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And Father, we do thank You for this opportunity to gather.

We thank You that we have the privilege of gathering in peace without harassment.

We thank You Father for that we have this chance to explore Your Word.

We pray, Father, through Your Holy Spirit, You'd open that Word to our hearts and lives, that

in all these things we might grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior, and

be more fruitful stewards of these opportunities You put before us as we commit ourselves without

any reservation into Your hands in the name of Yeshua, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Well we are in our 23 of Learn the Bible in 24 Hours, and in which we will attempt to go

from Revelation chapter 4 to the end of the book of chapter 22.

And you may recall that Revelation is one of the unique books that gives you the outline of the book.

And in verse 19 of chapter 1, John is told to write the things which thou hast seen and the things

which are and the things which she'll be metatautah hereafter after these things.

And it's past, present and future tense in effect.

What he has seen in what's past at this point in chapter, by verse 19 of chapter 1, is the vision

of Christ. And every little label, every detail in that vision is used then as an identity,

somewhere later in the book. And some of the identities are very obvious, some are very subtle.

Then he says write the things which are that actually exist now, and that's obviously the

seven churches. This will be chapters 2 and 3, or seven letters penned by Jesus Christ

to seven churches. When we count epistles, we often say there's 21 epistles, 14 ascribed to John

and seven others. And no, there's actually another seven that often get overlooked.

And that's the ones by Jesus himself in chapters 2 and 3, probably the richest material in the

entire book. But at this point, we're going to see what shall be hereafter, what follows

after the churches. And the word hereafter in the Greek is metatautah. And because I've taught

this way for many years, there's a society in Utah called the metatautah society, which basically

hosts a national speaker once a month. But the guy that organized that picked this up from

these presentations actually. But in any case, so when you get to chapter 4, verse 1, not surprisingly,

the first words you're greeted with in the Greek is metatautah after these things. It's

translated after this in your English translation. So John continues saying after this, I looked and

behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet

talking with me which said, come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be what?

Metatautah after these things. Oh, and another point, it comes up in verse 5 of chapter 4.

And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne. Jesus identified those seven lamps

in chapter 1. What were they? The churches. Where are they in chapter 4? In heaven. That's significant.

These subtleties are the kinds of things I want to tune you to. And don't, again, I want you to

remind you, put Acts 1711 at the top of your notepad. Acts 1711 is where Luke tells you, don't

believe anything Chuck, Mr. tells you. We see with openness of mind, but search the scriptures daily

to prove whether those things be so. So we're entering, in chapter 4, we're actually entering

the throne room of the universe. We actually have a vision of the throne of God in the first

couple of, second and third verses. And by the way, the throne of God, you see that in Isaiah 6,

you'll see it in Ezekiel 1 and 10. These are major passages that you can read and compare.

And you'll see the things that are consistent. You also notice some subtle things that are

different. And in those, there's great lessons. But we also find ourselves confronted here in

chapter 4 with 24 elders, 24 elders. And we'll discover as we get into the chapter 5 that they

will identify themselves as kings and priests. And I'm going to suggest to you that they represent

the redeemed. And that may sound like a strange representation. Some people say, well,

Jesus, 12, 24 elders, 12 apostles and 12 patriarchs. I don't think that has anything to do with that.

I think the only place 24 appears in the Bible is when David organizes the priesthood. The

Levitical priests were organized into 24, which translated courses. And each course

officiated the temple for one week and not Shabbat. They shifted to the next one. And they cycled

that way. And it's sort of like a watch bill in the Navy in a sense, except if you were a priest,

you were the course of so and so. There's 24 of those. The course that you were in is the one you

always served with throughout the year. And you would serve every 24 weeks in effect once every

24 weeks in that informal sense. And certain holidays had them all. But in any case, we also find in

Revelation 4 the seven lamps burning. And I'm going to suggest to you they are the same lamps that

Jesus identified in chapter 1 as the churches. What's interesting is we also encounter in the

description of the throne room of the universe a sea of glass that the elders are standing on.

And I think this is kind of interesting because the whole throne room of the universe is modeled

by the tabernacle in many ways. And I won't go through all that here. But it's interesting the

correlative part of that in the tabernacle was the molten sea, this huge labor that they bathed

in. Molten sea is a clumsy translation of brass wash basin. It was five cubit steeps, seven and

a half feet deep. So it was the actual immerse and they have their ritual washing there. And so it's

interesting in the tabernacle it represented the word of God. Now you're cleaned by the washing of

the word. Ephesians uses that expression. But here the elders are standing on it.

They're standing on the Word of God. Right here, you and I, we wash in it. There we'll stand on it.

You say, Juk, that's a pun. Yes it is. It's a figure of speech and it's interesting

the consistency. But in any case, we also encounter that whenever we see that throne of God,

we always seem to encounter these four living creatures. Some unfortunate translations that

label that beast and that caused them to get confused with chapter 13 of Revelation. It's a

different Greek word. The Zoa, it's the living creatures. These are the charia men. They're

probably similar to or maybe the same as the creatures in Isaiah 6 which he calls seraphim.

But they are characterized by a number of things. They have wings and so on. But they have four faces.

The lie in the calf, the man and the eagle. And we felt that was very significant both in terms of

the camp of Israel and its four camps that make up three tribes each. We looked in numbers too.

And then also they're idiomatic of the four gospels, interestingly enough.

But the 24 elders, I believe, are foreshadowed in the sense by David's 24 courses. In 1 Chronicles

24 you can check that out. It shocks many Bible students to discover there are other

priesthoods besides the Levitical priesthood that is so prominent, of course, in the Torah.

In the book of Leviticus and all through the history of Israel, the priesthood was separate

from the ruling line. The ruling tribe was Judah. The priesthood was Levi and they were not to cross.

It's interesting though if you study your Bible carefully, the most prominent non-Levitical

priest is Melchizedek. He shows up incidentally in Genesis 14 and he would disappear into oblivion

if it wasn't for Psalm 110 and about three chapters of the book of Hebrews where they emphasize

that Jesus Christ is a priest and a king after the order of or in the fashion of, in a sense,

of Melchizedek who is both a king and a priest. What many people don't notice is that Jethro.

Moses' father-in-law was a priest of Midian. He wasn't a Levitical priest but he was a priest.

And Jacob also gives tithes in Genesis 28 to whom? It's long before any of these. It could be

related to Melchizedek. It might be something else. Those are perceptions so you'll wear that.

But the main point is there are only three people in the Scripture that are king and a priest.

Melchizedek and the writer to Hebrews is 5, 6, and 7 hammers away that Jesus is unique in that

he's a king and a priest, non-Levitical. And there's a third category that's us. The 24 elders are

kings and priests as we'll see. When you get to chapter 5 verse 9 and 10 it says they sang a new

song that the elders are singing, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book to open the seals thereof

for thou was slain and has to redeem us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue

and people and nation and has made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth.

Now it's interesting. I'll just summarize it now but you'll follow as we go. The tribulation

doesn't start until the lamb starts opening the seals of the book. He doesn't receive the book to

open it until after the 24 elders have put their crowns in the glassy sea. The main point is the

elders are up there worshiping Christ before the tribulation starts. Very interesting and

it's consistent with a number of other passages obviously. Notice how often it's us when we,

something I should point out to you that we know that the elders are not angels because of chapter

7 and verse 11 it makes it clear they're distinct from angels. They identify themselves here by

saying thou has redeemed us. They're saying thou has made us and we shall reign on the earth.

These are the expectation of the elders. Now there are some that say, gee, there's some manuscript,

you'll hear some Bible footnotes will say there's some manuscripts makes that third party, that

you know thou has deemed them and so forth. That's misleading. Only one manuscript out of 24

renders it that way. Clearly the abundance of the scriptural evidence is exactly the way it's

been translated and that's why it's been translated that way in our Bible. But we get to chapter 5 we

have this pivotal event, an event that you really won't understand if you haven't studied the book

of Ruth to understand what a kinsman redeemer is. But let's jump in. John says, and I saw in the

right hand of him that sat on the throne a scroll written within and on the backside, sealed with

seven seals. When it's written on the backside that wasn't normally done but it was done with

title deeds because on the backside was written the requirements it took to open it. If you were

going to redeem it the requirements to redeem it were spelled out on the outside and if you were

qualified then you could open it and claim it. So this is a scroll written within and on the

backside and it was sealed with seven seals, not one seal, seven of them. So you break one and you

can enroll it part way. You break another one, you enroll it's sequential in that sense. Remember

it's not like a book we think of it was not a code. What we call a book would be formally called

a codex. They were starting to emerge in the first century but this is in the Old Testament

idiom in a sense and it's a scroll as you would visualize it. John continues and I saw a strong

angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to lose the seals they're

of? And no man, notice that, no man. We're talking about a man here. Had to be a kinsman of Adam.

Adam forfeited it. If you're going to redeem it you have to be a kinsman. No man in heaven or

in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the scroll neither to look upon it. And

you and I might not fully understand this but John did because in verse 4 John says,

I sobbed convulsively. He really didn't sniffle. He wept much is the way it's translated typically

because no man was found worthy to open and read the scroll and either look there on.

This is a huge tragedy. This is a cosmic tragedy if it was left undone. At this point though,

it's a huge cloud on the proceedings. But fortunately,

one of the elders said unto me, John says, weep not, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah,

the root of David hath prevailed to open the book and to lose the seven seals thereof.

I want you to notice one of his qualifications to do that wasn't just that he was God and he was

perfect. He also was man. Part of his mission was to become man to be qualified to redeem

that which man had forfeited. John continues and I beheld and lo, in other words, I visualize the

elder telling him he's going to be, look, the lion of the tribe of Judah is prevailed. And as John

turns, he doesn't see a lion. These are idioms of title. These aren't visual. It's not a lion

with mane, it's a title of Christ. But as he turns, as I beheld and lo in the midst of the throne and

of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders, stood the lamb as it had been slain.

And this isn't a four-footed lamb as you sometimes see artists rendering it. This is a title of Jesus

Christ. John the Baptist introduced him publicly when he first introduced him. He said,

behold the lamb of God that take of the way that's in the world. That's the way John the Baptist

introduced his first appearance publicly. So the lamb as, it's not a lamb by the way, the lamb as

it has been slain, having seven hordes and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God

sent forth into all the earth. It's interesting to me to see where the lamb is. He is in the midst

of the elders. That's precious. That's precious. The lion of the tribe of Judah, also the lamb as

it has been slain. And I saw the lamb open. One of the, now we're going to, now this is going to

start a sequence of seven seals. This, the books got seven seals. We're going to open them one by one.

John says, I saw the lamb open one of the seals and I heard, is it worth a noise of thunder and

one of the four beasts that one of these four cherubim saying, come and see. And I saw and

behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bowl and a crown was given unto him. And he went

forth conquering and to conquer. You know, it's interesting how many expositors will publish a book

and because he's riding a white horse, they think he's a good guy and they try to identify him with

Jesus Christ. And if this is Jesus Christ, we got a problem because he's in bad company.

The other horsemen are pretty grim as you'll see. No, just because he's a white horse is,

it's interesting that he is a poser. He is a phony. He is the false Christ. And it's,

he does such a good job of it. He misleads many commentators. He, he sat on him, had a bow.

The word bow in, uh, tekon in the Greek is, uh, uh, in, in the book of Genesis,

God gave Noah a bow, a rainbow in that case. It was a token of a covenant. And I believe the word

bow here is also a token of a covenant. It's the covenant that defines the 70th week of Daniel,

but let's go on. And a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer.

And, uh, if that's all we know, it'd be ambiguous, but let's go see what happens next. So we have the

first seal, a white horseman going forth to conquer. We're going to have four, the first four seals

are the famed four horsemen of the apocalypse. The first one is riding a white horse.

When he'd open the second seal, I heard the second beast say, come and see. And there went

out another horse that was red and power was given to him that sat there on to take peace from the

earth that they should kill one another. And there was given unto him a great sword. And so we have

the red horseman, which represent wars. So conquering and going forth wars. These are turbulent times

obviously going forth here. And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say,

come and see. And I beheld a low, a black horse. And he that sat on him had a pair of

balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, a measure of wheat

for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny and see thou hurt not the oil in the wine.

The turn, the, the denarius here that's translated is, was a day's wage. And one measure of wheat,

measure, and then when you get one meal for a day's wage, you get the less expensive grain,

you can get three. But you, well, luxuries are out of the question. This seems to be in the minds

of most analysts an idiomatic way of describing inflation and famine. It may shock you to discover

that most famines in the history of the world are there, are due to political maneuvering,

not all shortage of resources. That's a very cynical, disturbing discovery, but it's, it's,

it's, there are scholars that'll support that. So we have conquest, wars, famine. And when he had

opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, come and see. And I looked and

behold a pale horse. The word pale is the word is in the Greek is actually chloros. It's a

pale green. Behold a chloros horse. And his name that sat on him was death. And hell or Hades

followed with him. Let me comment quickly here. I think most of you should be recognized that in

the Hebrew, it's called shiole in the Greek. It's called Hades. It's not hell as we think of hell.

It's the, it's the, it's the, the domain of the departed souls. Not the, it's not the grave. The

body. Graves can be owned by people. Have a name on it. No, no one owns shiole or Hades. And Hades

has two compartments. The good guys and the bad guys. That's all out of Luke 16. You can study it.

When you see hell often in the English Bible, it really should be, it's re translated, it's a

translation of either the shiole of the Hebrew in the Old Testament or the Hades of the Greek.

And Hades will be cast into hell at the end of the book of Revelation. Hades and shiole are

temporary reservoirs. And they're, the idioms are geocentric.

Gehenna or the thing that we think of as hell is just the opposite. It's in the outer darkness.

Anyway, death and Hades followed with him and power was given unto them over them. See,

it's plural. It's all four of these characters. Over a fourth part of the earth, a fourth part of

the earth, to kill with the sword, with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth.

And the word beast there, by the way, don't jump to the conclusion you're talking about

four-footed mammals. Those beasts might be microscopic. This could include in its overview

pestle and disease of different kinds. So we have the fourth, so these four, white, red, black and

green, are the fabled four horsemen. In literature, these four horses, when they're writing, are

idiomatic of wars and dark times. There have been many novels and fiction items that

lean on the four horsemen of the apocalypse as idiomatic of just trouble, turbulence, death,

conquering, going forth, wars, famine, death and so forth. That's a group. And to try to identify

that white horsemen is Christ will just give you confusion, try to make the sense of the rest of

it. Let's move on. When you'd open the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that

were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with the loud

voice saying, how long, Lord, holy and true, does the not judge and avenge our blood on them that

dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them. That's interesting

because these martyrs must have been resurrected to wear robes. And it was said unto them that

they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also, and their brethren

should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. So that's the martyrs is the fifth seal.

And I beheld when he opened the sixth seal, although there was a great earthquake, and the sun became

black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell onto the

earth even as a fig tree casteth her on timely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together and every mountain and island

were moved out of their places. It's fascinating to me that there are scholars that try to argue

that the book of Revelation has already been fulfilled. I don't think so. Not so you'd notice.

In the case of the earth and the great man and the rich man and the chief captains and the mighty

man and every bondman and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the

mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, hide us from the face of him that siteth

on the throne. And from the what? The wrath of the lamb. I want you to notice that this trouble

is more than just persecution. It is the wrath not of Satan. There are those that paint that

picture in their books that they write. No. The wrath is who's? Jesus. The wrath of the lamb.

I want you to notice this occurs all through the book, but it's showing up here in chapter six

at the front end of all these things. It isn't something left to the very end. Follow me.

And who shall be able to stand? Now those of you who were paying attention when we went through

Joshua, remember that's what did the enemies of Joshua do? They tried to hid in the kite in the

caves, rocks fall on us and so forth. There's a parallel. The book of Joshua and the book of

Revelation have the same outline. It's very worth your comparison in comparative study.

So we have these cosmic changes I'll just summarize it with. Now then I want you to

notice something else. This is a pattern in the book. When there's seven things, you'll notice

there'll be six things and then a break, a parenthesis. As the subject seems to change,

they talk about something else for a while and then they give you the seventh one. It's always

six, a break and the seventh. And in this case, we have after chapter six, the trumpets that are

going to follow, they don't start until chapter eight. Chapter seven is sort of like an insert or

like catching your breath. These things are building up and it's almost as if the screen

director gives you a chance to catch your breath and talk about something else for a moment.

So what comes in here is the ceiling of the 144,000. What is listed there are the 12 tribes.

And 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes make up this peculiar special number of 144,000.

And I think it's 144,000 because that's what it says. And as if to emphasize that, the holy

spirit says there's 12,000 in Judah, 12,000 when you go through the tribes. So when somebody

rings your doorbell and claims they're one of the 144,000, ask them what tribe he's from.

There are, yeah, I'm not to disparage some of these other cults and things, but there's a real

fixation by some on the 100 being one of the 143,000. The 144,000 are clearly Jewish and they're sealed

after the rapture. There are two tribes missing. I thought there's 12 tribes. Well, there's 12

tribes here, aren't there? Name one of the tribes it's missing. Ephraim. That's good. Many people

miss that. Ephraim's there, but it's in disguise. You see, you've got Joseph in here, but by the

time you get to Joseph, you've already mentioned Manasseh. The tribe of Joseph consists of Manasseh

and Ephraim. Well, Manasseh is listed. So what's left is Ephraim, but it's called the tribe of Joseph.

It's as if the Holy Spirit's giving him the back of his hand. He's there, but not by his personal

name. You follow me? But there's somebody else even more conspicuous that's totally missing.

Tribe of Dan. And this is legend. People have speculated about this way back even in the Old

Testament period, strangely enough. So in these 12 tribes, there are two that are missing. The

tribe of Ephraim is there, but you have to unravel it as Joseph Lesmanasseh in a sense.

But the other one that's very well known that is missing, of course, is the tribe of Dan.

And the more you study Dan, the more puzzling it is. It was the tribe through which idolatry

entered the land. And that was also Ephraim's sin also. But Dan has got even some other problems.

Jacob in Genesis 49 prophesies over each of the 12 tribes, and when he talks about Dan, he calls,

alludes to him as a serpent. And in Levitical idioms, that's pretty disparaging.

And so the tribe of Dan has as its symbol, an eagle with a serpent in its mouth.

And a hezer, the head of the tribe of Dan during the period time of the Exodus, didn't like the

serpent, so he had an eagle with a serpent. And that later becomes the symbol of the tribe,

which is simply the serpent, simply the eagle, without the serpent. But Moses also, just like Jacob

did in Genesis 49, Moses in Deuteronomy 33 also closes his book by prophesying over each of the 12

tribes. And we talks about Dan, he makes a strange remark. He says, he shall leap from Bishan. Bishan

is what you and I would call the Golan Heights, up north. What makes that prophecy rather strange,

after Moses, of course, Joshua takes over when they conquer the land. They finally, after seven

years, they succeed. And then the land is allocated among the tribes. And the allocation of Dan was

west of Benjamin, that is, visualize it between Jerusalem and the coast. And they can't cut it there.

Their big hero was Samson, who did a lot, he made a lot of colorful pranks on the Philistines,

which are the adversaries there. But he didn't really accomplish much. And when he dies, they

can't hold the turf. So they send a military group up north. They find a town called Laish,

which they capture and take over, and they move up north. So during the history of Israel,

they say from Dan to Beersheva, the way we would say from Maine to California, in other words,

from Dan up north to Beersheva down in the extreme south. But that wasn't where they were allocated.

And yet so fascinating to look back and see that Moses predicted that they would leap from Bishan,

because they not only went up there, they then leave from there. And strangely enough,

when you get to Judges 18, Deborah and Barak had this huge victory over Sissarra, and she complements

the tribes that helped, and she disparages the tribes that didn't help. And about Dan,

she says, he wouldn't even leave his ships. His ships? What's he doing in ships? So we get the

impression that Dan sought their future separate from the Commonwealth of Israel very, very early,

even in the days of Exodus and on. And so it's interesting that something that may shock many

historians is to discover that Sparta and Troy were Jewish. You can find letters from

the book of Maccabees between the high priest and the king of Sparta, acknowledging their common

ancestry. So there's a whole side here to study, but Deborah's indictment gives you a hint there's

far more going on here. And so Dan is in any case, for whatever reason, you'll also discover

throughout the text that where they go through, like in first chronicles, they give the genealogies,

excuse me, the genealogies of each of the tribes, they skip Dan. The Holy Spirit seems to have

something against Dan from the good go. And so he's mitted from the genealogies, and of course he's

not sealed during the tribulation, which is what Revelation 7 is all about. Okay, so we have this

parenthetical topic, Chapter 7, and then we get to the seventh seal. It picks up in Chapter 8,

and when you open the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

But it's interesting there was silence in heaven for about half an hour, and it's interesting that

you study, again, studied Jericho, and the seven times they marched around the city, they keep silent.

The seventh time they do seven times, and then they shout and waltz him, but you notice the

patterning is very deliberate. Then he goes on, and I saw seven angels which stood before God,

and to them were given seven trumpets. We've been through seven seals, now we're going to go

through seven trumpets. And so the seventh seal is silence in preparation for the seven trumpets.

The seven angels, which the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound, and the first

angel sounded their followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth,

and a third part of the trees was burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. Some scholars

try to make those symbols, some of them taken very literally. It's your choice as you get more

familiar with the thing. That's the first trumpet. The second trumpet, the second angel sounded,

and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and a third part of the sea

became blood, and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea had life died,

and the third part of the ships were destroyed. Now people have different

views as to what these visions and symbols mean, but I can tell you after 50 years of study is

every time I go through it, every time I think I've learned a little bit more, it's always nudged

me in the direction of taking it more literally than before. So that doesn't mean I'm right,

but I can tell you I have come more and more to believe that God means what he says and says

what it means within the framework of figures of speech. But I think that when you see him,

when you got creatures in the sea that died because of this, and the third part of the ships

are destroyed, I tend to think that that's real water and real ships and real oceans, but that's

just my view. They're good scholars with different views. And the third angel sounded in their

belly, great star from heaven burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon a third part of the rivers

and upon the fountains of waters, and the name of the star is called wormwood. And third part of

the waters became wormwood. And many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.

So we have three trumpets and we go to the fourth. The fourth angel sounded, and the third part of

the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars. So as a

third part of them was darkened and the day shone not for a third part of it and the night likewise.

So we have the fourth, the darkness, the third of the sun and stars. And I heard,

and I beheld, heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice,

get this, whoa, whoa, whoa, to the inhibitors of the earth by reason of the other voices of the

trumpet of the three angels, which are yet the sound. In the vernacular, I'd say you haven't seen

anything yet. The next three are real doosers. The inhibitors of the earth, you'll notice all

through the book of Revelation you have the earth dwellers. They're the losers. The term is used

of those that are going to experience this judgment. You're going to see, God isn't through, there are

people that get saved and so forth after the rapture, many. But it's, understand that the

earth dwellers are the inhibitors of the earth. I don't believe that means everybody that happens

to be here. I think it's the people who inhabit the earth. That's for their focus. That's their

dwelling. That's their commitment. In contrast to us who are pilgrims passing through. But anyway,

this is the warning of what the so-called, the last three trumpets are called three woes.

So we got three woes coming here. The fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fall from heaven to the

earth and to him was given the key to the Abu so, the bottomless pit. Now there's only one place

that a pit can be bottomless. Think about it. Where is the only place you can have a pit that has

no bottom? Let me ask you another kind of a question. Suppose I had a house and each side of the house

face south and I look up the wind and saw a bear. What color would the bear be? White, good,

because the only place I can have a house with four sides, all of which are south is at the pole.

Usually that same logic, where's the only place you can have a bottomless pit? The center of the

earth. The center of the earth, all directions are up. So I'm one of these crazies that I really

think the Abu so is geocentric. At least it is certainly is idiomatically and it's interesting to

me that Hades and Shil and Abu so are all geocentric terms when the Gehenna is in the outer darkness.

Just a thought. Anyway, moving on. And he opened the bottomless pit and there rose a smoke out of

the pit as the smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the

smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth and unto them was given power

as the scorpions of the earth have power. Now are these real locusts? I don't think so and I'll show

you why. These are idiomatic locusts. In Revelation 9 it goes on for many many verses describing these

creatures and they are strange creatures. And it goes on, they had tails like scorpions and they

had stings in their tails and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over

them. Ah ha, there's a clue. They had a king over them which is the angel of the bottomless pit whose

name in the Hebrew tongue is a badon but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollion. Both mean

destroyers. Proverbs 30 verse 27 tells us that the locusts have no king. It happens to make that

remark but I think the Holy Spirit put it in there to help us unravel this. These locusts have a king.

So are they locusts? Not in the natural sense. Those are idioms for some kind of demon creatures

because these have a king. And that's kind of interesting because if you study Amos chapter 7

verse 1 in the Septuagint you'll discover that there is a very big difference in the

Masoretic, the Hebrew and the Greek translation three centuries before Christ of that particular

verse. The law, the cut right through it is that the name of the king of the locusts, his name is

Gog. Gog and maygog. Gog is a title. It's a demonic title. Maygog is a people. Anyway moving on,

this is at this point though one woe is past and behold there come two woe's more here after.

So we have now the first of the woe is there. The sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from

the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. And that's idiomatic of course of the

golden altar in the tabernacle. St. And the sixth angel which had a trumpet

loosed the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were

loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year to slay the third part of

men. This is a strange passage because it seems to underscore the fact that demons,

demons hosts are geographically bounded. What on earth is the fact that there's these demon

creatures? Fine. What does it got to the river Euphrates? The river Euphrates will show up

several times in the book of Revelation. The river Euphrates was the eastern boundary of the

Roman Empire. But it seems to have a, it's very strange because there's major negotiations going

on between Israel and Turkey over the water rights and so forth. The water is more precious

than the Middle East than oil. Some respects. You can't drink oil. The rest of the men which were

not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not

worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone or of wood which can neither

see or hear nor walk. Neither repented they have their murders nor their sorceries nor their

fornication nor of their thefts. One of the cloudy gloomy aspects of the book of Revelation

nowhere in the book is their repentance. As these things come and they get worse and worse and worse

people still don't repent and acknowledge God. A very dismal forecast. Okay, so we've got these

six trumpets. Now again we would expect a parenthesis and there's a substantial parenthesis here

of a handful of chapters, four chapters. We have chapters 10 through 14. Chapter 10 has a strange

episode. The mighty angel comes down with a book and has asked John to digest it. In chapter 11 you

have this interesting episode of these two witnesses and then you have chapter 12. There's an interesting

chapter. It's a summary of the history of Israel. And then chapter 13 introduces us to these two

beasts that we collectively call the Antichrist. Remember there's two guys, a political leader

and religious leader. We'll see them in these two beasts of chapter 13. And chapter 14 is sort of

an echo of chapter 7. We had those 12 tribes, the 144,000 sealed. The fruits of their preaching

will show up in chapter 14. So we have this interesting parenthesis and the second was passed.

Behold the third will come with quickly. The seventh angel sounded and there were great voices

in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ

and He shall reign forever and ever. And the 420 elders which sat before God on their seats fell

down, excuse me, fell upon their faces and worshiped God. And so the seventh trumpet is a declaration

that the mystery of God has finished. That's pretty exciting. Let's take a look at this parenthetical

passage. See the seventh trumpet ushers in will usher in when you get to it the seven bowls that

are coming. We had seals, trumpets and bowls, the bowls that were coming. This mighty angel that

shows up in chapter 10, he has a book that's now unsealed. He tells John to digest it. It also is

written within on the backside. Many scholars feel like the book he's talking about is just the book

we've just seen open. It also says, I must prophesy again. Some people feel that while it's turned over,

it's a repeat or it's an overlay. There's different views on that part of it.

Then we have this peculiar passage of the seven funders uttering their voices.

Seven funders utter their voice and John is about to write what they said when he is instructed,

don't write it. So he crosses it out. He removes it. And it's puzzling. Why on earth did he even

mention it then? And I have a theory. I think the seventh, I think that word of God will not be

complete until those seven funders utter and are recorded. Any Bible doctrine that's built on the

premise that the canon is complete is thus a frail. I don't think there's anything else missing

other than the seven funders. Don't misunderstand me. But there are people who try to make an argument

that the gifts of the spirit were only until the canon was complete. The gifts of the spirit didn't end.

You can't find a biblical basis for saying the end. There are lots of different gifts. There's a

whole study that we went through that when we were in the first Corinthians 12, 13, 14.

But I think what's interesting about the seven funders, if nothing else, is that it puts to silence

any attempt to make a doctrine that the canon is complete. But that's the speculation. Let's go on.

In chapter 11, we have the temple featured in the first two verses. And because of that,

this would be a good place to insert background on the temple except we covered that pretty well

last time. I'll let go. Jesus, Paul, and John all make reverence to the fact that the temple will be

standing. Jesus does in Matthew 24, a very key to end time prophecy. Paul alluded to it in

2 Thessalonians that we looked at last time, and that's why we went into it last time,

although it shows up here in Revelation in the first two verses of chapter 11, the temple is standing.

But the rest of that chapter deals with these two characters that show up. The temple's measured

as indicated. The outer court is given to the Gentiles for 42 months. That's the first half of the,

or the last half of the 70 week day. These two witnesses show up and they're empowered for 1260

days. Again, we have the 42 months, these are the half weeks, if you will, of Daniel 70 weeks.

They can do four different together. They can do four different things. They can call down fire

from heaven. One, they can shut down, shut heaven so there will be no rain. They can turn water into

blood and they can smite the earth with place. It's for that reason that I'm among those that

believe that these two witnesses are literally the two guys that had those four powers. I'll come back

to that in a minute. Elijah and Moses. Elijah called down fire from heaven. He's the only one that did

that I can find. You remember at Carmel? He also shut heaven down for no rain. And what's fascinating

about that to me, you won't find this recorded in the Old Testament, but you'll find illusions

to it in the New Testament that how long did he shut down heaven for no rain? Three and a half years.

I think that's interesting. And of course Moses turned water into blood and smet the earth with

place. So these particular powers that are listed there are indicative of Elijah and Moses. And both

Elijah and Moses had their ministries interrupted. So you can make, there's a whole study you can get

into. Other people have different views, but for what it's worth. What's interesting about this is

that they will, when they're through ministering, they will be killed by the Antichrist.

And this is the only celebration that occurs on the earth in the book of Revelation. When they're

finally killed, the world exchanges gifts, thrilled that these troublemakers are finally killed.

And the bodies lay in the street for three and a half days. I assume it's featured on television.

Then the big scene occurs as they're resurrected and taken up to heaven. I can just imagine

CNN covering that right now. I can just visualize that. But that clearly is tough stuff.

Chapter 12 is a fascinating summary of the history of Israel in idioms. There's a woman

identified with the son of the moon and twelve stars and she's with child. The first thing you

need to understand is who is the woman? Some people try to make her the church and as

Chuck Smith likes to point out, if the woman is the church, she's in big trouble because she's

pregnant. Church is supposed to be the virgin ride. No, the son of the moon, the star is an

identity that none other than Jacob himself identifies her with. Back there in Genesis 37.

The beginning of the whole story, or the story of Joseph and his dreams and so forth.

Jacob recognized the identity. She is opposed by the red dragon who is identified in verse

nine of chapter 12 as Satan. He has seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns which are of course

idiomatically all through the book of Revelation. His goal is to devour the man-child as soon as

he's born. But the man-child is the one that's going to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

Jesus Christ is so identified in several passages in the scripture. He's caught up to God in his

throne and the woman flees into the wilderness for twelve hundred and sixty days. Now it's kind

of interesting about this. Most people assume that when the man-child is caught up to God in his

throne that that's the ascension of Christ and that may well be what's in view. But I think it was

G.H. Pember back in 1814 that first noticed the possibility that may be an allusion to the

rapture because the body of Christ is caught up. In other words idiomatically speaking those are

lumped togethers. If we're in this parenthesis between the church's birth and the church's rapture.

So there are those views bedded in the passage here. The word that woman I believe is Israel

because of Genesis 37 verse 10. The red dragon is serpent, the devil's Satan so in Revelation 12

9. The man-child is none other than the kinsman Redeemer as will be exemplified in Revelation 19

when we get there. And so that's pretty clear. Satan has been trying to devour the man-child or

certainly thwart the plan of God. We reviewed that during our study by the corruption of Adam's

line back in Genesis 6. The attack on Abraham's seed in Genesis 12 and 20. The famine in the earth

in Genesis 50. The destruction of the may line by the pharaohs in Exodus 1. Pharaoh's pursuit of

Israel even after saying they could go in Exodus 14. The 400 years that Satan had to lay down a

minefield in Canaan with the refaim and the populating of the with this again with more nephraim and

all of that. And then it's got reveals his plan that's going to be through David. Then David's line

gets singled out for special treatment. Again and again and again there are plots to kill all the

heirs to the throne. But there's always one that slips away or is hidden by a servant or what have

you. And so even when you get to the Persian period under the Persian Empire, Haman tries to

wipe out all the Jews. So these are always satanic. Prejudice is always bad but the anti-Semitism

is very specifically satanic from Revelation 12 becomes very clear. And it occurs, it continues

in New Testament. Joseph's fear with Mary when she turns out to be pregnant. Herod's attempts to

kill the babes at Bethlehem. The attempts at Nazareth to throw him off a cliff. The two storms at the

sea in Mark 4 and Luke 8. I don't think we're normal natural storms. He's a fisherman that

knew those waters that were terrified. And of course the ultimate strategy was the cross.

And the summary of all of this is what we see in Revelation 12. But the real point is he's not

through yet. He's still at it. And you need to understand why and how he operates.

We get to Revelation 13. We have the two beasts introduced. The beast out of the sea is the first

one. He's the political guy, seven heads and ten horns. On his heads are the name of blasphemy.

Because he's taking up against God. Second thessalonians two highlights for us. One of his heads was

that he had a deadly wound and that wound was healed. And I think it's a literal wound by the way.

I think that's the description that will come to an event. He's powered by the dragon. Who's

the dragon Satan? He's powered by Satan for 42 months. And he overcomes the saints. Now that's a

very strange thing. You find that in Daniel 8 and you'll find it here in Revelation 13,

which is contrary to what Jesus said in Matthew 16 at Caesarea Philippi. When you talk to Peter,

that the gates of hell shall not prevail. Overcome, same word by the way, overcome or prevail.

And so my argument, these saints are not the church. And they're post-church saints.

As scholars use the term tribulation saints. The earth dwellers worship the beast of the sea.

And that is all those that are not written in the book of life.

And then we have the second character shows up. The beast out of the earth. Elsewhere called the

false prophet in the book of Revelation. He has two horns like a lamb. In other words, he has a

horn's are a symbol of authority. He speaks, he has authority of the lamb, like the lamb,

but he speaks as the dragon. He has used Satan's words. He causes the earth to worship the first

beast. So this is a duet. You've got a political leader, you've got a religious leader bringing

people to worship him. He deceives the earth with miracles. The world is not ready for this.

Are you ready to have a major satanic leader do miracles? Well, they're fake miracles. Not

necessarily. Some may be. Doesn't matter. Everybody, they're apparently very effective.

He forces. He apparently has the power to force the worship of an image of the first beast. That's

what's so parallel with the analogy with Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 3.

Everyone that receives the mark in the right hands of the foreheads

worship him. No man may buy or sell without the name or the number of the first beast. And of

course that number is 666, which is of course become very fabled throughout literature. 666.

And let's see. He causes both the small and great rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark

in their right hand or in their foreheads. And I have a theory why it's a right hand and forehead.

I'll come to in a minute. And that no man may buy or sell, save heed that hath the mark or

have the name of the beast or the number of his name. No, it's his number or name, not yours,

not your pin number. You may not be able to get a pin number unless you take his number,

an allegiance with him. But okay. And then verse 18 is the famous verse. Here is it,

was it let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man,

his number is 600, three score and six. And I think there's only physical description we have in

the Bible of the Antichrist is in Zechariah 11 verse 17. Whoa to the idol, shepherd. That's

IDOL, shepherd. That leevith of flock, the sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye.

His arms shall be cleaned right up and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

It's my suspicion that he has a head wound and it's miraculously healed somehow,

but he still has an incapacity from that. One is right eye and arm, I believe, or darkened.

So people who are pledging allegiance to him take his mark on the right hand or on the forehead.

And it's a conjecture, but it's intriguing that the Scripture is so interconnected on these things

that I suspect that one reaffirms the other. The 666 of course, the word in Greek for Christos is

in Greek as Christos. The first and last letters of that, and there's a funny number in between,

the first letter, it has a value in Greek of 600. The last letter has six, and the little one in

between a 60. So it turns out that the Gemitry or the numerics of the Greek also happen to be 666,

which is kind of interesting. But again, I don't look at barcodes. There's all these interesting

little things floating around that miss the point. The people who are taking, it's not something

subterranean, something very conspicuous. They deliberately pledge allegiance to him

by taking his name or number. And the word in the Greek is anti-Kristos, which is a pseudo-Christ,

not against Christ in the tense opposite of Christ. He is, of course, but the word actually means

in place of the pseudo-Christ. But anyway, a lot of people get into Gemitry, and let me just

dismiss it by pointing out, there are numerical values for both Hebrew and Greek letters,

interestingly enough. And people like to play with those. But it turns out if you get into this,

you'll discover there's so many rules that you can actually make it say anything you want.

There are all kinds of people, I have all kinds of strange conjectures. There's the expression

of the computer industry that I think fits the situation. If you torture the data long enough,

it will confess to anything. And that's pretty much true of mysticism in general and certainly

Gemitrya. But let's move on. We've got the seven bowls of wrath in chapter 16. I saw another sign

in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having seven last plagues, for in them is filled

up the wrath of God. Now this is the final wrath being poured out, literally poured out of these

bowls. I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, go your ways and

pour out the vials of wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went and poured out his

vial upon the earth and there fell a noisim and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark

of the beast and upon them which worshipped his image. So we have the seven bowls of wrath. The

first bowl is sores on the men with a mark. Okay. The second angel poured out his vial upon the sea

and it became as the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea. So we have the

second bowl, the sea of blood all died. The third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and

fountains of the waters and they became blood and I heard the angel of the water say, now art

righteous O Lord, which art which was and shall be because thou has judged thus. For they have shed

the blood of saints and prophets and thou has given them blood to drink. For they are worthy.

And heard another out of the altar say, even so Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are

their judgments. It's interesting all through this you never hear anyone making the claim to not

judge, not just, not deserving. So anyway we have the third bowl which of the rivers and waters

become blood. The four things were poured out his vial upon the sun and the power was given unto

him to scorch men with fire and men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God

which hath power over these plagues and they repented not to give him glory. And so we have the fourth

bowl, the sun scorched with fire. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the sea to the

beast and his kingdom was full of darkness and they gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed

the God of heaven because of their pains and in their sores and repented not of their deeds.

So we have the fifth thing was darkness on the beast's kingdom. And the sixth angel poured out his

vial upon the great river Euphrates. There it is again. And the water thereof was dried up

that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. That's kind of interesting. It's

actually kings of the rising sun but that's the traditional way of referring to the east

incidentally. So we have anyway the Euphrates and the kings of the east. Now this time we have a

break but the break is just a little brief one. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out

of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false

prophet. For they are spirits of devils working miracles which go forth under the kings of the

earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

So we've got these three spirits like frogs. This may be just idioms like locus on the one hand

but it's interesting to me that when you get into the U.F. literature that the heavy ones are these

reptilian creatures. So I think that's kind of fascinating to me. That may be part of the previous

bowl. Verse 15 of this sequence is really the parenthesis. Behold I come as a thief blessed to

see that watches keep in his garments lest he walk naked and they see a shame. That little praise is

sort of a break if you will. Then he gathered them together where? Into a place called in the Hebrew

tongue Armageddon. Megiddo is the place. Har Megiddo is the Mount Megiddo. Har Megiddo is the mount

that could speak your mount there. If you visited the area it's an incredible place to visit. Anyway

so we have the seventh angel poured out his vial of the air and why the air? Because who's the

prince of the power of the air? Satan. See first it was the beast thrown now at Satan himself.

The seventh angel poured out his vial into the air and there came a great voice out of the temple

of heaven from the throne saying it is done. So that takes care of the bowls.

Now something kind of interesting if you take the seven trumpet judgments we went through

you'll notice that there's a parallelism between the organization of the trumpet judgments and the

bowls. The trumpet judgments are pretty in a sense they are like a one-third of the bowl

kind of thing. They call these the judgments of the thirds and whether it's the burning on the

ground or the sea of blood, rivers and so forth the judgments in the trumpet judgment seem to be

very parallel to that but one-third of the trees and grass. One-third of the sea. One-third of

the water is made better. One-third of the sun, stars and so forth. One-third of the men's lane.

There's something else you should be sensitive to what I'll call the heptatic structure. We went

through the seven sealed scroll and it had a chapter seven was the that was chapter six.

Chapter seven had the little parenthesis. The seventh seal, chapters eight and nine, led to seven trumpets

which also had interval before the sixth and seventh chapters 10 through 14 in this case.

The seventh trumpet then breaks down into seven bowls and it too had a little one-verse parenthesis.

But I think this design is deliberate. I think there's structure there and there's

much more to it than this. I'm just giving you the overview. There are, I challenge you to make a

list of the sevens in the book of Revelation. Every time you think you've got them all you'll find one

more and many of them are sort of hidden. Some are very obvious and some are hidden. The heptatic

structure. Mount McGiddo, the site of Armageddon of course, is about 60 miles north and slightly

west of Jerusalem. That's where Jabin and his 900 chariots were overwhelmed. That's where Gideon's

300 defeated the Midianites and all that. That's where Samson triumphed over the Philistines and

Barak and Deborah defeated Ciceroth that I mentioned before. Saul was slain by the Philistines there

Ylboa near there. Isaiah was slain by Eros O'Jay who Pharaoh Neko, Slough King, Josiah there.

And throughout history, the Sarsans, Christian Crusaders, Egyptians, Persians, Druze, Turks,

Arabs all through history you'll discover this is a very favored battlefield. Napoleon had his

disastrous march from Egypt to Syria there. So McGiddo has become almost a fable or an idiom in

literature. But don't let that confuse you. I believe there's a literal destiny at McGiddo.

And we have kings, this is all detailed for you in Daniel chapter 11, the kings of the south,

kings of the north. And then we have by some people's rendering the Antichrist being a

western confederacy who's troubled when he hears tidings of the east. But I personally

suspect from Micah 5 and Isaiah 10 and some other passages that the Antichrist is not part of the

western, he's part of the Roman Empire, he comes out of the eastern part. So I believe he's associated

somehow with the kings of the north coming in. But that's a whole other study. We know the

believing remnant in Jerusalem will seek refuge in Edom at Petra and then petition his return.

And Jesus will return by rescuing the remnant. He comes back first in Edom before he comes to

the Mount of Olives. And so on and Isaiah 63 and elsewhere. And then he will return the Mount of

Olives as Zechariah 14 talks about him returning and so forth. Also chapter 17 and 18 has mystery

Babylon. We talked a little bit about that last time, the Great Horror. She rides the beast with

seven heads and ten horns. She's described as the mother of harlots and abominations. She's

drunk with the butt of the saints. Don't confuse her with the beast. She's the woman that rides

the beast. There's a big difference. And Babylon the Great is a city that raised over the kings.

The king's merchants in those portrayed by sea bemoan her catastrophic demise. I think it's a

literal city yet to arise to power. And there's interesting to see the contrast of two women.

Israel is the woman in chapter 12. Babylon is the woman in chapter 17. One is the

the woman in Israel is in heaven. The other one is riding many waters. One is the mother of the

man child. The other is the mother of all harlots. One's clothed with the sun. The other one's clothed

with purple scarlet and gold. Israel's identity is with sun, moon and stars because of the

comets that Jacob made. The woman riding the beast reigns over the kings of the earth literally and

certainly has tried throughout the last 2000 years. The enemy of the Israel was the dragon.

The enemy of the woman riding the beast is the beast itself. The 10 kings ultimately will devour her.

And Israel is hated by the world. The woman riding the beast is caressed by the world.

The woman in Israel is sustained by the wings of heaven. The other one is sustained by the

dragon. It contrasts all the way through here. It's interesting that Israel is described in the

Old Testament as widowed and divorced in Hosea and elsewhere. The woman riding the beast in

chapter 17 brags that she's not a widow. I think she delivers drawing the contrast there.

The final location of Israel, of course, associated with New Jerusalem. The final location of the

woman riding the beast is the habitation of demons. It's interesting to see that it's black and white,

different contrast. The destruction of Babylon we've talked about before that if you can contrast

Isaiah and Jeremiah, they describe it as castrophically being destroyed like it's never been through

history. Many nations attacking and Israel is in the land forgiven, both described being

destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. And never again to be inhabited, bricks never to be reused.

And that's why we attach such importance on the emergence of Babylon in today's history.

This destruction that's described occurs in the day of the Lord, which is yet

future. And we're talking about a literal city on the banks of the Euphrates. Not a symbolic

rendering of Rome or Paris or New York or Hollywood or whatever. The king's fornication drunk with

wine, scarlet and purple, golden cup. All those idioms are common to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the

book of Revelation. So I think that we see the same thing in view here. This paradox is resolved.

Is it really an idiom of Rome or is it something more literal? I think both are true.

I think it's resolved for us in Zechariah chapter 5 verses 5 through 11. There's Zechariah sees

a ephah, which is like a big Bush-al-Meric measure. And in the ephah is confined a woman

labeled wickedness. She's sealed into the town of Leb. The ephah is the standard commercial

volumetric measure in those days. And the lead is the measure of weight, about 97 pounds.

This ephah then is carried by two women with wings of a stork. Now that's a strange idiom for a Jewish

vision because the stork is an unclean bird. And they carry it between earth and heaven. It's a

vision, remember. They carry it to build at a house in the land of Sheenaar and there it shall be

established and set upon her own base. I believe the centroid of power that represented Babel under

Nimrod that becomes Babylon the Great, that then moves to Pergamos under the Persians and under

Roman to the Romans, which is the fountain of all idolatry on the planet earth, is the Babylonian

system packaged in either Latin or Greek or whatever. And I believe it returns to where it started to

receive the judgment of God. If that premise is correct, we'll see the literal city of Babylon

reemerge. And it's presently regarded by Marines trying to get theirs foolish because it's very,

very dangerous at what's going on. Watch your news and see what happens over the coming year or

two with Babylon. And I think it'll be very surprising to most people. It's there, it's being rebuilt.

So it has not been, it's never been destroyed in a way that fulfills the biblical prophecies.

Okay, so we have seven bolts of wrath. We finally have the seventh one. The seventh angel poured

out his violently air and there came a great voice out of heaven and from the throne saying,

it is done and indeed it is. Okay. And then we have the fit, what I call the fifth horseman.

The horseman everyone overlooks. Not in chapter 6, chapter 19. I saw heaven open and behold a

white horse. This is the real one now. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true.

And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. Make war. In numbers, we have a strange phrase.

The Lord will go against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle. Yes,

he has fought in the day of battle in Joshua, in Joshua, in Joshua, final explaining to you.

His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a name written that

no man knew but himself. He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called

the word of God. That's not his blood. It's the blood of his enemies. That's all described in Isaiah

63. And but we move on here. The armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses,

clothed in fine linen, white and clean and out of his mouth go forth. A sharp sword that with it

should with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and he

treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God and he hath on his

vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of lords. Who is this guy?

Any doubt? Okay. This is the next topic is the millennium. This is the strangest period of all

periods in the history in the Bible, the thousand year reign. Verse chapter, this is all in Revelation

chapter 20. I saw an angel come down from heaven having a key of the bottom of his pit and a great

chain in his hand and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil in Satan and

bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottom of his pit and shut him up and set a seal

upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled.

And after that he must be loosed a little season. Wow. This is the thousand year reign.

This is the thousand years that Satan is bound. I take it literally. I don't think it's symbolic.

I think it's real. It's not permanent. He's going to be turned loose after a thousand years for

to deceive the nations one more time. So the millennium is not out of Revelation 20 alone.

It was promised to David in 2 Samuel and under oath in Psalm 89 it was predicted throughout the

Old Testament in the Psalms in Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel Micah Zechariah. It's a whole study

in its own right. People associate the millennium with Revelation 20. That just mentions the exact

duration. It was promised to Mary in Luke 1 verse 32. It's also in Micah 5 and Isaiah 9 and so forth

that Jesus would rule on the earth. In the Lord's prayer you say thy kingdom come. What does that

mean? And so you're calling for it there. Jesus will rule. That's what Psalm 2 and Psalm 110

emphasize. That would be by a rod of iron before whom every knee shall bow and so forth.

We're going to discover the creation will be changed. There'll be physical changes. Zechariah

talks about in the Isaiah 35. The curse of Genesis 3 will be lifted. Coordinate Isaiah 11.

And it's not just us mankind that's redeemed. The creation is redeemed. Romans 8 verse 2021-22

make a reference. Allusions to that. The creation which is subject to the bondage of decay until

the redemption takes place. The earth will be full of knowledge of the Lord. That makes this a very

strange time because with Satan bound there is no excuse. There's no shortages. There's no lack

of knowledge about the Lord. And yet given the chance after the thousand years, man will once again

rebel and that's all she wrote. Yet, millennium is not eternity. Don't confuse it with what comes

after chapter 20. It's not eternity because death and sin are present and each person there has land

and it will be fruitful. This is strange. This is different than what we'll find in chapter 20

following. Let's talk about the order of events. We talked about the Sabbath week of Daniel.

We know that the first half of that week is a false peace with Israel for as a result of this

covenant. The last half is defined by none other than Jesus Christ as label as the Great Tribulation.

Tribulation is three and a half years, not seven. And of course, it climaxes. The tribulation climaxes

with the Battle of Armageddon. We believe that Rapture takes place prior to the 70th week.

During that period of time in heaven, some things happen because Jesus brings us back

to interrupt the Battle of Armageddon and to establish his millennium. It's getting him.

And what happens up in heaven is the Beemah seat and the Maryseper. There are three different

judgment seats that get confused. The first one is the Beemah seat, which is an allocation of

rewards. It's a judgment seat like judges in an athletic contest. They don't punish them. They

reward them. The Beemah seat in the Greek is the Beemah. It's the same term as used in the

Olympics, etc. when you get your gold medal. That's where the faithful will get recognition.

That's also up there that the Maryseper, the Lamb takes place. Satan is bound when Jesus

comes back. As you read, let's take a little better look at the millennium here. We have Armageddon.

Jesus comes back. The kingdom is started. Satan is bound. Right after that or about that time is

there's the sheep and goat judgment, the judgment of the nations and how they treat it Israel. That's

Matthew 25, the sheep and goat judgment. It's a distinctive judgment. It's not the Beemah seat.

It's not the great white throne. It's a different thing. It's at the beginning of the millennium.

It's those that survived and they get their judgment. Satan is bound for 1,000 years after

which he is released. The thousand-year period is defined by his being bound and his release.

And it's when he's released that he's wiped out and the great white throne judgment takes place.

And this is the judgment of the unsaved dead and others. So the great white throne. And then we

have new heavens and a new earth and down from heaven we have the new Jerusalem. And that's what

some people would call the eternal state. Don't confuse the period after the great white throne

with the millennium because they're very different. But in fact it's easier to talk about the

eternal state than the millennium has more mysteries about it. But the new heaven and new earth,

that's the final chapter 21. John says, I saw a new heaven and new earth for the first heaven

and the first earth were passed away. There was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, the new

Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Wow. And they came unto me one of the seventh angels which had seven vials full of the seven

last plagues and talked to be saying, come hither, I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife.

He carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me that great city,

the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God. I have trouble trying to talk about this

because I don't have any reason to believe it's only in three dimensions. You may have a

hyperspace problem here. But anyway, it has 12 gates named the 12 tribes. It's got 12 foundations

named with 12 apostles. Those are different. And is it cubical? I don't know. It's 12,000

furlongs in each of three dimensions, 1500 miles I believe is what it adds up to. That's a huge

cube if it's a cube. There's no temple because we're dwelling with God himself. There's no night

because the lamb is the light thereof. The tree of life is there. And so the description is quite

similar to Eden and so forth in some respects. Except instead of botanical things, it speaks in

terms of light. And the 12 stones are there categorized that are probably parallel with the 12 stones

of the breastplate of the high priest. But it's hard to compare them because the idioms are very

different in the ancient Hebrew versus the Greek. And there have been attempts to match them up. But

it's a lot of speculation involved. Then we get to 22, which is really just an epilogue to the

whole book. And behold, I come quickly in my reward is with me to give every man according to his work.

She'll be, I am Alfred Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and last. Blessed are they that

do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter in through the

city. And it goes on much more. But finally I said, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify

unto you these things in the churches. I am the root in the offspring of David, the bright and

morning star and the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that hearth say come.

And let him that is the first come. And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.

Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, even so come Lord Jesus. And so ends the book.

Let's bow our hearts. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this precious book,

the capstone of our Holy Bible. We thank you Father. We pray that you would bless us as you

promised you would. You said that blessed be that here and they that read the words of this prophecy,

we embrace that Father. We would ask that through your Holy Spirit you would open to our hearts and

lives that which you have hidden here for us for our learning as we commit ourselves into your

hands in Jesus name. Amen.