"Introduction to Revelation Seven" (Rev. 7)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/5/2015 12:16 PM

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  Introduction to Revelation Seven

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Revelation chapter Seven

            Message of the verses:  I would like to quote the last verse in Revelation chapter six at this time:  “17  for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"”  In this last verse of chapter six we see that there is a question that is asked and in that question John wants to know “who is able to stand?”  This question relates to who could possibly stand after all of the seal judgments had just taken place.  We will look at who will be able to stand as we study the 7^th chapter of Revelation, for in that chapter we have a look at the famous 144,000 thousand Jewish Evangelists whom God will call to give out the gospel during the Tribulation Period.  So far we have only looked at the judgments that have occurred, but now we will look at the evangelism that will take place in this time period.  We will see this pattern of having a period of peace between the times when the next set of judgments will take place, and in this case the next set will be the trumpet judgments, and at the end of the trumpet judgments there will be a period of peace before God unleashes the bowl judgments. 

            There has been many things written about these 144,000 people that we find here and also in chapter fourteen, things that are not true.  The Jehovah Wittiness began their cult by saying that only 144,000 people would join it, but then after they surpassed that number they had to make up some new rules.  I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that there are many believers today who do not believe that the promises of God to the nation of Israel will ever be fulfilled and thus the promises were translated to the church by God.  This is a total lie that I believe is from Satan for all we have to do is look at the people who now live in the nation of Israel as it was founded in May of 1948 just as Ezekiel said that it would come back again.  Ezekiel even went so far as to say that this new nation would be one nation by talking about two sticks “15 The word of the LORD came again to me saying, 16 "And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, ’For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions’; then take another stick and write on it, ’For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.’ 17 "Then join them for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. 18 “When the sons of your people speak to you saying, ’Will you not declare to us what you mean by these?’ 19  say to them, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand."’ 20 “The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes. 21 “Say to them, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. 23 “They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.”  The people who fought to make Israel a nation again wondered if there should be two nations or one and they were told about this passage in Ezekiel and so they named it Israel just as the Lord foretold that it would be through Ezekiel.  The nation of Israel was formed in one day as the President of the Untied States, Harry S. Truman agonized over whether or not to recognize it as a nation, but finally did because he believed in the Bible.  Isaiah wrote the following:  “Isa 66:8 “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.”  Now with the question of who these 144,000 people are can be answered by saying that Israel is not back in their land, and we know that even though who belongs to what tribe is not really known by man, the truth is that God knows who belongs to what tribe and He will be the One who calls these men to serve Him as evangelists during the Tribulation Period.

            At this time I want to quote a paragraph from my blog dated May, 18, 2005 “In chapter seven there are two people groups described, one of them is the 144,000 Jews, and then we have an unnumbered group of Gentiles.  The judgments of the last chapter are over for a short time in order for God to begin the work of evangelizing, and this will be begin by these 144,000 Jews.”

Now as we have done in the past I will take more than on Spiritual Diary to introduce a chapter from the book of Revelation, so we will look at this introduction more fully in our next SD.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that the Bible tells us the truth, and that it also tells us what will become of the people on planet earth and what will eventually happen to planet earth along with the rest of the universe.  When we look at Genesis we see the beginning and then when we look at Revelation we will see that will happen in the end.

My prayer is that all who read this will have had a wonderful celebration of Resurrection Sunday.  Remember Christ is Risen, “He has risen Indeed.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in and better know the love Christ has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:10).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Spirit’?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/5/2015 12:49 PM

 

"The Reaction of Fear" (Rev. 6:15b-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/4/2015 8:55 AM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  The Reaction of Fear

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Revelation 6:15b-17

            Message of the verses:  “hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"”

            I suppose that one would think that after all of the horrors of this sixth seal being unleashed upon the earth that men would want to repent, but that does not happen, and as we move through the book of Revelation we will see this repeated.  Blindness, spiritual blindness is the problem that these people have, and as I said it will continue as we go throughout the different judgments that are seen in this book.  One of the odd things is that these unbelievers will finally acknowledge that these judgments are coming upon them from God as we can see in our verses we are looking at today.  One of the reasons that these people will not follow the Lord, but follow the deceptiveness of Satan is found in the following verses from 2 Thessalonians, verses we have studied just last year:  “11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.”

            It is because that these people are unbelievers that they will do some things that are irrationally, and even foolish as seen in the last part of verse fifteen where we read:  “hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;” David wrote the following in “Ps 139:7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?”  Jonah also found out the truth of God’s omnipresence when He tried to hide from God.  In chapter two of Isaiah’s book he wrote “17 The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, 18 But the idols will completely vanish. 19 Men will go into caves of the rocks And into holes of the ground Before the terror of the LORD And the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble. 20 In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats Their idols of silver and their idols of gold, Which they made for themselves to worship, 21 In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs Before the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble.”  It seems to me that this would not be the safest place to go, in the caves of the earth, when an earthquake of the size and terror which just happened but men do strange things when they are in great fear.  It also could be that these men wanted to commit suicide in order to get away from the wrath of God, but that will not work for as we will learn later on in the book of Revelation there comes a time in which we will see “The White Throne Judgment,” where all unbelievers will one day stand before the Lord.

            In his sermon and also in his commentary John MacArthur writes that these events are the basis of a huge worldwide prayer meeting  but the people will not be praying to the Lord but to the rocks and the hills (mother nature) and they will be asking that “to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"”

We did touch on this a bit earlier, but we can see that these unbelievers have gone way too far in their rebellion against God to be able to repent.  I do believe that God’s grace extends only so far and when a person rejects the good news of the Gospel so many times that the Spirit of the Lord will not continue to work in their hearts any more.  The following are the words to a song that I have listened to in the past that has to do with the need to come to the Savior while there is time, and the title is “Over the Dead-Line”

O brother, the Savior is calling for thee,
Long, long has He called thee in vain;
He called thee when joy lent its crown to thy days,
He called thee in sorrow and pain.

Refrain.

O turn, while the Savior in mercy is waiting,
And steer for the harbor light;
For how do you know but your soul may be drifting
Over the dead-line tonight?

O brother, thine ears have been deaf to His voice,
Thine eyes to His glory been dim;
The calls of thy Savior have so wearied thee,
O what if they should weary Him?

Refrain

O brother, the Spirit is striving with thee;
What if He should strive never more,
But leave thee alone, in thy darkness to dwell,
In sight of the heavenly shore?

Refrain

O brother, God’s patience may weary some day,
And leave thy sad soul in the blast;
By willful resistance you’ve drifted away,
Over the dead-line at last.

Refrain

        Now the words “Him who sits on the throne refers to God, and these men will have a clear understanding that it is God who is causing these terrible things to come upon those on the earth, but whether or not they realize that it is because He is bringing judgment upon a sinful people on earth I am not sure that they realize that.

        We also see that John speaks of the “wrath of the Lamb,” and we know that this speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Remember what happened to John when He saw the glorified risen Christ at the beginning of this book.  He was very much different who John saw when he walked with Him on earth some sixty plus years before.  He is now the One who will be judging the world where as when He first came to earth He came to die on the cross for man’s sinfulness.  Much different now!

        John MacArthur finishes his commentary with the following words:  “This picture, horrifying and frightening as it is, is not altogether hopeless.  The church will be delivered from that time (3:10).  Great multitudes of people will be saved in the midst of the terrors of diving judgment, both Gentiles (7:9) and Jews (Romans 11:26).  But for the rest the sobering words of the writer of Hebrews will apply:  ‘For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries…It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Heb. 10:26-27, 31).”

        Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There is a verse that says “Today is the day of Salvation,” and that day came to me on the 26^th of January 1974, and I am thankful that it was not “Over the Deadline Tonight” for me, but when the Spirit of the Lord came to me with His effectual call that afternoon that He completely saved me and changed my life.  I will be forever thankful for that day as it was by far and away the most important day of my life.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  In light of the great salvation He gave to me I want to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in and better understand the love He has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “New bottles” or “New Wine Skins” (Luke 5:38).

Today’s Bible question:  “Complete the beatitude, ‘Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the…’”

Answer in our next SD.

4/4/2015 10:06 AM

"The Range of Fear" (Rev. 6:15a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/3/2015 9:14 AM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  The Range of Fear

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Revelation 6:15a

            Message of the verses:  “Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man”

            Today we celebrate the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, something that we a believers are thankful for each and every day because without His death on the cross there would be no possible way for anyone to have salvation, but that was not the end of the story, for three days later He was resurrected from the grave because God was completely satisfied with His sacrifice that He made for all who would come to Him in repentance and be saved. 

            In today’s SD we will only look at this partial verse from chapter six and then, God willing, we will finish up chapter six tomorrow morning as the major part of this last part of chapter six has already been looked at.  We have been speaking about fear, real fear so terrible that people will actually die from this type of fear which is what this sixth seal has brought upon many people who will be on the earth during this time of the Tribulation period.  “25  "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, 26  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.”  These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ from the gospel of Luke chapter twenty-one and notice that He speaks of great fear and also that there will be “perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves.”  Now as I was listening to John MacArthur’s message on this section of Revelation chapter six he was reading from an article from a news magazine dated November 23, 1992 which was speaking of the possibility of what some scientists were speculating how the earth would end.  Their view was that meteorites could fall upon the earth or on the sea and cause so much damage that it could end life on this planet.  They wrote about how one large meteorite missed the earth by a mere 70,000 miles which could have destroyed the earth.  They also reported that if one large meteorite fell in the sea that waves could be so very high that if it fell in the Gulf of Mexico the waters would go to Kansas City.  Jesus speaks of high waves in the verse from Luke 21.  The one thing that these scientists missed talking about was that God is completely in control of what will hit the earth and when it will hit the earth.  We have looked at some of these judgments from God and as we earlier noted God could use meteorites as a part of these judgments.  I did find it interesting to see that these men were thinking about the end of the world, but disappointed that they did not take the time to look at the book of Revelation to see exactly how the world will end.  Not only is it found in Revelation but also in 2 Peter where he writes “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up (2 Peter 3:10).”  Peter mentions the Day of the Lord in this passage stating it will come like a thief.  We have written about the Day of the Lord from what we have seen in Revelation and also when we were studying 2 Thessalonians, but just a minute to review and to also write something that I found very interesting while listening to John MacArthur yesterday.  We have stated that the Day of the Lord will come in two different time periods, the first one is during the end of the Tribulation Period while the second one will be at the end of the Millennial Kingdom when what Peter writes will come true, however the interesting point that I picked up yesterday is also from Peter’s writing where he writes “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day (2 Peter 3:8).”  The point I found interesting is that Peter writes about a thousand years being as a day to the Lord and MacArthur was saying that he sees that there is a thousand years between the first part of the Day of the Lord and the second part.  I have read and heard people taking verse eight out of context many times, but this makes sense to me.

            The Range of Fear is what we are looking at this morning and so we will start on this very short section now.  John is saying that this debilitating fear will be associated with all the unbelievers that are on planet earth during this time period.  The “kings of the earth” represent those who are heads of state throughout the world, and then he speaks of “The great men.”  MacArthur sites that this phrase is “(megistanes)” which are “the high-ranking officials in government.”  Next we see “the commanders” and they are the military leaders around the world.  Next John speaks of “the rich” and these are the ones, who control the commerce and businesses around the world, and finally in this section we see “the strong” and they speak of those who are influential.  So in this section we see all of what we could say are the influential people of the world, and we can note that they all are tormented by great fear.  Their money, position, influence or any other thing will keep them from this fear.  Lastly John speaks of “every slave and free man” which speaks of the common people who make up most of the world’s population and they are also in great fear over what has happened from this sixth seal judgment. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Speaking of the differences that we have just looked at I have a favorite verse from the book of Proverbs that sums up my feelings on this subject for myself and it says “8 Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, 9 That I not be full and deny You and say, "Who is the LORD?" Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God (Proverbs 30:8-9).”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love that Christ has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “A bean or grain.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Into what kind of bottles is new wine put?”  I think this should read “skins” instead of bottles.

Answer in our next SD.

4/3/2015 10:01 AM

 

"The Reason for Fear PT-3" (Rev. 6:12-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/2/2015 8:38 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  The Reason for Fear PT-3

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 6:12-14

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

            We want to begin this SD by focusing in on the later part of verse twelve where we read “and the whole moon became like blood.”  We have been hearing a lot about “blood moons” in recent times and what we see in verse twelve seems to be the moon looking like blood because of the results of the earthquakes which caused volcanic eruptions and with that different types of gasses coming out of the earth which will be an environmentalist nightmare.  I remember ten years ago when we were living in Aruba and I was working at a refinery which had very little if any pollution controls intact.  We lived fairly close to the plant and in the evening when the sun was about to go down we saw some of the strangest, but most beautiful sunsets because of the pollution that came from those smokestacks.  Pollution in the air can cause dramatic effects on what the sun and moon look like.  Isaiah 13:10 reads “For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its light.”  Joel writes “the sun and the moon grow dark” (Joel 2:10).  When all of this happens it will have a dramatic effect on many things on the earth including the tides and also cycles of light which will effect plant life and food supply, which will cause a great deal of panic.

            Next we look at what verse thirteen says “and the stars of the sky fell to the earth.”  John MacArthur writes “Asteres (stars) can refer to actual stars, but can also describe any heavenly body other than the sun and the moon.  Obviously, in this context it does not refer to actual stars, since they are far too large to fall on the earth and would incinerate it long before striking it.”  Since this earthquake which we have been looking at could cause problems in the universe what we may be looking at here is meteorites or let me also think about something else that this could be and that is rockets coming out of some type of satellite from the sky.  I remember a long time ago when I was studying a book written by Hal Lindsey on psychics who would get information  from strange places like demons and a woman got information about what was called MIRV which was a Russian Satellite that would have multiple war heads with nuclear bombs on it that could be fired at the earth.  I am not saying that this is what we are looking at in this verse, but man does have the technology to do something like what is described in this verse and we must also remember that John was using first century language to describe what was going on in perhaps the 21^st century or even later.  John later in this verse writes that the result of these “stars” coming from outer space would be like “a fig tree that casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.”  MacArthur writes “With the whole earth being pummeled by fiery balls plunging out of the blackness there will be nowhere for people to flee, nowhere for them to hide.”

            Now as we look at verse fourteen I want to quote my former Spiritual Diary from May 14, 2005 in which I again go back to some things I learned when I first began to study Revelations much earlier than 2005:  “As I look at verse 14 it makes me go back to the very early times of my Christian life when most all the time I would be reading Hal Lindsey’s books on prophecy, because that is what the Lord used to draw me to Himself.  In his books and tapes he often said that this verse was a good description from the 1^st century of a modern day atomic bomb, and as you read this verse and then think of pictures of an atomic bomb with the large mushroom cloud it does makes you think that this could be true.  At any rate this future earthquake will cause a lot of damage on this world as it will level the mountains and it will cause islands to disappear.”

            Now as we look at the section from verse fourteen which reads “every mountain and island were moved out of their places” I want to quote again from who John MacArthur quotes in his commentary, Dr. Henry M. Morris who writes “The earth’s crust, highly unstable since the great Flood, will be so disturbed by the impacting asteroids, the volcanic explosions, and the worldwide earthquakes, that great segments of it will actually begin to slip and slide over the earth’s deep plastic mantle.  Geophysicists for many years have been fascinated with the idea of ‘continental drift’ (although strong evidence has been accumulating against any such phenomenon occurring in the present age).  Several have published theories of a past naturalistic catastrophism involving what they call ‘the earth’s shifting crust.’  Some such phenomenon my actually be triggered under this judgment of the sixth seal, dwarfing the damage occasioned by the mighty earthquake of the past.” 

            Well we have looked at a lot of possibilities of how this sixth seal will happen and perhaps none of what we looked at will be the way that it does happen, but one thing for sure it will happen and another thing for sure it will bring great fear to those living on planet earth at this time.  So what is the best thing a person can do now?  Make sure that you get your ticket out of here before all of this happens.  How do you do that?  Receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord?  How do you do that?  First of all you must admit that you are a sinner, that you have offended God because of this sin, and then confess this to the Lord.  Then pray to the Lord saying something like “I know that I have offended you with my sinfulness which I confess to you at this time.  I truly believe that when Jesus Christ died on the cross that He died in my place and I want to receive His forgiveness and exchange my sin for His righteousness.”  2 Corinthians 5:21 says “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that the certainty of the Word of God shows me that all of these terrible things that perhaps are not too far off, that I will not have to go through them because God said in Revelation 3:10 “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love that Christ has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Samuel, Saul, and David.”

Today’s Bible question:  “The word ‘gerah,’ the smallest of the Hebrew weights, signifies what?”

Answer in our Next SD.

4/2/2015 9:33 AM

 

  

The Reason for Fear PT-2b (Rev. 6:12-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/1/2015 9:28 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  The Reason for Fear PT-2b

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  Revelation 6:12-14

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

            I was thinking last night about earthquakes and why they happen and so I began to think about when God created the earth and when it was all done He said that it was very good, so we can be sure that there would not have ever been an earthquake happen, but man sinned and that changed everything in all of the universe.  When we look at the days of creation we see that the Lord began with water and then the Holy Spirit hovered over the earth.  That is the same concept of a chicken setting on the next in order to have the baby chick be born.  The warmth of her body causes the fertilized egg to change into a baby chicken.  The Spirit of God hovering over the unmade earth caused the earth to begin to take shape.  It is believed that there was a canopy of water over the earth and that there was water inside the earth for when the flood came as seen in the seventh chapter of Genesis we read:  “11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. 12 The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.”   We see from verse eleven that the fountains of the great deep burst open and what I believe, and not me alone on this is that the water that burst forth from the earth had made a cushion inside the earth to make it more stable and since that is gone the earth is less stable and therefore it can be affected by earthquakes.  Also we read that the “floodgates of the sky were opened” and many believe that the canopy of water that was around the earth broke loose and the water from that came down upon the earth.  It is also believed by many that this canopy protected those on earth from harmful rays that we now have coming down from the sun and thus people do not live as long now as they did before the flood.  The main point I am making is about the earthquakes we now can experience and the main problem of all of this is sin, for that caused all of the problems we experience now as far as nature.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I can only praise the Lord for His wisdom, mercy, and grace for the way that He prepared the earth when He made it.  No it is not the same way it was when He created it, and it was because of sin that it is not the same way, but we still live on a beautiful earth in spite of the curse that is upon it and we also can be forgiven for our sins all because of God’s mercy and grace through Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection and one day live in the New Jerusalem which will never be effected by sin.  As we enter into the celebration of what Christ did on the cross for us take time to praise Him for His sacrifice that was done for all those who will call upon His name and ask for forgiveness.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love that Christ has for me on a daily basis.

Answer to our last Bible question:  “Joseph” (Genesis 41:33-46).

Today’s Bible question:  “The books of Samuel consist of closely related biographies for what three persons?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/1/2015 9:59 AM

"The Reason for Fear PT-2" (Revelation 6:12-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/31/2015 8:42 PM

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  The Reason for Fear PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 6:12-14

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

            In this second part of “The Reason for Fear,” we will begin to look at the different elements that are found in these verses and begin to comment on them.

            The first thing we will look at is that “there was a great earthquake.”  We can go back into history and read about many earthquakes that have literally killed millions of people, but the earthquake that John is writing about here will actually shake more than the earth.  John MacArthur in describing this writes:  “Seismos (earthquake) literally means ‘a shaking.’  In Matthew 8:24 it describes a great storm on the Sea of Galilee, and the Septuagint uses it in Joel 2:10 to describe the heavens trembling.” 

            God has used a shaking to get peoples attention in the past as in the case when the Law was given as seen in Exodus 19:18 where we read:  “Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.”  There have been other times too like when Paul and Silas were in the Philippian jail and God shook the jail so that all of the chains of the prisoners fell off.  He did this to get the attention of the jailer in order for Paul to present the gospel to him so that he and his whole family would be saved, and thus began the Philippian church.  God also used these shaking to judge people, for instance in the other book I am currently studying, the book of Ezekiel where he wrote “"In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel (38:19).”  As we look at reasons for fear then an earthquake is among the top reasons for people to be afraid.  The earthquake that John writes about here as a part of this sixth seal will be one that will bring great fear and probably much death and destruction upon the earth and it will even cause trouble in the sun and moon as we see in the second part of this verse which reads “the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair.”  Sackcloth was a rough material like burlap is something many people may not remember when feed came in burlap bags.  In Bible times it was used when a person was mourning or when they wanted to confess their sins and were greatly sadden about it.  In John’s description the sackcloth would have come from black goats.  John MacArthur quotes Dr. Henry M. Morris who explains what could cause this phenomenon:  “The great earthquake described here…for the first time in history is worldwide in scope.  Seismologists and geophysicists in recent years have learned a great deal about the structure of the earth and about the cause and nature of earthquakes.  The earth’s solid crust is traversed with a complex network of faults, with all resting upon a plastic mantle whose structure is still largely unknown.  Whether the crust consists of great moving plates is a current matter of controversy among geophysicists, so the ultimate cause of earthquakes is still not known.  In all likelihood, the entire complex of crustal instabilities is a remnant of the phenomena of the great Flood, especially the breakup of the fountains of the great deep.

            “In any case, the vast worldwide network of unstable earthquake belts around the world suddenly will begin to slip and fracture on a global basis and a gigantic earthquake will ensue.  This is evidently, and naturally, accompanied by tremendous volcanic eruptions, spewing vast quantities of dust and steam and gasses into the upper atmosphere.  It is probably these that will cause the sun to be darkened and the moon to appear blood-red.”  All we have to do is think about how the earthquake in Greenland cause so much trouble a few years ago causing planes to be rerouted coming from and to Europe to understand a small bit of what Dr. Morris is speaking about.

            We have looked before at what the prophet Joel has written about what will happen concerning the “Day of the Lord,”  “"The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes (2:31).”

            This SD is shorter than I would like it to be, but my wife and I are on vacation and I have driven 1100 + miles in the last two days and I am tired, but wanted to keep up with my SD’s on Revelation.

3/31/2015 9:29 PM

The Reason for Fear PT-1 (Rev. 6:12-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/30/2015 7:33 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  The Reason for Fear PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  Revelation 6:12-14

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

            I want to begin again with something that I wrote from an earlier SD on these verses which is dated May 13, 2005 “These next six verses describe the sixth seal being opened, and the results of that seal being opened.  The sixth seal is a tremendous earth quake that will affect all of the earth in one way or another.  It also affects the sun, moon and the stars as they will not shine like they use to, possibly because of all the added pollution on the earth as a result of this earthquake.  In verse 13 it speaks of stars falling from the sky, and this could be referring to meteorites or it could possibly be referring to rockets with nuclear bombs on them and appear to be stars coming out of the sky.  Whatever they are, they are a judgment from God.  God’s judgment is holy and just and because God is holy He has to judge sin, and for those who have not accepted the judgment of sin that was laid upon Jesus Christ at the cross they will one day have to face the wrath of God and the Lamb.”  You can see that when I wrote this I spoke of the possibility of some of these judgments coming from man, but controlled by God as a judgment none the less.  Mankind has the technology to destroy this earth and later on in the book of Revelation we actually see a statement from God about this in “Re 11:18 “And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth."”   The possibility is there for sure, but I don’t think that anyone can be dogmatic about this one way or the other.

            Now what we see in this sixth seal is unlike what we saw in the first five seals and that is that humans are involved in those seals, but this one involves God as He acts alone.  Now I know that this may sound like I am saying that it is impossible for man to be involved in these judgments, but that is not the case for even if man is involved by sending rockets with nuclear bombs on them it would still be a judgment from the Lord.

            As this seal is broken the world is in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation period, a period which is actually called “The Great Tribulation” by our Lord in Matthew 24:21 “"For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.”  Remember that in the middle of the Tribulation the Antichrist goes into the temple and performs the abomination of desolations which Daniel spoke of.  Now we will look at another verse from Matthew twenty-four as we have noted that chapter twenty-four is  what is called “The Olivet Discourse,” with Jesus speaking about the same things that are written in some of the judgments described in the book of Revelation.  “"But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken (Matt. 24:29).”  Let us also look at a similar passage from Luke’s gospel: “and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven (Luke 21:11).”  Remember Luke 21, and Mark 13 are parallel passages to Matthew 24.  More now from Luke “25  "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, 26  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.”

            Joel is one of the OT prophets who speaks of the endtimes and he wrote in 2:1-2, 10 the following:  “1 Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the LORD is coming; Surely it is near, 2  A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations.  10 Before them the earth quakes, The heavens tremble, The sun and the moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness.”  It is amazing to me that we can see these prophecies written in the Old Testament and then spoken again in the New Testament.  Joel was not the only prophet who speaks of these things happening for Ezekiel 13:5-16 and Zephaniah 1:15 also write of this.

            We will continue with this in our next SD as we will break down thee verses from Revelation 6:12-14 at that time.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am so very thankful for the Word of God, and also the God of the Word.  It is wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit of God has put together the Bible using many different authors from different centuries and yet having it fit together in such a wonderful way.  Man could have never written the Bible without being led by the Spirit of God, for man would not have written the things that we see in the Word of God for mankind is to self-centered and would not have been able to tell the truth of his condition.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love of Christ today.  I ask the Lord to give my wife and I safety as we begin a trip of some 1300 miles to Key Largo Fl for a month of R & R.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Mount Carmen” (1 Kings 18:19).

Today’s Bible question:  “Whom did Pharaoh, king of Egypt, appoint to prepare for the famine?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/30/2015 8:09 AM

           

 

 

Introduction to the Sixth Seal (Rev. 6:12-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/29/2015 10:32 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  Introduction to the Sixth Seal

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 6:12-17

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they                                                                                                         said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"”

            I want to go over something that we have spoken about before, but needs to be done again today and that is “The Day of the Lord.”  The Day of the Lord is mentioned nineteen times in the Old Testament and four times in the New Testament.  What we are learning from Revelation chapter six on has to do with the Day of the Lord.  When it is mentioned in the Old Testament there were times when it is mentioned during a time when judgment was going to fall upon the nation of Israel, and so the prophet would use that current judgment to picture what would happen in the last days.  Psalm 7:11 says “God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day (NIV).”  While this is true “the Day of the Lord is an expression used to describe periods when God specially intervenes in human history for judgment (J. MacArthur).”  MacArthur goes on “It is a unique time when God’s power and holiness are unveiled, bringing terror and death to His enemies.  The prophets describe the Day of the Lord as ‘destruction from the Almighty’ (Isa. 13:6; Joel 1:15), a time of ‘fury and burning anger’ (Isa. 13:9), a ‘time of doom’ (Ezek. 30:3), ‘great and very awesome’ (Joel 2:11), and ‘darkness and not light’ (Amos 5:18; cf. v. 20).” 

            I want to focus in on the final eschatological judgments of the Day of the Lord which happen during the times in the Tribulation period because that is what we are looking at in the book of Revelation, however as stated earlier there were times when “Day of the Lord” events happened during the Old Testament times when judgment came upon Israel because of their sin against the Lord. 

            Joel 2:28-32 “28 "It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. 29 “Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30 “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. 31 “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 32 "And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the LORD has said, Even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.”

            Zechariah 14:1 “Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.”

            Malachi 4:1, 5 “1"For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch."   5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.”

            Acts 2:20 “20 ’THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME.”

            1 Thessalonians 5:2 “2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.”

            2 Thessalonians 2:2 “2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.”

            2 Peter 3:10 “10  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

            When we looked at the first five seal judgments we can say that these were preliminary judgment that lead up to the rest of the judgments that will follow which include the sixth and seventh seal judgments, and then the seven trumpet judgments and finally the seven bowl judgments.  MacArthur writes concerning this “That Day will unfold in two stages, first during the Tribulation (1 Thess. 5:2), and then at the end of the Millennium (2 Pet. 3:10).  Those two stages are separated by a thousand years.  It is noteworthy that Peter, as if to erase any questions about that separation, reminds the reader that ‘with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day (2 Pet. 3:8).’”

            Now when we studied the books of first and second Thessalonians we went over why Paul wrote so much to them about the Day of the Lord and the end times when the Lord Jesus would come in the clouds to receive His bride.  The Thessalonians had many questions, and for that I am glad because if they would have understood exactly what Paul had taught them when he was with them then we would not have had what he wrote to them in order to straighten up their views on the end times.  The return of Christ is mentioned in very chapter of both first and second Thessalonians.  The study we did on this was last year beginning on March 11, 2014 and then it finally concluded on 12-13-2014, but I was also looking at different Old Testament books during that time so it did not take all that long for the Thessalonians letters. 

            People living through the Tribulation Period will not realize exactly when the Day of the Lord will begin as is stated by both Paul and Peter for when the church is taken out at the rapture there will not be any believers at that time, but God will begin to save people during this time, but they will not have the knowledge right away to understand all that is happening.  When things begin to happen as far as the Day of the Lord beginning they will then understand what is going on at as we stated before when they begin to share this information is when they will begin to be killed for the cause of Christ.  There will be 144,000 Jewish witness during the end times along with the two witness which will come during the last half of the Tribulation period, and then there will be an angel flying in the heaven telling people about the gospel, so it seems that eventually people will get a crash course on the end times. 

            In this sixth seal one of the things that helps identify it is fear and as I was listening to John MacArthur’s sermon on this section we will be looking at he gave a list of things that people fear that came from the columnist Ann Landers.  I will quote this list as many may get a laugh when reading it.

             FEAR

 

If a person can't handle normal fear, we say that person has a phobia. By phobia we basically mean an abnormal response to a normal fear, or the invention of an abnormal and bizarre fear. A phobia is fear exaggerated. It is fear that disables a person. It is fear that is uncontrollable and unconquerable, it is fear that totally takes control of a person so that they cannot function normally. Such phobia leads to paranoia, panic attacks, and various kinds of deviant and anti-social behavior.

 

 When you look at people and examine what they're afraid of, it's quite amazing. Ann Landers, interestingly enough, through all the years accumulating her mail, has listed what people are afraid of. She's got a list of the things people fear most. She says, "First of all, there are very bizarre fears about which people have written me, such as the fear of falling into the toilet, the fear of certain colors, the fear of being buried alive, or the fear of calling someone by his given name. But the most common fears, according to my mail...she said...are the following: animals, bees, being alone, being stared at, blood, blushing, cancer, cats,

choking, corpses, crowds, darkness, death, deformity, demons, dirt, dogs, dreams, elevators, enclosed space, flying, germs, height, horses, illness, insanity,

insects, lightning, mice, nakedness, noise, pain, poverty, pregnancy, robbers, school, sexual intercourse, sleep, smothering, snakes, spiders, strangers, surgical operations, syphilis, thunder, travel, vomiting, work and worms."

 

            I hope you enjoy this list.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I know that it will be a fearful time during the Tribulation period, but as a believer I am trying to learn to only fear the Lord and not my circumstances around me.  I don’t always succeed.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the Lord of the Lord so that I will not fear the circumstances around me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego” (Daniel 3:17).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did Elijah contend with the prophets of Baal?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/29/2015 11:36 AM   

The Promise (Rev. 6:11)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/28/2015 8:47 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                         Focus:  The Promise

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Revelation 6:11

            Message of the verse:  “11  And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.”

            I wrote the following on May 12, 2005:  “It may seem from this verse that patience has to be exercised in heaven too.  This verse also speaks of these martyred believers receiving a white robe, which speaks of righteousness, and also means that they have a body in order to put this robe on.  The last part of this verse shows, like many other places in the Bible, that God has a plan and nothing will be able to stop this plan, and part of that plan is that there will be a number of believers who will die for the cause of Jesus Christ, and when that final number is complete then God’s plan will be complete and His wrath will be satisfied, and justice will be served by Him.”

            In Revelation 6:9-11 we have been looking at the prayers of the saints who have been transported to heaven because they have died for the cause of Christ.  There prayer is that God would bring about vengeance upon those who have been committing these crimes.  In today’s SD we will look at the promise that God gives to these saints.  I spoke of these saints has having a body, and I do believe that when a believer dies that they will receive a body, but not the type of body that they will receive at the rapture which will be like the glorified body that Christ now has.

            Now as for the gift that God gives to each of these believers it is a white robe and John MacArthur writes the following about it.  “The gift that was given to each of them by God as they arrived in heaven was a white robe (stole; a long robe flowing to the feet).”  Now we have learned earlier that this white robe symbolizes righteousness, eternal righteousness. 

            Next we see that God tells them to rest for a little while longer, and this certainly is not a rebuke from the Lord to them for being impatience for these saints are now perfect and cannot sin.  God wants them to trust Him and His plan to care for the judgment that the evil men on earth deserve and to just stop and enjoy heaven.  We know that it will not be too long before God does exercise judgment on these men.  In the tenth chapter of Revelation and verse six we read “there will be delay no longer,” so this must mean that the waiting of these saints is over.  God tells them that others will be killed for the cause of Christ and He had to wait for that to happen.   MacArthur writes “God sovereignty predetermined the exact number of those who would be killed.  The petitioners were told to enjoy heaven’s rest until that number had been reached.  Robert L. Thomas notes:  ‘The word to the souls under the altar gives them reassurance that God will eventually avenge their blood, but the time for the culmination of that vengeance has not yet arrived.  One feature that must yet transpire beforehand is the increase of their number through additional martyrdom.  The earth dwellers under the dawning leadership of the beast from the sea will take an even greater toll of human lives before Christ finally intervenes through His personal arrival back on earth.  Until then, the already martyred are told to rest and enjoy their state of blessedness already attained.’”

            Now as far as the “fellow servants and brethren,” they are two different classes of people.  The fellow servants may or may not die for the cause of Christ, but the brethren are the ones who will die for the cause of Christ. 

            The world today seems to forget the things that are right and wrong.  Our parents fought in WWII against a demon possessed Hitler who was trying to kill all of the Jews and thus what came out of it was the Jews were brought into their land and given a nation in May of 1948.  Now we see that our government is trying to distance themselves from the very people that our parents died to save.  Is it so hard to believe that we will go through the same type of thing that Hitler was trying to accomplish in the Tribulation period?

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  What I can learn from this is that God surely does answer prayers in His own time when He is ready, and that God has a plan and nothing will stop it.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and also to live in the love that the Lord has for me.  To better understand that love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The first day” (Luke 24:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace?’”

Answer in our next SD.

3/28/2015 9:19 AM