (Read 1 Thessalonians 5:9). Most of humanity has chosen to ignore the price Jesus paid to bring us back into the relationship and, therefore, fall under the category of those who have rejected Jesus. Because of your actions, you will be included with Israel in this retribution. If you merely warmed a church seat on sporadic Easter Sundays, this, in my opinion, does not qualify as a relationship with God, and you have simply fulfilled some legalistic motivation; and, therefore, might be included among the nations and have to suffer through the wrath that was meant for others.

The NASB and many other translations entitle this next section.

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb

Over my many years in church, I have heard it said, multiple times, that we should find our gifting or calling. Paul covers these gifts of the Spirit extensively in 1 Corinthians 12, and you can read that information at another time. In my own life, and after much struggle to shed the legalism that comes through the church, I have learned that I have a gift of teaching, and hopefully, I make the Word of God understandable. I also have come to understand that my calling is to the body of Christ. I believe that because we, the church, have allowed ourselves to be misled by our own false teachers, and yes, the church is full of them.

Why tell you that?

Because while I can probably explain Biblical things to the degree that anybody with an open mind could understand what I am saying, one of the things I have heard repeatedly is preaching and conversation about the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. If you search for the phrase, this passage below is the only place to find it.

Revelation 19:6-8 MKJV "And I heard as the sound of a great multitude, and as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of strong thunders, saying, Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns! (7) Let us be glad and rejoice and we will give glory to Him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself. (8) And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints."

Those there with Jesus during the seven years of God's wrath may all be shouting Hallelujah!

Why?

Because the promised end has finally come. Again, we are about to see who brings that end and what it looks like. Those absorbed in protecting their masculinity may struggle with this, but we are the bride of Christ. When we accepted Jesus Christ, we accepted that His blood sacrifice was also poured over us, which caused us to be clothed in fine, white linen that was washed in His blood. This is also the description of the 24 elders, and they are deemed symbolic of the church.
(Read Revelation 4:4)

As for the crowns.

"Do not at all fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the Devil will cast some of you into prison, so that you may be tried. And you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life." (Revelation 2:10 MKJV)

I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no man may take your crown. (Revelation 3:11 EMTV)

Although I occasionally struggle with the once saved, always saved concept, I can see multiple references that help to convince me. The problem I have is with the "Christian" that lives like Christ has little or no place in their life. Paul told us we can know the tree by its fruit; well, to be truthful, some people's fruit is inedible.

"... for the tree is known by its fruit." (Matthew 12:33b NASB)

So, either God is a liar, or those people put on an excellent show. If it isn't a show, then I will just have to let God sort out the wheat from the things that kind of look like wheat, but they are not.

Can you see now why I spent more than a few minutes talking about things that I don't really understand?

Here is something I can understand.

How you judge is how you will be judged.

Having already experienced some of that judgment firsthand, I want NO part of my harsh judgments coming back at me. Instead, I want God's mercy.

If some of us will be in heaven shortly, due to the catching away of the church, and since many play out the Revelation as though it is chronological, then wouldn't we, the church, still have to wait seven more years to be married to Christ? Perhaps my question is more rhetorical, and perhaps scripture will answer the question. So with verse nine, we are encouraged as we have been waiting for such a long time for Jesus to return.

Revelation 19:9 EMTV "Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb!' "And he said to me, "These are the true words of God."

Look at those words, "Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb!"

I thought that we had already been invited back into a relationship with the Father and, therefore, invited to the marriage supper?

Indeed, both are true, but that relationship gives us the freedom to sit a the table with Him.

I was publicly accosted by a man I called a brother in Christ, as he called me a firebrand – one who tries to get people excited only to let them crash with disappointment because we, as a church, have been looking for Christ to come back for us, for over two-thousand years. Well, that is true that we have been looking for Him for a long time; but the Apostle Paul did not seem to be concerned about the expediency and emphasized that we are to live as though His arrival, for a waiting church, could happen at any moment.

A pastor that I listened to emphasized Jesus' words when he said, "when you see these signs beginning to happen, then know that the time is near. Well, guess what? We have been watching the signs occur for the last couple of years (It is currently 03/15/22.)

What things?

"There will be signs in sun and moon and stars,

and on the earth dismay among nations,

in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves,

men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world;

for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

"Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory." (Luke 21:25-27 NASB)

There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars.
Still in Luke 21:25. "and on the earth dismay among nations."
"in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves."
Men swooning away or expiring with fear and dread and apprehension and expectation of the things that are coming on the world; for the [very] powers of the heavens will be shaken and caused to totter. (Luke 21:26 AMPC)

So, where are we in terms of Jesus' return?

We are right there.

"But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21:28 NASB)

Again, redemption is a matter of perspective, and dependent upon where you live, it makes more sense. But, the general idea is that we don't have to be neck-deep in the things coming upon the world.

If you lean toward God removing His church body from the earth so that they do not have to experience His seven-year outpouring of wrath, you can consider yourself a pre-tribulation believer.

Should you allow others to convince you that we should endure God's wrath, perhaps because of sin, you are ignoring that Jesus took all sin on Himself and purchased our redemption and lives back to God. Not everybody accepts that grace, and many will follow Satan to his reward, but that is their choice. This theological position is often deemed to be mid-tribulation.

If you are among those few who believe we must endure the same punishment as the nations and only gain anything close to salvation if you survive and enter the millennial reign, you can call yourself a post-tribulation supporter. These people, by their own standard, will not gain any relief from oppression until Jesus comes back and sits as the ruling Messiah during the thousand-year reign.

As a side note, you may have heard this already, but the things we are dealing with, though deadly for some, are NOTHING compared with the slaughter coming.

I had to laugh recently as I watched the news talk about police abuse with that thought in mind.

Do you think the Russian police give a thought to your personal freedoms and how they should NOT beat you up?

Not at all, and since the Ukrainian invasion, people in Russia, who thought they could, speak their mind about how Putin is running things, were rapidly and abusively hurried off to an awaiting prisoner bus. The day is coming; after the church has been removed, abuses will quickly reach deadly levels.

Amir Tsarfati frequently states how the scriptures tell us that approximately 4 billion people will be dead soon after the church is removed. The majority of deaths will come at the hands of humanity.

I like to focus on particular words, and redemption is good. It is the Greek word apolytrōsis and means deliverance, procured by a ransom payment. Wow, we just talked about that because Jesus' actions on the cross purchased our ransom. So perhaps it would be a good time to ask Him into your life.

Thursday, March 10, 2022

A great multitude in heaven, saying. Rev 19:3-5.

One of the things we talked about in the last post is that God's judgments are true and righteous. You need to settle this in your mind – no matter what the judgments look like in your own life, God's judgments are always appropriate and righteous; this of course applies to Israel and the nations.

If you were, to be honest when you read about the judgments that are coming against Israel and the nations, many of you have entertained the thought that God is out of control and just angry.

How do I know that?

Because this is what Satan does, and we saw it in the Garden when he said to Eve, did He really say that? The question/challenge to Eve might as well have accused Adam of lying about what God said, and, it challenged the veracity of God. This scenario with Eve only makes sense because, when God gave the instructions about the tree of knowledge, Eve had NOT been made. Somewhere down the road, Eve is made from Adam's rib. She was cloned. The typical process of cloning has to allow for “natural” growth. Mind you, God does not have to operate on the normal time frame, because, He is God.

Adam had been given dominion of the earth.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26-28 KJV)

Dominion, according to Strong's concordance, is the Hebrew word râdâh. It is a primitive root that means to tread down, that is, subjugate; specifically to crumble off: - (come to, make to) have dominion, prevail against, reign, (bear, make to) rule, (-r, over), take.

For me, the two words that stand out and make sense is to reign and rule. It does not take much of a stretch to comprehend that Adam's role was to inform Eve of the rules and there was only one – don't touch that particular tree. So, when Satan approached Eve with that lousy play on words, he challenged both Adam's honesty and God's wisdom and “law” giving.

Question?

Remember I said that Eve was not present, and yet, here in Genesis 1:26 it appears that both Adam and Eve have been created.

How do you explain that?

Perhaps the best way to understand what transpired, is that the spiritual entities called 'âdâm, that is, a human being, mankind have been set into motion. Neither the man or the woman, have been created as yet.

Note what Genesis 1:27 tells us.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:27 KJV)

Do we have a definition of what God is?

Yes, we do.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
(John 4:24 KJV)

So everything created in Genesis 1:27 looks like God, a Spirit.

We do not have a physical man, made from the earth, until Genesis 2:7.
The explanation of the Garden and the plants in it, particularly the tree of knowledge, are not made known to us until Genesis 2:9.
And, we are not introduced to the woman, Eve, until Genesis 2:21-23.

If man had dominion, then why and how did someone else gain that control?

Awe, now that is the million-dollar question, and it falls back on Adam and God's righteous plan to regain humanity and to have Christ rule over the earth once again.

BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER." (Revelation 19:2 NASB)

God, nor I, can say “He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her,” unless we can see that the seven-years of wrath have been God's judgment.

Once again, who is the her in this sentence?

Chapter 18 of Revelation called her Babylon, that great city. But we learned that Babylon was, like Damascus, to be destroyed and useless; so we are NOT talking about the physical kingdom of Babylon. We are, however, talking Jerusalem, and by extension Israel.

And thus we continue with Revelation 19, starting at verse three.

Revelation 19:3 NASB “And a second time they said, "Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER.”

Who is the “they” we see in Revelation 19:3?

It was something like the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven. If I tried to base my assumption that these were the previously martyred saints, on Revelation 19:1 alone, I could incorrect and misleading, therefore need more information.

“After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God;”
Revelation 19:1 NASB

Previously, in Revelation 7 there is a reference to One of the elders asking John, who this great multitude were. The response was,

“Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?" I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:13-14 NASB)

One more witness. Revelation 12 tells us,

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. (12:10 KJV)

This is almost word for word what we see in Revelation 19:1. The safe proclamation then is that it is the martyred saints that are cheering as salvation and the end of God's wrath has finally come. Even if I get this declaration wrong and it turns out to be the angels shouting out the praises of God, it is not a life-altering mistake.

Consider what the voices say.

And a second time they shouted, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever!” (Revelation 19:3 TLV)

I can find NO reference to the first time they shout like this and with the same terminology.

So, again I ask you, what kind of mentality rejoices over such destruction?

Perhaps, these in heaven can see what has been happening here on earth and know that Israel will sustain two major attacks. Wait a minute, I thought that our entrance into heaven required a change, which for the church is associated with the Bema seat. As I sit here, unchanged, I know that I am a broken human being (thanks to Adam,) and that my brokenness often longs to revel in the destruction of the wicked. So, the logic doesn't work.

If one of those attacks was a part of Nebuchadnezzar's capture of the nations of Israel and Judah, then I have to incorrectly assume that he sacked both cities, and the smoke from those actions ascended forever. But that did not happen. Don't get me wrong, the land that is attributed to God's people, did get sacked, but it was after repeated attacks, from various Assyrian leaders. In none of those cases did the smoke go up from her forever.

I might note that nothing burns forever except for hell, and that, for most is an imperceptible concept. The “Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary” tells us that the Greek word aiōn represents a period of time of significant character; or a state of things marking an age or era. With that knowledge, I can see plainly that it burns until this time period comes to end. The in question is the end of God's wrath, which most refer to as the Great Tribulation.

As I sit here ( March of 2022) Israel seems to believe that she is in control of her destiny. Scripturally, Ezekiel 38, 39 predicts a massive and deadly attack on the nation of Israel, in which a prominent world leader titled Gog and his armies will die in the Megiddo valley. Two-thirds of Israel will be destroyed and killed, but not all by weapons, as some will die because of manufactured pharmaceuticals.

Revelation 19:4 NASB “And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!”

I walked away from a church. The final straw came during a seven-week, crash course in the Revelation. When the pastor, in the third session, stood before the audience and authoritatively said, the twenty-four elders are representative of the church. He gave no explanation and moved on as though he were educated and we were not. When he did that I was done with him and I walked out. This is not the time or the place to flesh that out, but there had been a build-up of reasons and one of those had happened only weeks previous, when something this pastor said, brought many in the audience to their feet in applause. Me, I said out loud, you should be booing such a statement. Internally I was screaming, as your response demonstrates that you will fall for the lies that are coming. Sure enough, the Covid and its associated lies came, and that church shut down for a long time.

In time, I came to understand from Pastor John MacArthur, why the twenty-four elders are representative of the church, and let's just say that the answer stems from Revelation 4:4.

Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads. (Revelation 4:4 NASB)

Pay attention to how they are attired, as this is the description of the church after the catching away.

Revelation 19:5 NASB “And a voice came from the throne, saying, "Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.”

Verse five may come across as insignificant because we have seen loud exuberant accolades about God. It almost seems as if the heavens are getting ready for a great party. We, however, are directed to give Him praise, as we are included among the bond-servants and those who fear Him.

The way I was taught about God was commingled with fear and an inappropriate fear at that. It was demanded that when we say our prayers at night, we explicitly ask God to forgive us for childish sins, and apparently, by mom's standards, they were many. The premise was that if we died during the night, our failure to repent would send us to hell because we had made God mad. Can you imagine the imagery I had of God and how that might have impacted me for the rest of my life? As an adult, I had to make a decision to change that attitude, and that is how and why we found each other.

In the current world we live in, where the Marxist ideals of the BLM movement and the goals behind Critical Race Theory, nobody wants to hear the words bond-servant. I would like to say, there is no slavery, but slavery is alive; it thrives in the Muslim world, and sex trafficking, which involves the capture of young children for sexual perversion, plays into slavery.

The Apostle Paul, a Jew who could have easily, said like his Jewish brethren, that I have been the slave to no one, introduced himself in his letters, on several occasions, as a bond-servant of Jesus Christ. Bond-servants typically have no rights and yet we, as believers, have the right to walk away from the Lord, if we were so foolish. And yet, guided by the moral standards of God, that is written upon our hearts, we have overwhelming freedom and liberty; and, it is all because of this relationship with Christ.

A - Admit you're a sinner.

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

B - Believe Jesus is Lord.

John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

C - Call upon His name.

Romans 10:13 "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Sunday, March 6, 2022

After these things comes salvation. Revelation 19:1-2.

Finally, the tide turns and we are now looking at Revelation 19 and Jesus, returning to earth as the Warrior Messiah.

First, I just want to be honest, trying to grasp chapter 18 and its usage of the name Babylon, was tough. I struggled for days and had to walk away from what I desired to share with you, several times.

Many years ago I took on an attitude in which I would make myself vulnerable when it came to God's Word, my relationship with the Father, and how I talk to God. Some, do not see me as being open, but weak and permanently broken. Guess what, I am and I know it. I can do nothing outside of God's grace and mercy. I think I came to this understanding when I put myself in recovery all those years ago.

My approach to teaching allows me to comprehend things in the Word, that most do not or will not. The underlying rule to understanding is to throw away tradition because tradition paints David, the King to be, as a ridiculously small child; and, it buys into the lie that Jonah lived within the belly of that great fish. If you believe that, then you have watched Walt Disney's Pinocchio too many times.

Since I just offended many of you, allow me to silence your arguments, in this case, about Jonah.

Then a demon-possessed man, who was blind and couldn’t speak, was brought to Jesus. He healed the man so that he could both speak and see. (Matthew 12:22 NLT)

Matthew 12 is the primary place where blasphemy is clearly defined. The Pharisees and a few others, having witnessed a miracle in which Jesus cast out demon(s), began to attribute what He had just done to the power of Satan (Beelzebub if you wish).

Don't let your traditions cause an argument to rage inside your head about how many demons were cast out, or if there were any at all. I have encountered so-called “Christian” people who deny the activity of demons.

Notice the word healed. How does one heal a person whose ailment originates from the action of fallen angels?

The word that almost every translation deemed healed, is the Greek word therapeuō. Wow, that has a familiar ring to it; the primary definition of therapeuō is to serve or do service. It also means to cure or restore to health.

So the obvious thing happening in Matthew 12:22 is that Jesus restored the man to health by doing service to and for him. Many see service as some form of work, like building a home in Mexico; it is not and you see this in Jesus' actions. He frequently responded to the requests of “will you” with a yes and an associated, life-changing response.

Jesus responded to their blasphemous statements by calling them a brood of vipers and trees with rotten fruit.

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you who are evil say anything good? For from the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:33-34 TLV)

These things made them uncomfortable, and so they come back with this,

Then some of the Torah scholars and Pharisees answered Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” (Matthew 12:38 TLV)

What do you think you just saw?

It's a rhetorical question and you don't have to answer. They did not understand what happened when he delivered the man from the demons, because there is no doubt that someone being freed from possession was uncommon at best.

Now, here is where Jonah comes into the conversation.

But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:39-40 NASB)

If any of these naysayers were skillful with the Word of God (the Old Testament) then they would have been immediately familiar with the fascinating story of Jonah and this massive fish.

In the Mediterranean sea, there is really only one that comes close to being able to inhale a human. The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is the second-largest living shark and fish,[4] after the whale shark, and one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark. Adults typically reach 7.9 m (26 ft) in length. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basking_shark

It would have been highly capable of inhaling a human.

This is not about Jonah, it is about our traditions and how they move us away from the truth.

Jesus compared His upcoming DEATH to Jonah, who had already spent three days and nights in the belly of a great fish.

Why is three days and nights significant?

Because the Jews believed that the soul stayed in the body for three days. It was only after this time frame that you are officially dead in their minds. This bizarre thinking is one of the reasons He did not go rushing to Lazarus. He wanted to prove to them that He could raise someone from the dead.

Besides all that, what would be the point of telling this bunch of skeptics that what happened to Jonah would happen to Him, unless Jonah had died?

I have intentionally left out a voluminous amount of information in order to stay on point, and in so doing left the door open for more foolish arguments; it is, however, interesting that God effectively slammed the door on stupidity by telling us this.

And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17 NASB)

As ridiculous as this might seem, God appointed a fish capable of swallowing a human, and there you have it.

And with that, we open Revelation chapter 19.

Revelation 19:1 NASB After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God;

“After these things,” where have we heard this phrase before?

If you guessed Revelation 4:1 you would be correct.

Now, what had God just finished defining in Revelation chapters one through three as they establish the context for chapter four?

The church age. You should not be surprised to learn that we are living in the age of the final church, the Laodicean church.

'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 'So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16 NASB)

We are neither hot nor cold and such worthy of nothing less than to be spit out on the ground in disgust.

So, as in the beginnings of chapter four, something has come to a crashing halt and that is what Revelation 18 calls Babylon. I have twice, in recent posts, explained that Babylon is representative of Israel; and, Babylon is symbolic of the godlessness and lust that motivates the globalists and their agenda to dominate this world.

“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God;”

Since virtually everything in the Revelation is a witness of the prophetic that we find in the Old Testament, then we should be able to find parallel pieces of evidence.

And the ransomed of the LORD will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away. (Isaiah 35:10 NASB)

If I did not know and understand God, then I might think that God should have wrapped me up in His gladness and joy, but, much like in Ukraine, sorrow and sighing have not fled away. It is the people that have needed to flee. As I stand here today, it is difficult at best to see a statement such as “Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,” belonging to the here and now.

Statements such as,

"I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh, And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine; And all flesh will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." (Isaiah 49:26 NASB)

For example, the current leader of Russia has been bullying people and nations around for years. Aside from the pushback he has received from the global community, here at the end of February 2022, no one has stood up to this crazed dictator. And yet, God says, in time, I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh.

Words like what we see in Isaiah 60 seem farcical.

"Violence will not be heard again in your land, Nor devastation or destruction within your borders, But you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise.
(Isaiah 60:18 NASB)

Well, Revelation 19 is where we finally see this happening.

(Revelation 19:2 NASB) “BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.”

“ for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality,”

The harlot is integrated into the Babylon system and is also referred to as a beast. And, though it is analogous to Israel the harlot stands apart from Israel and wants Israel destroyed.

In the NASB translation of Revelation 19:2, the harlot is associated with the idea that there is a long-term corruption of Israel and the populace of the earth taking place, while the majority of translations tell us that the harlot corrupted. So, in trying to grasp who the harlot is and what is her role, we have to ascertain whether the damage done by the harlot has already taken place or is an ongoing process.

The Greek term for corrupt is phtheirō. The explanatory terms derived from this word are varied.

The Word Study Dictionary tells us it is to waste, pine. To corrupt, destroy. Trans. to destroy, punish with destruction, bring to a worse state (1Corinthians_3:17). To corrupt, spoil, vitiate, in a moral or spiritual sense (1Corinthians_15:33; Ephesians_4:22; Judges_1:10; Revelation_19:2). To corrupt, with the meaning of to subvert or corrupt opinions (2Corinthians_7:2; 2Corinthians_11:3.

You probably noticed that it says that the great harlot has already been judged.

Wouldn't that imply the end result would have been imposed as well?

Think about our current justice system.

Don't we have thousands sitting on death row, awaiting the judgment imposed upon them?

We do, but even they continue to have rights. Since our worldly legal system is thought to be based upon God's moral values, then it makes sense that these, associated with the harlot, have a potential chance at mercy; and here is why.

"The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. (Proverbs 8:22 NASB)

At the beginning is in reference to God's work in the creation of the heavens and humanity. Knowing full well that the man would take a destructive path God had a plan, with the purpose of purging Satan and his army of fallen angels, along with the method of redeeming those He has chosen before any of this cataclysmic damage took place.

Possessed is the Hebrew word qānāh and it means to purchase, to acquire, to possess. It is used with God as its subject to mean His buying back His people, redeeming them.

While it is true that forgiveness was purchased on the cross. So, everyone has been freed to follow Jesus, the Son of the Father, without regard for the punishment associated with following Satan.

But, do we do that?

Well, since we have free will, most choose to follow many other things besides God.

Now, as for judgment. All judgment will be given to the Son.

John 9:39 tells us distinctly that He came into this world to judge.

And Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind." (John 9:39 NASB)

But it is not the man Jesus that does the judging right now, it is His word that judges us. If I understand this to be true, and it is, then it would obviously be confusing to hear this next statement.

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:17 NASB)

Jesus had more to say about the Word being the judge.

"If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. "He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. (John 12:47-48 NASB)

Ah, it is the Word, in the last day, that will judge those that do not keep His Word.

But we do see judgment happening in scripture.

One of those moments is in Revelation 19.

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness, He judges and wages war. (Revelation 19:11 NASB)

Here we see Him judging through waging war. War, of course, to Jesus, happens rather quickly.

From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. (Revelation 19:15 NASB)

Some assume there will be a complete annihilation of every person deemed the nations at this point, but that is not true. He only strikes down those who choose to fight against Him.

Ask yourself a question.

Did Russia send every breathing human to fight against Ukraine?

Of course not, but just because they are not on the front lines, does that mean the entrenched hatred of the foreigner does not burn in their hearts? Don't be foolish, prejudice is learned and may stay with you as long as you breathe and are a broken human. Thankfully, all that will be fixed in the twinkling of an eye.

The second judgment happens at the Bema seat of Christ. When this takes place, seems to be associated with the catching away of the church, just moments before the seven years of wrath begins. I see no fear associated with this judgment as it is primarily a time of rewards for God's saints.

And finally, the final judgment at the great white throne. For many, this will be final and complete separation from God. However, for others, whose names are found in the books of life. Matthew 25 spells this out plainly, but it is evidenced in Revelation 20.

“And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.”(Revelation 20:12 NASB)

The assumption is that the Book of Life is only there to give those watching a chance to mock and laugh at those being sent off to the lake of fire for a permanent separation from God. Honestly, that is NOT funny, but abnormally cruel if you can think in this manner.

If you invested some time reading about the sheep and goat judgment that you find in Matthew 25, then you will know that God spent

time fervently looking to see if there was any reason to show them mercy. It is because of these actions that He is able to separate the crowd into what He deems sheep and goats, based upon their works. Those works boil down to the simplest of acts; bringing someone that is thirsty a drink of water; visiting Jesus in prison, even when it did not look like Jesus; and, feeding someone who was down on their luck. The reality of this is that you acted as God hoped you would if confronted by someone whose life was destroyed by circumstances beyond their control.

I have never been a good gambler so I have to go with the sure thing, God. God, through His Son, has proven Himself to me to be the sure thing. Because of those toward me I have given my life to Him and thrown myself upon His mercy.

I realize that this next little aspect will come across as facetious, I am telling you this because I did it, as Pastors and evangelists repeatedly chastened us to do so.

Having spent most of my life in the church, and, after repeatedly asking God to forgive me for my sins, I thought about some of the things I had heard in church, such as Jesus died once for all (sins.) Well, I decided to dive into my bible, set aside the traditional things I had shoved down my throat, and learn what the Bible had to say, for myself. I learned that God is NOT angry, that Jesus, His Son, demonstrated who God is and that once having given myself over to Him, there is no more reason to ask Jesus to forgive me. Recovery, all those years later, taught me the reality of what the Apostle Paul later trying to convey when he said, confess your sins to one another. 1. That other person has to be safe or this confession process will bring out the religious zealots and they will destroy you. 2. By confession, you are being open and honest about your own brokenness. This brokenness is a common trait among all of us, however, most will not admit they are messed up. 3. Confessing our sins to one another has nothing to do with your relationship with God; the relationship begins with handing your life over to Him.

Consider the thief on the cross. It would seem that he only had a few seconds of Jesus' time before they would both be dead, and yet in those few seconds, that guy gave his life to Jesus. The ABCs I have included is a path to this relationship with Jesus, and, security knowing that you are now His and have the guarantee of a permanent home with the Father.